I've taken a couple of days to mull over the two lectures of Tuesday and have made some fairly startling observations. The morning lecture, Media Law and Ethics, left me feeling slightly worried that prison is just a tiny mistake away. It seems that contempt of court is a frighteningly easy crime to commit and, more worryingly, an extremely serious one I had never properly considered before. (Although if you pay attention to 'wikipedia', the maximum sentence is two years - not the thirty years we were previously told). I was also unaware of the crime 'blasphemous libel' - a crime which only applies to the Christian God - and of the fact that Winchester Crown Court is the secondary court after the Old Bailey. I look forward to experiencing that!
I came away from our afternoon lecture, the History and Context of Journalism, with one major point in mind, namely Plato's view of the world. To see the world as such a flippant idea and the thought that we are living in a shadow, or cave, with the real 'perfect' world outside is, at the very least, a difficult concept to take in. Either Plato was a genius, far too forward-thinking for his time, or he was slightly insane... I'll let you be the judge of that.
And just so my opinion is known - yes, if a tree falls in the woods and no-one is around to hear it, it does still make a noise.
It might make a sound, but if nothing experiences that sound subjectively, it is surely at least a different sort of sound. Also it is hard to see how objects have extension in the university unless they are perceived by somebody or something. Without making the error of solipsism I think that if there were no people (or no sentient beings) anywhere in the universe, it would be very hard to assert that the universe existed. This is basically an idealistic philosophical outlook, or a type of modified empiricism.
ReplyDeleteI mean 'extension in the universe!! I don't write accurately when doing blog comments because writing very quick.
ReplyDeleteThere's a good contribution to the 'tree noise' debate... HERE IT IS
ReplyDeleteI was wondering where GW Bush had gone. He's looking younger these days. Accent is same as ever.
ReplyDeleteI see your point ("it is surely at least a different sort of sound") but I can't help but question what you mean by "different sort of sound". Surely there is only one kind of sound, whether people are around to hear it or not. I believe there would still be sound itself even if people had never existed, because it isn't something man created - we just named it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link by the way - I have to admit I agree with him (despite how poorly he made his point).
No - according to Kant any object (inclusing a sound wave) has one nature when it is perceived (phenomena) and another nature when it is not perceived (noumena). This seems mad and it is very counter-intuitive, but it borne out empirically by for example particle physics. Kant and Hegel (ie 19th century idealism, but is they who put this tree question) are very difficult to understand.
ReplyDeleteSEE
http://www.thatphilosophywebsite.com/articles/Theory_of_Knowlege/phenomena_noumena_kant.html