Author: Evan Lester
Group Members: Yusra M., Erin P., Larissa W., Keaton D., and Evan L.
In today's discussion of skepticism, we talked about whether we really know things happen to us or is it a dream? Should we be skeptical of that? Well, Keaton Davis in our group said, "Things in my life have been consistent. Therefore, I know I am not hallucinating." Also, there was a discussion about how we know certain things are true and real. It is concrete and very visible. There is no reason to be skeptical about the things we know for sure are there.
I then brought up a quick discussion on whether we use our senses or our previous knowledge to determine what is actually there or not. We quickly made the conclusion that we use both.
Nate, a floater from another group, came and asked, "How skeptical are we?" I responded with, "I think that we are skeptical because we have a perceived notion of what is right and wrong. Therefore, when we see something we do not like or hear something is not true, then we are skeptical about it."
Keaton brought up another good point about how being a skeptic and being skeptical have two different ideas/motives behind each one of them. (I will allow Keaton to expand on this under the comments of the blog).
Then, we discussed with another floater, Kailey McDonald, what we all thought about being a skeptic and what that would mean to us. Kailey said, "It is a crappy way to live." Some other members of the groups said that some people are skeptics in order to argue and be a troublemaker. Also, some people are skeptics in order to deny reality.
DQ: Do you think time is important in our lives (e.g., the amount of time a person has been in a job, etc.) Do you think time is accurately measured?
FQ: Q: Who said, "But as used by philosophers talking about time, it doesn't refer to the form of verbs, but to what those verbs are used to discuss: namely past, present, and future as different regions of time."?
A: Hugh Mellor
Link: http://skeptoid.com/skeptic.php
This is an article I found that told a more in-depth definition and meaning to what skepticism is. It is not long, but I think it would be good to read!
Very nice summary Evan! Today’s topic was a bit difficult to carry on. Skepticism is a way many of the philosophers we have read about have identified themselves as. I felt like Stroud was a modernized skeptic, as opposed to the old world, global skeptics as Dr. Oliver said. Centuries ago, when people identified themselves as skeptics, it pretty much guaranteed that they had a “doubt everything, how do you know that wall is really there?” kinda attitude. Skeptics today are more along the lines of thinking things like “Do we know what we really know?” a topic he also discussed dreaming, and I thought that the way he mentioned that in a dream you need something, an indicator, that helps you differentiate between reality and dreaming, was very reminiscent of the movie Inception. He also mentioned something about how one way we know how we are dreaming is that we can see a little red dot in the lower right hand corner. I sure don’t! Perhaps this is some placebo effect he’s observed when someone else told him about it, and he began to observe it…
ReplyDeleteDQ: Do YOU see a little red dot when you dream? (more of a curious question..)
Awesome post, Evan!
ReplyDeleteI look at being skeptical as to mistrust or at least be wary of another person's claims of truth. Being skeptical is helpful, because it prevents us from falling into traps or causing others and ourselves harm. When we get a call from someone telling us we just won a free cruise to Mars, our natural inclination is not to pack our bags and find a space suit but to hang up. I do think it is possible to be too skeptical though. We do not need to look at the world and automatically distrust every idea that is brought up to us (which is very easy to do). I think it is good to trust people, but we do need to use our brains! Being skeptical prompts us to search for the truth and makes it easier for us to spot fishy ideas.
Being a skeptic is when you doubt even your own ideas, which, to me, is just intellectual laziness. It's as if the philosopher gave up and did not want to think anymore.
I think modern skepticism is bit more like just being skeptical and less like being a skeptic of the past. I see the value in being skeptical, but I do not think we should overuse it; that would make life less enjoyable and would probably make us more paranoid.
To answer Yusra's DQ:
No, I do not see a red dot in my dreams or in real life, so the only possible conclusion is that I'm in a dream within a dream within a dream while on a cruise to Mars.
DQ: Do you think we should be more or less skeptical in our everyday lives?
FQ: Does Hugh Mellor think we should express time as "past, present, and future," or as "earlier and later"?
FA: "earlier and later"
I know this video probably applies more to the Relativistic point of view, but I'm pretty sure a Skeptic would not approve of some of the philosophies presented in this great video. While a lot of these philosophies sound attractive, I'm not sure how popular you would be if you adopted a lot of these. Take a couple minutes and watch this video!
DeleteKristin Chenoweth sings "My New Philosophy" from You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zo1rgVdet0
Another thing we talked about was dreams. How can you be certain that reality isn’t a dream? Dr. Oliver told us the statistic that 1 in 10 people who think they are awake are actually sleeping. I found this kind of interesting. It got me thinking about how sometimes you zone out in class, and while you aren’t sleeping, you aren’t really aware of your surroundings either. Would that count as sleeping? I guess it depends on the definition that you use. Scientifically, maybe your brain is in the same state, but you aren’t asleep with your eyes shut. I guess the whole thing is what is dreaming? In class, we looked up how you know when you are dreaming. One of the signs is that what you “see” is fuzzy. Maybe this is just me, but sometimes when I zone out, I don’t think what I’m seeing is necessarily crisp. When you’re daydreaming, you think you’re awake and you know your surroundings, but you really aren’t aware. I guess this is the perspective skeptics come from. However, when you sleep, you wake up. There isn’t anything that pulls us out of reality. Some things are how they are and you don’t need an explanation.
ReplyDeleteFQ: What does Hugh Mellor believe is built into time?
A: The difference between earlier and later, but not tense.
The topic of skepticism was pretty hard to expand on but I find it interesting to hear people's views about it. I agree with Keaton. I think it is healthy to be somewhere in the middle between being completely skeptical and then on the other hand, believing everything that crosses your path. I believe it is important to put thought into something before believing it to be true. But on the other hand, over thinking it isn't the greatest idea either. Some things we are never going to know for sure but to live with absolutely no personal idea or belief as truth is extremely sad! I can't imagine living my life as an extreme skeptic and doubting everything. I don't really see the negative in completely believing something to be true. Even if it turns out to be wrong, your life has more meaning if there is truth, or at least a pursuit to find it.
ReplyDeleteDreams are fascinating to me! Even though I never remember mine. :( Hmm...maybe that means my whole life is a dream and I haven't woken up yet. I don't really see the point of worrying about if you're in a dream or reality. I think it's important to just embrace your experiences. In my opinion, being super skeptical just lowers your quality of life.
And Yusra, I don't think he was saying you know you're dreaming if you see a red dot in the corner. He was using it as an example to prove that when people say "you know you're awake and in reality if you see this" (like when you look at those crazy black and white eye trick pictures and you're supposed to see a red dot or whatever). But he's saying why can't you dream that red dot or whatever it is that people are saying "you know you're not dreaming if you see this." I think he was basically saying there's not really a way to 100% tell if you're dreaming or not.
FQ: According to Hugh Mellor, tense is a relation between what two things?
Person and an event
DQ: What is your own personal definition of time?