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Lecture notes martin to hume

Lecture notes martin to hume

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Lecture Notes

To catch you up I am going to try something. I am going to try to mimic an actual lecture. I will

write almost stream of consciousness about these ideas that we have addressed over the past month or

so. Separately, I will send some bullet points and vocabulary, but as far as addressing some of these big

ideas, I am going to treat these notes like a transcript from a lecture. Most of what I will discuss we have

covered, but maybe have not gone in depth on. Some of this will be new concepts brought in to give a

broader perspective of ideas and terms we have been working with. In fact, this lecture should be

approached like a Journal assignment to be read and reflected on. This might almost read like you are

eavesdropping on an internal dialogue, the journal reflections of an expert in the field. Let’s see what

insight this brings.

I will begin with Martin. He brings up something interesting, namely the idea that some

people have about philosophy as being troublesome. He distinguishes between the problem of life

(living it well) and the problem of the meaning of life (finding purpose in it). Meaning, or purpose, is

what we call an existential pursuit. Existential philosophy deals with the human condition, and that

which is unique to our brand of consciousness.

Let me veer onto consciousness for a moment, as said by Nagel, it is intractable in that it is

something of an enigma that simultaneously defies categorization and denial. We know we have “it”,

but are unclear as to what “it” is metaphysically. Our brand of consciousness I will refer to as

“Dasein”. This is a term used by Heidegger, which means, “a being who is aware of its own being-in-

the-world.” To put it another way, a Dasein is a being that is self-aware of its awareness. That is

more than being self-aware, so let’s go into this a bit further.

I will use another example here, something called Gricean Intentions. This term is typically

used in Philosophy of Language to discuss the types of assumptions we necessarily make when

communicating ideas. But, for our purposes, we will consider this concept with regard to its

implications in the area of Philosophy of Mind, as it speaks to this sort of awareness we are trying to

approach. Gricean Intentions can be described as, “Thoughts about Thoughts about Thoughts.”

Ok…so sit with that for a moment; I want you to consider those words, how they are connected in

that phrasing…what does it mean to be capable of having a thought about, a thought about a

thought?? In other words, if we were to almost look at this mathematically we might see it like:

Thoughts about (Thoughts about Thoughts)

Wow, is that helping at all? Take it apart. We know what a thought is, maybe not

metaphysically, but we experience them all the time, right now even. What, though, is a thought about

a thought? What examples do you have of such a thing? Are you having one right now? At this stage,

a being might be self-aware, able to recognize their otherness in the world internally. But another

level is required for Dasein. Let’s use an example:

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1. Thought – I am hungry for squirrel.

This requires no real self-awareness. Yes, I know I said “I”, but that is a manner of

speaking, a creature does not formulate grammatically correct sentences, it just

thinks, “Hungry, eat now.” Which amounts to thinking, “Boy, I could sure eat a

squirrel right about now. That’d be swell.” A thought is present, it runs along with

the current of time, and is not reflective. Reflection steps outside the stream of time

to take notice. That is when the next level occurs.

2. Thought about a Thought – Why am I so hungry, and why are squirrels so much of my diet?

When we interrupt ourselves, our process to reflect on the things we are thinking

about is enlivened, we can become problem-solvers on a new level. Time becomes

something we can manipulate, in that, we can use hindsight, we can predict, we can

daydream, and fictionalize, and anticipate, and despair. We can recognize our

patterns, look to change tendencies, we dialogue with ourselves, put our own choices

under scrutiny, and thereby begin to take responsibility. Moral accountability

becomes possible. But agency requires yet another step.

3. Thought about, a Thought about a Thought – I am having an internal dialogue…about

squirrels!

This is a time when we become 3-Dimensional so to speak. When a Flatlander realizes

that the third dimension has been implied all along. That whatever the length and

width of a shape, when encountering it along the plane of its existence, without height

it would be invisible to its inhabitants. We can imagine an animal thinking to itself

about how it should navigate crossing a river based on its prior experiences, and how

it might dialogue about it to itself as it works to cross. But do we envision that animal

laying under a tree, asking itself how it is even possible that it can dialogue with itself?

Is it capable of reflecting on the absurdity and magnitude of this kind of awareness?

As Heidegger would say, do animals contemplate their “thrownness” in the world?

Does mortality keep them up at night? Do they question the extent of their power to

act outside of the cause and effect of physical laws that govern? Do they ask whether

morality exists objectively? This is a quality that cannot be undone once discovered,

not without significant head trauma, old age or illness to fry the motherboard of self-

consciousness.

Our ability to not just think, and not just dialogue internally, but to recognize ourselves as

beings capable of such feats, is a monumental evolutionary feat of its own. We become a full-fledged

moral agent, complete with blameworthiness for our actions. We become capable of poetry, of

articulating empathy, of recognizing irony as a thing, and justice, and murder, and fate, and idolatry…

we can philosophize, and thus, properly begin to seek knowledge.

This tangential foray now brings us back to where we began. We can philosophize, and in

doing so, challenge beliefs, dogmas and paradigms, and risk their decimation. As Russell explained,

philosophy is more about questions than answers. We can ask about so much more than we have

answers for, and therefore, we can undo so much more than we can build up and fortify. That is why

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Lecture Notes To catch you up I am going to try something. I am going to try to mimic an actual lecture. I will write almost stream of consciousness about these ideas that we have addressed over the past month or so. Separately, I will send some bullet points and vocabulary, but as far as addressing some of these big ideas, I am going to treat these notes like a transcript from a lecture. Most of what I will discuss we have covered, but maybe have not gone in depth on. Some of this will be new concepts brought in to give a broader perspective of ideas and terms we have been working with. In fact, this lecture should be approached like a Journal assignment to be read and reflected on. This might almost read like you are eavesdropping on an internal dialogue, the journal reflections of an expert in the field. Let’s see what insight this brings. I will begin with Martin. He brings up something interesting, namely the idea that some people have about philosophy as being troublesome. He distinguishes between the problem of life (living it well) and the problem of the meaning of life (finding purpose in it). Meaning, or purpose, is what we call an existential pursuit. Existential philosophy deals with the human condition, and that which is unique to our brand of consciousness. Let me veer onto consciousness for a moment, as said by Nagel, it is intractable in that it is something of an enigma that simultaneously defies categorization and denial. We know we have “it”, but ar ...
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