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Vicky Tu's picture

My Reflection

 At the beginning of the semester, I was actually skeptical about both Descartian/Dicksonian sides, though I was leaning toward Descartes just because dying without soul is a extremely scary idea for me. That would be the complete end of my being in the world. After taking this course, I decide I would not take any side because we really don't know the truth. And probably we will never know. Both Descartian and Dicksonian theories have certain level of true to them. The mind does decide what kind of person we are. But maybe there is a soul somewhere that is controlling the mind. And we just can't find it. We will never know. And this class does teach me that there is no absolute truth, only truer fact. Therefore I will not take either Descartian or Dicksonian side because maybe neither one is the truth. We should keep evaluating them to make them "truer". If we only stick Dicksonian side, then maybe we will never find our souls even if we actually have them. It is good to remain skeptical about things so there will be more possibilities for us to explore.

I consider the topic of "picture in the mind" to be very very interesting because it is very shocking and disturbing to know. I always knew that people have different understandings of the world around them. But I never knew (or I have heard about but am never willing to believe)  that our brain will actually make up things to fill blind spots or accommodate our pre-existed misconceptions. This will definitely stick to my mind also because my the book I am doing the review on ("The Inevitable Illusions") also contain similar messages. The understanding of this human weakness will make me think twice about things I see and I do and help me make more rational decisions in the future ( it is not possible to make complete rational decisions because our brains won't let us) I think this idea will be good for others to learn too because of what it teach us.

1)I want to explore more about soul. Some studies say that most parts of human brain are actually not used. Maybe our soul is hiding in there.

2)I want to learn about the details of brain diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. I want to help figure out a way to cure these diseases in the future.

3)I want learn more about dreams. What exactly is going on when we dream? 

 

 

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