|
What is Philosophy?Many of the questions philosophers ask are asked by most people at some time in their lives, questions such as 'Is there a God?', 'Are we free to choose how to act?', 'Do we possess immortal souls?', 'How can we tell right from wrong?', 'Can science yield certain knowledge about the world?' Ordinarily, most people do not have the opportunity to think about these questions in detail. But it is the task of philosophy to examine such questions with maximum clarity, to study the various methods employed to answer them, and to assess the answers that have been proposed by thinkers over many centuries. Philosophers are thereby impelled to query what are often regarded as obvious truths presupposed in our everyday living and thinking, as well as ideas which are fundamental to all intellectual disciplines studied at university. Even though Philosophers do not agree on the answers to their questions, the activity of questioning can have significant consequences.As Bertrand Russell once stated,
the activity of questioning is valuable in it's own
right; "Philosophy is to be studied, not for the
sake of any definite answers to its questions...
but rather for the sake of the questions
themselves; because these questions enlarge
our conception of what is possible..." What are emotions from a Philosopical perspective? Well, Philosophers think a lot, so they have loads to say about emotions. One quick deffinition: Felt emotions are perceptions of bodily changes that themselves are a kind of quick and dirty indicator of important information about the world. |
an Computers Have EmotionsHot Seat Debate
Here comes the science bit
With many thanks to contributing Universities
|
|
Informatics Forum, 10 Crichton Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9AB, Scotland, UK
Tel: +44 131 651 5661, Fax: +44 131 651 1426, E-mail: school-office@inf.ed.ac.uk Please contact our webadmin with any comments or corrections. Logging and Cookies Unless explicitly stated otherwise, all material is copyright © The University of Edinburgh |
