Essay on "Philosophy of Mind When Thinking About"

Essay 4 pages (1341 words) Sources: 4 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Philosophy of Mind

When thinking about philosophy, it is a general conception that philosophy resides in the mind. In other words, thought is the main residence of philosophy. This has been recognized by philosophers throughout the ages. Even today, modern philosophers recognize that the mind and thought are the ruling domains of philosophy. When considering specific philosophical concepts like the external world and the individual's relationship to it, as well as memory, learning, and new friendships, it is clear that the mind plays a significant role in how philosophy is used to make sense of living and being.

Thomas Nagel, for example, created the work What does it all mean? To bring philosophy ot a more general audience. One of the areas of philosophy that this author considers is those things that are outside the mind. Nagel provides evidence that some consider the world outside the mind as non-existent. This philosophy is referred to as solipsism. In this philosophy, Nagel suggests that some believe that there is nothing outside of the individual mind. Since no sense impressions can be said to exist outside the individual mind, those who subscribe to solipsism believe that there is no external world, and that all experiences exist only in the mind.

Nagel, however, does not appear to support this conclusion. One of the reasons for this is the fact that solipsism is a relatively extreme philosophy, not to mention that it is also a lonely one. Believing that there is no world outside that created by the individual mind makes all things, including friendship and other people, a mere illusion created by the mind ot make the individual experience more entertaining and interesting.

Instead, the author seems to support the view that there is no conclusive answer to the question whether there exists anything outside the mind or not. Indeed, Nagel directly states that solipsism is not his conclusion at all. He does not provide a very specific conclusion that does support his specific view. Nevertheless, while Nagel seems to support the view that there is little outside of the mind that can be supported by conclusive evidence, he is more prone to supporting the idea that there really is little beyond the individual sense experience that can be verified conclusively without doubting the evidence. One thing that the author does assert is that existing evidence does not warrant the existence of one single soul in the reality experienced by the individual.

For this reason, Nagel seems more prone to the skepticist view, that there simply is no way to know whether there is indeed a world beyond the one experienced by the individual. The author goes even further by suggesting that there is no certainty to suggest that there are indeed the past existence and experience that reside in our memory. Nobody can be certain that he or she existed before the experience of the now.

Nagel's conclusion seems somewhat inconclusive in terms of a persona conclusion relating to what he believes about existence and memory. However, it appears that he leans more towards the skepticist view than the solicipsist one.

Ultimately, however, the author suggests that human beings need some drive in order to keep a sense of meaning in their lives. Solipsism does not provide this. Skepticism as a greater sense of drive but still remains somewhat depressing in terms of the meaning of human life. Specifically, the author mentions that a human being needs a sense of importance to keep up the drive and ambition that make life meaningful. It appears to be part of the human condition that individual life should not only be meaningful, but also important. Being important means influence over more lives than a lack of such importance.

When applying these ideas to the ancient writings of Plato and Socrates, some interesting ideas can result. Socrates, as quoted by Plato in Phaedo, appears to focus on a sense of absolutes. There is an absolute beauty and truth to life, according to the philosopher. Neither solipcism nor… READ MORE

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