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| Chapter 2 and 3 Responses | ||||||||||||||||
| Chapter 2 | ||||||||||||||||
| 1.I think that nobody would ever do anything nice or kind for one another if they didn't gain something good out of it. I can't necessarily prove this in any way, but I think there's always a subconscious motivation to do anything. If a person were to gain nothing from doing something nice for another person, I don't believe they would ever do it. | ||||||||||||||||
| 2. a. I'm not saying that rationality always has more power than emotions like anger. I think that it usually does though. I can only speak from my experience, and I've seen people lose control of their anger before. But, this happens far less often than when they are able to keep their anger in check and control themselves. | ||||||||||||||||
| b. I think that people are usually rational. There are times that people can act very irrational and let their emotions or desires take control over themselves, but this occurs much less than when people act rationally. | ||||||||||||||||
| � 4, 5.� Evolution and the soul can exist in the same reality. Evolution is simply a life form� slowly adapting to its environment by means of natural selection and survival of the fittest. The soul can still exist in an evolutionary form, though it would be conceivable that the soul would change and evolve as the body changed. A soul isn?t necessarily a strictly religious entity, and can exist without religion or God (in my opinion). | ||||||||||||||||
| ������ 7. Yes, I think that a person today and that same person ten years ago would be different people in the same sense as you and I being different people. If a person were to meet himself/herself from ten years ago, he/she wouldn't know himself/herself at all. They would be completely different people. | ||||||||||||||||
| Chapter 3 | ||||||||||||||||
| 1. I think that materialism indicates different perceptions. A colorblind person may see a green ball as a gray ball. To him/her, the ball would exist, but it would be gray (or whatever color a colorblind person sees). To a person who sees colors normally, the ball would also exist, but it would be green. Materialism states that the ball exists in the form that is perceived (I think, I may be wrong here). Since two different people perceive the ball in two different ways, materialism indicates multiple perceptions. | ||||||||||||||||
| 3.Yes, there is indeed a difference between something existing and my being convinced that it exists, but this difference is only apparent to a person other than myself. In my� mind, something that I perceive to exist, something that I am convinced exists, does definitely exist. The mind cannot determine what is perceived and what truly exists. An observer may be able to see the difference between my perception of something and the actual existence of it, but I am unable to. | ||||||||||||||||
| 4.Part 1: The dead would be able to know the truth about the existence of nonmaterial things such as souls because if they died and there was nothing, nonmaterial things would not exist. True, the dead person may not exist anymore to know this, but if a person died and there was something else after death, some paradise or afterlife, then they would know that nonmaterial things do exist. Part 2: The only nonmaterial possessions are things like the mind, soul and essence. The Zen place these possessions at a tremendously higher importance than material things such as cars and stereos. Americans, in general, place these material things at a far more importance than nonmaterial, spiritual things. | ||||||||||||||||
| 7. I believe that realism exists on a universal scale. I think that there is a "real world" that exists independent of our thoughts and perceptions, but I think that nobody truly sees this real world. It is completely possible for someone to believe in a world that is very similar to this real world, but I don?t think anyone can truly perceive everything in the absolute way it is. Antirealism exists on a more personal scale. Each person lives in his or her own real world, which isn't really the real real world. To them, the world they live in is the real world. To them, everything exists exactly the way they see it. On a universal view, they're all wrong and are only living by their clouded perceptions, but on a personal scale, each person has his own real world that truly exists to him/her. The believing in something does not affect the existence of it at all. Just because a person believes in little green men, for example, doesn't mean that little green men exist. To that person though, little green men truly exist. Belief can prove something true only to the person/people who have that belief. To anyone who doesn't have that belief, however, there needs to be some sort of proof, or else the belief isn't true. | ||||||||||||||||
| 9. Proof of human unpredictability is everywhere. The most obvious example would have to be the Holocaust. On a smaller scale, a person deciding to eat lunch at MacDonald's instead of Wendy's (where he or she normally eats) is another example. That person may be able to predict his/her actions, but nobody else can. | ||||||||||||||||