Gassendis Objection To Descartes Argument

Gassendis Objection To Descartes Argument Gassendis objections to Descartes ontological argument for the existence of God are based, as many philosophical arguments are, on minor details within the Meditations. The objections for our purposes should be constrained to the first and second Meditations, as it is those that are most concerned with arguing for Gods existence. Gassendis objections are not quite enough to be considered strong enough to refute the argument laid out with care by Descartes. By identifying what the specific objections are and then comparing them to the arguments made by Descartes in terms of reason, blind faith and even simple assumption, we can determine that Descartes original arguments for the existence of God are stronger than Gassendis objections to them. In the first Meditation, Descartes argues that he knows he is alert and thinking because if not, that would prove the existence of a deceiving God and, since God does not deceive (by definition), would not lie to him about being alert and awake. Gassendis objection to this is that rather than assuming everything he has learned from birth is a suspect, Descartes should assume that everything he has learned from birth is believable and rule out things as they are disproven, not as they are proven, so as not to need to thinking of God as deceiving or to believe in an evil Spirit that deceives man. There are two problems that indicate that Gassendis argument is more powerful. One is that since Descartes cannot disprove God, he cannot prove him either, and the other is that Gassendi is correct, logically, in choosing to see something/someone who created all life in the best possible light first without automatically believing the worst. Specifically, Gassendi states that wouldnt it have b een more in accord with philosophical openness and the love of truth simply to state the facts candidly and straightforwardly? In the second Meditation, Descartes has argued that we should believe nothing until there has been some indication that it is true and exists by God. Without this indication, it may very well not exist whatsoever. He states that this holds even for the truths of faith: we shouldnt decide to believe them until we have perceived some convincing reason for thinking that they have indeed been revealed by God. Gassendis objection to this argument for the existence of God, that we would believe nothing if we did not believe it came from God himself, is that he believes he is thinking and alert, that his existence is made up of a Mind (at this point), so therefore he must believe that without having credible proof that God gave him that thinking. Thomas Aquinas gives us five ways to determine whether there is a God. The fourth way, the gradation of being argument, is paraphrased as follows. In order to call something hotter, one must understand what the hottest thing can possibly be. In the instance of genus of animals, the original of the genus is the uttermost or cause of all that genus and is therefore the ideal of it. Therefore man must be less than his original creator, or the ideal of the genus, which is assumed to be God, the perfect being, in whose image we are made. Objections to this argument can vary. One of the more obvious ones is that Darwin and, consequently, hundreds of other scientists have determined that with the survival of the fittest and evolutionary theories, the original of a genus is not the ideal. In fact, the original is soon replaced with an evolutionary improvement and soon dies out because of this competition. Using Aquinas reasoning with these facts in mind, the original and creator of the human genus is dead and sub-par, lesser than the man of today rather than the ultimate man. This is, in fact, an anti-God line of reasoning with this added knowledge. The fifth of these ways is the intelligence, design argument. In this argument, to paraphrase, bodies work toward a goal that we do not understand, and most natural things lack knowledge. In the case of an arrow, for instance, the direction of the arrow is being directed by intelligence in the form of the archer. Therefore so too humans are directed to the goal our natural bodies are working toward by a being we call God. Though this argument is one of the more popular arguments for the existence of God, Aquinas has inadvertently made a mistake in his reasoning. He claims that natural beings do not hold knowledge of their own. However, he gives humans intelligence in his example with the arrow if an archer is intelligent he can direct an arrow to hit a target. Why, then, does the archer not possess the intelligence Aquinas says is given him by God to find his own goal, his own target, so to speak. The issue lies in the claim of intelligence. Most natural things do not possess knowledge, including humans. However humans are the intelligence it takes to direct an arrow and simultaneously lacking the intelligence needed to reach the humans target, which according to Aquinas can only be accomplished by another intelligent being assumed to be God. The objection that can be raised is that either humans are or are not, as natural beings, intelligent beings. If we are intelligent beings, we can find our own path to our target without the guiding force that is assumed to be God. If we are not intelligent beings, we are not knowledgeable enough to direct an arrow to its target. With either option the argument for design in the five arguments for the existence of God by Aquinas falls apart with little picking at the seams. In conclusion, Descartes arguments for the existence of God are not better than Gassendis objections to them, but in fact neither one has good enough arguments to be called strong. Aquinas is hardly different, having dissected two of his five arguments for the existence of God with formidable objections and different lines of reasoning.

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Race and Racism   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Race and racism have been around since mankind made its first steps on the planet and it has brought upon violence, submissiveness, cruelty, and sexism into the world. A great representation of these themes and issues was brought by LeRoi Jones, who wrote â€Å"The Dutchman†. The play itself is a great representation of the relationships of races in America during the 60’s and can even been connected to today’s society. The Dutchman mainly focuses on the black-white relationship but can also be drawn to other cultures and races. I, myself, can also relate to what LeRoi Jones wrote in one way or another. Being a different culture and not being accepted was the first faà §ade of America that I got to experience and even though things have changed for me, I do have resentful feelings because some things just do not seem to change. LeRoi Jones made that clear because he wrote a play that can be related to events that are still happening today.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Dutchman is a fast paced play that makes an amazing transition from scene one to scene two. After doing some reading online, it has been said that the play actually resembles the version of the Adam and Eve story, where a white, insane, smart, and seducing woman prepares to kill a naà ¯ve black man. Clay and Lula are the main characters on the train and they engage in an intriguing and mind twisting display of word play. The play wants to steer the audience into a revolutionary thought process by proposing the idea of not being afraid, oppressed, and fighting back. The audience or readers feel stupid through the first act because Lula plays mind games and tries to bait Clay. LeRoi Jones did this on purpose because he wanted the audience to feel suspicious and stupid. He succeeds in this because Lula throws so much at the reader in act one that it’s almost impossible to even comprehend what she is saying. Clay is a twenty-year-old black man. Clay is a typical bourgeois black male and he seems to be very predictable that Lola is actually able to tell his history just by the way he acts and dresses. Clay is at first attracted to Lula who begins to flirt with him and invites herself to the party. But Clay is rather shocked by Lula because she is violent and racist. Even as she is behaving like that, he tries to keep his composure and maintain a certain ... ...se this play to educate others just by having someone else read this. I read this and did not understand the meaning first but this does apply to today’s society. LeRoi Jones wants underrepresented groups to be heard, especially when being pressured to conform or change by the dominant culture. I think America is great. It has given me an opportunity to start a new life after leaving the war in Bosnia. I did not know of many things that have happened here. The irony of it all is the cornerstone of the American history is freedom and equality. Yet, it’s so hard to think of everyone as equals. I just have a hard time grasping why things can not change. I come from Europe and things there are different. Yes, there is a lot of fighting, especially in my area of the world, but people appreciate each other more than they do here in America. It will be a long time before America changes but its going to be a long journey simply because there are still ignorant people out there who will pass that ignorance on to their future generations. In my opinion, America should not be called a nation yet because it’s not even united on a level that is more important than anything else in the world.

Overpopulation destroying the environment Essay

â€Å"The destruction of the natural world we see across the globe today is ‘fallout’ from the human population explosion that has occurred over the course of the last 50 years. The world is at a critical juncture. While birth rates have fallen in many countries and regions, demographic momentum means we are now adding a record number of people to the world’s population every year. At current birth rates the population of the world will double in the next 50 years. If that happens, countless creatures already pushed to the edge, may pass into extinction. † The new century is marked by alarming environmental threats such water shortages, soil exhaustion, loss of forests, air and water pollution in many parts of the world. The challenge to developed countries is to raise the people’s standard of living without sacrificing the environment. Most developed economies currently consume resources much faster than they can regenerate. This is caused by rapid population growth. The bigger the population is, the bigger the demand for food and water. It was also noted that the more populous the place is, the more waste is produced. The exponential growth in the earth’s population as well as the associated developments resulted in the overcrowding of vulnerable areas thus the occurrence of extreme natural disasters. In many countries the number of births is more than the number of deaths causing overpopulation. Environment is getting worse in the last decade over 12 million people each year were killed due to unclean water and nearly 3 million were killed due to air pollution. Heavy metals and other contaminants also cause widespread health problems. According to studies conducted by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the food supplies produced are no longer enough to meet the need in 64 countries. Population pressures have degraded some 2 billion hectares of arable land — an area the size of Canada and the U. S. The supply of freshwater is finite, but demand is soaring as population grows. By 2025, when world population is projected to be 8 billion, 48 countries containing 3 billion people will face shortages. Currently, 434 million people face either water stress or scarcity. Depending on future rates of population growth, between 2. 6 billion and 3. billion people may be living in either water-scarce or water-stressed conditions by 2025. For tens of millions of people in the Middle East and in much of Africa today, the lack of available fresh water is a chronic concern that is growing more acute and more widespread. The problem is worse than it often appears on the ground, because much of the fresh water now used in water-scarce regions comes from deep aquifers that are not being refreshed by the natural water cycle. In most of the countries where water shortage is severe and worsening, high rates of population growth exacerbate the declining availability of renewable fresh water. While 25 countries currently experience either water stress or scarcity, between 36 and 40 countries are projected to face similar conditions by 2025 Ocean fisheries are being overexploited, and fish catches are down due to high population densities and urban development. Nearly half of the world’s original forest cover has been lost, and each year another 16 million hectares are cut, bulldozed, or burned. Forests provide over US$400 billion to the world economy annually and are vital to maintaining healthy ecosystems. Yet, current demand for forest products may exceed the limit of sustainable consumption by 25%. Human activities are pushing many thousands of plant and animal species into extinction. Two of every three species is estimated to be in decline. The earth’s surface is warming due to greenhouse gas emissions, largely from burning fossil fuels. If the global temperature rises as projected, sea levels would rise by several meters, causing widespread flooding as seen in the last few years in different parts of the world especially Asia. Global warming also could cause droughts and disrupt agriculture. How people preserve or abuse the environment could largely determine whether living standards improve or deteriorate. Growing human numbers, urban expansion, and resource exploitation do not bode well for the future. Without practicing sustainable development, humanity faces a deteriorating environment and may even invite ecological disaster. Many steps toward sustainability can be taken today. These include: using energy more efficiently, managing cities better, phasing out subsidies that encourage waste but the best way to sustainability is to stabilize the population. Environmentalists and economists increasingly agree that efforts to protect the environment and to achieve better living standards can be closely linked and are mutually reinforcing. Slowing the increase in population, especially in the face of rising per capita demand for natural resources, can take pressure off the environment and buy time to improve living standards on a sustainable basis. Changes in population size, age, and distribution affect issues ranging from food security to climate change. Population variables interact with consumption patterns, technologies, and political and economic structures to influence environmental change. This interaction helps explain why environmental conditions can deteriorate even as the growth of population slows. Despite slowing growth, world population still gains nearly 80 million people each year, parceling land, fresh water, and other finite resources among more people. A new Germany is added annually, a new Los Angeles monthly. How this increase in population size affects specific environmental problems is impossible to say precisely. Too many factors interact, and much depends on the time frame under consideration. Obviously, trends such as the loss of half of the planet’s forests, the depletion of most of its major fisheries, and the alteration of its atmosphere and climate are closely related to the fact that human population expanded from mere millions in prehistoric times to nearly 6 billion today. There is an urgent call today to stabilize population in order to make sure that the generation after us will have enough to sustain them. We need to do everything in our power to conserve energy and resources. Overpopulation has a tremendous environmental impact caused by high consumption levels, environmental destruction, and poverty.

Breast Cancer on the Cellular Level Essay examples

Breast Cancer at the Cellular Level There are many different diseases that terrorize the human race every day. Of all of these sicknesses, one of the most devastating is breast cancer. Breast cancer touches all types of people all over the world each day. It is actually the second most common cancer amongst women in the United States. One in every eight women in the United States has some form of breast cancer and currently, the death rates are higher than any other cancer with the exception of lung cancer. Cancer is defined by the Merriam-Webster Online dictionary as â€Å"a malignant tumor of potentially unlimited growth that expands locally by invasion and systemically by metastasis.† Therefore, breast cancer is a disease of†¦show more content†¦When a tumor suppressor gene is effected by a mutation, it loses its control over the cell and the cell does not stop to get inspected. When this happens, the mutation is copied, the cell divides and damage is passed down to the newly formed daughter cells. The mutation then becomes permanent and the now mutated cell will continue to divide and proliferate when it normally would not. Another factor that contributes to the development of breast cancer is actually the hormone estrogen. This seems unusual because estrogen is a hormone that is essential to the bodies of women in various ways. Estrogen is necessary for normal growth and development of breasts and reproductive organs, as well as for the maintenance of a healthy heart and bones. However, lifetime estrogen exposure may increase a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer. It does not actually produce the mutation in the DNA, nevertheless Estrogen stimulates the proliferation of breast cells that already contain a mutation. These mutated cells will continue to reproduce and have an increased chance of becoming cancerous. 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