In your brain projects most of you looked at your topic from a scientific viewpoint. You discussed the biology of dreams or emotions rather than, say, the “hidden meaning” of dreams or the personal meaning of emotions. I know most you well enough to realize that this is not what YOU think about these topics. Most of you believe that science is just one important method used to describe the world. You believe that there are other important ways of knowing. This is your chance to write down what you think about who “you” are.
Essay question: Do you feel that “you” are just a series of physical and chemical processes and that the essence of who “you” are resides in your physical brain? If not, what are “you?”
In your essay you should include the following:
1) A thesis statement addressing the questions above. This should differentiate between those aspects of the universe and “you” which you consider explainable by science and those that are not. An example thesis statement: “I believe in dualism. That is to say, I believe that there are aspects of “me” which are purely physical and explainable by science but that there are other aspects that are not. My ability to do math, read a book, speak or play soccer are directly explained by my brain and the physicochemical processes within it. However, my emotions and faith in my religion are part of something else, call it spirit or soul, or whatever.”
2) To expand on your thesis statement you need to put it into a broader context by discussing what you think about the nature of reality (this is called epistemology). An effective way to do this is to discuss some examples of things that you believe exist and some you don’t believe, with an explanation as to why (quote the readings I gave you if you want). You could discuss, for example: ghosts, the law of gravitation, electrons, love, God, Pachamama, the soul or spirit, consciousness, flying saucers flown by little green men, ouija boards, psychic phenomena or Santa Claus. A couple of examples: “I do not believe in flying saucers flown by little green men since they are purported to be physical entities and I believe that physical phenomena should be explainable by science. Scientists do not accept flying saucers flown by little green men because there is not sufficient independent evidence for them and eye-witness testimony is unreliable as we read in the Michael Shermer article about the gorilla video.” “I do believe in electrons because, even though I have never seen one, scientists have made many predictions based on the theory of electrons that they have then confirmed by experiment. Furthermore, if electrons did not exist I think that scientific inventors would not have had such great success at making things like CD players and TVs.”
3) Some description of those parts of who “you” are which are explainable by science and those that are not, with explanations. For example: your emotions, logic, memory, religiosity/faith and consciousness. An example: “I believe that my faith in God is linked to my soul and not part of my physical existence. I can’t really explain where the soul comes from other than from God. I realize that this is a circular argument but then so is my belief in electrons, since that belief (a scientific one) rests on my belief in prediction and experimentation (the scientific method). There is, perhaps, some link between my belief in God and my physical brain. We saw evidence for this kind of a link in the “Secrets of the Mind” video where the guy had religious feelings because of a stimulation of the temporal lobe.”
4) Some brief analysis of your brain project topic in light of what you have said about this essay question and that you left out of your brain project presentation. Example: “In my brain project on emotion I only discussed the scientific aspects of emotion. In truth, I think that emotions may be generated in the brain but are actually felt in the soul.”
By allowing one or two paragraphs for each of the above points you should be able to write a good essay.
In your essay you should also consider some of the following viewpoints, as discussed in class, and make use of them to support the 4 points above:
Finally, if you want to double-check your arguments to see if your beliefs are consistent with them, try thinking about the following questions:
1.
Do animals
have souls/consciousness/feelings? (Read this as three questions.)
2.
Could, in
principle, a robot have a soul/consciousness/feelings? (Read this as three
questions.)
3.
Can more
than one soul/consciousness inhabit one body? (Read this as two questions.)
4.
Can more
than one body share a soul/consciousness? (Read this as two questions.)
5.
If you
could clone yourself identically and raise yourself in the exact same manner as
the “real” you was raised, would you both(?) have the same soul/consciousness? (Read
this as two questions.)
6.
If your
dogma is hit by a karma what happens?