• Bats experience things like any other mammal
• Bats navigate the world using echolocation
• A bat’s perception of the world is completely different to ours
• Can we know what it is like to be a bat?

Thomas Nagel believes that we can never know what it is like to be a bat. The bat’s experiences are exclusive to itself - the subjective character experience: “An organism has conscious mental states if and only if there is something that it is like to be that organism – something that it is like for the organism.”. From this, only our own mental activity is the only thing that is unquestionable.

Key Points

• Can we truly know? Will we ever know? (advances in technology)
• Does this apply to humans? Can we know what it’s like to be another person?
• What does the world look like in itself?
• Is there a distinction between the mind and body?

Tags: Epistemology

Introduction

Albert Camus addresses a reality of our lives that we must come to terms with…the absurd. According to Camus, life has no meaning or purpose and the idea of the absurd surfaces when we believe that there is a meaning: We are searching, hoping, believing in something that is not there to begin with…”The absurd is born of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the world”

Camus maintains that to achieve a fulfilled happy life we must revolt against the idea that there is a meaning and that life should be lived according to our passionate and intuitive responses in coming to terms with the world.

Tags: Existentialism, Self

It is logically possible that the world sprang into being 5 minutes ago as it is now, with the population “remembering” a wholly unreal past.

Points to Consider

• Are memories dependent on experiences?
• Can we know anything to be true?

Tags: Metaphysics, Epistemology

Introduction

Descartes publishes his text called the meditations. The meditations is his attempt at logically deducing what we, as humans, can know for certain. How does he do this? In his first meditation, he takes a skeptical approach and says that knowledge derived from the senses is untrustworthy because the senses can be deceived. For example, our judgment of distances can be inaccurate as objects can seem larger or smaller than they are. The things we know about science, astronomy and medicine can also be doubted. Surely, he asks, I cannot doubt that I am in my room sitting by the fire clothed in a winter dressing gown. However, I have had dreams of sitting by the fire that seemed so real! Even if I can tell that I am dreaming or not, it’s still possible that a malevolent demon is deceiving my senses and the world before me is merely an illusion. Is there anything left that I can call certain? Even if I am being deceived, the notion that I can doubt anything means that I am, at the very least, thinking and to think must mean I exist. The one thing I know for certain is I EXIST.

Points to consider

• Even if Descartes premises are shaky i.e. doubting I can be dreaming, doesn't the conclusion still ring true?

• The idea of God is us thinking of a 4d object, we can conceive of the idea but it is beyond our scope because of the nature of God as a perfect and infinite being

• This method of doubt tries to reveal if there is anything we know that cannot be doubted, that we can know of with complete certainty.

• Descartes asks us to indulge in this skeptical thought to reveal what we can know for certain.

• Descartes wasn't a skeptic, uses skeptical doubt as a tool of discovery. To temporarily cast aside assured beliefs if they can be doubted

• Moving forward, to know about the existence of God, other minds and bodies we have to prove it from our own consciousness. It has to be an a priori truth

Tags: Epistemology, Religion, Self, Mind

Suppose a man is carried, whilst fast asleep, into a room where there is a person he longs to see and speak with. He is locked in this room and cannot get out. He wakes up to find himself in good company and stays willingly. Is his stay Voluntary?

Points to consider

• Is voluntary action evidence of freedom?
• Staying is voluntary but it is not free?
• Freedom and will are separate: will is the capacity to think of various actions and choose whichever is preferable. Freedom is the capacity to actually do as one wills

Tags: Free Will, Metaphysics

This argument can be best understood from Sartre's example of the pen-knife:

It has been made by a craftsman who has a clear understanding of the pen-knife’s purpose and builds accordingly. It must be built of the correct materials, easy to hold and sharp enough to cut paper. It isn’t intended to cut a steak or anything else beyond its purpose. The craftsman knows what the pen-knife will be used for, before it is created. The pen-knife’s essence is known before its existence.

Sartre’s is saying that humans are the opposite. There is no human essence or purpose. He says: A human materialises in the world, encounters himself, and only afterwards defines himself’

Tags: Identity, Existentialism

Suppose that over the years, a certain ship was rebuilt, board by board, until every bit of it has been replaced. Is the ship at the end of the process the ship that started the process? Now suppose that we take all those rotten, replaced boards and reassemble them into a ship. Is this ship the original ship?

Pocket watch example:

I have a pocket watch that has been passed down for generations. It’s parts have been replaced to the extent that ALL original parts are no longer part of the watch. Is the watch still the same watch? The question contends with the following:

• Numerical Identity
• Qualitative Identity
• Transitive relationships

Tags: Identity

A hot topic in ancient philosophy was how best to live your life, what it meant to live a good life. One school of thought that attempted to answer this question was the school of cynicism.

First thing to note is the meaning of cynicism in the ancient world does not mean what it means today. The term derives from the ancient Greek to describe someone as dog-like, one who is free and shameless to do as he pleases. This points to the actual philosophy of Cynicism: The good life is to be lived in accordance with nature and in opposition to convention.

To flesh this out further:
- Rebel against social convention such as money, status, fame and honour - Live free, shamelessly - Ascetic life: reduce material aspects of life to the utmost simplicity and to a minimum. This may include minimal, simple clothing, sleeping on a floor or in caves, and eating a simple, minimal amount of food

Key points

• Virtue is sufficient for happiness and both are within your power
• Social status, where your were born, whether you are poor or rich are irrelevant
• Live in nature as rational animals that we are
• Human nature is at odds with human society, society yields unnatural desires and burdens
• We should be able to do what we want, when we want, where we want

Tags: Political, Ancient, Ethics