Short Answer Questions

Parfit maintains that in a case of fission, there are only three possibilities about what happens to me when my brain is split and put into different bodies. What are these 3 possibilities? What is unsatisfactory about each, according to parfit?

1- i do not survive -people have survived with 1/2 of brain before -double success cant be a failure -some type of survival 2-i survive as 1 of the 2 people -1/2 which one will you survive as 3-i survive as both people - if survive then no personal identity -that terminology is irrelevant -survive would not make sense in that situation

How does Plato's cave compare to our ordinary situation in the world?

Higher education (college) -come here to become mote knowledgeable -want to learn -gain enlightenment

Why does Descartes suppose, at the end of Meditation I, that there is an evil demon "who works as hard as he can to deceive me"?

If i really know something them i can rule out Evil deceiver - i can not conclude Evil deceiver does not exist -cant rule out evil deceiver - i cant know (x) if I am being deceived -global doubt -controls all aspects of life

Russell says that philosophy is to be studied for the sake of the questions themselves. What sorts of questions, if any, do you think are worth studying, even if we can never know the answers to them?

Philosophy asks deep questions without answers mention: big questions (is there a god? why is it important?) mention: what started the earth?

What do you think Russell means when he says, "all acquisition of knowledge is an enlargement of self"? Do you think he is right?

a man who is not just self interested and practically interested -conserved with others -wants food for the mind -value of philosophy (ponder) -self-improvement

Describe the cave in Plato's analogy. What happens to the people who leave the cave?

cave---> argumentative metaphor -knowledge (institution) (they have the localized knowledge) leave the cave --> light-enlightenment education

Weirob criticizes Millers reasoning by accusing it of circularity. What does Weirob mean by this? How is Miller's reasoning circular?

claiming that someones claim does not point to something new

What does Plato's analogy tell us about what it means to be educated?

education can not be passed onto another person it must be seaked out - education --> journey/path -involves personal effort -internally motivated

Why does Descartes think he knows for certain that he exists? Is he entitled to this conclusion?

foundation for knowledge cogito ergo sum "I think therefore I am" dream argument--> experiences are indistinguishable in real life and in my dreams -some beliefs are false evil deceiver--> in order to be deceived you have you be in existence -body and MIND--> mind more prominent -thinking implies being -essence comes before existence

What is the point of the kleenex box example?

kleenex--> burns to ashes (body) Grethen- personal identity has no possibility to survive after death (body theory) -burned box=burned body (ashes) -if those materials get recycled that could be like us

What distinction does Weirob make between actually remembering something and merely seeming to remember it? What work does Weirob what this distinction to do?

miller--> immaterial theory (mind) Weirob--> false memories-remember without experience -unreliable memories- amnesia patient no reliability on personal identity

What does plato think people who are educated do, once they "see the good"?

path to enlightenment -sun=good--> toward - once they reach the sun it produces its own kind of light -person who left goes back to encourage others to go into the light and see the sun - DOES NOT EDUCATE OTHERS

Gretchen distinguished between being persuaded that her survival beyond bodily death is probable and that is it possible. What is the difference?

possibility of survival--> deductive reasoning difference--> strength in claim- possible--> logical possibility likely--> verified likelihood

Russell says, "The man who has no tincture of philosophy goes through life imprisoned in the prejudices derived from common sense, from habitual beliefs of his age or his nation, and from convictions with has grown up in his mind without the co-operation or consent of his deliberate reason". What prejudices, habitual beliefs and unreasoned convictions do you think Russell is referring to here? Do you see these things in people around you?

practical man --> purely lead by only practical needs (food, HOH, shelter) Instinctive man --> lead entirely by own personal interests (selfish) DONT WANT TO BE

Descartes comes to the conclusion that "there are no reliable signs in which I can distinguish sleeping from waking". What considerations lead him to this conclusion?

sensations (5 senses) --> knowledge that is derived from our experience -unreliable sensations -wax example -things in world changing so we will to have too -NO STABILITY

Miller claims that when I awake, I know who I am (which person I am) without checking my body and, in fact, could awaken to find myself with a new and different body. What follows from this, according to Miller?

soul theory that the person lives after death

How important, if at all, is the thought that there will be someone in the future who is strictly identical ti be (rather than merely psychologically connected, for instance)? Should we care about personal identity in a strict sense?

undermine--> 1:1 relation--> we maintain degrees of relation (divided mind) that consciousness is one thing and identifying is another -not 1:1 important--> that the person still thinks its you still think that it is me day to day -degrees of relation--> psychological continuity - independent of memory and body

Do you agree with Parfit that what matters for survival are characteristics that admit of degrees, so that there may be no definite answers to questions about personal identity? Why or why not?

undermine--> egotistical and narcissistic wanting out personal identity -undermine 1:1 relation -identity is NOT all or nothing -strength of relation weakens overtime -important that i think im me -dont need to answer question of personal identity to have responsibility or memory