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Languages, reason and metaphysics

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Languages

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Human language

• Using words is different from the communication of other species in the wild.

• Humans have two sorts of communication– Body language, like all other species. Emotional

responses, which we don’t have much control over.

– The human language with words. Symbols with a certain meaning, which refer to something in the world we share with other humans. Grouped words makes statements.

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What do words mean?

• A dog – all dogs– A particular dog – the idea of a dog

• Is the idea inside or outside your mind?

• The meaning of words is hard to pin down.

• The meaning of words is something of a mystery.

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Meaning - agreement

• Language is like a game with rules which you generally have to follow.

• The meaning of a word is based on a social agreement. This agreement exists before the individual.

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What do sentences mean?

• By constructing sentences the rules of language come into play.

• A meaning of a sentence can not be reduced to the particular words it consists of. The construction of a sentence has a goal to express a true statement of the “real world”.

• The meaning of a sentence usually depends on the context. The context may be social, or it may be other sentences.

• Much of what is said and written assumes a certain knowledge in the listener/reader. If this assumption is wrong, the meaning may be lost or distorted.

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Thoughts and words

• When I say something my brain is sending the message to the mouth.– Brain produces language.

• Are thoughts words?• How do “I” think?• Am “I” then talking to itself?• Can I think without a language? • Consciousness !!!?? Language

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Language and knowledge

• When a child learns a language, he/she learns how the world is constructed - in a sociocultural context.

• Knowledge is embedded in language.

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Reason and logic

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Reason• “Reason” for the purposes of this unit encompasses the

following terms:– Logical rigor, critical thinking, logic, deductive logic,

deduction and induction.• Together with sense perception, emotion and language,

reason is a fundamental tool that enables us, knowers, to construct a knowledge base we can share with each other.

• Historically: – Reason became valuable as a way to rebel against authority.

• Types of propositions:– Analytic, empirical, value judgment, metaphysical– (Truth tests: analytic proposition = coherence truth test,

empirical proposition = correspondence truth test)

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Important definitions and distinctions

• “True” versus “valid”.A proposition is true or false (=truth test).An argument is valid or invalid.

• Argument: – A series of premises followed by conclusion.

• Syllogism:– A deductive argument.

• Fallacy:– An invalid argument, i.e. an argument in which the

conclusion does not logically follow from the premises.

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Deductive versus inductive reasoning

• Deduction begins with a general statement (All, Non, Some...) and reaches a conclusion about a particular case (Bill, the cat...)All people have ten fingersBill is a person..Bill has ten fingers

This is an example of valid deductive syllogism. All arguments of the form:

All P is QP___________..Q are valid, no matter what P and Q stand for.

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“Induction”

• Induction begins with observations of particular instances and arrives at a general conclusion:My grand parents, my parents, my siblings have ten fingersAll people I know have ten fingersAll people my friends know have ten fingers(X number of further observations required here:" Inductive leap”) ..All people have ten fingers

It suffices that one counter-example be found to counter zillion observations.

• The empirical propositions used as premises in a deductive argument must be arrived at inductively.

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Informal logic

• does not demand that the reasoning be laid in any particular form, but in every speech and every text there is logic, otherwise it would be nonsense. But there are many errors made in logical thinking, sometimes by purpose and sometimes not.

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Metaphysics

The branch of philosophy that deals with the basic questions about reality.

Examples:

Determinism versus indeterminism

Materialism versus idealism

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Determinism-> causal principle• Everything that happens is determined by prior causes.

• Every event is the necessary result of the chain of causes leading up to it, chain that runs infinitely into the past.

• The state of the universe at any particular moment could not be otherwise

• From a given state of the universe there can only be one possible future.

• All future states of the universe are – in principle – completely predictable.

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Science and determinism

• The mechanistic deterministic view of the world has been a basic presupposition of modern science over the past four centuries.

• Most of the progress of science over that time is based on the principle that the universe is a system of objects moving and interacting according to fixed natural laws.

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The practice of science?

• To find “the natural laws” and “puzzle” the entire reality with explanations according to the natural laws

• A scientific theory’s ability to predict an outcome of an experiment has been a crucial moment for it’s scientific value.

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Quantum mechanics denies determinism!

• A crucial part of quantum mechanics is the indeterminacy principle:– The behavior of individual electrons in certain

circumstances are not causally determined and therefore impossible to predict.

– We can predict that a certain part of a bounce of electrons in a given situation will behave in a certain way but we cannot be sure how any particular electron will behave.

• The indeterminacy, is not a matter of our own uncertainty; it inheres in nature.

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Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr

• Albert said to Niels:

‘God does not play dice’

• Niels reply: ‘Albert stop telling God what to do!’

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Chaos theory

• There are some systems and subsystems that are so complex, and in which small variations in initial conditions can lead to such massively different outcomes, that accurate predictions are impossible.

• Chaos theory is compatible with both determinism an indeterminism.

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Freedom versus determinism

• Common sense tells us that we have

• free will.

• Classical sciences view of the world and the success of the sciences provide good reason for accepting determinism.

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Free will

• Practical freedom– Is to do what one wishes, to realize one’s

desires.

• Metaphysical freedom– Freedom of the will– Means being ultimately responsible for one’s

choices

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Determinism is true, freedom is an illusion

• Hard determinism:– The “free” choices of human individuals are

like anything else in the universe subject to the causality law

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Defending free will

• By intuition– I feel that I am making free choices, choosing between

Coke or Pepsi, coffee or tea.

– A very persuasive argument but simple and not very convincing after a closer look.

• Moral institutions rest on the assumption that we are free.– If we are not acting freely no one is truly responsible

for any of their actions. Not very convincing either.

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Attack on determinism’s own internal coherence

• Determinism seems to undermine a basic presupposition of rational discussion, because their conclusion is only the predetermined outcome of a long causal chain.

• Ideally, at least we ought to arrive at our theoretical beliefs solely on the basis of evidence and argumentation.

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Soft determinism

• Hobbs, Lock and Hume accept Practical freedom as a notion of free will.

• They are criticized for superficial plausibility

• With closer look they still end up with hard determinism.

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Indeterminism?

• How is free will possible?• Volition= an act of will which is free of

being caused, is not an effect of anything; just occurs.

• If it just happens then you do not govern it!• The quantum mechanics model?• Some mental event which is nonmaterial,

free from physical laws (soul)?

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Indeterminism versus determinism!

• Is there a free will or is it not?

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Idealism versus materialism

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Some examples of materialism from history of philosophy

• Thales 585 B.C., the first of philosophers:– A uniform reality underlies the many ways things appear to us,

that reality is water

• Democritos 420 B.C. suggested atoms• Empedocles 500-430 B.C..

– Earth, water, air and fire

• Physicalism, the modern atomic theory– Different elements are composed of the same stuff:

• Electrons, neutrons, protons and so on.

– The word physicalism is supposed to cover the relativity theory of matter and energy are interchangeable as a version of materialism.

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Materia – Consciousness

• Materialism-determinism-free will is an illusion• Materialism in metaphysics is

– The reality is essentially material

– All explanations must ultimately be descriptions of material entities and processes.

• Where does consciousness come in?

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Materialism versus idealism• Which is more prior or basic the physical or the

mental?• Physicalism views the physical as primary.

– Matter is prior to minds– Matter is more fundamental than minds– Matter existed before minds - temporal priority

• Idealism is the opposite view that gives priority to the mind.– Christian tradition - god is a pure spirit

• Creation - soul ...

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Idealism• Religious -

• Naive -

• Modern - Immanuel Kant 1724-1804:– Transcendental idealism

• The world we inhabit and science describes has the character it does, because it is known by us.

• Mind does not create the world but it does shape it at a very deep level...

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“Things in them selves” according to Kant

• The world as it appears to us is not reality as it is in itself.

• The world in itself is the source of our experience.• The things in themselves are not objects for

experience.• Our experience provides the ‘content’ of our

sense-perceptions, which our mind renders intelligible through the imposition of form.