Topic Concept Map

Here's the concept map on the topic I'd like to write about. It revolves around the concept that we do not have a solidified sense of character or self, and various psychological experiments alluding to this concept.

Exercise 3 Revisal

Perception of objects is indirect, mediated by ‘mental paint,’ or sense-data. Human beings possess five senses with which to perceive an object: hearing, seeing, touching, tasting and smelling. Each of these five senses receives information in a very specific way, such as how ‘hearing’ involves the reception of vibrations in the immediate medium around one’s self by one’s ears and how ‘seeing’ involves the reception of wavelengths of light by one’s eyes. Whether it is one sense or another though, how this information is transmitted and processed all eventually involve the same system of the human body.

            The nervous system, the collection and processes of the nerves within the body, is responsible for carrying the information received by those five senses and transmitting it to the brain. It carries this information via electrochemical signals to the brain, where the information is then processed. What this means, however, is that any object that is perceived by the brain, from any or all five senses, is actually just the electrochemical signals being received by the brain and converted in an appropriate fashion so as to be understood. Vibrations heard, for example, are not simply received and recognized as sound. They are received, converted, transmitted, and then processed as what the brain hears as sound. This multistep process is especially apparent when there is a problem within the nervous system. Such a problem might result in the externally testable flawed perception of objects, which would not occur with direct perception.

Argument Map

Here's the argument map from Martinich page 52-53. I had handed this in to the professor awhile ago, back when I was still struggling with computer programs and couldn't post things. It was the first and last time I ever managed to get Xmind to work for my computer.

Taxonomy Map

Done on "Soteriology," on the professor's direction, the information for this was taken from The Encyclopedia of Religion, Second Edition, copyright 2005 by Thomson Gale, a part of The Thomson Corporation. Is it okay?

Succinctness Revisal

As revised from pages 86-88 of Martinich:

Does "ought" imply "can"? Philosophers have argued about this for centuries, because while people usually do what they have to do, sometimes they cannot.

For example, when a person makes a promise to do something, she has an obligation to do it. If someone has an obligation to do something, then she can do it. Yet sometimes people make promises and can't keep them.

This results in an inconsistency. The first two sentences entail that whenever a person makes a promise to do something, then she can do it. Yet if she can do it, then that people make promises, and can't always keep them, must be wrong.

This problem is hard to solve because it is part of the meaning of a promise that it creates an obligation to do what is promised. "If someone has an obligation to do something, then she can do it," is the thesis that "ought" implies "can." Yet you cannot require a person to do what she cannot do. For example, pretend Betty borrows 10 dollars from Carol on Monday for lunch. Her parents being rich, they promise to give her 50 dollars on Tuesday for living expenses. However, on Monday night, the parents are robbed of all their money and cannot send the money to her on Tuesday. Ergo, Betty has an obligation to pay Carol 10 dollars, but she cannot pay.

Shape Design

Begin by placing the two large triangles back to back, forming another triangle with the point upwards and the line across the bottom.

Then separate the two triangles to leave an empty space between them in the shape of a square. 

Then put the small square piece in the lower right corner of the empty "square" framed by the triangles, so that the lower right corner of the square touches the lower left corner of the triangle on the right. 

Then take the small triangle and place it on top of the square, so that the lower left point is touching the upper left point of the square, they share a line between them, and the upper right corner of the little triangle touches the upper left corner of the large triangle.

Then take the medium sized triangle and turn it upside down, so that it creates a line across the top, connecting the two large triangles, and its third point reaches the center.

Then take the rhombus and put it in between the large triangle on the left and the medium sized triangle pointing down, so that the only space left between the two large triangles is a small triangular shape in the lower left corner.

Place the small triangle in the lower left corner. 

Argument Map

I've been fighting with technology and this assignment for way too long, and I'm still not sure I'm even doing it right. I've officially hit the wall and just need to move on. Here's hoping this works. Does it look okay? I used my earlier argument and fleshed it out more logically.

Analysis: "How to boil a live frog"

Sorites paradoxes conclude that if one recognizes A as F, then one must recognize A+1 as F. This is logically true, but leads to falsehood. A rich man who is one penny less is still considered rich. Logically then, a rich man who loses all his pennies in intervals of one must still be considered rich. Humans, however, make empirical judgments, independently seeing the man as “rich” and then “not rich”, according to community-wide definitions.

Exercise 2.3

In Crito, one of Plato's dialogues, the main character Socrates argues that citizens have a duty to obey the state, and when the state sentenced Socrates to death, Socrates believed he had a duty to go to his death willingly.

Exercise 3

Perception of objects is indirect, mediated by ‘mental paint,’ or sense-data. Human beings possess five senses with which to perceive an object: hearing, seeing, touching, tasting and smelling. Each of these five senses receives information in a very specific way, such as how ‘hearing’ involves the reception of vibrations in the immediate medium around one’s self by one’s ears and how ‘seeing’ involves the reception of wavelengths of light by one’s eyes. Whether it is one sense or another though, how this information is transmitted and processed all eventually involve the same system of the human body.

            The nervous system, the collection and processes of the nerves within the body, is responsible for carrying the information received by those five senses and transmitting it to the brain. It carries this information via electrochemical signals to the brain, where the information is then processed. What this means, however, is that any object that is perceived by the mind, from any or all five senses, is actually just the electrochemical signals being received by the mind and converted in an appropriate fashion so as to be understood. Vibrations, for example, are not simply received and recognized as sound. They are received, converted, transmitted, and then processed as what the mind hears as sound. This is especially apparent when there is a flaw within the nervous system. Such a flaw might result in the misinterpretation of information and thus the externally testable flawed perception of objects, which would not occur with direct perception.

Exercise 2.2

Socrates, an ancient Greek philosopher charged with corrupting the youth, was found guilty by a jury consisting of 500 citizens of Athens and sentenced to death, and though he had an opportunity to escape, he chose not to and was executed in 403 BCE.

Exercise 2

Utilitarianism is an ethical theory whose principle, authored by J. S. Mill, is that one should act to ensure the greatest good for the greatest number.

Exercise 1.2

According to these three sentences, an obligation is something that you can do, but a promise is also an obligation that some people can't keep, and thus it is a paradox because these two ideas cannot both be true.

Exercise 1

If all events are causally determined, that is, predictable by the events in the past that caused it, then human actions, which are events, cannot be free, and if human actions are free then all events cannot be causally determined, and thus these three sentences, which lead to an irreconcilable contradiction, cannot all be true and thus form a paradox.

Second Test

Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3.