PH 202 Lecture 6: Notes for Day 6
Document Summary
He thinks that all human beings have the ability to reason, it can"t be taught, it must be acquired. Certain things are programmed into living things, but they must be used appropriately. Animals are like biological robots, they have responses and instincts programmed into them, they do not change, they are only able to do what they are programmed to do, which is why they don"t have reason. But we humans don"t act like humans, we are programmed, but we can change our responses and decisions, we can change the circuitry in our brains. Human beings have found a way to transcend the disposition of our organs (birds can fly, we can"t, but we can create planes by using reason) Machines can"t do this, animals can do this. Reason allows us humans to do things machines and animals can"t do. Reason can respond to an infinite number of circumstances.