8/8/2019 Outline of Essay 13-12-09

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If, after listening to these again, you arestillunclear about anything, please email me with specificquestions. If you just ask "What was that all about, again?" I can only ask you to hear the recordingsagain! Be specific with your questions.

Here I'll just summarise what I want you to write for the 15th December. Do your own reading, find someappropriate videos, etc., and compose the clearest and most accurate account you can. Learning to do

your own effective research is an integral aspect of the course. The following should take up 1200 - 1300words in all. Do your best, but ask me if you get stuck.

1. Introduction.

(a) Title of essay: "Why are we here?" "How did we get here?" or something along those lines. For 'we'you can, if you prefer, substitute either 'The world, as a life-bearing planet', or 'The universe, as a life-bearing universe'.

(b) Explain exactly what your question is asking. For example; 'How did we get here?' indicates yourintention of trying to work out rationally, using all the available evidence, what the most likely explanationfor our being here is. There are various theories about how we got here, and you are going to try todecide which is the most believable, and why.

(c) Briefly explain what you mean by 'We', etc. For example; 'We' refers to intelligent, conscious creatureswho appear to have free will, beliefs, sensations, rational thinking, and so on.

I will post some notes on next week's theme shortly. For now, I can just say that we will be looking inmore detail at some of the major philosophical issues

2. The rival theories.

(a) Physicalism. Explain what this position claims: That only the physical universe exists. What

does 'physical' mean? What does it entail for us, as the creatures you described above?

(b) Substance Dualism. Explain what this position claims: That there are two fundamental types ofsubstance in the universe: physical substance, and mind substance. What does 'physical' mean? Whatdoes 'Mind' mean? What does 'fundamental' mean? What does substance dualism entail for us, as thecreatures you described above?

3. Arguments for each position.

What is the main evidence, and the main reasoning, that leads to each of the above positions. Look ateach position separately. In other words, what evidence, and what arguments, offer support forphysicalism, and then what evidence, and what arguments, offer support for substance dualism?How dophilosophers try to defend these positions?Here you can cite famous philosophers(Descartes, Dennett,Dawkins, for example), explaining howtheytry to defend dualism or physicalism. .

At this stage I do not want you to try to decide what the problems are with any of the above, orwhat you think is the more believable position. That comes later.