Abstract The paper relates that John Searle developed his Chinese room argument in response to some of those who argue that strong artificial intelligence is possible. As will be shown, the Chinese room argument was a thought experiment that appeared to constitute a good argument against the possibility of strong artificial intelligence. The paper shows how it was a sufficiently good argument that many people have been provoked to present counter-arguments in an attempt to rebut Searle's argument. In the paper, the Systems Reply will be considered, as it is proposed that this is the strongest reply to date.
A critique of the logic of Jerry Mander's book, "Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television," based on Patrick J. Hurley's book, "A Concise Introduction to Logic."
Abstract This paper discusses Jerry Mander's book, "Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television." The paper specifically critiques the logic of Mander's offering using Patrick J. Hurley's book, "A Concise Introduction to Logic." It describes Hurley's discussions regarding the understanding of logic and then applies this to various sections of Mander's book.
From the Paper "Before launching into his four arguments, Mander asks readers to believe (47) that the four are linked together because "they deal with aspects of television that are not reformable." So the reader is now set up to believe that notwithstanding the logic or lack of logic in the material to follow, there is no way out of this disastrous medium, and so the society is basically doomed, driven to its knees. Readers may as well learn why there is no way out. Indeed, in Mander's world, there is no light at the end of the tunnel - only the flickering light from the tube that the whole society is mesmerized by."
Abstract This paper explains that, in the book "Cradle of Violence", Murray Strauss exposes child abuse in the home, which is evident in society today. The author points out that Strauss suggests that children who are abused by family members have a higher probability of becoming violent offenders and abusers themselves. The paper relates statistical research supports his arguments.
From the Paper "Watching the news on television provides a glimpse into contemporary local and world affairs. It has become apparent that regardless of the time of day reports on violent crimes can be found when flipping from station to station. For some viewers the images are just part of every day life when glued to the tube, playing video games, surfing the net, and/or watching home movies. For others, it is a constant reminder of how dysfunctional and abusive some people really are."
Abstract In this paper, a book report relates the aspects of environmentally conscious ideas about waste and recycling within the 21st century in 'Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things' by William McDonough. The writer discusses that through re-usability and new techniques in recycling, modern industry must reform markets and production methods to help create a far more reusable standard for products to help preserve the ecology of the Earth.
From the Paper "This book report presents the various environmental and ecological issues that arise in Cradle to Cradle By William McDonough. By examining the main theme of 'waste-less' industry in McDonough's book, one can realize the importance of recycling in the manufacturing process. By re-evaluating the "new industrial revolution" that is bound within this book, McDonough makes a compelling case for a new approach to waste and recycling in the 21st century. The integration of environmentally cooperative production in the new millennium is the scope of McDonough's book, as it proclaims a new approach to industry and ecology."
Abstract To understand the point of the humor in "Cat's Cradle" by Kurt Vonnegut, it is necessary to examine the point of the story itself. All of Vonnegut's books touch on broad social issues in a rather cartoonish way that serves a much darker and difficult purpose than what they appear to address. Like Breakfast of Champions, and Hocus Pocus, Cat's Cradle, is a humorous take on the organizations and social structures that the world holds as absolutes with the angle that such things do not exist - all is arbitrary. In this work, we find that there is a brilliant combination of lampoon (in the form of the polarized roles taken by the two friends who created the island nation dictatorial politics and religion, Bokononism; which are intended to oversimplify the arbitrariness of politics and religion) and of black humor (which is clearly marked in the violence, deprivation, and oppression that are used only to perpetrate the lie that is the society). Irony, perhaps, is the constant of every event and passage in this book. It is irony that makes us understand that the humor in the story is a rather caustic, disbelieving, and disenchanting look at our own and every other society.
Abstract This paper examines the novel, "Cat's Cradle", by Kurt Vonnegut, written at the height of the Cold War when most Americans lived in fear of a fiery nuclear apocalypse. Vonnegut presents a different but equally terrifying end, a world encased in ice. It discusses how one of the novel's themes is how human irresponsibility can contribute to this icy end. It examines how Vonnegut uses the major and minor characters in "Cat's Cradle" to reflect on the consequences of human irresponsibility and how, throughout the novel, Vonnegut presents characters whose irresponsibility helps bring much of life on earth to an end.
From the Paper "Despite his small stature, Newt is the most mature and well adjusted of the Hoenikker children. Still, Newt remains focused on the major disappointments of his childhood. The fact that he found neither cat nor cradle in the tangle of strings presented by his father causes Newt to believe in the lack of meaning in all human life. He thus becomes an easy target for the Russian spy Zinka, who pretends to love him in order to get to his share of the ice-nine. At the apocalypse, Newt remains unwilling to confront the horrors of the icy apocalypse that he helped to usher. Instead, he focuses on scavenging for paint, and on turning inward and coping through his art."
Abstract This essay discusses the use of imagery, i.e., the use of words to represent things or ideas by sensory description, and theme in ?Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking.? The main theme of the poem is the concept of unification, division, and re-integration of the physical and the spiritual, as well as of the psyches of human beings.This theme is explored at length in the context of the poem.
From the Paper "Walt Whitman first published his poem "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" under the title "A Word Out of the Sea" in the 1860 edition of his collection Leaves of Grass. It was re-published under its current title in 1871.
"Whitman (1819-92) was one of the first distinctly "American" poets, and his work often revolved around themes of equality, democracy and freedom. In his lifetime, slavery saw its heyday and experienced its abolishment. At the same time, Whitman witnessed a new America emerging, an America which included the frontier West and industrialization."
Abstract This paper expounds on the main theme in "Cat's Cradle" that life is meaningless. The paper discusses Vonnegut's use of images, irony, and eccentric characters to express his theme about the meaningless of life. It also explains how Vonnegut relates this theme to religion, marriage, and almost everything else humans teach each other.
From the Paper "Clearly, Vonnegut is depicting a side of human nature that cannot deal with the truth, so it is fed and willingly believes the lies it is told by the ?religion.? In fact, "Truth was the enemy of the people, because the truth was so terrible, so Bokonon made it his business to provide the people with better and better lies" (172). In addition, to create more "zest" and "tang" within the lives of the people, Bokonon decides to have himself declared an outlaw. He emphasizes his belief that "A really good religion is a form of treason" (173). The legend of a holy man in the jungle and the tyrant in the city was the only thing that made the people happy. (174) Perhaps the most striking example of this theme is the last scene of the book in which Bokonon writes in the final sentence of his book that if he were a younger man, he would "make a statue of himself, lying on my back, grinning horribly, and thumbing my nose at You Know Who" (287). Again, we are shown Vonnegut's opinion regarding the power of religion. Through the willingness of the people to accept Bokonon, Vonnegut is asking us to search our own lives for such blind faith."
This paper critically analyzes George Berkeley's first argument against the existence of matter presented in "A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge."
2,220 words (approx. 8.9 pages), 0 sources, 2002, $ 68.95
Abstract In this paper, the writer critically examines Berkeley's first line of argument against the existence of matter that he presents in "A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge". This argument is frequently called "the Perception Argument" and is his first attempt to more firmly establish his central thesis of existence being tied into perception. The paper thoroughly explains the argument and presents Berkeley's responses to the most immediate objections that come up to it (the objections that are actually addressed in the text of his treatise). The writer also examines briefly how Berkeley's argument serves to contradict arguments regarding material substance made by Locke in "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding". The paper then offers a more robust objection to Berkeley's Perception Argument that attacks some key assumptions that the argument clearly relies on, specifically those regarding relationships between matter and ideas that Berkeley clearly assumes do not exist. The objection is furthered by examining the sections where Berkeley assumes that matter does exist in an attempt to show that such an assumption involves manifest contradictions.
From the Paper " Over the course of reading A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, it becomes evident that Berkeley is not so much trying to convince the reader of a certain opinion of the nature of the world and our perception of it as much as he is trying to present his actual, everyday perception of the world and his existence in it. Berkeley repeatedly says things like, "Some truths there are so near and obvious to the mind, that a man need only open his eyes to see them," (?6) that suggest the intuitive obviousness that he sees in his doctrine. Frequently, a tone of frustration comes through in his writing - especially in the sections dealing with possible objections to his theory (?34-84) - illustrative of the difficulty he must have been feeling in trying to get everyone else to see what was so damn obvious to him. As such, many of Berkeley's arguments in support of his particular fundamental beliefs seem to be afterthoughts of their respective conclusions. His vision of the nature of existence being grounded in "esse is percipi" (?3) is so strong that he does not always seem to be too concerned with the particular logic behind his supporting arguments. This is especially true when it comes to his arguments denying the existence of matter. In this paper, I will argue that, while Berkeley's conclusion regarding the non-existence of matter is quite profound, his actual arguments for this conclusion do not sufficiently verify it. To do this, I will examine the first argument Berkeley makes against the existence of matter, the so-called "Perception Argument." I will argue that this argument relies heavily on a fallacious line of reasoning about the nature of matter and the inability of matter to cause ideas in us. I will then examine several passages in Principles that support the idea that Berkeley's belief that matter does not exist is grounded largely in his - or anyone else's - inability to really define what matter is. "
This paper critiques the design argument based on arguments from William Paley's "The Watch and the Watchmaker" and David Hume's "A Critique of the Design Argument".
Abstract This essay critiques the design argument, as explained in both William Paley's "The Watch and the Watchmaker" and in David Hume's "A Critique of the Design Argument". This paper also explains the features of the design argument and evaluates the argument in order to critique it. The author follows Hume in suggesting that the design argument is ultimately a failure due to the massive egocentricity inherent in assuming that God can be understood through an analogy to the human mind.
From the Paper "The reason I have been rather pedantic in deconstructing Paley's analogy is twofold. Firstly, we have the problem of Darwin's theory of evolution. That is to say, the theory that explains that the mechanism or process that makes things fit is intrinsic to the system of nature itself. If you wish, Darwin's theory of evolution is akin to showing that the watch really does produce the watch and is the only creator thereof. Whether Darwin believed that God made it so or not is irrelevant--the point is that God can be taken out of evolution and the underlying principle of nature shown to be merely survival, and the survival of those traits which help us survive. Naturally, this system creates something which looks like it has been designed--because we have adapted to our environments, not because we have been created alongside our environments as a system always already in perfect harmony. Again, I am not concerned to argue that this is so--but this is merely an instance of the observer coming upon the watch and having no knowledge of the manufacturing processes involved in the production of mechanical objects, assumes that this watch is something which just exists, with no thought or evidence of processes that were involved in making it, because his lack of understanding of the need for those processes means he doesn't recognize them. Paley's argument is that we know something has been designed, because we recognize that the process by which it is constructed is one that requires thought--by I am suggesting that, when it comes to nature, we cannot know what the process is that is required to construct it, and therefore we cannot arrive at any certain deduction as to its having been designed by the method Paley describes. In fact, as I have shown, the only theory that describes the process (of evolution and survival) that creates, or recreates, nature is one that does not need to rely on design--at least not in any sense which we can understand, which brings me to my second criticism of Paley's analogy."
Tags: God, human mind, religion, egocentricity theology
Abstract This paper examines how in the book, "Phaedo", Plato argues that the human being is spiritual and offers a series of arguments that illustrate that human beings are not just material beings, but have a spiritual component in the form of an immortal soul. It looks at how one of the arguments in this work is known as the "recollection argument." The argument is described, then followed with a critical analysis that questions its validity. In conclusion, a new position on the argument is analyzed, which offers a suitable alternative to Plato's theory and illustrates that the "recollection argument" is not valid evidence that there is a soul that exists before birth.
From the Paper "Another problem is that Plato does not provide evidence for the idea of recollection as a whole. For example, Plato says that recollection is recalling something that has been previously known. However, not everything an individual experiences is based on recollection. A person who sees a hat for the first time, may not recall anything based on viewing the hat. Instead, they acquire knowledge from the experience of seeing a hat. Therefore, experiencing something is a means of acquiring knowledge. The problem in Plato's argument is that he does not make a case for why developing values cannot be based on experience. For example, he asserts that individuals are born with a sense of 'absolute beauty' which is used to determine the level of beauty of a scene or an individual."
Abstract This essay will focus on a claim of value within the structure of Annette T. Rottenberg's style of argument with her book entitled "Elements of Argument". By analyzing a claim to value in an objective projected by a business, we can use these arguments to achieve a greater understanding of how a value can be projected onto an item and convincingly revealed. Value can be determined by the way that is presented in Toulmin' system of argumentation through the scope of a business writer like Rottenberg. The essay will cover her methods-via the Toulmin System- and seek to uncover a value claim within its perimeters.
Abstract The writer of this paper shows how Anselm (1033-1109), philosopher, theologian and church leader presented an argument for the existence of God that has been debated by philosophers and academicians for centuries. The paper shows that from the beginning, Anselm's argument has been met with criticism, appreciation and interest by philosophers such as Kant, Descartes and Spinoza. The writer is of the opinion that, after studying the argument, although interesting, it has certain basic flaws, which he attempts to bring out in this paper.
From the Paper "While analyzing Anselm's argument and focusing on its weaknesses, the obvious question arises: Why has the argument fascinated so many philosophers over the years, if it was such a weak argument? The answer probably is that it is difficult to prove Anselm's argument wrong logically. Even Kant's argument that ? existence is not a predicate? has been challenged by others who have argued that there are senses in which existence is a predicate. So the controversy of and fascination with Anselm's argument is far from over and is likely to continue."
Tags: Book, on, Behalf, of, the, Fool, Lost, Island, Proslogium, Gaunilo, Liebniz, RAA
Abstract This paper discusses how a great deal of human communication is in the nature of argumentation and how in this day and age the "speech" that is going on on Web sites is also in the nature of (rhetorical) argument. It examines two different websites that make argumentative claims that the author was inclined to reject to help to determine the strength and persuasiveness of those claims. The first site is the Jeb Bush gubernatorial re-elections site and it evaluates how election sites are in many ways the quintessence of argumentative speech because the stakes are so high and the second site is that of Pepsi site to see if the author could be swayed to drink Pepsi.
From the Paper "In asking what would constitute a good web-based argument for this candidacy, the answer would be one that supplied enough substantive coverage of the governor in a sufficiently balanced way that I would want to vote for him if I lived in Florida. This means that while the rhetoric should be persuasive it should not seem forced ? or so positive that it seems false.
The rhetoric on this site lacks that sense of balance. For example: The homepage of the site has a number of different options, such as "Women for Jeb", "Hispanics for Jeb", "Seniors for Jeb". I find it hard to believe that people actually think of themselves in this way. The Web site's categorization of people into convenient, poll-oriented demographics makes the campaign seem soulless and calculating, surely not the intention of the Bush advisors."
Abstract This paper first outlines Descartes? argument for the existence of God as set forth in Meditation V. The writer then addresses the two most prominent objections to this argument: First, Kant's objection that Descartes' argument is valid but unsound because it contains a false premise, and second, Caterus? objection that the argument is invalid because the conclusion does not logically follow the premises.
From the Paper "Having established that clear and distinct perceptions are true, Descartes then asserts that he has a clear and distinct perception of God. ?Clearly the idea of God, that is, the idea of a supremely perfect being, is one I discover to be no less within me than the idea of any figure or number.? (M., 368) Additionally, this perception of God includes the concept of existence. ?It is obvious to anyone who pays close attention that existence can no more be separated from God's essence than [a triangle] having three angles equal to two right angles, or that the idea of a valley can be separated from the idea of a mountain.? (M., 369) Descartes then combines this concept with his first premise to complete the argument. Since clear and distinct perceptions about the nature of a thing are true, and the idea of existence is inextricably linked with the idea of a God, Descartes concludes that a God must therefore exist."
