academic writing

Summarize Frank Jackson’s article, “Epiphenomenal Qualia,”

Jackson talks about how his “Knowledge argument” proves that Physicalism is false and compare the “Knowledge argument” with the Modal and “What is it like to be” argument to find the argument with the “greatest polemical utility.”

In his “Knowledge argument”, he gives an example of Fred being able to see colours that nobody else can. He states that even if we know all every physical nature of Fred, it does not mean we know everything about Fred. This shows that Physicalism is incomplete.

The example for the Modal argument is an alternate world with humans without conscious mental life. Everything physically is the same yet there is something more in us than just purely physical. Hence, Physicalism is false. The problem of the Modal argument is that it rest on a disputable modal intuition. And not everybody agree with the intuition after thinking about it again. Hence, “Knowledge argument” is better.

The “What is it like to be X” argument shows that we cannot imagine what it is like to be X regardless of the amount of physical information we have. However, it is not a problem for Physicalism as it does not claim that such extrapolation is possible.

(200 words)

Critical Reflection

The role of peer and tutor feedback.

When I thought about ES1102, I expected a standard General Paper (GP) lesson where the tutor is going to reteach the English language. This sound boring to me. However, this course was not an ordinary English lesson. There is a fun and interactive way of learning through group discussion, peer evaluation, writing many drafts where different people are evaluating and lastly one to one consultation with the tutor regarding on how to improve my essay. Because of the importance of feedback which allow one to become a better person by learning about what others think about him, peers and tutor should take initiative to give feedback to one another.

The thought of having a peer to review what I had written is very intimidating as I am afraid that I may make mistakes that are considered trivial. However, the peer review made me realised that I am not the only person who is making the same mistake. Many of us do in fact make such a mistake and we are not voicing out because we do not want to embarrasses ourselves. Since I know that I am not the only one who is making the same mistake, I am willing and able to express myself infront of the class to clarify my doubts regarding certain problems I face in this lesson. In addition, peer reviews encourage giving feedbacks to others.  These feedbacks are important as they show me my areas of improvement and I am able to find both my strength and weakness. Reading other's post too make me feel like I understand them better personally.

The tutor feedback is also very important as the tutor serve as a role model to us. The tutor's feedback is very detailed and he focus on both our mistakes and good points. Through his feedback, I've learn many things such as how to do references and citation, how to make a good topic sentence and presentation skills. Such skills are important in both our university life and working life.

In conclusion, feedbacks are important. When in doubt, ask questions. When we find something is wrong, ask questions. Life is about questioning and understanding it from everyone's experience.

With that, I am glad I came into this class because of our tutor and the friendship that I've made. Thank you for the very fun first semester this course had created for me. :D

Presentation Reflection

I felt that the presentation went well. There is good interaction with the audience, self-confidence, good flow and tone. However, i find that it i abit messy during the middle of the presentation and my audience lost my train of thoughts. This can be improved by organising my slides in a better way and remembering keywords to prompt me whenever I am blank out during a presentation.