...really know anything? With reference to Descartes’ first meditation justify your answer in full and respond to possible objections. A belief is any opinion or any view whether you are committed to the view or not. Thus, if you know something, you are entitled to believe in it. The subjective nature of knowledge partly is based on the idea that beliefs are things that individuals have and those beliefs are either justified or not justified (Pardi, 2011). However, Descartes notices that over the course of his life, he has from time to time accepted false beliefs and the falsity of these beliefs have influenced other beliefs. Thus, Descartes aim in his first meditation is to find out if what we know is truly correct (Blackburn, 1999:15). Once we have figured out what beliefs are beyond any possible doubt, it is suggested that we can use reason to deduce the rest of what is knowable (Pardi, 2011). There are three conditions when one can say they know something is true (Pardi, 2011). Firstly, you believe in something, secondly, it is in fact true and lastly you are justified in believing a statement is true. Of course it is possible that there are no complete unshakeable truths, it is also possible that we might discover that our prejudices cannot be detached or that the beliefs we think are our grounds for all our other beliefs are not really ultimate at all. For this reason, it is why rationalist say that knowledge comes from within, the only beliefs we can really know are those...
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...Once there was a girl named Maria Treewood, she was a total dork. She had acne, glasses that were too big for her face, and wore baggy clothes. She didn’t care about people making of her, Oh who am I kidding she hated it. She just moved from Arkansa, and had to leave all of her friends behind. She hated her new house. It was an old house, rusty, vines growing all over it. The light’s would go out at 3:00, and I mean EXACTLY at 3:00. Her parents just thought it was some kind of glitch or something, but no it wasn’t. Before they bought this house, there was a huge mansion built in the exact same spot. It was called the Bliss Mansion. This house was blue and very old. This was in 1870, the address was 710 West Robinson Street. Diana Bliss bought the land and built the house. Many warned her not...
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...has been able to find, we are still unable to answer what seem to be some simple questions about ourselves. Do I really exist outside of my mind or is this all a dream? Do I really have will power or the freedom to choose? What is my meaning to life? These are all topics that depending on where you are from and how you were raised will all affect your theories and/or beliefs behind your answers. With an open mind; however, these questions can open a whole new world of possibilities and maybe what you have thought to be right your entire life, to be viewed as completely wrong. How Deep Does the Rabbit Hole Go? I am sitting in a black desk chair typing this paper, feeling my fingers strike the keys. Looking at the screen but still completely aware of all my surroundings, hearing my neighbors annoying dogs bark as I type. I am feeling a little bothered. I know all of this because I am using my senses to let me know where I am and what I am doing. So the question now gets deeper…How do I know what a chair feels like, what a computer looks like, or even know what a dog is? Is there even a chair? Is all of this real? Or is this all in my mind? Nagel brings up some fascinating points in Chapter 2. How do we know anything? Everything in our lives up to this point is based on what you believe, whether it’s what a dog looks like, what a computer is…absolutely everything you know about anything has all been an experience you’ve had or something you’ve thought of. What if there was no...
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...You can say nothing meaningful about God. Discuss (35) Ayer believed that ‘No sentence which describes the nature of a transcendent God can possess any literal significance’ therefore according to Ayer we cannot say anything meaningful about God. Through the verification principle, he demonstrates that all religious statements are meaningless, because for any statement to be meaningful it must be empirically verifiable for example the statement “Jesus is the light of the world”; is meaningless as there is no way to verify this. Ayer used the strong verification principle to reject any talk of ethics, metaphysics, historical and even scientific claims as they work in probability rather than certainty. The strong verification principle only regarded statements to have meaning if they could be tested in the past, present and future using sense or empirical measures to find the conclusion. Therefore statements such as “Jesus resurrected on the third day” would be seen as meaningless as we cannot test this claim in the here and now. Once again this stresses the fact that we cannot say anything meaningful about God using the strong verification principle as we cannot physically see him in our present time. This principle criticised itself because it not only meant that we could say nothing meaningful about God but also past historical events since we are unable to verify their certainty. However the weak verification principle allows statements to have meaning if the means to which...
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...“Hills Like White Elephants” In Heminway’s short story Hills Like White Elephants the women is put in a difficult situation. The story talks about a women having abortion. She does not want to have the abortion but her boyfriend tries to persuade her that is it’s the right thing to do for both of their happiness in the relationship. This analysis of this paper will explain what is the couple’s relationship like in the beginning of the story, how has the relationship changed lately, and who dominates the relationship. The relationship of the couple in the beginning of the story is distant. They are making small talk with other to avoid the real issue they are dealing with. The women’s mind is somewhere else. For example, “The girl was looking off at the line of hills. They were white in the sun and the country was brown and dry. She says, “The look like white elephants”.pg. 79. This phrase gives the impression that her mind is not on him. During the first part of the story the couple talk about little of nothing. They make small talk about nothing. As the conversation goes on with couple, it becomes evident that the women is implying how she feels in the little words that she give off. For example, the conversation goes “Four reals.” We want two Anis del Tor.” “With water?” “Do you want it with water?” “It don’t know”, the girls said, “Is it good with “water” “It’s all right.” “You want them with water?” asked the women.”Yes, with water.” “It tastes like licorice...
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...tall,” instead of seeing with his heart. Once Robert, the blind guest, teaches him to really see, the narrator knows that “it was like nothing in my life up to now.” In Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” the narrator is very much an outsider looking in on his wife’s and Robert’s friendship. He recalls all of what his wife said about what she and the blind man did together. He remembers a conversation about the day she quit working for the blind man who “ asked if he could touch her face.” (pg.527) The...
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...Ignorance is the night of the mind, a night without moon or stars. An empty mind does not have anything to offers in the actual word is like a night in the dark no light everything around is dark. How a person can think in a better future if what if he or she has in mind is nothing? I would like to put this example. A driver running his car in a dark night, suddenly the car stop, and the driver tries 3 times to turn the engine on but the car did not respond, he goes to the engine of the car for make a check out but nothing came to his mind, but there was a dirty man looking at the driver, he ask him if he could help him with his car, the driver answer him very mad! Young man you don’t know any think about car how can you help me to start this car? the young man told him dont worry maybe I could help you go sit in your car and star it up, the driver did what the young man told him and suddenly the car run again, the driver gave the thank to the young man and ask him what was wrong with the car, the young man told him it was a little wire short circuit. The end of this tale is that the young man was the inventor of the car the genius Henry Ford. He knew what was wrong with the car but the driver didn’t know anything, his mind was dark, not only because he didn’t know anything about cars he underestimate the knowing of Henry Ford because he was dirty and in blue jeans, that I could call a bad thinking of the others people. Just because how they look and how they talk. The quote...
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...having a subject? When there is not a subject or the subject is “nothing” the appropriate method would be to turn in a paper with nothing but empty space. This is what happens when I do not receive homework I e-mailed about and do not have what I need to do this assignment properly. The controversy stems from if I have nothing to use as a subject, do I still have a subject to use? I say yes but you may disagree. Nothing but empty space The main points of the article talk about how if you have nothing in empty space it is different than having a vacuum or lack of existence. The first point is just because you can not see anything there it does not mean it void of everything. The second point is even if there is no matter in a specific area there can still be other measured substances. The third point is that even where it appears to be nothing there can still be an atomic weight. The fourth point is that nothing can be powerful. The last point is the emptiness is more of a matter of perspective. People assume that just because they can not see anything that there is nothing there. This is far from the truth. If I asked you to look at the edge of this paper would you say this is nothing there? There is something there. There are atoms that reflect the color white. If you are looking at this on a computer screen there are electrons converted into a binary system of control. Thus, even if it looks like nothing there is still quite a bit going on in that space. Even...
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...I couldn’t sleep, so I decided to write to you. Okay, I couldn’t sleep because of you. That sounds more truthful. So now I’m grasping at your memory to be “together” in the silence and solitude of this hour. It’s 2am and I have YouTube cranked up to a whisper, playing an instrumental version of “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room” over and over again. I don’t know why that particular song, except that it fits so well in the emptiest hours of the night. And of course, I can’t stop thinking of the girl singing on the top of the hill of Dublin. I want to tell you that I very much enjoyed our night together and I very much want to spend more time with you. The rules of coy manipulation insist that I should never say things like this. But I don’t care....
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...handcuffs from his back pocket. He tautens them on Chino’s wrists, nearly cutting off his circulation. “You had no right to kill,” Schrank shouts in Chino’s ear. “Yeah, what Schrank said, you had no right to kill,” adds Officer Krupke. “Oh, shut it. I wasn’t the only one doing the killing tonight,” says Chino. “Mhum,” mumbles Schrank. “You’re coming with me. You PR’s know better than to kill a white man. Soon enough they’ll put you...
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...Military This is a paper about how gay’s are aloud within the military. I will have this paper based on the pros and cons on the subject. It will be how I feel about it and along with how I think others will be based on this subject. It will be a broad band about this and will hopefully get the point of why I think it is ok with gay’s being in the military. With gay’s being within the military, I’m ok with it. I was in the Marines and with the guys I was with who knows if they were or were not gay already. They have their own life and choices as well as anybody else that wants to be in the military. Everybody deserves a chance to do something that they would like to do in their life. They are people like you and me. There are people out there that will not do anything for the military but then you have people that want to do it but cant because of what they believe in. That would be like telling someone that they can’t do it because of their race. Everyone has their own point of view when it comes to something like this but I think when they started to allow gays in the military it has really changed more people than it was made out to be. Not only for the gays life but also people that have nothing against them are happy for them to be able to do something that others won’t ever think about doing. When I first heard that they were aloud I was too happy about it because you never know how they will react to certain things, but when it came to me thinking about it, it’s a good thing...
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...November 30th 2012, 21:08 I remember all the times where you and I would merge into one another. We would move in and out and through so freely and unconditionally. I was you, and you were me. That's what we were, we were eachother, just one power with the ability to control two. You see, that's what you did to me, you controlled me and you still control my thoughts and capture them just like you used to. There is no love lost between you and I, but that's about all that remains. We could have been one, but together we are dead, apart, we are able to fly freely just like we never could when I had you and you had me. I think of all we were and dream of all we could have been. People always say that some things you never get over. All this time, I wondered, how could something be so powerful? So powerful that it is never overcome? But now I know, only now do I know how it feels to be trapped by a power stronger than you could ever be. Addiction happens sooner than you can say it, but it's not just an addiction, it is a never ending desire for fulfilment, a fulfilment that can only be achieved if you take one too many pills, put too much pressure on the blade, an addiction eats away at you. It leaves you with nothing but everything you once had left in tatters beneath you. Maybe I'd never fully understand it, but maybe I didn't want to. My understanding is enough and it will always be enough for me. I don't know why the thought of you being with anyone or even happy...
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...humanity. Emerson, Nietzsche, Bergson, and Kubrick speak on this topic in their works. It seems to me to be a controversial topic because so many people look at it in different aspects and believe different things. Nietzsche believes we are incomplete and are in need of higher education and need to be taught in order to become superhuman. I partially agree with his views. We as humans are not incomplete in my eyes, but we do need higher education in order to continue to advance as a species. According to Bergson, humanity is an incomplete species, requiring higher education in the form of biotechnological transhumanization, in order to actualize the natural function of the universe. His views are partially correct in my eyes. Because we have made ourselves so dependent on technology, we do need it to advance to a certain extent. I do not think we need it one hundred percent. Kubrick’s view was a little to unrealistic. He seems to think that education by aliens was the way to achieve superhumanity. Since I do not believe in extraterrestrial life forms, it’s hard for me to even half way believe his point of view. From all the readings, I really agree with the works of Emerson. He believes that every individual possess a unique genius that they work their entire life to develop the gift they are given. “Everyone is potentially superhuman because we possess gifts which can never be absolutely actualized. Throughout life there are “godlike” men that come along and create...
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...environmental factors that contributed to the weight gain? Being a mother of three with my children being 3 or fewer years apart, I completely understand what Tasha was going through. What led to Tasha’s weight gain, motivationally as well as environmentally, was her focus, time, and energy on her children. One child can fill one’s schedule to where they feel that they have nothing left to give, and the fact that she had to, forced her to create more time and energy that was not there. She felt that she had nothing else to give for herself, and as a result, she deprived herself of personal focus. According to Bandura: [The effects of reinforcement] depend largely on our awareness of the relationship between our behavior and its outcomes. What is fundamentally important is our ability to figure out cause-and-effect relationships and to anticipate the outcomes of our behaviors. (LeFrancois, 2011, para. 14) Tasha was placed in an environment where she felt that diet and exercise were not possible. Again, as a mother, I understand what she was going through. One can psych their self out into believing that something is not possible, especially when it comes to hard work, and putting in the effort to get the results that are necessary. Briefly describe which approaches to motivation you feel best help us to understand the change in Tasha’s behavior. I feel that Tasha’s motivation can be related to psychological hedonism, because she is searching for a mentally and physically healthier...
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...in class, “Here is America, he can do anything he want.” The freedom not only exists in human rights, but also exists in human willings, such as moving into place that people would like to live, choosing jobs that people would like to enjoy, and so on. Then, the author put emphasis on Americans’ personalities in workplace. First one, nothing is impossible. Americans think they can do anything. Afterwards, the author mentioned the second personality of Americans in the workplace, just a matter of effort. In my opinion, the second one is the base of the first one; in other words, Americans believe in themselves, failure is from a lack of effort. They can do anything by hard working. For instance, professor Ross mentioned an example of “nothing is impossible”--in several years ago, Boston Celtics won the champion in NBA, when they were celebrating, KG yelled, “ Nothing is impossible! Nothing is impossible.” It expressed that they trained hardly, and tried their best to win every single game. By the way, I think it was a kind of advertisement, because “Nothing is impossible” is slogan of Adidas, and Adidas was sponsor of KG. Next, the author said that Americans are driven people. Americans very much admire what they call “passion” in their employees. Having passion means being excited and enthusiastic about what you do, but it means something more; people with passion are never satisfied and never give up. (p 27) I want to talk about the difference of passion in employees...
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