Philosophy 2

Metaphysics def

Comes from Greek words meta (after) and physics (nature)

A branch of philosophy that feals with the nature of reality

Questions asked in metaphysics

Sapcetime

• What is the nature of the universe

• What was rhe Big Bang like

Human existence

• what does it mean to be human

• what does it mean to be a perso

Tech and intelligence

• what does it mean to be sentient

• can AI ever become sentient

Abstract

• what is love

• what is art

Note: cant be yes or no answers

Idealism

• The velief that all of reality is deoendent and indistinguishable from the mjnd- eg. If a tree falls in the woods and no1 hears ut dods it even exist?- does smth exist if no one is there to interpret it

• Yhey nrleigr that reality is fubdamentally mental consicous ornspiritual rahter than ohsyival- literally the opposite of materialism

• Egm emabrrassemtn- the embarrassemnet u feel isnonly the feeling of perceiving other ppl judging unfor that rmbarrassing moment- What u epfceive is all that the world is

Realism/Platonic realism

• The idea that ideal forms of abstract concelts exidt- love friendship happiness etc.

• There mught be debate in what it is hut it has n ideal form of existence

• This idea is more pipularly explored in Platos forms

Platos forms

• Platonic realism- when u try to get to the corenof what somethjng is

Mechanical materialmis

• The belief that only material things are real- rejects the ifea that anything exists ohtside of the material world- egm souls

• Beleive that all pther thigns- eg. Consciousness- are striclty result of the itnercations of obysical matter

• Also invldues thjngs that can be ifnerred forn physical matter like dark matrer

• Question ecidtenc eofnlife after death cause ur material body is gone

• Believe yhat ojsyicak trits play a muhc alrger role in rblvids that kost of us would like to admit

• Inconaptible with most eeligions hecause it dnies the xistence of thjngs that arent material

Monoism

• The beleif ghat reality consists of oneall encompassing thing and that all particular things are manifestations or expressiong of thus one tuing

• Eg. Are we all expressiins of or part of God? The big bang?

Dualism

• The belief that reality dcisfs of two fundamentally diff things- min and matter

• Mental or emotional states have no material quality theefore they are a separte category

Homorphism

• Matter cant existt without form and vice verse

• Forms allows matter to carry out its intended function

• Egm humans physical body- the form is the soul while the matter is our ohysical bofies- the functikn our form gives us i the ability to exist and do things

Naturalism

• The view that only natural laws and forces exist- rejects the supernatural

• Phsyicak unvierse is thenonly relaity and truths xan be found ib nature- rejects existence of the soul

• Supports atheism cause they dont beleive in ould and things that dont exist in the ohsyical world

Supernaturalism

• The udsa that there r entities events or poweds beyond that of the natural world that lacksicentific explanations behind them- oppostie eof naturalism

• Thjgns beyond the ohsyical world that cant be explained do exist

• Supports relgios miracles, beleicing in ghe afterlife, etc.

Unified reality theory

• all reality evvolcds feom one absolute exidtenfe and this absolute exisrence msut have cosbcousness as an attirbute ghat is intrinsic to irs being- we are a part of ghe cobsciosuness of the absolute existence

• Gifes an explanation to why God exists Nd beleove in it

• Views rpilems as deedback or mrirods form the broader cosncousbfield inaprificpate in

• View others with empathy ebcause theyre mad eif the same consiocusness as u

The dream argument

• Made by rene descartes

• Argues that dremas are too easily confusedbwith reality

PRemise: dreams can often be confused with waking lfie

Premise: dreams and waking kfie xan be somilar in termsnof content (peopel, places, etc)

Conclusion: there are no certain marks eith which to disntirnguish dreams form reality

Example:

• When ur asake u can acknolwdge the difference between dreams and being awake. Howevrr when ur asleep, u cant confirm or ackmowledge the possibility that u sre dreakin, and can falsely believe thatbu are awake

Playos cabe allegory

• A thought experiment abt reality

PRemise: if u wre trapped in.a cabe for your entire life and could only see silhouettes of objects, animals, and people, on a walll you view those silhouettes as bring real and thats the extent of their existence

Premise: if u wre Ble to leave the cave and see the real objects that freated the silhouetred, u would gain a grstsr udnerstandjng of reality. If u returned and toldnothers in the cave whatbu saw-, theg rpisb would believe u

Conclusion: our udnerstanding of reality isnlimited to our experiences and ability to comprehend

Brain in a vat

• The ifea that u may be connected to a conputef and be living thru a simulation

• Suppsoe a mad wcienots or alien researchers havr ur brain plugged into a conputer for research purposes

• An extension of rene descartes demon theory where he imagines a demin of utnost power and cunning had employed all hsi energies innpreer to deceive u

Premise: itbwould be impsobvile to provoke that u are not a brain in a vat or remove urself form the simulation

Premise: you would only be experiencing the sinulation qnd rhergire not know anythibg abt the rela world

Conclusin: itnisnimpsosbilr to jneo for certain tuag j are experiencing the real world

• Exanple- idea comes up in pop xulture a lot- egm the matrix

Simulation argument

• The Computer Simulation Theory was popularized by Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom

• Bostron made a compelling argument that we are all likely living in a computer simulation

Premise 1: It is possible to simulate consciousness

Premise 2: Technology will continue to progress

Premise 3: Advanced civilizations don’t destroy themselves

Premise 4: Advanced civilizations want to run simulations

Conclusion: If the above premises are true, you are probably inside a simulation

Inception connection to metaphiscs

• Discusess the Dream Arugment becuase it plays with the fatc that we dont know if were truly dreaming or not

Ship of Theseus (thought experiment)

• An ancient thought experiment concerning the nature of identity

• The concept has been philosophized by Ancient Greek philosophers Heraclitus and Plato, and English philosophers Thomas Hobbes and John Locke

• Imagine that Theseus, from Greek mythology, had a ship that he used to travel to his various adventures. Suppose that after a few years, a few rotting planks on the ship are replaced with almost identical new planks. Still the same ship, right?

• A few years later, more planks and some of the interior is replaced with almost identical parts

• This goes on for 50 years, in which all parts of the ship have been replaced

• Is Theseus’ current ship the same one from 50 years ago?

Explain the Lumpl and Goliath thought experiment:

• Are the 2 diff pieces of clay cut off from a big piece the same or not? Diff shapes. Lumpl= lump, Goliath= Statue shape

• If you lump goliath then does goliath exist?

• The presence of both allows for the other to exist 

Fungibility

the property of being interchangeable with objects of the same kind

Numerical identity

• When 2 diff identities share the same properties and are one and the same 

• Eg. Peter Parker is Spiderman

• We can identify diff separate entities but acknowledge changes- same entity but with changes 

Qualitative Identity:

• When 2 or more identical things share the same properties

• Eg. identical twins, sheets of paper, discs, etc. 

• According to Gottfried's law of indiscernibles, if any 2 things are identical, they must share all the same properties 

What is the body theory?

• The idea that personal identity persists over time because you live in the same body from birth to death

Supports:

• Who you are on the outside physically is what helps you maintain your identity to others- if you switched bodies with someone, people will think that person is you because externally, you are judged by physical appearance

• Your body carries experiences that can shape who you are as a person

Problems:

• Most people would probably pick to get a million dollars in the body that their consciousness is in in the thought experiment- contradicts this theory

• Your experiences and inner feelings and thoughts-consciousness, live outside of your physical body- most people view their identities as something less physical and more internal

What is the memory theory?

• Personal identity persists over time because you retain memories of yourself at different points, and each of those memories is connected to the one before it.

Supports:

• If you can remember memories from your past self, you maintain a link in terms of your identity to that person- only you can have your memories from your POV so you must be the same person who experienced that memory

Problems:

• No1 remembers being born- then none of us became who we are until we got our first memory

• Also, then if u get an illness, you stop being the same person if u lose a memory

• Also there are false memories- do they make you a partially fictional person?

What was Bernard Williams’ “Mad Scientist” Thought Experiment?

• If we both get kidnapped by a mad scientists, and your mental content is transferred into the other person’s brain and vice versa, and give one body a million dollars the other should be tortured- u pick- choice depends on where ur identity lies

Theory of Multiple Intelligences- Howard Gardner

categorized intelligence into these categories:

• Musical-Rhythmic and Harmonic

• Visual-Spatial

• Verbal Linguistic 

• Logical-Mathematical

• Bodily-Kinesthetic

• Interpersonal

• Intrapersonal

Rene Descartes on Minds/intelligence

• Famously argued that only human beings possessed minds, and that animals were essentially biological machines

• He argued that a robot rat could convincingly simulate the behaviour of a real rat, but an android could never convincingly simulate the behaviour of a real human

Perceptions of Animal Minds Today

• Today most philosophers and researchers would disagree with Descartes as evidence of animal learning and emotion has grown

• In some cases animals have been shown to demonstrate greater short term cognitive (thinking) capabilities than humans

Eg:

• Elephants console each other when attacked-along with apes, birds and sometimes dolphins- elephants specifically gather around distressed elephants and reassure them

• Crows can solve complex puzzles- is able to complete specific tasks in order in order to obtain food

The Turing Test

• English mathematician Alan Turing was interested in determining whether computers could ever be able to
  Think” like a human

• Therefore e devised the Turing Test- originally known as the Imitation Game

• BasicLly get a human to ask a computer a bunch of questions and if the himan cant identify that the ribot is a robot and not human then the ribot can rhink like a himan/have human intelligence

Objections to the Turing test

• Challenged as a legitimate way of proving that  machine is thinking- cause turing said if the machine passes the turing test they can think

1. Behaviour vs thinking- researchers argue the ability to pass the test is a matter of behavior not intelligence- therefore it wouldn't be contradictory to say a machine can bass the imitation game but not think

2. Brains are not machines- Turing said that te brain is a machine, and that it na be explained in purely mechanical terms- academics refute this claim and question the validity of the test on this abscess

3. Internal operations- as computers are not humans, processes for reaching a conclusion may not be comparable to a person's making the test inadequate because direct comparison cannot work

4. Scope of test- some researches believe only testing one behavior is not enough to determine intelligence

The Chinese Room

• American philosopher John Searle argued against the Turing test being proof of real artificial intelligence

• Searle developed the Chinese Room thought experiment, which states that computer may be able to simulate human-like responses but can’t demonstrate real understanding

• If ur in a room with boxes of chinese characters u can't understand, but a book that he can, there’s a chinese instructor on the outside that gives him a note in chinese- you read the book u can understand to find an appropriate response, so person outside thinks the person inside can understand chinese, when he acc can’t he can js simulate understanding- believes robots are the same way

Chat GPT

AI language model

Types of AI

1. Narrow- trained to do certain things

2. General- flexible and can execute many tasks, can be programmed to learn + teach itself

Atari DQN

• Programmed to play classic Atari games and learn through repeated playthroughs

• The AI became good enough to develop techniques that could beat even the best human players

Alpha Go

Able to play the best human players by reviewing examples of prev. games

Alpha Zero

A program that was able to learn Go (game) entirely thru self-play- resulted in being able to come up with new strategies that the best human players couldn’t understand at first

Libertarian Free Will- include description and arguments in support

Description:

• The philosophy that you have total control over your choices in life

Arguments in support:

• It feels like we have free will

• Every day you are confronted with hundreds of choices you have to make

• You can do anything if you choose to

Determinism- description

Description:

• The philosophy that you are ultimately not in full control over your actions

3 types:

1. Hard determinism

2. Theological determinism

3. Soft determinism (compatibilism)- more in middle

What is hard determinism? What are arguments in support of this?

• All the actions that occur are the result of previous actions and therefore no free choices can be made

• Eg. Your future career is determined  by your interests in school, etc.

• Believe that choices are like falling dominos- al choices are caused by past events

What is theological determinism? What are arguments in support of this?

• The belief that a creator of God has determined every event that will occur

• Many Calvinists (a branch of protestants) believe in predestination- idea that God has already determined the afterlife that awaits you

What is soft determinism? What are arguments in support of this?

• The belief that our choices are strongly influenced by previous actions but some freedom and responsibility still exists (middle ground between free will and determinism)

• Eg. You don't choose your body but you can choose your diet and exercise habits

Incompatibilism- description and arguments in support

Description:

• The belief that free will and determinism are totally at odds with one another- can’t be both

Arguments in support would js be the support for determinism and free will like combined

Steven Pinker- include their philosophy and arguments they made to support it

Sam Harris- include their philosophy and arguments they made to support it

Philosophy:

• Hard Determinism

Arguments:

• Before you are aware of what you’re going to do (consciously), your brain has already determined what you will do

• You don’t know why it is you will do something- both retrospectively and in the moment

• You can only witness your decisions- you yourself aren’t picking something for a reason- city example

• If you pay attention to how thoughts arise, you can see that there is no free will- cause randomness occurs before you freely choose something

Daniel Dennett- include their philosophy and arguments they made to support it

Philosophy:

• Compatibilism (Soft Determinism)

Arguments:

• Free will has developed over time- evolutionary we now have free will in our biology

• We have more competencies that have evolved- cognitive, mental, etc.

• We represent our reasons for why we act- we can explain why we did something

• We act for reasons that we consciously represent to ourselves

Michio kaku- include their philosophy and arguments they made to support it

Philosophy:

• Compatibilisim (soft determinism)

Arguments:

• Universe is a clock- therefore what you’re going to eat has already been fixed- Newton’s laws of motion- universe is in motion stays in motion- Newtonian determinism

• But Heisenberg said electrons can exist in a multitude of places- uncertainty in the position

• No one can determine your future events given your past history- there’s always the wild card possibility, however unlikely

Chinese cosmology

Includes confucianism, daoism and buddhism- universe organized into yin and yang

Yin and Yang

Symbolizes balance between two extremes- each has a part of the other also

Taoism/Daoism- include what Tao/Dao means

• Lao Tzu was an ancient Chinese philosopher and writer- he was the founder of Taoism

• Tao/Dao= the path

• He wrote the Tao te Ching

• Taijitu (Yin Yang symbol) is a part of Taoism/Daoism

• Lao Tzu believed that a life in tune with nature and working in harmony with it’s circumstances is a sweet one- believed that bitterness and sourness in life come from the interfering and unappreciative mind - this is also the essence of Daoism- living in a harmonious way with the world around you- since human beings come form nature, follow the nature’s path

Tao te Ching

• The Book of the Way and its Virtue

• Was the first written text of Taoism

The Taijitu

• The Yin Yang symbol

• In English it translates to “great pole”/”supreme ultimate”

Has 5 parts:

1. The circle- Wuji- represents the limitless, infinite, and absolute

2. The second circle (starts from top to bottom btw)- represents dualism (Yin and Yang)

3. The interlocking diagram is the Wuxing- represents wood, fire, earth, metal and water (called the 5 agents)

4. The next circle represents the conjunction of heaven and earth

5. The final circle (bottom) represents unity and multiplicity

The original diagram was created by Zhou Dunyi

Buddhism

• A major world religion and spiritual way of life founded by Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha)

• Buddhism (like Taoism and Confucianism) are different from most western regions in the sense that they don’t focus on the relationship between God and humanity and do not include a realtor God

• The goal is to meditate and let go of your worldly desires to reach Nirvana (the highest state of enlightenment)

• Buddha believed that the only thing every1 has in common is suffering, and in order to let go of that suffering, you should live with only what you need- don’t take too much from yourself but also don’t live too luxuriously

• Change your outlook on your circumstances don't be greedy become happy with your circumstances- change mindset to become more compassionate

• Following buddhism will help you become a better person

The 4 major tenets of buddhism

1. Existence is unsatisfying (or suffering) (Dukkha)- life is unsatisfying- ur not happy for long

2. Suffering is caused by craving and attachment (Trishna)- you not letting go 

3. Suffering (Dukkha) can be ended by letting go of cravings (Trishna)- this state of enlightenment is called (Nirodha/Nirvana)- find peace with what you have- let go of what you want

4. The path to enlightenment (Magga) is trying to live in a state of enlightenment (nirodha/Nivana)- let things go- don't be extremely attached to one thing or another

What is Confucianism?

• Also called Ruism

• Is a philosophical belief originating in China in the 5th century BC

• Of the 3 teachings, Confucianism is mostly focused on ethics, family, and social harmony rather than religious or metaphysical beliefs 

What were the 4 tenets of Confucianism made by Confucius

1. Ceremony is important- Ritual proprietary is important- rituals mean something- eg. wedding vows, birthday parties, etc.

2. We should treat our parents with reverence- Care for them when they’re young, take care of them when they are old, mourn them when they die, and make sacrifice to honour their memory later

3. We should be obedient to honorable people- Be modest enough to recognize when someone's accomplishments and experiences outweigh your own. Obey people and have humility for those who are more competent than you- deserve their role

4. Cultivated knowledge can be more important than creativity-Universal wisdom from eyes of hard works and practice are important

What was anslem’s argument fo the existence of God?

• Premise: God is the grates thing can think of

• Premise: Things can exist only in our imaginations or they can also exist in reality

• Premise: Things that exist in reality are always better than things that exist only in our imaginations

• Premise: If God existed only in our imaginations, he wouldn’t be the greatest thing that we can think of, because God in reality would be better

• Conclusion: Therefore, God must exist in reality

Fallacy in his thoughts tho is that he’s begging the question - he’s including his own definition of God in his proof therefore he keeps God's existence as part of the def of God

What is the parable of the invisible gardener?

• Written in other note 

• No gardener shows up so one thinks gardner must be invisible, and other says if something is completely undetectable what's the difference between a gardener that is undetectable and unprovable and no gardner?

How does 2001 space odyssey connect with themes explored in metaphysics?

• Discusses theories of creation- specifically the evolution theory because the film shows human evolution as allowing humans to develop

• Also it heavily discusses consciousness- with HAL 9000’s death

Theism- include def and an example

Def:

• The belief in the existence of at least one God

Eg:

• Abrahamic religions- eg. christianity, islam, Judaism, etc.

Deism- include def and an example

Def:

• Believes a creator God started the universe but stepped back letting natural processes take over

• Compatible with modern science

• Rejects miracles and the supernatural

• Views God as impersonal and uncaring

Eg:

• Thomas Jefferson believed in this and wrote his own erosion of the Bible which took out the miracles

Atheism- include def and an example

Def:

• The absence of belief in the existence of a god and deities

• Challenges traditional authority and shifted the burden of proof to evidence based reasoning for philosophers

Eg:

• Friedrich Nietzsche believed this

Monotheism- include def and an example

Def:

• Belief that there’s only one God- singular- not multiple

Eg:

• Yahweh, etc.- any single God

Polytheism- include def and an example

Def:

• When you worship/believe in many Gods

• Multiple Gods play a part in our world and how it functions

• Soft and hard polytheism- hard= gods are separate real beings, soft= gods are more concepts/forces

Eg:

• Ancient Greek or Egyptian religions believed in this

Agnosticism- include def and an example

Def:

• The existence of God, the divine, or the supernatural is unknown or inherently unknowable

Eg:

• Thomas Henry Huxley created the term agnostic

Pantheism- include def and an example

Def:

• Believing that God is everything and everything is God- world is either identical with God or in some way a self expression of his nature- we’re all one

Eg:

• Albert Einstein- expressed a cosmic religion- God that reveals himself in the harmony of what exists instead of a personal God concerned with human fates

Pascal’s wager- include def

Def:

• An argument for why a rational person should believe God exists- potential infinite reward vs any finite cost

• You don’t fully control whether u believe in smth or not and belief out of reward isn't a genuine belief as this doesn't account for multiple religions- these r counterpoints btw

• It’s like what's the harm of believing

Intelligent design- include def and an example

Def:

• Claims that certain biological features are too complex to simply be the result of evolution, so there must be an intelligent cause/creator behind them

• Biological features are too complex to follow a specific pattern, implying a conscious designer

• Physical laws seem purposefully balanced to allow life

• Technically religion-neutral, but my beehive that the creator is the Christian God

Eg.

Big Bang, DNA, abrupt origin of animal life

The unmoved mover- include def

Def:

• The name given to the first motion of the universe

• Aristotle used this to give a reason for orbit

• Aristotle also deemed that each planet has a move cause each planet has its own orbits

• Thomas Aquinas later integrated this to support the existence of a Christian God

• Thomas used this concept to support the existence of a Christian God with the idea of something willing itself into existence

Watchmaker annalogy- include def and significance

Def:

• The complexity of the universe proves the existence of an intelligent realtor or God

• Human eye or bird wings are on a far greater level of complexity than man made watch, meaning they require an even more intelligent creator

Significance:

• his idea became central to the idea of natural theology and influenced Isaac Newton and renee Descartes

Bertrand Russell’s Teapot analogy- include def

Def:

• Suppose a tiny teapot orbits right in between earth and marks orbit, and is too small to be seen by any modern telescope

• The burden of proof for this falls on the person who believes in it

• In a religious context, treating unproveable claims as true because they are not falsifiable is irrational

• Criticism tho is that critics argue that comparing physical objects in r lives like a teapot to a supernatural one is a strawman

Teleological argument- include def and counters to the argument

Def:

• Argument of the existence of God

• Complex functionality in the natural world has to have been created from an intelligent creator (more intelligent than us)

Counters:

• Someone capable of designing complex mechanisms like life is likely to be even more complex- so like what complex thing created that complex thing

• Complexity does not guarantee a creator

Ontological argument- include def and an example

Def

A deductive philosophical argument that tries to prove the existence of God as priori (using pure reason and logic alone) rather than looking at evidence in the physical world

Eg:

Saint Anselm of Canterbury formulated the first ontological argument in his 1078 work proslogion

Flying spaghetti monster- include def and significance

Def:

• The deity of Pasrafarianism, a satirical religious movement

• The deity which is a flying invisible and undetectable spaghetti monster, they believed pirates were saints and are revered as the original pastafarians, they believed an afterlife similar to heaven with added features of a large beer volcano and a factory that manufactured strippers and the eight id rather u didn't which promotes 8 moral guidelines

• Protesting religion basically

Significance:

• Significant to philosophy because pastafarianism was formed to debate over teaching intelligent design in public science classes

• The argument states that if unprovable creation theories were allowed, equal time must be given to the flying spaghetti monster ideation

What is the Omni-God?- what is it believed to be

Omniscient:

• Knows everything that can be known- all knowing

Omnipotent:

• All powerful

Omnibenevolent:

• Possessing perfect goodness

Omnitemporal: 

• Exists in all places

Omnipresent: 

• Exists in all times

What are some problems regarding the Omni-God?

• If god cant create a rock heavier than he could lift than he can't make anything and if he can then he can't do anything

• If god knows everything then he knows the future- cause omni temporal, but god also gave us free will so how can we be free if god knows what were going to do

• Omnipotent means he can;t case he can do anything but if he's omnibenevolent then he cant- does that mean he's  not omnipotent then?

• The omni god cant have all thing at the same time- inconsistent

Divine impeccability

The idea that God can’t sin

Analogical predication

We can't predicate or assert anything about God because he's so far beyond our understanding- we speak entirely in analogies when describing God because it's everything we can do- we can only get close enough to analogies to understand what he is

Existentialism

• A philosophy that explores the nature of existence through the mind and feeing of the individual in a word without God or meaning automat by edward hoppy

• Emerged as a popular philosophical school of thought especially in literature in the 1940s and 1950s after World War II

Existentialism in art

• There’s absuridism in art- influenced by surrealist art- an example of an absurdism artist is Salvador Dali

• The experience of angst (deep anxiety or dread) is central to existentialist art

Martin Heidegger- existentialism

• Famous German philosopher in existential philosophy

• Wrote Being and Time (Sein und Zeit)

• Was notoriously difficult to understand and read- even for scholars of philosophy

• Introduced the concept of “Dasein” (meaning “Being there” or “presence”)

Das Nichts

(The Nothing):

• Describes death- ceasing to exist, being claimed by the nothingness that awaits us

Geworfenheit

(Thrown-ness):

• We are thrown into the world with set social standards, attitudes, prejudices and necessities that we did not decide ourselves- this idea is called thrown-ness

Das Gerede (The Chatter) & “They-Self

what society wants us to be- the social norm that everyone adopts and conforms to

Eigenlichtkeit

(Authenticity):

• When you move away from inauthenticity and start viewing things in a more universal perspective

• live for yourself- not for others or society

Albert Camus

• A famous French-Algerian philosopher and prominent figure in existential philosophy

• Most famous for his philosophies on “The Absurd”

• Ultimately Camus realized that life is absurd and cannot be an end but only a beginning

• Said you’ll never be happy if you continue to search what happiness consists of

The Absurd

• The struggle to find meaning and value in a  world with no meaning or value that is given to you- no instructions on your purpose

• Eg. the painting of Sisyphus (bolder pushing up the hill and falling down)- Sisyphus became a symbol of absurdism

• Also The Scream is an example

• Camus viewed Sisyphus as an absurdist hero

Nihilism- include the syllogism/philosophy for it

• The belief that human values are baseless and life is meaningless

• Essentially a more cynical and skeptical form of existentialism arguing that nothing matters

Philosophy:

• Premise: all things are finite

• Premise; things that are finite ultimately do not matter

• Conclusion: Nothing matters

Optimistic nihilism- include the syllogism/philosophy for it

• The philosophy of accepting the nihilistic view of life but viewing it from a positive rather than negative perspective

Philosophy;

• Premise: All things are finite

• Premise: Things that are finite ultimately do not matter

• Conclusion: If nothing matters, people should live their lives freely and happily and not worry about things that don't matter or can't be changed

Friedrich Nietzsche:

• A German philosopher and writer and prominently known for his philosophies on nihilism

• An atheist and believed there were no absolute values in life

• Famously stated “God is dead”- our idea or belief of God has vanished from society

Jean Paul Sartre

• A French philosopher and writer and one of the most important thinkers in French history

• Believed that there was no God or creator and therefore humans had no essence (properties that define what we are)
  Thus he claimed that humans were "condemned to be free”

• What are you going to do when there’s no restraints on you?- it is up to you to give life a meaning cause ur responsible for everything u do

Quantum Mechanics

• A branch of science that describes the behaviour of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. 

• First discovered by theoretical physicist Max Planck with his theory of quanta

Quanta (singular) / Quantum (plural):

• The minimum amount of any physical entity involved in an interaction

Wave-Particle Duality:

• The concept that particles like electrons and protons can exhibit both particle-like and wave-like behaviour

Superposition

• The theory that quanta can exist in multiple states simultaneously. This means that a quantum particle can be in a combination of different positions at the same time. 

Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle:

• A concept in quantum mechanics that states that it is impossible to know both the velocity and position of a particle at the same time

The Multiverse

• Concept has existed in Ancient Greek philosophy but has become more popular thru recent research in quantum mechanics

Premise: It is possible for quanta to exist in 2 diff places at same time

Premise: It is possible for quanta to be in 2 diff stated at the same time

Conclusion: Therefore, there is a potential infinite  number (and incalculable) number of interactions happening, resulting in infinite universes

Schrodinger’s Cat:

• A famous quantum theory paradox presented by physicist Ernest Schrodinger

• He used the cat paradox in discussion with Albert Einstein to describe what he considered a problem with some conceptions of quantum theory

Chaos in Asian philosophy

• Viewed as necessary for order to emerge- Order eventually gets old, rigid, and breaks down into chaos. Chaos eventually swirls, organizes itself, and births new order. You cannot have one without the other.

• Chaos and order are viewed as 2 sides of the same coin- kinda like yin and yang

• Trying to force strict order, labels, and boundaries onto the natural, chaotic state of things often destroys its perfect, living essence.

• Asian philosophy views chaos as the ultimate blank canvas. It is not the absence of peace—it is the quiet, unorganized beginning of everything.