Can Physics Provide Genuine Knowledge

In his paper “Mind and Body Problem”, Jerome Shaffer examines the much discussed view of the relation between mental and physical events. According to this view consideration is given to whether or not mental events can occur in the same place the corresponding physical events occur. In the course of his examination of this view, Shaffer considers one difficulty which arises in connection with it, and concludes that it is insurmountable. Unfortunately, his treatment of what he takes to be the central difficulty with the view in question is seriously defected and my purpose in this paper is to indicate wherein its defects lie.

When an object falls, many forces are acted upon it: gravity, friction, air resistance and, if in the water, up thrust. When an object starts to fall, gravity over powers air resistance, however, as an object starts to reach terminal velocity (its maximum speed) the opposite forces start to even out until they are equal. Some people believe that if the forces are balanced then the object has stopped moving, meanwhile they could also just be moving at a constant speed (its terminal velocity). All free-falling objects accelerate at the same speed no matter what their mass is (9.8m/s²).

Hence, ideas are rather perceived than

Chapter 1- People like to say what is physics and how does it impact the world; well, I have the answer for that. Physics may be something that is a man’s knowledge by giving history a big thing to do with it. Well let me explain to you what I think physics is. Believing in physics can be easy to understand but also could be hard to understand. It all depends on what you want to believe in and the way you choose to believe it.

This author ascribes to the empiricism paradigm. This paradigm is similar to empirical knowing in that it is based on the premise that what is known can be verified through the senses, or

First off our senses sometimes deceive the way we see things. An example of this, is in Bouwsma, O.K piece “Descartes Evil Genius”. The Arthur writes “Imagine a young man, tom, bright today as he was yesterday, approaching a table where yesterday he had seen a bowl of flowers. Today it suddenly strikes him that they are not flowers. He stares at them troubled, looks away, and looks again.

Because ideas are mere copies of the real thing, ideas are far more easily mistaken or confused, which is less likely with impressions, being the original experience its self. This would also mean there is no such thing as innate knowledge and babies are born with a blank slate, no one is born with any prior knowledge and knowledge is acquired and developed from sense experience over the years.

Hume’s (1739) regularity theory of causation began the debate of physical events and mental inferences. Hume reasoned that if we perceive a causal relationship between two events, then one will be a cause which in turn will lead the other; the event. These connections are known as prioritistic rationalism, as Hume quoted “By experience only that we can infer the existence of one object from that of another”. Causal relationships are based on three factors; resemblance, contiguity and causality. The cause and effect of an event is governed by physics, for example; a ball striking into

Another problem with trying to explain the truth realised state, is that the mind must be engaged in order to describe something. This is necessary because it is the separating mind that allows us to see the world as a collection of separate objects. And without that separation a description becomes impossible.

In the previous chapters we discussed how perceiving the truth of a particular layer or belief makes it impossible to see that false view of reality again. While this is true in the majority of cases, you will find that there are some layers that have been so firmly entrenched in your psyche that they will continue to colour your view of reality, even after their truth has been seen.

This topic is specifically interesting because I want to do a research on how human mind perceives things as it happens, and the kinds of role that perceptions play in human mind. Perception of things cannot be true at all the time. It might be illusional. Perception of a certain element/event of life is a natural cause. It is an instantaneous action inside the brain’s functional parts. Consequently, it gives awareness or consciousness to the mind. The topic is specifically relevant today because perception is a natural cause, it cannot be evaluated to its full potential. There are always flaw in decoding perception of a human mind. The significance of this topic is to inform people about direct and indirect form of perception. Visual perception is a learning process which can be modified at particular instant of time.

What Came First: The Chicken or the Egg? David Hume moves through a logical progression of the ideas behind cause and effect. He critically analyzes the reasons behind those generally accepted ideas. Though the relation of cause and effect seems to be completely logical and based on common sense, he discusses our impressions and ideas and why they are believed. Hume’s progression, starting with his initial definition of cause, to his final conclusion in his doctrine on causality. As a result, it proves how Hume’s argument on causality follows the same path as his epistemology, with the two ideas complimenting each other so that it is rationally impossible to accept the epistemology and not accept his argument on causality. Hume starts by

E) David Hume would have vehemently objected to my answer on part C). Hume’s word view was largely based on the belief that, to understand events in the universe, we must look to their cause. This casual link is, therefore, disrupted under the conditions witnessed in the aforementioned experiment, as we can see a cause but the result side of the chain is unknown.

Personal experience is a gateway to recollection, attitudes, and knowledge. By trying different ice cream flavors an individual can establish a preferred flavor, by playing in the outdoors an individual can decipher his or her ideal season, and by looking at an array of colors an individual can determine a favorite hue. Without personal experience, an individual inherently lacks a certain depth of knowledge about the qualitative components of experience, and can only hold understandings based upon physical components. In Epiphenomenal Qualia, Frank Jackson asserts that physicalism is false because the world cannot be fully described based solely upon physical descriptions. Jackson proposes a thought experiment known as the Knowledge Argument that seeks to clarify the distinction between formal knowledge and qualitative experience. Supporters of physicalism would contend that the qualia is only relevant to ability, and formal understanding is the only significant component to knowledge. However, Jackson’s thought experiment successfully identifies an error in physicalism by demonstrating that ability teaches a type of knowledge that cannot be taught through purely physical terminology, which therefore affirms that physicalism proposes ideas that are narrow to be entirely valid.

When you become aware of your mind, you realize the game it is playing. The mind is similar to a projector and our expectations are only the screen. We become entangled in the web of our own expectations.