Nancy Pearcey Issues - Coursework Example

Nancy Pearcey 2. After reading the piece, list each “they” whom Pearcey cites, commenting on how she uses each. Does she agree, disagree? Is she neutral? How can you tell? a) They would be even more disturbed if they saw Pinkers justification for his views in a book that appeared about the same time b) They are more or less blunt about this epistemological imperialism. c) They insist that naturalistic science has completely discredited the claims of religion. d) They keep the question of true and false off the table altogether. e) They conduct experiments that are described as "reverse engineering" to determine what functions biological structures perform. f) They talk about "libraries" of genetic information stored in DNA, g) They open the door to a much richer definition of knowledge and of reason itself. All the sentences above shows that Pearcey is neutral as she just points how different grouped reacts to different phenomena 3. Find 10 examples of metacommentary, discussing whether each is effective. What is she trying to accomplish? Does it work? If not, how could she better achieve her goal? “Whose behavior is uncaused?" Yet, "the world, as seen by science, does not really have uncaused events." In the use of the word yet in this sentence she does not need a simplistic vocabulary. She has chosen a simple word to interject the whole statement from the flow. 4 Who is Pearcey’s primary audience? Pearcey’s primary audience is the religious groups as most of her statements have religious undertones than political. She tries to explain the difference in opinion between different religions and comparing different religious backgrounds. The knowledge may not be easily comprehensible to the average person, it need some background in science and philosophy to understand her argument properly 5. Purpose: The essay is both informative and persuasive. For one it informs the audience about the latest development in science, religion and philosophy and tries to persuade the audience to look at the world from the materialistic, positivism traditionalist views. 6. Thesis: ethics does not find a home in science because ethics if based on uncaused events while science does require caused events 7. Vocabulary: Infanticide: this term also referes to the intentional killing of infants or the actual homicide of infants. Neonaticide: this is the intentional killing of newborn babies within 24 hours of birth. Double truth” theory: the belief that philosophy and religion can lead to non detrimental effect Scientism: the belief that only science can explain the phenomenon in the world and not religion Positivism: is a philosophical system that prescribes only to data of various experiences and does not include a priori or other metaphysical speculations. Cultural priesthood: the kind of priesthood developed around a specific group of people or culture Epistemological imperialism: human being is initiated elite and have the full knpwledge, therefore none can claim that their knowledge is valid Cultural zoo: cultural tradition that is reenacted in the modern times in the names of cultural preservation for tourism. Nihilism: is the philosophical doctrine that suggests that people should negate putatively meaningful part of life. Speciesism: the act of assigning different values to different species, for example assigning human being superiority to other animals. Materialism: this is the preference for material objects and rejection of spiritual and cultural values Computational theory: this is a philosophical concept that argues that the mind of human being, functions like a computer Reductionist: are philosopher who believe theories are related and therefore, one theory can e reduced to another theory or another phenomenon. Postmodernism: This is the philosophy arguing that realities are just social constructs that are likely to change with time. 8. How does the structure of this text add to its effectiveness, or not? The structure of the text adds quite little to the effectiveness of the text. For one, the paper lacks coherence and full of philosophical jargons at the expense of information. This also interferes with the general flow of the paper. However, if the paper was intended for specific audience like philosopher, it has a positive standing, but it is not presentable for general exhibition based on grammar and lexical jargons. Personally, reference to a subject in the essays and use of proper amount of vocabulary may make the paper coherent therefore increasing the readability of the paper 9. Do you think that Pearcey summarized what Pinker said about the fundamental premise of ethics correctly? What might Wolfe have to say about this? The summary for the fundamental premise of ethics by Percey is almost perfect as she also indicates point from different thinkers such as Johnson, Harris, and the rest to prove her point about ethics, epistemology and science. She proves that science disapproved ethics. She also explain how ethics is based on idealization such as free sentient, and uncaused behavior, while the scientific world has no uncaused event 10. Do you think that most students have been taught a fact/values dichotomy in some form? Where do we get our views on this kind of thing? Do you believe that there is a culture clash? If so, who is winning? Why? Consider how entertainment and news media, education, religious organizations, the courts, and each individual’s gut feeling on the matter influence how they see this issue. 11. Para. 10: Do you think that Weinberg’s perspective a common one? What does it mean for science to be neutral about the existence of God? What would Pearcey say? Weinberg? Sam Harris? The perspective of determinism and modernism is common to everyone because the existence of god is relative to everybody. Different people have different opinion about the existence of god 12. Why do Larson and Witham think that the NAS survey is ironic? They believe it is iconic as it process that people define God differently and that fewer and fewer scientists are getting to know their personal God. 13. Put NOMA in your own words. You can draw a diagram or picture of this if you want. Give an example of NOMA. How many scientific disciplines would easily fit into this paradigm? Where wouldn’t it work? (If you use an example of ethics rather than religion, explain why ethics must coincide with religion.) The non-overlapping magisterial is a very practical concept as science and religion attempt to use deferment methods to realize a common goal or knowledge. It is therefore healthy to argue that the few scientific disciplines will find a home in NOMA. For example, biology, chemistry and physic all emphasize nature. However, there are some things that religion fails explain but science can explain and vice versa. 14. Para. 14-15: What did the pope mean? How about Gould? Pope was trying to indicate how people have come to abuse religion and Christianity, how people have come to value less the power of God and turned to scientism 15. Para. 28-29: What might Wolfe have to say about this “inescapable logic”? How about Harris? Both Wolfe and Harris would have argued against the inescapable logic as they believe everything has a cause that can easily be escaped. Harris and Wolfe had similar opinion on logic 16. What might Pinker say about traditional moralists’ views on, say, post-birth abortion? “Partial-birth” abortion? How about hate speech? Race-motivated violence? How about Johnson? traditional moralist were against post birth abortion because they feel that abortion is murder. If abortion was to be carried out to protect the mother, then that is also murder. According to the traditional moralist, better the mother and the child die than when the child is murdered. Johnson was also strenuously bitter about hate speech and other race motivated violence just like traditional moralist 17. Para. 32: This is a key thought. Put in your own words. 18. Pearcey believes that intelligent design implications would lead to “preserving a free and humane society”? What does she mean? Why might she think this? The argument that intelligent design is important in the preservation of the humane society is true because, it contributes the general innovativeness and inventiveness in human being therefore creating ways for self preservation. By this, Pearcey means that if men are intelligent, they can invent ways for preserving the society from the biological and environmental harm. This is mainly caused by death anxiety Read More