MACASADIA, KIER M.

BSBA-2B
Social Science and Philosophy (Ged 111)
Week 3 Topic: Explanation of Human Actions 

Activity # 3 
Answer the following questions:
Question #1 What is the difference between mere behavior activities, Give your own example
that was not given in the module to support your answer. 
For example, the layman uses the nervous system as a ready explanation of behavior.
At the end of a long trial we read that the jury shows signs of brain fag, that the nerves of the
accused are on edge, that the wife of the accused is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and
that his lawyer is generally thought to have lacked the brains needed to stand up to the
prosecution. Obviously, no direct observations have been made of the nervous systems of any
of these people. Their "brains" and "nerves" have been invented on the spur of the moment to
lend substance to what might otherwise seem a superficial account of their behavior.

Question # 2 What is folk psychology? Give an aspect of your life where you think it is applied.
Folk Psychology is characterized by the idea that the real me or "self" resides in my
body and is the subject of my experiences. It is a theory of mind in everyday talk about mental
states and behaviors. When such an explanation is made directly, they exhibit a "deductive
structure" that is characteristic of explanation in real science.  It is limited to two parts: the
underlying generalizations of the theory are defined for matters that cannot be dealt with, and
they lead to predictions by interacting with and involving other aspects of the person
Just think of all the assumptions we make about the clothing we are currently wearing.
For example, it is not going to melt, that it stays at a certain  temperature range in standard
conditions, that it will not protect us from bullets and so on. Similarly, folk psychology is
considered the basis for many of our social actions and judgments about the psychology of
others. It encompasses all of the assumptions we make about the correlations between people's
behavior, mental states, and surrounding conditions.
Question # 3 Differentiate reasons to causes based on the given example in the module, cite
your own and discuss it further. 
Imagine being told that someone is doing something for a reason. Perhaps they are
reading a spy novel, and we are told that their reason for doing so is that they desire to read
something exciting and believe that spy novels are indeed exciting. We then have an
explanation of the agent’s action in terms of the person’s reasons. Those who believe that
reasons are causes think that such explanations have two important features. First, they enable
us to make sense of what happens. Reading a spy novel is the rational thing for an agent to do
if they have that particular desire and belief. Second, such explanations tell us about the causal
origins of what happens. They tell us that the desires and beliefs that allow us to make sense of
actions cause those actions as well.
Question # 4 Differentiate belief, desire and action; based on the given example in the
module, cite your own and discuss it further.
Belief is one thing, while desire quite another. They play very different roles in the
economy of the mind. Desires determine our goals, and beliefs determine the perceived means
to achieve them. With action, generally requiring the activation of a matched belief-desire pair
(e.g., the belief that there is beer in the fridge plus the desire for beer).   For example, the belief
that P is the case (say, that my illness is gone) and the desire that P be the case are very
different mental states -- the possession of one without the other explaining much human
dissatisfaction.
This point of view casts in a very different light a variety of issues in philosophy of mind
and action, such as the debate about whether beliefs can, by themselves, motivate action or
whether they must be accompanied by desires; characterizations of belief and desire as having
neatly different "directions of fit"; and functional architectures of the mind that turn centrally on
the distinction between representations in the "belief box" and those in the "desire box".
Question # 5 Differentiate Holism, Individualism and Reductionism, how would apply the three
in real life scenario.
Individualism says that the individual element is an independent entity that has self-
contained properties, though, it draws on resources around it. An example is the popular idea
that the individual is responsible for his/her own fate. Your success and failure depend
ultimately on how hard you work.

Holism says that the individual element is inseparably tied to other individuals.
Individuals are interdependent, and they are internally related in the sense that each is filled
with, and constituted by the qualities of others. An example is a child in a family. The child's
psychology depends utterly on the way he/she is treated. Any natural tendencies are modulated
and moderate by experience. From this perspective, the child is not entirely responsible for
his/her behavior.

Reductionism is centered on reducing complex phenomena into their most basic parts. It
is often contrasted with holism, which is focused on looking at things as a whole.
In the example of a car, looking at each individual component can tell you a great deal about the
mechanics of the vehicle, but you will not know other details such as how comfortable the
interior is, how smooth the ride is, or how good the gas mileage will be until the pieces are
reassembled back into the whole.

Prepared by:

Joan Cristine Perez, MBA

College Professor