Transcript What is real? - Ms. Tanier's English

What is real?
A philosophical overview
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A man that is born
falls into a dream like
a man who falls into
the sea.
Joseph Conrad,
We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep…
William Shakespeare, The Tempest
Philosophy
The study of what reality is
When it is dark enough, you can
see the stars
The six branches of philosophy
Metaphysics- study of the reality of the
mind, spaces, time, free will and God
Epistemology- study of knowledge
Ethics – study of right and wrong
Aesthetics- the study of beauty
Logic – study of reason
Political – study of society
When patterns are broken, new
worlds emerge
The Big Problem About
Knowing What Is Real
As told by Plato and Descartes
Plato’s analogy of the cave
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It is a story showing how true reality is not
always what it seems to be on the surface.
It is a story of open-mindedness and the
power of possibility.
Descartes’ Meditations on the First
Philosophy
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The dream argument
The deceiving God argument
The evil demon argument
The Dream Argument
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I often have perceptions very much like the ones
I usually have in sensation while I am dreaming.
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There are no definite signs to distinguish dream
experience from waking experience.
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therefore,
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It is possible that I am dreaming right now and
that all of my perceptions are false.
The Deceiving God Argument
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We believe that there is an all powerful God who
has created us and who is all powerful.
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He has it in his power to make us be deceived
even about matters of mathematical knowledge
which we seem to see clearly.
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therefore,
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It is possible that we are deceived even in our
mathematical knowledge of the basic structure
of the world.
The evil demon argument
Instead of assuming that God is the
source of our deceptions, we will assume
that there exists an evil demon, who is
capable of deceiving us in the same way
we supposed God to be able.
 Therefore, I have reason to doubt the
totality of what my senses tell me.
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Since the source of our knowledge cannot
lie in the senses, Descartes must find a way
to rebuild the edifice of knowledge upon
material he can find within the contents of
his own mind. The first thing he can be sure
of on the basis of this alone is his own
existence
The only thing Descartes can know is I think
therefore I am.
The isms of the field
Stoicism – live a life of self-control,
detachment, and acceptance of fate
 Cynicism – question and distrust the
values and attitudes of society
 Thomism (Sir Thomas Aquinas) – faith
gives the answers to questions of
importance and philosophy explains
where it can
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Simma Theologica (cornerstone of Catholic theology)
When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live
your life so that when you die, the world cries and you
rejoice. Cherokee Expression
Ism continued
Epicureanism – pleasure is the point- but
simple pleasures in moderation are
best
 Existentialism – no givens in the world but
what each person creates for himself
 Relativism – no universal standards. Each
person has his own standards and they
are all correct

I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the
world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to
plan the day. ~Elwyn Brooks White
Isms continued
Rationalism- knowledge is obtained by
reason not faith
 Pragmatism – something that is true is
something that works. Do what is best
for the most people
 Nihilism – nothing is meaningful. There is
no point

Life is the hyphen between matter and
spirit. ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth
Ism that lead to Literary Theories
Marxism- conflict between the classes will only be
solved when the working class gains control of
the means of production.
“ each according to his ability, to
each according to his needs”
Feminism – looks at the world to prove the
suppression of women and advocates women’s
issues
As we struggle to make sense of things, life
looks on in repose. ~Author Unknown
Isms that became literary theories
Deconstructionism – meaning in never static. You
can find metaphors, wordplays, and marginal
comments that suggest a meaning different from
what the author intends.
Postmodernism – No theory can tell the whole
story. All knowledge is gained piecemeal from
different sources. No one can see the big picture
the value of “real” is called into questions.