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René Descartes Evil Demon Thought Experiment

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the brain in a vat (alternately known as brain in a jar) is a situation used in a diversity of thought experiments intended to draw out certain features of our ideas of knowledge such as, reality, truth, mind, and meaning. It is an updated version of René Descartes' Evil Demon thought experiment originated by Gilbert Harman. Common to many science fiction stories, it outlines a scenario in which a mad scientist, machine, or other entity might remove a person's brain from the body, suspend it in a vat of life-sustaining liquid, and connect its neurons by wires to a supercomputer which would provide it with electrical impulses identical to those the brain normally receives. According to such stories, the computer would then be simulating reality
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This passage occurred after Dr. H. H. Holmes had to explain the whereabouts of Emeline Cigrand, a young woman he had proposed to. When fiercely question by Mrs. Lawrence, one of Holmes 's tenants and a friend of Emeline’s, he swiftly replies that she is gone to be married in secret and produces a cheaply printed leaflet announcing her engagement to Robert E. Phelps. Larson 's purpose in this passage is to display the poor level of security that people felt in Chicago at the time, the little faith they had in the police force as well as the impersonal feelings they had toward fellow Chicagoans. Larson uses the repetition of the words “no,” and “not,” when depicting the reaction from both his tenants and friends/family of Emeline’s after her sudden disappearance to connect the passage to one of the overall themes of The Devil in the White City- modernity and anonymity.

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In the video of the Stanley Milgram Experiment People were given roles as teachers and students. The students had been hooked up to an electrical system were they had been received questions and whenever they had answered incorrectly they received a dosage of electricity and got progressively got stronger each time they were wrong. At a certain point the student stopped responding to pain and the scientist had kept making them give a voltage. Some People discontinued the experiment.

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Throughout The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen and The Color of Fire by Ann Rinaldi, there were many obvious similarities but also several key differences. While analyzing the two stories, comparisons between characters, setting, point of view and theme became apparent. Both stories discuss characters who overcame a struggle in their lives. These historical fiction pieces help readers understand the hardships of certain historical events and the reality of life for people living in those eras. The connections between stories will help readers make connections between important events of the past.

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870 Words | 4 Pages

A History of Misgiven Information Genocides are the mass killings of a group of people, and sometimes even an entire race. The Holocaust is one of the largest genocides that the world has ever seen. Because society is not educated on these horrific events, genocides continue to take place. Society has moved forward in so many forms of communication that there are numerous ways to convey the message of remembering a genocide.

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676 Words | 3 Pages

the story the devil’s arithmetic is about a girl named hannah and she has a bestfriend named rosemary and they are both from a jewish family and they don’t like going to the sender because they are the only kids there and after that they went over hannah’s grandparents house and they haven’t seen her in a long time and they have a sender dinner and after that they went in the living room and saw that hannah’s grandpa was yelling at the tv because he was looking at the old films of the concentration camps and seen what the nazis were doing to the victims .after that they went to the sender to have sunday school and they see hannah’s cousins that are age and they go have their lessons .and every holiday they light up candles .and they were having

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842 Words | 4 Pages

The Demon in the Freezer: Anthrax and Smallpox The Demon in the Freezer was a very interesting read. The book talks about the anthrax attacks that happen after 9/11 and how smallpox could become a future bioterrorist threat in the world. The book provides a lot details on the Germany outbreak of smallpox.

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1152 Words | 5 Pages

In 1945 Elizabeth Bowen published her short story “The Demon Lover”, in which the main character, Kathleen Drover, returns to her war torn home in London during the midst of World War II and finds a letter supposedly from her ex fiancé who has been presumed dead for 25 years. The story ends with the main characters abduction, presumably by her ex fiancé. Since its publication, “The Demon Lover” has been subject to much debate over the meaning of the events in the story. In his article “Psychosis or Seduction” Daniel V. Fraustino attempts to refute Douglas A. Hughes’s claim that the events in the story are hallucinations, the result of Mrs. Drover having a mental breakdown (Fraustino 483). Instead, Fraustino argues for a much more literal interpretation of the story, calling it “a mystery of high suspense” (483).

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Over the course of the Romanticism period, many ideas were expressed throughout art but one of the common concepts was death and humanity. “The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving and “Dr Heidegger's Experiment” by Edgar Allan Poe both use imagination, idealism, and the notion of life and death in their writing. Writers during the Dark Romanticism era use death into their writing by using symbolism and irony to show that death and aging is inescapable. Symbolism during the Romantic period was predominantly used to show the main character’s possible future. When it’s first shown, the trees in the forest that Tom Walker walks into in “The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving are meant to represent the great men of the town.

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1348 Words | 6 Pages

Historical Fiction is a genre that has some qualities that are historically accurate, but it also has some qualities that are historically inaccurate. The Demon in the Teahouse is a book written by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler that takes place in Japan during the Edo Period. The main character is Seksei who has to go through many quests in order to solve the murder mystery of a young geisha. He is adopted by Judge Ooka in order to train to become a samurai. Before this, he was the son of a merchant who was not able to move up in the caste system.

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794 Words | 4 Pages

“The Devil and Tom Walker” and “The Devil and Daniel Webster”-- these Faust legends tell stories of ordinary men with thirsts for wealth and luck only in exchange for their very souls. Both were written in different time periods, where certain events and happenings influenced each of the stories and their conflicts. Washington Irving wrote “The Devil and Tom Walker” during a time of economic boom (1824). Stephen Vincent Benet wrote “The Devil and Daniel Webster” during a time of economic depression (1937). Despite the stories’ titles, both have different resolutions, depictions of the devil, and saving graces in the end.

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332 Words | 2 Pages

Shane is a lonely soul who can sing like an angel, but he is stuck in a small town in a dead end job. He has no family and very few friends. Shane dreams of becoming the next big rock god. One night while bar tending at the local strip club, he overhears two patrons discussing making a deal with a crossroads demon. Not truly believing the myth, Shane goes about collecting the items needed to summon the demon, then goes to the crossroads to see for himself if the urban legend is true.

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618 Words | 3 Pages

In Dante’s Inferno, Dante Alighieri's depiction of Satan at the bottom of hell reveals the theme that in Hell the punishment is always befitting of the due to the fact that the lower you go, the farther that person is from god. The picture of Satan satisfies the reader because he shows that he is the opposite of god and that he is full of evil. Lucifer is the demon in the circles of hell which he has three faces, and bat like wings in which he creates the cold wind where the sinners suffer. “The face in the middle was red, the color of anger. The face on the right was white blended with yellow, the color of impotence.

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679 Words | 3 Pages

This short documentary ‘’ Fast Food, Fat Profits: Obesity in America’’ presented by Josh Rushing focused on the rise of obesity in America among young adult. According to this documentary, obesity has reached a crisis point in America, as two out of every three Americans are overweight. While there are many factors that played a role in this issue, he believed that cheap food, food deserts and processed food are the reasons why one out of every three Americans is obese in our country. Back in the days, malnutrition and food shortage have been the scourge of humankind. However, as chronic food shortage issue has been resolved, we are now faced with the epidemic of obesity, and in most countries, it is now recognized as a public health crisis.

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262 Words | 2 Pages

One scientist decides to take upon the task to figure out what is going on and dissects his own brain. Through the scientific method, the scientist discovers that because the atmospheric pressure rising that the air passing through their brain is slower. The slower the air passing through their brain, the slower their brains perform. This discovery led to the

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2229 Words | 9 Pages

I. Descartes – Evil Genius Problem A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF DESCARTES’ THEORY The Doubts about the Evil Genius Doubt 1. Does the evil genius exist? Although it may seem trivial to question the hypothetical being, Descartes’ arguments are also phrased cunningly to avoid questions.

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