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Do You Think What You Think You Think?

The Ultimate Philosophical Handbook

Julian Baggini & Jeremy Stangroom

First annotation on . Last on .

16 quotes

philosophy

Chapter 1

  • Clint Eastwood once memorably said, “Opinions are like assholes—everybody has one.”May 28 2024 7:47PM

Chapter 2

  • “Logic is neither an art nor a science but a dodge,” complained Stendhal; “Logic is the art of going wrong with confidence,” claimed Joseph Wood Krutch; it is “an instrument for bolstering a prejudice,” said Elbert Hubbard. We prefer the unfashionable view expressed by John Locke that “Logic is the anatomy of thought.”May 31 2024 3:15PM

Chapter 3

  • It is simplicity that makes the uneducated more effective than the educated when addressing popular audiences.AristotleMay 31 2024 3:25PM
  • An argument is valid if and only if the conclusion necessarily follows from the premises.Here’s the most famous example:All men are mortal.Socrates is a man.Therefore Socrates is mortal.May 31 2024 4:45PM
  • We really need to stress here that validity is solely to do with whether the conclusion follows. It has nothing at all to do with the truth of the premises or the conclusion. For example:All cheese is from the moon.Chocolate is a cheese.Therefore chocolate is from the moon.May 31 2024 4:47PM
  • Notice that there are only two different pieces of specific content, or “terms.” These are:Man-made global warming is really happening.The polar ice caps are melting.Substitute all instances of the former with p and of the latter with q and you have the general form of this argument.If p then qqThen pMay 31 2024 4:48PM
  • 2 Denying the antecedentIf acupuncture tended to make people ill, then it would be foolish to try it.Acupuncture does not tend to make people ill.Therefore it is not foolish to try it.The form of this argument is:If p then q.Not-p.Therefore not-q.May 31 2024 4:48PM
  • 3 Improper transposition (a)If I don’t get home by six, I’ll miss the news.Therefore, if I get home by six, I won’t miss the news.The form of this argument is:If not-p then not-q.Therefore if p then qMay 31 2024 4:48PM
  • The use is that sound arguments—sound actually being the right technical term—are ones that are both valid and have true premises, and therefore also true conclusions. Sound arguments therefore require two things: true premises and valid inferences. Finding out whether premises are true is one skill, while working out whether arguments are valid is another.Logic focuses on the second not for its own sake but because it is an essential part of good reasoningMay 31 2024 4:51PM

Chapter 6

  • Wittgenstein once said that philosophy leaves the world as it is. As usual, it’s not entirely obvious what he meant by that. But what he seemed to be suggesting was that the main purpose of probing our ideas and values ever deeper is not to change them but to understand them.May 31 2024 3:47PM

Chapter 8

  • Is your winner the same artist whose works you chose to take to a desert island? Probably. But if you were to repeat this exercise for a variety of artists (try it), you would probably find that on several occasions this is not what happens. It would, of course, be very tempting to put this down to quirks in our scoring system. But we think it can mean something else, namely that what people say they think makes a great work of art often doesn’t correspond to what they actually value about the works of art they really love.May 31 2024 4:13PM
  • The second is that for many people, one aspect of art trumps all others, and usually that is its enjoyability. They may sincerely believe that, all things considered, Shakespeare is a greater artist than Britney Spears, but if they had to choose, they would rather dance on the beach to “Hit Me Baby One More Time” than watch The Tempest. If this is the case, then look back at the scores and you’ll probably see that the artist ranked higher for enjoyment was the one taken to the desert island.May 31 2024 4:14PM
  • That leads to the third explanation of the anomalies. People carry around with them an idea of what great art should be like. This doesn’t necessarily reflect what they really think, merely what they think educated opinion says. So when asked to say what makes great art, they offer the “right” answers, not the ones they sincerely believe.May 31 2024 4:14PM

Chapter 10

  • Round : The Teletransporter ChoiceYou have been chosen to go on a very important mission to Mars. You have no choice in this matter; you must go. But you can choose your means of transport.One method is teletransportation. You will step into a scanner here on Earth, which will destroy your brain and body while recording the exact states of all your cells. This information will then be transmitted to a replicator on Mars. Travelling at the speed of light, the message will take three minutes to reach its destination. The replicator will create, out of new matter, a brain and body exactly like yours. The person on Mars will look like you, think like you, in fact be indistinguishable from you. He or she will certainly feel as though they have merely fallen asleep on Earth and then woken up on Mars. This method is 100% reliable.The other choice is to go by spaceship. This is very risky and there is a 50% chance that the ship will not complete the journey and you will die in transit. But if you do successfully take the spaceship, then your body and brain won’t at any stage have been destroyed.You must make the choice that you think will give your self the best chance of surviving.Teletransporter or spaceship?May 31 2024 4:22PM
  • Round : The Memory ChoiceBoth the teletransporter and the spaceship worked without any hitches. But life on Mars turns out not to be a bed of roses. In fact, two strange viruses have evolved on the planet. The first destroys body parts. Fortunately, medical science is highly evolved and people are simply given artificial limbs and organs as required. You’ve been hit pretty hard by this virus and, in fact, almost your entire body is now made up of artificial parts.However, there unfortunately exists a second virus, which attacks the brain. It is peculiarly nasty in that it doesn’t destroy the brain, rather it messes up the neural pathways, leading to a loss of memory and also a change in personality traits. One person who had the virus had been a successful rock musician. Now he can’t even remember what his own songs sound like, but he’s become rather good at accounting. It is indeed an odd virus!We’re sad to say that you’ve caught the virus. Medics can get around the virus by replacing pieces of the brain with advanced forms of silicon chip. In your case, they would have to do this to almost all of your brain. But trials show that you can be sure that the result will be the total preservation of your memories, personality, plans, beliefs and so on, and a person as able to carry on living a normal life as is, well, normal.The alternative is to succumb to the virus with its consequent loss of memory and change in character. You must make the choice that you think will give your self the biggest chance of surviving.Take the silicon brain or let the virus do its worstMay 31 2024 4:23PM
  • Round : The Reincarnation ChoiceOver time, scientists were able to repair people who made either choice. Those who chose silicon brains were given back organic ones, and those who fell victim to the virus found their personalities could stabilize.But scientific progress also turned up an amazing discovery. Strange as it may seem, it has been discovered that reincarnation of a sort does actually occur. Apparently there is some immaterial part—call it a soul—in all human beings. On death, it leaves the body and enters the body of a newborn animal or human. It does not take memory with it, of course, for if it did we’d have known this were true already. It is thought that it may have some effect in determining one’s character, but given the evidence for the strong influence of genes and upbringing, this effect is relatively small. So far, despite your strange past and odd transformations, your soul has stayed with you.But here’s the really odd thing: these souls will die if stored at below freezing point for longer than a week.These facts are vital to the last choice you must make. You are very ill, but scientists have almost found a cure for the disease you have. Further, they have also developed a technique to “deep-freeze” humans, enabling them to be revived later with their memories and character intact. You have two choices.The first choice is to let the disease take its toll. Your body will die, but your soul will live on—but do remember this does not preserve your memories, intentions, desires and so on. The second choice is to be deep-frozen, then thawed and cured later. This will destroy your soul and only has a 30% chance of success: that is, there is a 70% chance that the thawing and curing won’t work.You must make the choice that you think will give yourself the biggest chance of surviving.Be frozen or let your body die?May 31 2024 4:23PM

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