Philosophy 024: Big Ideas

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Philosophy 024 Big Ideas Prof. Robert DiSalle
(rdisalle_at_uwo.ca) Talbot College 408,
519-661-2111 x85763 Office Hours Monday and
Wednesday 1130-1230 Course Website
http//instruct.uwo.ca/philosophy/024/
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The causal structure of spacetime
time
Events that can still be influenced by what you
do now, but that cannot influence what is
happening now
The future
The present (now)
here and now
The past
Events that can influence what happens now, but
that cannot be influenced by anything you do now
space
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Laplacian determinism in the classical world
if you knew the positions and momenta of all
particles at a given time t, you could deduce
their trajectories for the entire future or past.
time
Space at time t
space
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Classical indeterminism Nature is unpredictable
because of the incredible complexity of the
complete picture, and the number of interacting
causes that would have to be taken into account.
We use probability because of our ignorance of
definite states. Quantum indeterminism Nature is
unpredictable because of the fundamentally
indeterministic nature of reality. There is no
picture of the underlying reality at one time--
even in the ideal case-- from which one could
deduce with certainty the future evolution of a
system.
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Schrodingers Cat paradox One can even set up
quite ridiculous cases. A cat is penned up in a
steel chamber, along with the following
diabolical device (which must be secured against
direct interference by the cat) in a Geiger
counter there is a tiny bit of radioactive
substance, so small that perhaps in the course of
one hour one of the atoms decays, but also, with
equal probability, perhaps none if it happens,
the counter tube discharges and through a relay
releases a hammer which shatters a small flask of
hydrocyanic acid. If one has left this entire
system to itself for an hour, one would say that
the cat still lives if meanwhile no atom has
decayed. The first atomic decay would have
poisoned it. The Psi function for the entire
system would express this by having in it the
living and the dead cat (pardon the expression)
mixed or smeared out in equal parts.
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It is typical of these cases that an
indeterminacy originally restricted to the atomic
domain becomes transformed into macroscopic
indeterminacy, which can then be resolved by
direct observation. That prevents us from so
naively accepting as valid a blurred model for
representing reality. In itself it would not
embody anything unclear or contradictory. There
is a difference between a shaky or out-of-focus
photograph and a snapshot of clouds and fog
banks. (Schrodinger, 1935)
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Nature vs. Nurture Some basic questions Is there
such a thing as human nature? Does human nature
change over time? How much of our nature is the
product of nature, that is, our genetic
endowment, and how much is shaped by
environmental influences, or nurture? Can we
fight against our nature for the sake of some
higher ideal? Do social organizations reflect our
true nature, or do they distort it?
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The Peloponnesian War (431- 404 BCE)
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Thucydides on the Peloponnesian War In times of
peace and prosperity cities and individuals alike
follow higher standards, because they are not
forced into a situation where they have to do
what what they do not want to do. But war is a
stern teacher in depriving them of the power of
easily satisfying their daily wants, it brings
most peoples minds down to the level of their
actual circumstances. There was death in every
shape and form. And, as usually happens in such
situations, people went to every extreme and
beyond it.
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Thucydides As a result of these resolutions,
there was a general deterioration of character
throughout the Greek world. The simple way of
looking at things, which is so much the mark of a
noble nature, was regarded as a ridiculous
quality and soon ceased to exist. Then, with
the ordinary conventions of civilized life thrown
into confusion, human nature, always ready to
offend even where laws exist, showed itself
proudly in its true colours, as something
incapable of controlling passion, insubordinate
to the idea of justice, the enemy to anything
superior to itself.
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Human nature as revealed during the
war Ruthlessness valued above intelligence Reveng
e valued above lawful redress Fanaticism valued
above moderation Aggression is called
courageous Forethought is called
cowardly Moderation is called unmanly Fairness to
all sides of a question is called impotent
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Lt. Gen. James Mattis, U.S. Marines Actually
it's quite fun to fight 'em, you know. It's a
hell of a hoot. It's fun to shoot some people.
I'll be right up front with you, I like
brawling, said Mattis.
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
Discourse on the Arts and Sciences
(1750) Discourse on Inequality (1755) Emile
(1762) The Social Contract (1762)
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Rousseau on human nature Humans in their most
primitive state are selfish and grasping,
incapable of affection for others Humans in their
civilized state are jealous of privilege,
greedy for property and power, devoted to
luxury In between, there was a simple, primitive
social existence the golden mean between the
indolence of the primitive state and the petulant
activity of our own pride, must have been the
happiest epoch and the most lasting.
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so many authors have hastened to conclude that
man is naturally cruel and needs civil
institutions to make him peaceable, whereas in
truth nothing is more peaceable than man in his
primitive state placed by nature at an equal
distance from the stupidity of brutes and the
fatal enlightenment of civilized man, limited
equally by reasons and instinct to defending
himself against evils which threaten him, he is
restrained by natural pity from doing harm to
anyone this state was the true youth of the
world, andall subsequent progress has been so
many steps in appearance towards the improvement
of the individual, but so many steps in reality
towards the decrepitude of the species
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Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
(France, 1789)

• Men are born and remain free and equal in rights.
  Social distinctions may be founded only upon the
  general good.
• The aim of all political association is the
  preservation of the natural and imprescriptible
  rights of man. These rights are liberty,
  property, security, and resistance to oppression.
  
• The principle of all sovereignty resides
  essentially in the nation. No body nor individual
  may exercise any authority which does not proceed
  directly from the nation.
• Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything
  which injures no one else

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6. Law is the expression of the general will.
Every citizen has a right to participate
personally, or through his representative, in its
foundation. It must be the same for all, whether
it protects or punishes. All citizens, being
equal in the eyes of the law, are equally
eligible to all dignities and to all public
positions and occupations, according to their
abilities, and without distinction except that of
their virtues and talents. 7. No person shall be
accused, arrested, or imprisoned except in the
cases and according to the forms prescribed by
law. Any one soliciting, transmitting, executing,
or causing to be executed, any arbitrary order,
shall be punished. But any citizen summoned or
arrested in virtue of the law shall submit
without delay, as resistance constitutes an
offense.
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Declaration of the Rights of Woman
(Olympe de Gouge, 1791) Woman, wake up the
tocsin of reason is being heard throughout the
whole universe discover your rights. The
powerful empire of nature is no longer surrounded
by prejudice, fanaticism, superstition, and
lies Having become free, man has become unjust
to his companionWhat advantage have you received
from the Revolution? A more pronounced scorn, a
more marked disdain. In the centuries of
corruption you ruled only over the weakness of
men. The reclamation of your patrimony, based on
the wise decrees of nature-what have you to dread
from such a fine undertaking?
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.Prostitutes should be placed in designated
quarters. It is not prostitutes who contribute
the most to the depravity of morals, it is the
women of' society. In regenerating the latter,
the former are changed. This link of fraternal
union will first bring disorder, but in
consequence it will produce at the end a perfect
harmony. I offer a foolproof way to elevate the
soul of women it is to join them to all the
activities of man if man persists in finding
this way impractical, let him share his fortune
with woman, not at his caprice, but by the wisdom
of laws. Prejudice falls, morals are purified,
and nature regains all her rights.
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Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) Thoughts
on the Education of Daughters (1787) A
Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790) A
Vindication of the Rights of Woman
(1792) Historical and Moral View Of The Origin
and Progress of The French Revolution (1794)
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Wollstonecraft on Rousseau Impressed by this
view of the misery and disorder which pervaded
society, and fatigued with jostling against
artificial fools, Rousseau became enamoured of
solitude, and, being at the same time an
optimist, he labours with uncommon eloquence to
prove that man was naturally a solitary
animal. Reared on a false hypothesis, his
arguments in favour of a state of nature are
plausible, but unsound. I say unsound for to
assert that the state of nature is preferable to
civilisation, in all its possible perfection, is,
in other words, to arraign supreme
wisdom. Rousseau exerts himself to prove that
all was right originally a crowd of authors that
all is now right and I, that all will be right.
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.Every profession,in which great subordination
of rank constitutes its power, is highly
injurious to morality It is of great
importance to observe that the character of every
man is, in some degree, formed by his
profession. Society, therefore, as it becomes
more enlightened, should be very careful not to
establish bodies of men who must necessarily be
made foolish or vicious by the very constitution
of their profession. Had Rousseau mounted one
step higher in his investigation, his active mind
would have darted forward to contemplate the
perfection of man in the establishment of true
civilisation, instead of taking his ferocious
flight back to the night of sensual ignorance.
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The most perfect education, in my opinion, is
such an exercise of the understanding as is best
calculated to strengthen the body and form the
heart. Or, in other words, to enable the
individual to attain such habits of virtue as
will render it independent. In fact, it is a
farce to call any being virtuous whose virtues do
not result from the exercise of its own
reason.This was Rousseau's opinion respecting
men I extend it to women
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Rousseau declares that a woman should never for
a moment feel herself independent, that she
should be governed by fear to exercise her
natural cunning, and made a coquettish slave in
order to render her a more more alluring object
of desire, a sweeter companion to man, whenever
he chooses to relax himself. He carries the
arguments, which he pretends to draw from the
indications of nature, still further, and
insinuates that truth and fortitude, the
corner-stones of all human virtue, should be
cultivated with certain restrictions, because,
with respect to the female character, obedience
is the grand lesson which ought to be impressed
with unrelenting rigour. What nonsense ! When
will a great man arise with sufficient strength
of mind to puff away the fumes which pride and
sensuality have thus spread over the subject?