Our idea of the body as a machine can be traced to the point of historical systems of classical thinkers. It was natural for humanity to be curious about its surrounding and try to formulate ways on how to explain everyday phenomenon. For example, the Greeks attempted to unlock the secrets of nature and schools of philosophy which began to form a systematic way of finding answers. The first of these was Anaximandu's theory of change which relied heavily on mythology as a means to explain the natural world but soon the tides changed and a greater emphasis was sought in the area of systematic explanations. Then came Aristotelian view which influenced the founder of the Christian Church. The Aristotelian views influenced and molded the Christian Church philosophies and thus changes the world because of Christianities distribution to all cultures of the earth. It was this theoretical framework that gave the basic foundation necessary to conceptualize the process of societal change. It was the Medieval era that the change from the idea of organic, living and spiritual universes was replaced by the concept of the machine which became the lead foundation of the modern era. This framework is the basis for the revolutions made in physics and astronomy and contributed and effected the achievements of Copernicus, Galileo, and Sir Isaac Newton. This new framework was the a way of inquiry that included the mathematical description of nature and the analytical methods of reasoning which later influenced the works of Descartes. It was his theories that influenced the "Age of the Scientific Revolution." Descartes mathematics was thought to be the only method to explain the natural world and thus these methods prevailed and set the foundat... ... middle of paper ... ...e to its own inability to adapt at the rate in which it makes the earth adapt. The idea of Gaia is the idea of earth as a living entity. Like all living entities, changes in its environment causes it to adapt. Adaptation is the key to survival but in adaptation there is a central concept of the Law if Inherited Acquired Characteristics. This law, developed by Charles Darwin, states that those favorable characteristic that helps the species survive will be pass down from generation to generation but those that do not will atrophy and disappear. The central question of this essay is this: Will the earth adapt to its new environment and if so will the human race atrophy and disappear because of this adaptation? With our limited view of the universe, the earth and the body as a machine can we really answer this question to any accuracy? Are we doomed for failure?
Galen, . (n.d.). On the Usefulness of the Body. (M. Tallmadge May, Trans.). N.p.: Cornell University Press. Retrieved March 25, 2014
With the invention of newer technology, scholars were able to make closer observations for how different concepts of the science worked. With these scientific breakthroughs scholars and philosophers, who were mainly Christian, of this time of the Scientific Revolution made a pathway for a more efficient way of life. Natural Philosophy was used in the early 1500s by Enlightenment thinkers. It can be defined as the “study of the nature of the universe, its purpose, and how it functioned” (McKay, 504) All belief about the universe and its structure was based on Aristotle’s hypothesis. He believed the Earth was the center of the universe. Though he worked for Christian belief, natural philosophy in the early 1500s was based off of Aristotle’s model of the universe and his ideas of the planetary motion. This hypothesis was the center of natural philosophy until the Copernican Theory came into discovery. Aristotle believed that the world was flawed and that the planets in the universe represented the heavenly bodies. His theory was that there were ten spheres in the universe: water, air, fire, the moon, the sun, and the five planets. Aristotle declared that beyond the tenth sphere was heaven and this model was proved by Christian theologists to fit into the beliefs of Christians. The Christians
Richard Taylor explained why the body and the mind are one, and why they are not two separate substances. In the article “The Mind as a Function of the Body”, Taylor divides his article in a number of sections and explains clearly why dualism, or the theory that the mind and the body are separate is not conceivable. In one of these sections it is explained in detail the origin of why some philosophers and people believe in dualist metaphysics. As stated by Taylor “when we form an idea of a body or a physical object, what is most likely to come to mind is not some person or animal but something much simpler, such as a stone or a marble”(133). The human has the tendency to believe a physical object as simple, and not containing anything complex. A problem with believing this is that unlike a stone or a marble a human (or an animal) has a brain and the body is composed of living cells (excluding dead skin cells, hair, and nails which are dead cells). The f...
RENÉ DESCARTES by career being a Mathematician carried his interest of entering into the philosophy realm. At a very young stage, he decided that nature is to be explained with certainty as Mathematics. Mathematics in itself is very numerical, where the nature cannot be expressed numerically but is bound in a neat and clear cut way. Thus, his philosophy about everything in nature is very mechanical and machine-like.
...ience. Yet, what can be deduced is that it is there prior to our awareness of that which is there. It is both internal and external. The body on its own provide as the access with which the world is known. This connection of the body with the world is anchored on the reality that the body is there with and in the world. The experiences of the body is not something that you extract or signify, it is there simply because the body is there.
“Cogito ergo sum;” I think therefore I am. This philosophical statement stimulated a renaissance in the field of philosophy, creating modern Western philosophy as is known today. This important notion was dictated by Rene Descartes in his 1641 metaphysics work, Mediations on First Philosophy, and influenced all modern philosophical works written after Descartes revolutionary achievement. This work was written at a time when modern physics was being developed as a mathematization of nature. The principles of metaphysics contain in Meditations were developed in order to serve as the basis for this new system of physics. In it, Descartes refutes many Aristotelian beliefs that were popular and accepted by the clergy for nearly the entirety of Christianity, most notably the idea that all knowledge originates from the senses. Descartes’ opus magnum introduces an entirely new philosophical method, radically different from the traditional Socratic Method, and uses this in order to open his eyes and see through his own false opinions. In Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes utilizes his methodology of determining the truth to doubt away the foundations of all that he knows, in order to determine that he exists, what he is, how he knows this better than he knows any physical thing, and how he knows that God exists.
The Scientific revolution in the 16th and 17th centuries changed the way that people views the world. Scientific philosophers such as Galileo and Descartes threw out the old teachings of the church and challenged them with new ways of thinking. These men sought to prove that rational thought could prove the existence of God. They also challenged that it was an understanding of a series of rational thoughts, not faith, would bring understanding of how the world worked. Traditional ways of thinking were ultimately challenged by logical and sensible rationale.
While the philosophical distinction between mind and body can be traced back to the Greeks, it is due to the influential work of René Descartes, (written around the 1630’s) that we owe the first systematic account of the mind/body relationship. When Descartes'
Global climate change and its apparent effects have been the subject of much discussion for a number of years. It is often claimed that this change is too advanced and the damage caused by it is irreversible, meaning that any efforts by us to undo this are in vain. Although I agree that our planet has become unalterably changed, I don’t entirely concur that this change is now completely beyond repair.
John Lovelock in his book The Ages of Gaia presents an argument for a theory governing the relationship between the earth's biota and its physical environment. Lovelock holistic view of nature combines biology and geoclimatology as one science, which he calls geophysiology, "the study of living and non-living Earth as a single system (Lovelock 11)." Lovelock's theory states that life is necessary to maintain the planet's thermodynamic and chemical composition in its current state of homeostasis (the tendency of a system to maintain stability even with external disruptions) until some external force interrupts it, at which point it will move to a new stable state. He terms this theory "Gaia", after the Greek goddess of Earth. The Gaia theory delivers two primary implications: living organisms regulate their planet, and the evolution of species and their physical surroundings are a single inseparable process. The hypothesis points to stable conditions, such as oxygen levels, carbon dioxide concentrations and climate, as evidence that living organisms maintain a life-sustaining environment.
Aristotle was known as the father of the western causal theory. “To ‘know’ a thing is to know its causes” is something he was also known for saying. He came up with a way to explain causation called the four fold theory of cause. This theory included formal cause, material cause, efficient cause, and final cause. There were many philosophers who had agreed with the Aristotelian version of modern causation, but there was one philosopher in particular who argued that the four fold theory of cause was not necessary. Thus, modern causation was born.
In this first video of the five part series to How Art Made The World, it starts you off wondering why we as humans today view the human body the way we do. We seem to have an act of viewing it a certain way and most of the time we view it in such an
Our planet has managed to survive and thrive for about 4.54 billion years. In the last 2 million years we have caused enough damage and destruction to make our world “broken” beyond repair. We will not be able to get back the world we once had. The reason behind this is global warming, specifically, the increase of the global temperature due to the burning of fossil fuels and the release of greenhouse gas emissions into our atmosphere. If we do not make the issue of global warming a priority in today`s society, our entire way of life will be at risk. There are many reasons why so many people believe global warming should be a concern. Thoroughly examined points include: scientific predictions, rising temperatures, human causes, drastic climate changes and animal adaptations. Though there are several points arguing how global warming should not be a concern, the reality of the matter is that it needs to be taken into consideration on a global scale before it is too late, as to do nothing would have devastating implications on humankind.
The expansion and endorsement of intellectualism by the many important forward thinking scientists created a desire for social revolution, which, in turn, created an atmosphere conducive to further intellectual study. The Scientific Revolution was, in essence, both a social and intellectual revolution. During the Scientific Revolution, scientists such as Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, Francis Bacon, Rene Descartes, and Christiaan Huygens wrestled with questions concerning God, human intellectualism, and their scientific views of the universe, its purpose, and how it functions. Ultimately, the implications of these new scientific discoveries began to change the way people thought and behaved. People began to question the widely accepted and Roman Catholic Church endorsed Aristotelian views of the universe. This led to the questioning of the traditional views of the state and societal structure. The geocentric Ptolemaic model was no longer blindly accepted. The earth was now no longer easily explainable or thought to be the center of the universe. Beliefs that were hundreds of years old were now proven to be false.
Over the course of the years, society has been reformed by new ideas of science. We learn more and more about global warming, outer space, and technology. However, this pattern of gaining knowledge did not pick up significantly until the Scientific Revolution. In the sixteenth and seventeenth century, the Scientific Revolution started, which concerned the fields of astronomy, mechanics, and medicine. These new scientists used math and observations strongly contradicting religious thought at the time, which was dependent on the Aristotelian-Ptolemy theory. However, astronomers like Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton accepted the heliocentric theory. Astronomical findings of the Scientific Revolution disproved the fact that humans were the center of everything, ultimately causing people to question theology’s role in science and sparking the idea that people were capable of reasoning for themselves.