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| Chapter 2 Responses | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1. This selection states that every human action, no matter how selfless it may seem, is essentially done out of selfishness; that every action, when broken down to its basest components, is done for the good of the person performing it. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I completely agree with this belief. When thinking about even the most generous people to ever live, I have found selfish reasons in every single one of their seemingly unselfish acts. Though the absence of proof does not make something a fact, it is enough to convince me until proven otherwise. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2. Plato believes that human nature has three separate parts. These parts are reason, aggression and appetite. Reason is the logical part of human nature. Aggression is anger, and appetites are the things that a person wants but does not need.� | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I agree with Plato to an extent. I believe that reason, appetite, and aggression are the three most dominant parts of human nature, but I don?t completely agree with Plato about the balance of the three. He makes it seem like the three are nearly equal, and that they are locked in a constant struggle for dominance. I believe that, though the three are the most defining parts of human nature, they are far from equal to one another. I think reason is more powerful than appetite, and appetite is more powerful than aggression. A person may get angry, but usually reason takes control before the person can act upon his/her anger. The same goes for appetite. Example: A person may want to sleep with his best friend?s girlfriend, but usually his reason stops him from doing so. I think reason has reign over the other two parts of human nature for the most part. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3. The traditional western religious view of human nature is that human beings have two purposes in life: to love God and to serve God. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I strongly disagree with this statement. My belief is that human beings simply exist; that we make our own purposes. To say that our purpose in life is to love and serve some invisible and possibly nonexistent deity is ludicrous to me. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4. Charles Darwin believed that every living creature is caught in a struggle for existence with all other living things; that only the strongest can survive. He believed that living things adapt through evolution to make themselves more fit to survive. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I completely believe these statements. With evidence of evolution so apparent in the world, it seems strange to me that one would not believe his ideas. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 5. Descartes believes that human beings consist of two different parts: the material body and the immaterial self. He backs this belief up by saying that a person can imagine one without the other. Therefore, they are different things. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I agree with his beliefs on this subject. I think that the material aspects of a human being are different than the immaterial aspects, such as the self, mind and soul. I believe this because the mind is immaterial and the brain is material. I see the brain as a vessel for the mind, and that means that the brain and the mind are different things. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 6. The functionalist view of human nature is that everything we say or do is already pre-ordained in our minds. It says that humans should be thought of like computers and that, for every input given to us,� there is a predestined output that we give out. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I completely disagree with this belief. Human beings have free will and, though other things may influence a person's "output", in the end, the person, the self makes the decision on its own. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 7. The view in this paragraph in the book is that someone remains the same person throughout their entire life. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I don't agree with this belief. I believe that people are constantly changing, physically, mentally, and spiritually. The change is so slow, though, that it is inconceivable to humans. A person may look back at him or herself yesterday and think that they were essentially the same person that they are today. To an extent, this is true. They have changed, but in very tiny, subtle ways. If that same person, however, looked back, say, ten years,� he/she might question whether or not they were the same person that they are today. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 8. John Locke believes that the thing that makes a person the same as he/she was before is memory. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I disagree with this statement for the same reasons I disagree with the view in number seven. I don't think there is an enduring self. I don't believe that a person is the same from one day to another. I think a person will always be extremely similar to himself/herself from day to day, but they are never identical. Therefore, there is nothing that keeps a person the same over time. Not memory or anything else. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 9. Descartes says that "the Real Me" is independent and is not affected by outside influences. He says that the real person that resides in subconsciousness is completely independent. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I don't think this is a true statement. A person is made to be who they are by everything that happens to them throughout their life. Therefore, instead of being independent of others, "the Real Me" is completely dependent on others. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10. Hegel believes that "he Real Me" is dependent on your relationship to others. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I agree with this idea for the same reason that I disagree with number nine. Everything that happens to a person helps shape the Real Me. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||