Desires & Illusions

To live totally detached from our desires would be a struggle for many of us because that is not who we are and what drives us as individuals and what society has instilled in us. We have certain inborn needs to achieve goals and dreams of some sort. Whether it is to be a multi-billionaire or to volunteer to solve world hunger we are individuals who will and will always have certain needs of self-achievement. We are a nation that believes in self-reliance which stimulates the need for achievement to distinguish ourselves as individuals. I agree that there are cases of extreme cravings and selfish wishes of some individuals to achieve regardless of what they have to do gain their dreams. This is when it becomes a problem. Society also teaches us to find fulfillment in family whether by providing or by sharing rewarding moments with the ones you love and that is something that doesn’t perish and what truly matters most in life. Fulfillment should not solely be found outside the physical world if it was given to us for a reason such as satisfaction in nature and not just for competitive behavior.

Religion

I was often told not to take philosphy by friends of mine who were shaken in belief of the existence of the grand Designer after taking a philosophy course. I however believe in having an open mind regardless of what you were taught for years as a child. Philosopphy has only opened my eyes to views and opinions of thinkers. Just because these thinkers are highly respected does nto make whatever they write true as they too say about Holy Books of religion. It will all depend on the individual if they will allow the opinons of others affect their beliefs because it has not affected mine. Philosophy rules out fundamental structures of most religion such as faith , miracles without these then a religion is just another vague opinion just as regular theory brought about by an hypothesis. It is through faith that most believe there is a Creator and that we didnot just happen randomly and without purpose. Faith is like to believers as philosophy is to Socrates - life is worthless without it.

A.I.

Humans have a choice in societal programming and we all don’t think or act the same even if we were programmed to perform an accounting task. Each accountant is still seen as an individual as our personalities will always take preferences to societal programming. There will always be certain functions such as brushing our teeth that is done with unconscious thought due to our inner capability of memory. There is the fact that even though humans may be programmed to perform a task if a variant should occur we are able to adjust. However, this is not the same for computer knowledge as not all possible outcomes are programmed into the computer, so in this circumstance it would not know what to think of a solution.

DUALISM OR PHYSICALISM

I do agree that the mind (not the brain) is a non-physical event as we are not able to touch the event as it occurs. However, if non-physical things cannot interact with physical things then Descartes would be implying that it is not possible for the mind and body to interact this is where he lost me. Then I sought to see if I could apply myself to everything being one physical substance including our consciousness which makes us aware of the non-physical events that occur. But it is seen as physical even though we are not able to touch our consciousness. In the end I am left with a feeling of incompleteness regarding the nature of reality. Nevertheless, I choose the thoughts of Dualism as explained by Descartes even though it has its shortcomings. Mental events will always seem connected with the brain because most of it begins or occurs in the brain. How it interacts is just another mystery added to the list of wonders.