PSYC 1100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Intelligent Design, Determinism, Solipsism

• School: UConn
• Department: Psychological Sciences
• Course: PSYC 1100
• Professor: Harvey Swadlow

Document Summary

Can we create laws for emotion, thought, cognition, etc. People"s opinion of this is based on their beliefs on other issues like: Evolution vs creationism (where we came from) Intelligent design- a creator designed us (ex: god) Creationists believe complex life forms don"t arise from simple forms. Evolutionists think natural selection/genetic variability create complexity. Biologists experiment with rats since we are distantly related. Determinism vs free will (why things happen in the world) Deterministic belief is that all events have causes (scientists) Things can be predicted if: initial condition are known, laws of system are known, have computational power to apply laws. Modern quantum physics allows some degree of random events. Free will belief- everything is predictable besides human thought and behavior (we choose this) Materialism-- only made up of matter and energy (scientists" view) Solipsism-- only made up of our mind (real world is an illusion) (unpopular view)