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Reality In Philosophy - Research Paper

Reality In Philosophy

3.2 REALITY: MATERIAL OR NONMATERIAL?

MATERIALISM

Matter is the ultimate constituent of reality

Democritus: matter in motion, Hobbes: measurable matter.

OBJECTIONS TO MATERIALISM

Consciousness? Conscience? (Beyond thinking, feeling, dreaming etc.)

(Consciousness = awareness. Awareness of pain, experience etc.)

Conscious experience has no location, colour or shape. Even if we study the brain, the conscious cannot be studied, it is immaterial.

REALITY AS NONMATTER (IDEALISM)

Reality is essentially composed of minds and their ideas rather than matter

Idealists say: The universe is not matter, but only mind and idea.

Socrates, Plato, Aristotle

St. ...

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believe that humans are part material and part nonmaterial, living in a material reality that we perceive independently and therefore incorrectly *

3.7 IS FREEDOM REAL?

DETERMINISM

Every event has prior conditions that cause it, so each event is at least theoretically predictable if we know all its prior conditions and the laws governing those conditions.

Sir Isaac Newton (laws of nature rule us. We are not free)

A deep unconscious rules our every decision. We are but slaves.

1. Previous events and the laws of nature causally determine all events and actions.
2. Causal determinism rules out human freedom and personal responsibility.
3. So humans are not free, nor are they personally responsible for what they do.

LIBERTARIANISM (INDETERMINISM)

People have control over what they do and are free to choose to act other than the way they do.

Jean-Paul Sartre

1. Humans are free and are personally responsible for what they do.
2. Human freedom and personal ...

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 6/8/2011 12:34:51 AM
Submitted By: mccabe93
Category: Philosophy
Type: Free Paper
Words: 584
Pages: 3

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