Nick's Place

Desire-Makeup Final Exam

Irvine-W '03

Start 7:10PM

End 9:10PM

1. Comment on the following claim: "We determine our own tastes with respect to food."

Our tastes to food are determined by a number of different factors. At birth we will eat nearly anything, so much in fact that parents must watch what goes into their newborn's mouths (once of course they get the ability to place things into their mouths)

Then a few years later, children lose any curiosity to their pallet and are extremely picky. From this point on people's pallets are determined within their social influences. For instance people raised within the stricter varieties of the Jewish faith will not eat, horse, pork, or shellfish as these are biblically and theologically determined that these should not be eaten. This variety of tastes restrictions can be changed, for example, my maternal grandmother was raised within the Jewish faith, upon meeting my grandfather, a Catholic, she tried pork for the first time, and apparently liked it. She up until her death liked pork and ate pork.

Another method in which tastes can be determined is by Pavlov's response, where if you have a bad physical reaction in close proximity to eating an item, you'll develop an aversion to it. An example of this is Robert Ornstein's story that he developed an aversion to filet mignon with béarnaise sauce after becoming violently ill at the opera. This aversion was tied to the food specifically, not to the opera or his wife (whom he went with.)

One last comment about food tastes and cultures. I personally observed how society influences our pallets while I was serving at Chili's, I was serving a group of Indian people, (from the sub-continent, not Native Americans) they were devouring Jalapeno slices as if we would devour chips or French fries, raw and not in any other dish.

2. What does Robert H. Frank mean by a "league"?

Leagues are peer groups of people with roughly the same social rank.

3. Who are we most likely to regard as a rival, a neighbor or someone in a distant land? According to evolutionary psychology, why?

We are most likely to regard a neighbor as a rival instead of someone in a distant land. According to evolutionary psychology this would be because the result of the survival struggle depends on whom you compete with directly for resources. It is unlikely that Bill Gates and I are ever going to have to compete over the same item, but it is far more likely that my next-door neighbor will want and have to compete over the same thing.

4. What is mindblindness? Who suffers from it?

Mindblindness is the inability to realize that others have emotions, ideas, and desires. Autistics often suffer from mindblindness, in one degree or another. In addition (I'm not sure if I read this in your book or not.) Children up until the age of three lack the ability to understand what other people know and don't know, specifically they think everyone knows everything that they know, they are blind to the knowledge of others. Finally Steven Johnson argues in his book Emergence, that the ability to read other people's minds is biological, not just trough observation. In the experiments he describes they note that a specific part of an ape's brain in active if they are doing specific, or they are observing another ape perform the same task. He argues that we have evolved to read minds, and have neurons dedicated to the task.

5. What happened to Michael Persinger?

He experienced God after having transcranial magnetic stimulation.

6. Explain the differences between cases of akinetic mutism and locked-in syndrome.

Akinetic mutism is a condition that affects stroke victims; they can move but do not see a reason to move. (i.e. they have no desire to move. Whereas locked-in syndrome is caused by damage to the brain stem, the person involved wants to move, but cannot, because of physical differences. Akinetic mutism reduces desires, locked-in syndrome does not.

7. Describe the experiments of Robert Heath.

The experiment described involves electrical stimulation of the septal area, and other regions of the limbic-hypothalamic circuit. He was able to cure a depressed patient, who immediately “felt good”.

8. What is the ideal of conscious agency?

The ideal of conscious agency, is a technique people use to hide the fact that we are doing something we did not chose to do, specifically we change revise our beliefs about what we want. Therefore we believe that we consciously choose what we wanted, even though we did not.

9. Judging from the work of Antonio Damasio, what would happen to us if we lost our emotions and became perfectly rational?

We would have an inability to make decisions, because we would have no desires to push us either way. He describes a patient that took 30 minute to decide on when to schedule the next appointment

A book not here, you use “…for psychological observation” - this in my mind is not correct, he works with neurologically damaged patients, not psychologically unstable patients.

10. What are the advantages of non-medical solutions to the problem of desire?

The advantages of non-medical solutions to the problems of desire are that they treat the cause rather than the symptom of the problem with the desire. A person who can look at the problem of desire is more likely to see how his desires have affected him, and have or have not provided him with lasting happiness; therefore he can focus on the desires that provide him lasting happiness.

11. Describe the timber frame construction analogy.

The timber frame construction analogy is used to elaborate on a Buddhist technique for thinking about the negatives of a desire to push the desire out of your mind. The metaphor specifically states that when repairing a rotten peg in a timber frame construction you pound a new peg into its spot to displace it, because the peg cannot be removed, because the structure would collapse. In a similar way you cannot remove a desire by brute force easily, but you can displace it.

12. Do Zen Buddhists desire to overcome desire? Why or why not?

Zen Buddhism is supposed to allow those who practice it to over come desire while not desiring to over come desire. Specifically, they over come desire by focusing on something else, perhaps practicing zazen, solving a koan, washing the floor, cooking a meal, etc. But, it could be argued because they are practicing zazen, or solving a koan they have indeed at one point desired to overcome desire, but at that moment do not desire to overcome desire.

13. Comment on the following claim: "Christianity doesn't reward us for being insatiable."

Christianity awards us for being insatiable in certain ways. Seeking wealth is rewarded, whereas following every sexual desire is not. Wishing to follow god consistently is not rewarded.

14. Comment on the following claim: "Since there is not Buddhist heaven, Buddhism must provide benefits to its followers here and now."

This is not true, whereas Buddhists don't have a heaven, they are reincarnated, so therefore they are seeking a higher state in the future, but this future will be on earth, and not in heaven.

15. Compare and contrast the Amish and the Hutterites.

The Amish and the Hutterites are on first examination very similar, they both shun the world; they keep pride in check, and surrender themselves to a higher cause. The Hutterites don't share the Amish prohibitions against technology; they use vehicles, and tractors, and have electric ovens and freezers that run of the electric grid, whereas these aren't allowed within Amish society.

The most striking difference is their views on private property. The Amish have private property, and generally have the views to property that the rest of western society holds. The Hutterites on the other hand are communalists; they live in a cluster of apartment buildings with an adjacent dining facility as well as a church. The reasoning behind this is that private property gives rise to desires, specifically the desire to have what someone else has.

16. Compare and contrast the Shakers and the members of the Oneida community.

The members of the Shakers and the Oneida community are strikingly similar, with the one major exception being how they treated sexual relations. The Shaker's forbid sexual relations because they caused a division within the community. The Oneida community on the other hand encouraged sexual intercourse between all members. The Oneida community did share the Shaker belief that sexual relations that were stronger between two people could cause a division, and thus forbade “special love” and they were subjected to communal pressure.

17. Comment on the following claim: "Capitalism doesn't ask us to curb our desires."

Capitalism asks us not to curb our desires but to structure our desires. Capitalism specifically demands that we plan for tomorrow's desires, and forgo today's desires. In starting a business you must invest time, energy and money to obtain a future reward. College is the same formula; you must invest time, energy and money and might obtain a future reward.

Capitalism also asks that we curb greed and work within the rules to act upon them, we cannot steal from others. It also requires that we seek to satisfy other's desires and not our own, and seek to satisfy them.

18. What do Stoicism and Zen Buddhism have in common?

Stoicism and Zen Buddhism have both fatalism and an acknowledgement of the transitory nature of life in common. Buddhists and Stoics both rely on not over reacting to what happens; specifically they feel that everything was just going to happen.

19. What is soft fatalism?

Soft fatalism is a variation on fatalism. Whereas fatalism states that something could not be done, soft fatalism states that it was impossible for you given the circumstances to do it. It is acknowledging your personal limits, an acknowledging that you did your best, within your limits.

20. Why are Epicureans interested in the study of science?

Epicureans are interested in the study of science because they see it as a method for gaining tranquility. He argues that if we study natural science we have a chance at attaining “our pleasures unalloyed.”

21. How much did it cost Thoreau to feed and shelter himself?

It cost him $0.27 per week to feed himself. It cost him $28 to build his shelter.

22. Can a person convert to eccentricity, the way he might convert to Buddhism? Why or why not?

A person cannot convert to eccentricity the way one might convert to Buddhism, because eccentricity is something that in innate. People have an eccentricity capacity, and they can choose to practice it or, instead suppress it. But whereas you can truly practice Buddhism in private, being an eccentric requires publicly stating and demonstrating your nonconformity, once it is demonstrated, you cannot convert back, without moving away from all who have seen your eccentricity, but you can convert back from Buddhism.

23. How did Schopenhauer divide his discussion of "the fundamental differences in human lot"?

He divided it into three classes:

24. What, according to Schopenhauer, is the difference between honor and fame?

According to Schopenhauer the differences between honor and fame. Others bestow fame upon someone, whereas honor is something that anyone can obtain. Honor is based on what someone has done, but fame is based on what someone can do. Honor can be bestowed upon many, but fame upon a comparatively few number of people.

25. What, according to Schopenhauer, should our goal in living be?

According to Schopenhauer ones goals in living should be to live a quiet, tolerable life, and limit our desires to this, to make it easier to achieve. He argues that we should reduce our claims (desires) to make it easier to be happy.

26. According to Schopenhauer, how do “limits” affect our happiness?

According to Schopenhauer limits are the way in which we can make it easier to obtain happiness. Another way of describing limits is goals. If we have large wide goals it means, “our cares, desires and terrors are increased and intensified.” But if we were to limit our goals (perhaps as children do) we make it easier to obtain them, and therefore easier to obtain happiness.

27. Describe Schopenhauer's views on politeness.

Schopenhauer sees politeness of an agreement to forgo mentioning another's “miserable defects” He furthermore sees politeness as a desirable activity as it makes it easier to persuade people and obtain what you wish. Furthermore it is not wise to be thrifty with politeness because using it in moderation does not harm your position.

28. Describe Schopenhauer's views on fate.

Schopenhauer views seeing life as fated as a necessity. He also states that if a man sees all as truth he will do what he can try to do and take the defeats and endure them. If we can see the little differences that we hold with other people and hold them at arms length and see them as something that just happened and not worthy of thought or reflection.