Hey Richard, I just want to say thank you so much, I have just started listening to your lectures an everd I am so excited. I am new to philosophy but yet very Interested. You have made a lot of concepts much easier for me to digest. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK MAN...
its very useful for me taking up Secondary Education Major in Biological science. We teachers concerns about the transfer of knowledge to learners not just by means of indoctrination but invite them to construct their own knowledge. That is why it is Love of Wisdom.
Concerning phantom pain, I am a physician with an above the knee amputation. The nerve cell bodies for the leg are located in the lower spine therefore the amputation makes them very angry rather than killing them. Some times I get phantom muscle spasms in my heel pad even though there is only dense fibrous tissue not muscle tissue in the heel pad. Ibuprofen works great. Also Descartes said the mind was a whole unit. He must not have studies strokes and brain trauma patients who can have very specific defects. Some stroke patients will only recognize and take care of 1/2 of their body. Is not that strange.
I agree! There's no reason not to refer to Hume as Scottish, just because Scotland is part of Britain, just as I call myself English and have a British Passport. Now to be pedantic, a coin is not round, it’s a disc Dr Brown. And it’s Wales, not Whales. torosalvajebcn.
Richard - I’m enjoying your lectures. Thank you for posting them. David Hume was both Scottish and British. Let me sort out your apparent confusion. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the correct name for our sovereign entity. Great Britain comprises 3 countries - England, Scotland and Wales. All English, Scottish and Welsh people are British. The people of Northern Ireland are not technically British, they are citizens of the United Kingdom - although I think it is fair to say that many of them would refer to themselves as British.
But if you are thinking and therefore conclude that you must therefore exist that does not exclude the possibility that you are dreaming that you are thinking. How does he get around that.
If gravity is a force the pulls down objects, how come in Science they teach it is an acceleration, and also that is a curvature of space -time, which one of the three is it then? and why it is different on the Moon?
Actually, I disagree with Descartes about so many things, but your last point... I agree with that. You can point to the injury, but the PERSON is in pain, whether that is the mind or not, we can debate that.
First this is good. I think the that your argument that Efficient Cause is on the mind side might be wrong. Doesn't that conflict with the mechanization of the Universe.
Wow, I love the mathematical argument. I am not at all convinced Descartes had this is mind. If the Evil Genesis can deceive at a God like level, then there need be no clever explanation.
I don't know that syllogism is the best way to present this. Descartes was a mathematician, of course. I think his method was meant to mirror geometry in particular. As in, axioms. This was perhaps behind his foundationalism.
9:36 What's wrong with calling David Hume British as Scotland was/is part of Britain??? 29:25 Asking which line is longer among three lines is adding doubt (or in this case, ambiguity) to an already doubtful scenario. I thought we're trying to eliminate/minimize doubt. Otherwise good lecture. Sorry, I'm anal.
yeah a microscope and a telescope both work with lenses both the focus points are different. That is you could use a telescope lens as a micorscope, but it would not be a good one. However, if you use a telescope, which has two lenses. It will go wrong and you would indeed not get any magnification.
Rene Descartes walks into a bar and asks for a drink. The barman gives him a drink and he downs it. The barman goes away and then comes back and asks "would you like another drink?" Descartes, appalled responds, "I think not!" And disappears. Like if you get it ;)
The Dream Argument. One thing I have realized that I need to clarify is that the dream is real, but WHAT you dream is false. Yes you're dreaming, but if you are dreaming that you are flying, you are NOT flying. The experience is real, but the belief is false.
True.Scotland has always, uncontraversially, been part of Britian (in the same way that France, for example, is part of Europe). This is geographical as much as well as socio-economic. Scotland is not a colony of the British Empire but a component part. If Scotish philosophers were referred to as "English philosophers" there would be contraversy but there has never been an argument as to wheter Scotish people are British. There is argument as to wether they want to be ruled by England though....
broooooo thank you for posting this oh my god dis shit helped me out so much, thank you mr brown. Fuck i wanna send you an edible arrangement or some shit. thank you mr richard
But I guess if you are a Scottish who happens to be a famous philosopher then you are British. But if you are a Scottish who is having a drunken brawl at Heathrow airport departures lounge then you are just Scottish...
Scots disagree with each other but those of us who actually know our history know that British means English. Americans are right to mix them up because the word british was invented by the English in order to colonize Scotland, Wales and even Ireland. The sooner we regain our independence the better. Alba gu brath! Saor Alba a-nis!
Are the senses really that unreliable? No they are not. When we perceive the bent shape of a pencil in a glass of water, our senses are accurately reporting the actual way the light is being conveyed to them. When we perceive 3 lines of the same length, with different ends, our senses accurately report the lines as being the same length. It is more a function of how well we have trained our ability to observe the actual lengths of these lines, and not read anymore into it. Most people have not trained their power of observation to see the lines as equal in length. In my figure drawing class, I spent 3 years training myself how to observe the model the actual way the model appeared and not what I thought how it appeared. Of course, our perception is not infallible, but it is accurate enough, so that scientists know when it is in error and then make adjustments. If our perceptions were really that unreliable, we would not have attained the level of science that we have now.
I think you are right in saying that our senses e.g. vision are quite reliable... but that's not Descartes point.. Descartes is looking for certinty and as long as there is ANY little doubt about the accuracy of the senses, there is a chance of them reporting falsly the representation of the external world :) In relation to the illusion about the pencil in the glass of water, in which the pencil bends - If you say that our vision report what our vision sees i.e. that the pencil is bend... Than that is not at all a objektiv report of the external world. It would be more coherent with a sanse-datum og representative realism theory than a direkt realism, as you state, if im not wrong :)
I have an argument against the evel genius. It's Occam's razor. Suppose the evel genius try to do all to deceive everyone in the world, it would have to do lot of work, lot of processing, maybe genius could do it, but doesn't the simple argument that everything exists as it is, then lot less work to be done.
Britain is the main island, composed of England, Scotland, and Whales. Along with Northern Ireland, it makes up the United Kingdom aka Great Britain. So David Hume was British.
So since Mexico is on the American continent they are considered Americans despite the fact that there exists a clear dichotomy between what someone means when they talk about geographical names and societal and cultural ones?
+torosalvajebcn How come Europeans never mention Europian tribes? For an example the mancuso, normans, brits, english and so forth. The brits are the second biggest tribe. Hence that's where the name Britain came from. The english tribe are dominant and they are majority. Thus everyone in UK speak their language, Another example is the frank tribe in France. They named their country and currency after their tribe. This might surprise you but it is a fact not well known by many people. There is no country where they speak one language. Mandarin, Cantonese, fuji , szechuan and many more chinese tribes should be considered chinese because they are indeed Chinese because they are differrent languages of China as a result of different tribes of China. Zulu tribe in South Africa is majority. But Zulu as a language was not converted as a national language even though most people speak Zulu in South Africa, including white people. In China, UK and France is the opposite. What a slick way to hide the existence of tribes in their countries! The reason is because tribes are associated with primitivism!
Seems rather weak, I mean the tool of "doubt " which he is using with all it's connections must be considered a truth. I.e a true measure. I mean how do you know that is real. And can be utilized in this way. If that's the case he could have saved himself the trouble and said "I doubt therefore I am.
im sure that all came from an american, thats like saying canada should be called part of the USA, we are part of the european continent yes but we are still britain
David Hume was born in the Kindom of Great Britain, which was formed in 1707. He was also born on the island of Great Britain, which is the largest island of the British Isles. That is why Hume is referred to as British. I find your ill informed anti-English opinion as to why he is called British risible.
So lets put the evil genius into Cognio Ergo Sum. At 51:25 you say: "you see that it must be true" . Yet, here comes the evil genius making you see that it must be true....
This is seems to be paradoxial, and can be used from anything. For example, if a religious representative is told of a contradiction, and he responds: "God put it as such to increase our faith." He may keep repeating this for anything, so this is where that point falls.
Maybe, but Scotland still exists and is a self-governing nation with an upcoming referendum on full independence. So calling people Scottish is more accurate, if you want call someone british, why stop there, why not call people 'European' or just Earthling.
