Further facts

High school (ages 12+)
Thinking & Learning

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/further-facts

1. What is the key thinkers?
2. What is the central debate?
3. Can something be true even if we know all the physical facts?
4. Why do some people think our feelings and thoughts might be more than just brain activity?

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the key thinkers?Derek Parfit (personal identity), David Chalmers (consciousness, indexicality, time)
2. What is the central debate?Whether reality is exhausted by physical facts (reductionism) or includes non-physical truths
3. Can something be true even if we know all the physical facts?Yes. Even if we understand all the parts of the universe, there could still be questions that science can't answer, like why we feel happy or sad.
4. Why do some people think our feelings and thoughts might be more than just brain activity?Some thinkers say that our thoughts and feelings might come from more than just brain cells. They think there could be a deeper part of us that science hasn't discovered yet.

Physicalism: The philosophical view that everything that exists is physical, or supervenes on the physical.
Qualia: The subjective, qualitative properties of conscious experience, like the 'redness' of red.
Indexicality: Words or phrases whose meaning depends on the context of their utterance, like 'I' or 'now'.