Philosophy
When I was born, I did not know the difference between right and wrong. Now, I do. The word philosophy means
the love of knowledge. One type of knowledge is propter quid, which ask the question why or how. In this paper, I
will demonstrate how Socrates, Hume and Aristotle, three well known philosophers, would explain how I acquired
this knowledge in relation to the principles of right and wrong.
Socrates is the first philosopher, I will discuss. Since Socrates did not write anything down, Socrates thinking is told
through his student, Plato, who wrote his teachers' thoughts. Socrates is an idealist who believes that things are in
born. Therefor he believed that before we are born our soul knows everything, but when we are born our mind is a
tabular rasa (blank slate). As we grow day by day, we recollect the knowledge from our soul.
… the soul, that is, the human mind, before it is united with the body, is aquatinted with the intelligible world or the
world of Forms. In this prior existence, the true knowledge. After its union with a human body, a person's mind
contains its knowledge deep in its memory. True knowledge in this world consists of remembering, in reminiscence
or recollection. What the mind or soul once knew is raised to present awareness by a process of recollection aided by
the technique of dialect or the Socratic method. (Stumpf 260)
This is known as the theory of recollection. The theory of recollection is told through Plato in the Phaedo and the
Me...
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...om an event, it would be our memory that would recall the event.
Aristotle's theory would best support my understanding of right and wrong. In order to make good decisions in life
you have to understand the basis for your rationale. By having this understanding, you can accept your decision and
not second guess yourself. I feel you need both wisdom and memory to make sound decisions. Socrates theory of
knowledge coming from the soul is unrealistic for me. I believe you have to experience situations or have
knowledge of related situations before you can decide if they are right or wrong. Hume's principles of cause and
effect substantiate immediate learning, but you have to actually experience the event and cannot use reasoning to
make your decisions.
The differences of mind and soul have intrigued mankind since the dawn of time, Rene Descartes, Thomas Nagel, and Plato have addressed the differences between mind and matter. Does the soul remain despite the demise of its material extension? Is the soul immaterial? Are bodies, but a mere extension of forms in the physical world? Descartes, Nagel, and Plato agree that the immaterial soul and the physical body are distinct entities.
All true knowledge is knowledge of the Forms. Therefore, we can only acquire true knowledge by recollection. Furthermore, since true knowledge of particulars cannot exist, only recollection of the Forms is possible.
Definition of memory and it's functions is difficult to illustrate by a single sentence. Consequently we use several metaphors to describe memory implicitly. Our beliefs, perceptions and imagination influence memory. The fact gave rise to memory being described as a reconstructive process, explaining that memory is not an exact record of a particular experience. Instead we bring various components together and fill in the blanks with our predisposed schemas while recalling. The metaphor building "an entire dinosaur skeleton from fossils" is the indirect way to describe memory as cognitive reconstruction. Remembering includes using schemas which are the mental representations of a concept, person or an event.They rejuvenate an incomplete memory such that it is perceived to be an undiminished one. Of course there are errors experienced when recalling which supports the idea of imperfect memory. These can be errors of commission, adding details which were not a part of the experience and errors of omission, which is excluding some aspects of the experience. In this paper I will support the selected metaphor and will provide evidence approving it.
The Recollection Theory is an argument Socrates brought up many times before. This theory is evidence that souls have existed before this current life. Cebes describes this theory in Phaedo as Socrates has described it many times before, “we recollect now we must have learned at some time before; which is impossible unless our souls existed some-where before they entered the human shape. So in that way too it seems likely that the soul is immortal” (Plato 137). When we learn something “new”
This term means that a person thinks they have found a new idea, yet it is actually an old memory. (Bredart, Lampinen & Defeldre, 2003). Brown and Murphy (1989) say it explains plagiarism of songs lyrics and words. For example, artist’s blamed of copying song lyrics may have heard them before but forgotten about it. This means that the brain can recall lots of information yet can forget it just as easily. There is a large amount of research that has examined how these processes take place.
Memory is the tool we use to learn and think. We all use memory in our everyday lives. Memory is the mental faculty of retaining and recalling past experiences. We all reassure ourselves that our memories are accurate and precise. Many people believe that they would be able to remember anything from the event and the different features of the situation. Yet, people don’t realize the fact that the more you think about a situation the more likely the story will change. Our memories are not a camcorder or a camera. Our memory tends to be very selective and reconstructive.
The first issue that needs to be addressed however is what exactly is memory? “ Without memory we would be servants of the moment, with nothing but our innate reflexes to help us deal with the world. There would be no language, no art, no science, no culture. Civilization itself is the distillation of human memory” (Blakemore 1988). The simple interpretation of Blakemore’s theory on what memory is that a person’s memory is at least one of the most important things in their life and without it civilization itself could not exist.
The relationship of the human soul and physical body is a topic that has mystified philosophers, scholars, scientists, and mankind as a whole for centuries. Human beings, who are always concerned about their place as individuals in this world, have attempted to determine the precise nature or state of the physical form. They are concerned for their well-being in this earthly environment, as well as their spiritual well-being; and most have been perturbed by the suggestion that they cannot escape the wrongs they have committed while in their physical bodies.
Reconstructive memory on the other hand, is an elaboration on memory that refers to the process of remembering of past events while being able to reconstruct the same experience previously. It involves remembering the generic, and general ideas of past events as well as having the same expectations and assumptions of something we have experienced similarly from the past. These so-called reconstructed
Real knowledge, like everything else of the highest value, is not to be obtained easily. It must be worked for, studied for, thought for, and, more than all, it must be prayed for”
The soul can be defined as a perennial enigma that one may never understand. But many people rose to the challenge of effectively explaining just what the soul is about, along with outlining its desires. Three of these people are Plato, Aristotle, and Augustine. Even though all three had distinctive views, the similarities between their views are strikingly vivid. The soul indeed is an enigma to mankind and the only rational explanation of its being is yet to come and may never arrive.
...of the body, and no problem arises of how soul and body can be united into a substantial whole: ‘there is no need to investigate whether the soul and the body are one, any more than the wax and the shape, or in general the matter of each thing and that of which it is the matter; for while “one” and “being” are said in many ways, the primary [sense] is actuality’ (De anima 2.1, 12B6–9).Many twentieth-century philosophers have been looking for just such a via media between materialism and dualism, at least for the case of the human mind; and much scholarly attention has gone into asking whether Aristotle’s view can be aligned with one of the modern alternatives, or whether it offers something preferable to any of the modern alternatives, or whether it is so bound up with a falsified Aristotelian science that it must regretfully be dismissed as no longer a live option.
It is apparent that we are personified entities, but also, that we embrace “more” than just our bodies. “Human persons are physical, embodied beings and an important feature of God’s intended design for human life” (Cortez, 70). But, “human persons have an ‘inner’ dimension that is just as important as the ‘outer’ embodiment” (Cortez, 71). The “inner” element cannot be wholly explained by the “outer” embodiment, but it does give rise to inimitable facets of the human mental life such as human dignity and personal identity.
It has been demonstrated that memory is a constructed process. So, we can add new information to past memories every time that we retrieve it in a new context. Every time that people talk about past events’ memories, they most of the time forgets details or give wrong descriptions about things that happened. Moreover, in some cases, people can also describe things that never happened. Therefore, it is very easy to change others memories. It is amazing to know that our memory can be influenced by others in a positive and in a negative direction.
Plato; a Greek philosopher who postulated about the difference between the body and the soul would disagree with this as he believed in the idea that the soul is indeed distinct from the body. He stated that the soul was capable of knowledge as it was immortal and as such had experienced the forms during its time spent in the , 'world of the forms ' before it was incarnated our mortal bodies. Plato goes so far as to use the term , 'imprisoned ' in his book phaedo when describing the nature of our soul in the body; he states that the goal of our soul is to reach the , 'world of the forms ' and that true philosophers avoid distractions such as ,loves and lusts, and fears.....and endless foolery ' the body creates which 'impede us in the search