Philosophy and Contemporary Science :: Philosophical Essays

Philosophy and Contemporary Science ABSTRACT: This paper is concerned with some of the differences between philosophy and contemporary science, and with the significance of these differences for the question of the nature of philosophy. Differences of particular interest here are ones that tend to be concealed and ignored through the influence of the professionalist attitudes of contemporary science, an influence that manifests itself in the prevailing normative attitude to the vocabularies and linguistic practices of professional philosophy. It is argued that this normative attitude is questionable in the light of a feature that we take to be essential to philosophy: always being open to the question of its own nature and task. A traditional, and still common, view of the difference between philosophy and the 'special' sciences is based upon the dichotomies universal/particular or general/special. It is said that philosophy deals with the general issues concerning some subject matter while the special sciences take care of the more specific issues. Chemistry concerns itself with properties of various chemical compounds and physics with forces and the motion of bodies, while philosophy deals with the general nature of matter, general questions of causality, determinism, etc. Linguistics deals with special, empirical questions about the nature of language, while philosophy is supposed to discover the general principles that govern all language. The ontological question about 'what there is' in the world, is, in Quine's words, "a shared concern of philosophy and most other non-fiction genres." (1) It is the use of more general or broader categories, such as, for instance, physical objects or classes, that distinguishes the ontological philosopher's interest in what there is from the scientist's. This 'synoptic view' of philosophy, as Moritz Schlick called it, usually also involves the view of philosophy as a science. (2) As physics studies the specific structure of matter, so philosophy studies its general nature. Quine says, for instance, that "Philosophy ... as an effort to get clearer on things, is not to be distinguished in essential points of purpose and method from good or bad science." (3) Like the special sciences, philosophy is also a science, only one of a more general character. But Quine's philosophy represents only one, naturalistic, version of this synoptic view of the nature of philosophy. There are others, both within and outside the analytic tradition. And there is a great deal to be said about the difference between these philosophies, for instance, that the ones in the Kantian tradition are more oriented towards discovering the general conditions of human knowledge and experience, and have less to say about the general nature of reality.

The Three Heroes

Once upon a time, thousands of years before the dinosaur era began lived a race of mythical beings. Some lived peacefully amongst the humans and some were known to roam the earth causing destruction and reeking havoc in all that crossed their path. This is a tale of three friends, one in particular Garth, who has magic that is spellbinding, strong and even breath taking. In a small village named Bowerstone, located on the shores of a thriving lush green land, there lived three friends in a small cottage, Hannah, Garth and Reaver. The village of Bowerstone was small and very quiet with a tiny population of only 78 people. One night, during a common feast of the people, a group of rebels arrived and demanded all the gold of the people. They did not know that the people were poor, lived off the land and had no use for gold. The rebel commander Leon, screamed at the people to comply and when they didn’t he drew his sleek ancient sword made by the sacred templar elves, and destructively slaughtered every person and started fires throughout the village. Luckily for Hannah, Garth and Reaver, they did not attend the feast; instead they practiced their skills in the shadowy meadow. Hannah trained for agility and accuracy with her bows, Garth mastering his power to control the magic of the templar elves and Reaver had the strength of an ogre. They did not know their fate, but together they would change the future. When they returned to the village, it was burnt to the ground, houses charred, and village folk reduced to ashes, no one survived. Hannah fell to her knees; her eyes welled with tears that soon started to drop from her face. Garth made his way to Hannah with intentions to comfort her but before he reaches her, a bright light appears out of the darkness. A man appears from nowhere his body covered in glowing blue lines. He approaches the three, whispering, â€Å"Come with me†. Cautiously they look at each other, and agreeing to go with him they slowly touch the glowing stranger’s hand and disappear into the cold night. Two years have past and Hannah, Garth and Reaver have been living happily in a castle not far from their old ruined village with the stranger whose name is Hapes. One day Hapes explained how their fate was slowly unfolding, how the rebels destroying the village were part of the prophecy, that three heroes would rise and destroy the rein of terror of the rebels. This surprised them but they were ready to go on a perilous journey. They went back to their chambers and visited the armoury on the way where they acquired robes, weapons and potions. They were now ready to leave the safety of the castle and face the rebels who had killed their fellow villagers. Hannah and Reaver counted on Garth to use his magical powers to locate the rebel’s base. They started their voyage on foot, crossed the bridge of trolls, and then made their way through the dim dragon caves where the rebel secret entry is hidden. Here they would find the leader and kill him satisfying their appetite for revenge. When they arrived at the bridge they met three massive trolls, they were dressed in leather vests, heads protected with silver helmets, their chunky arms clenching wooden clubs, their intention to defend the pathway of the bridge. With no hesitation the three charge toward the trolls, ready to slay all they cross their path. Suddenly Garth’s hands started to glow, a fireball slowly emerging in his hands. With anger growing, he hurls the fire at the trolls, knocking one into flowing water below the bridge. The troll sinking out of sight drowns as bubbles start popping out of the water. Hannah pulls out her bow, loads a thin arrow onto the string and pulls back with complete control. The trolls start to charge, Hannah releases her arrow. It penetrates through his silver helmet, his eyes glaze over as he falls to the ground with a loud thud. Reaver charges toward the remaining troll, with his axe held high, he jumps into the air and chops off the trolls head in one massive blow. They had just killed one of the most feared creatures in the world. They felt invincible and thought to themselves that nothing could stop them now. With adrenalin rushing through their bodies and smiles of success, they continued their journey to the dragons cave. Arriving at the cave; the ground starts to shake and from the darkness, appears an ancient krayt dragon! Hannah pulls out her bow and shoots an arrow into the chest of the dragon, it snaps and falls to the ground. The dragon inhales, chest expanding and with all his force he spits a deep red fireball at Garth. Garth amazingly absorbs it and throws it back toward the dragon, unfortunately causing no damage. The dragon lifts up its giant claw and swings it at Reaver, hitting him and flinging him over 50 metres into the air, landing lifelessly onto the cave floor. When all hope appears lost, Garth’s face lights up; he remembers reading an ancient dragon book on how to defeat them. Focusing on his skills, his hands light up a bright blue, he aims his hands at the dragons mouth, the dragons mouth opens, as he inhales preparing for another fireball, Garth sees his chance, he fires lightening into the mouth of the dragon and it explodes into a shower of jewels! Hannah and Reaver cannot believe their eyes, huge diamonds, rubies, emeralds, every jewel in the world, but before they could even touch one, they remembered Reaver. They rushed to his side and found Leon the rebel holding him in a headlock, he was holding a short dagger to his neck and strangely Hapes was standing beside Leon. Hannah hesitates, not understanding why Hapes would be siding with the rebel, but feels he has betrayed her; she quickly pulls out two daggers from her leg holster and throws one at Leon and one at Hapes. The first dagger impales Hapes’ heart, his body falls to the ground. The second dagger Leon dodges but he lets go of Reaver. Reaver sees this opportunity and draws his sword swinging it at Leon. The dirty rebel blocks the strike with his sword of the elves. Garth fires a bolt of lighting at Leon, it zaps him and he disintegrates. His soul dark and heavy drifted downward into the earth, never to be seen again. They returned to the castle to break the news to the people living there. The people couldn’t thank them enough for what they had done. The rein of terror from the rebels was over and the people felt a heavenly relief. No longer did they need to worry about raids.

Is Communication Inevitable Essay

What is communication? There are many meanings that can be given to communication. People always give their own meaning for communication. Communication is like a double-acting hinge, swinging outward to release your own ideas and swinging inward to receive the worthy thoughts of others. (Huish,S.) Communication is the process by which a person, group, or organization transmits some type of information to another person, group, or organizations. Is communication inevitable? Communication is something that takes place every minute in our daily lives. It is very difficult for somebody to pass a day without communication. Communication can take place verbally and non-verbally; so however it happens communication is still taking place. Communication is inevitable because communication happen even if we want it to happen or not, communication must take place whether it is verbal, nonverbal or both and communication is something that places a vital role in our life. Firstly, communication is inevitable because communication happen even if we want it to happen or not. Communication is something that takes place without we even noticing it sometimes. Sometime we go through things in our daily lives that discourage from communicating; no matter what we do you will have to communicate. People try to fight from communicating with others but it is really difficult. Is it possible for someone to go a day without communicating? This is really a tricky question. Communication is something that is really hard to run from. Everybody use communication in their daily life, it might not happen every minutes but eh do happen in their daily bases. Secondly, communication is inevitable because it must take place whether it is verbal, nonverbal or both. Verbal communication is the transmission of messages using words, either written or spoken. Nonverbal communication is the transmission of messages without the use of words. An example of verbal communication would be like say Hi, Bye or Hello and some example of nonverbal communication would be like waving your hand, smiling or nodding your head. Sometimes when people communicate they would  prefer to communicate both verbal and nonverbal. They find it more effective and understandable. When some people communicate using nonverbal communication the message is sometimes interpret the wrong way. Thirdly, communication is something that places a vital role in our life. Communication is something that must take place in our life. We can’t live our daily live without communicating. Communication takes place at home, school, work place and more. Communication is important, not communication is like not having a life, and you can’t live without it. Communication plays a vital role in our life because it helps us to learn, understand, and achieve different things. To conclude, communication is important and no matter what we do we can’t avoid from communicating with others. Everybody communication in their daily lives and it can happen verbally, nonverbally or both. Communication is just sending message from one person to the other. Communication is inevitable because communication happen even if we want it to happen or not, communication must take place whether it is verbal, nonverbal or both and communication is something that places a vital role in our life. Always remember that whatever you do that you can never escape from communicating with other. You will always have to communicate even though you wish not to.