Reviving Psychophysical Supervenience Essay -- Argumentative Persuasiv

Reviving Psychophysical Supervenience ABSTRACT: Many philosophers have lost their enthusiasm for the concept of supervenience in the philosophy of mind. This is largely due to the fact that, as Jaegwon Kim has shown, familiar versions of supervenience describe relations of mere property covariation without capturing the idea of dependence. Since the dependence of the mental on the physical is a necessary requirement for even the weakest version of physicalism, it would seem that existing forms of supervenience cannot achieve that for which they were designed. My aim is to revive the concept of supervenience. I argue that if we construe supervenience along Davidsonian lines — as a relation connecting predicates rather than properties — then it avoids the shortcomings of the more familiar varieties. When it first appeared on the scene in the philosophy of mind, the concept of supervenience was warmly embraced. Supervenience was thought to capture the idea of dependence without reduction and thus promised to provide a useful framework for discussions of mental causation, phenomenal experience, and, more generally, the relation between the mental and the physical. Since then a great deal has changed. Much careful work has been done to show that philosophical applications of supervenience do not, in fact, achieve what they were thought to. For example, Jaegwon Kim, whose name is closely associated with the concept, has shown convincingly that the standard formulations of supervenience in the philosophy of mind (weak, strong, and global) do not capture the idea of psychophysical dependence. (1) Many philosophers believed that supervenience could express a form of physicalism, but since the concept of dependence is a minimal req... ...dson, ‘Thinking Causes’, in Mental Causation, ed. John Heil and Alfred Mele (Oxford, Clarendon Press: 1993) p. 13. (4) Donald Davidson, "Mental Events," in Davidson, Essays on Actions and Events (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980) p. 214 (emphasis added). (5) Davidson, "Radical Interpretation," in Davidson, Inquiries into Truth and Interpretation (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984) p. 137. (6) Donald Davidson, ‘Mental Events’, op. cit., p. 214. (7) For example, see Simon Evnine, Donald Davidson (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991) pp. 69-70. (8) Davidson, "Mental Events," op. cit., p. 214. (9) For example see, Terence Horgan, "From Supervenience to Superdupervenience: Meeting the Demands of a Material World," Mind 102 (1993) pp. 554-586; Thomas Grimes, "Supervenience, Determination, and Dependency," Philosophical Studies 62 (1991) pp. 81-92. Reviving Psychophysical Supervenience Essay -- Argumentative Persuasiv Reviving Psychophysical Supervenience ABSTRACT: Many philosophers have lost their enthusiasm for the concept of supervenience in the philosophy of mind. This is largely due to the fact that, as Jaegwon Kim has shown, familiar versions of supervenience describe relations of mere property covariation without capturing the idea of dependence. Since the dependence of the mental on the physical is a necessary requirement for even the weakest version of physicalism, it would seem that existing forms of supervenience cannot achieve that for which they were designed. My aim is to revive the concept of supervenience. I argue that if we construe supervenience along Davidsonian lines — as a relation connecting predicates rather than properties — then it avoids the shortcomings of the more familiar varieties. When it first appeared on the scene in the philosophy of mind, the concept of supervenience was warmly embraced. Supervenience was thought to capture the idea of dependence without reduction and thus promised to provide a useful framework for discussions of mental causation, phenomenal experience, and, more generally, the relation between the mental and the physical. Since then a great deal has changed. Much careful work has been done to show that philosophical applications of supervenience do not, in fact, achieve what they were thought to. For example, Jaegwon Kim, whose name is closely associated with the concept, has shown convincingly that the standard formulations of supervenience in the philosophy of mind (weak, strong, and global) do not capture the idea of psychophysical dependence. (1) Many philosophers believed that supervenience could express a form of physicalism, but since the concept of dependence is a minimal req... ...dson, ‘Thinking Causes’, in Mental Causation, ed. John Heil and Alfred Mele (Oxford, Clarendon Press: 1993) p. 13. (4) Donald Davidson, "Mental Events," in Davidson, Essays on Actions and Events (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980) p. 214 (emphasis added). (5) Davidson, "Radical Interpretation," in Davidson, Inquiries into Truth and Interpretation (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984) p. 137. (6) Donald Davidson, ‘Mental Events’, op. cit., p. 214. (7) For example, see Simon Evnine, Donald Davidson (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991) pp. 69-70. (8) Davidson, "Mental Events," op. cit., p. 214. (9) For example see, Terence Horgan, "From Supervenience to Superdupervenience: Meeting the Demands of a Material World," Mind 102 (1993) pp. 554-586; Thomas Grimes, "Supervenience, Determination, and Dependency," Philosophical Studies 62 (1991) pp. 81-92.

How does Fitzgerald tell the story in chapter 3? Essay

In chapter 3 Fitzgerald introduces us to the main character of his book, and we finally get an insight into what Gatsby is like (albeit through the eyes of Nick Carraway) during the party he throws. Even though we meet the character himself, Fitzgerald continues to entice us with rumours of Gatsby, which is significant because it shows just how artificial his entire life is – he couldn’t dispel the rumours even if he wanted to. Throughout the party in chapter three, we meet a variety of different characters, which almost seem to act as tour guides; however, as soon as they’ve said their part, they seem to almost evaporate into the night. Each person has their own snippet of seemingly useless information, ‘She had a fight with a man who says he’s her husband’ or ‘somebody told me they thought he killed a man once’, its almost as if they’re not actually characters- merely rumours that have been personified to make the night more exciting. Conversely, one character with no rumour to spread is ‘Owl Eyes’, a ‘somewhat drunk’ man with ‘enormous owl eyed spectacles’ – typically a sign of wisdom, which is completely disregarded in this particular personality, as he conclude the main ideas in this chapter, these being that instead of wanting to talk to people at a party to gain insight about that person, the aim of talking t o people at Gatsby’s party is to procure an understanding into Gatsby’s character alone. As well as using Owl Eyes’ spectacles to enforce this point, Fitzgerald also chooses to base him in a library, surrounded by knowledge yet still painfully drunk and clueless. The fact that Owl Eyes thought the books were a â€Å"nice durable cardboard’ and was suitably impressed that they were in fact ‘real books’ portrays just how artificial everything is at Gatsby’s parties, and just how surprising it is to find something solid and genuine. These tour guides like Jordan, Owl Eyes and Nick himself, give us a very jolted view of the night, but the structure throughout chapter 3 was still very consistent and definitively chronological, however this completely changed at the end, Nick seems to come out of his narrators view point and instead talks to the reader directly.

Examining the Domestic Terror Groups An Important Study...

Although the threat posed by foreign terrorist organizations is often foremost in the public consciousness as a result of al-Qaedas attack on September 11th, 2001, the threat from domestic terror groups remains a central concern of those responsible for homeland security. In fact, while the United States has not suffered from another foreign attack in the decade since 9/11, research by the Federal Bureau of Investigations, along with non-governmental organizations, has found that the number of domestic terror groups has increased, a trend only exacerbated by the economic recession (U.S. Department of Justice, 2009, Domestic Terrorism). While there are a wide variety of individual groups and ideologies, most domestic terror groups falls into one of three broad categories: religious extremism, white supremacy, and anti-government and separatists movements, including the militia movement. 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