problem One:Advanced Drawing Through Distance Education
Art 93 E Fall, 2002
Pproblem One:
The Ghost in the Machine
"I think, therefore I am....From this I knew that I was a substance, the whole essence or nature of which is to think, and that for its existence there is no need of any place, nor does it depend on any material thing..." Rene Descartes LINK
Descartes put forth the idea that soul and body are two separate entities. The soul affects the body and the body affects the soul. Every action by the human is either an action of the body or of the soul, never both together. Gilbert Ryle argued that the mind is not a non-physical substance residing in the body, "a ghost in a machine," but a set of capacities and abilities belonging to the body. The "ghost in the machine" is a derogatory term coined by Ryle to abuse Dualism - the theory that human beings are comprised of a tangible body and an intangible mind. It is the notion that a person is an ethereal soul that inhabits a physical body. The mind/soul continues after death, enjoying or suffering a conscious existence, just minus a body that can interact with the material world in space and time.
" In (Daniel) Dennett's theory, not just Cartesian dualism but the Cartesian subject – the active, conscious agent of human action which Descartes introduced into modern philosophy – has disappeared. It's a move that postmodernists applaud, for they too have a virtual view of the self. As historian Jeffrey Weekes puts it, 'The individual is constituted in the world of language and symbols which come to dwell in, and constitute, the individual.'"-Kenan Malik
"The will takes on the character of a homunculus—a little man who resides in the mind and acts as the “central executive” of the cognitive enterprise. The homunculus seems to be the ruler of the mind, the maker of choices, and the kernel of identity..." David C. Noelle
Experience underscores the problem of having both a body and a mind, especially experience with the absurd contrast between the rhythms and needs of the body and the carefully preserved intelligence of the mind. The body at times seems to hold the mind hostage.
Deus Ex Machina
The word Mechanism is a derivative of the Greek word mechane (which means machine, or machine elements as an assemblage of machines). It was used for the first time by Homer in the Iliad to describe political manipulation. It was used with its modern meaning first in Aeschylos' time to describe the stage machine used to bring the gods or the heroes on stage.
It was known by the Latin term Deus ex machina.
(day'us ex mahk'uh-nuh)
None of these machines exits today. However, there are numerous references to such machines in tragedies and comedies and vase paintings from which they can be reconstructed: They are large mechanisms consisting of beams, wheels and ropes which could raise weights up to one ton and, in some cases, move them back and forth violently to depict space travel.
(If you are a student with a verified disability, please notify the instructor of your needs for accommodations as soon as possible. Authorized accommodations and alternative media will be provided as appropriate)
