Learning From Zombies

• "Zombie"

  

  The word comes from the Hatian folklore and refers to a corpse animated by witchcraft. In philosophy , this idea of a regular human but with no conscious experiences is known as a “philosophical zombie" or a “p-zombie" . It is an argument against physicalism - the school of thought that everything that makes us human is ultimately derived from our physical characteristics.

  Are we more than just our bodies? Philosophers argue over zombies.

• P-zombie as a Foundation to Dualism

  

  If a p-zombie is logically conceivable, a physical body minus the mental, then this possibility could support dualism -  an alternative view that sees the world consisting of not just the physical but also the mental. In other words, since a world of zombies is imaginable, all behaving purely at the physical level, why did evolution produce consciousness in humans?

  Are we more than just our bodies? Philosophers argue over zombies.

• The Physicalism Analogy: A Proof to Dualism

  Physicalism says that everything in our world is physical . If physicalism is true, everything in out world is physical including consciousness. But we can conceive of a “zombie world", a physical world without consciousness then, Physicalism is proven false, because our world consists of both physical and mental attributes. The existence of consciousness is a further, nonphysical fact about our world.

  Are we more than just our bodies? Philosophers argue over zombies.

• A Zombie's drive

  

  Zombies are unstoppable. Even though a zombie is missing a limb or two or being shot at, it just keeps on going. Although they always stumble, they always have the drive to move. And it's true what zombies say... Moving ahead in life takes brains.

  What Can Zombies Teach Us About Reaching Our Goals?

• Zombies are relatable

  There are times that we feel heavy and problems seem to weigh us down, and later on, it feels almost impossible to keep moving to what we want.. we feel lifeless, but still alive. And this can all be likened to the life of a zombie.

  What Can Zombies Teach Us About Reaching Our Goals?

• Moving forward

  

  The good thing about being a zombies is that they still have that urge to move forward to their goals  after all of the setbacks. And that attitude is what we should apply in our lives.

  What Can Zombies Teach Us About Reaching Our Goals?

• Misconceptions About Zombies

  

  A zombie is a walking corpse, a living dead. But not all walking corpse is a zombie. Unlike many other undead, the zombie is mindless, vacant, without purpose. The zombie was literally enslaved by magic to perform hard labor. Thus, it is a slave to its insatiable appetite, mindlessly consuming without need. It is a slave that was created by that which enslaves it.

  What Is the Most Important Thing Zombies Can Teach Us About Being Human? - Science and Religion Today

• How Zombies are Reflected in Life

  A lot of people have related zombies to the lives of humans, mostly social ills, including consumerism, racism, capitalism, and terrorism. Most of the films about zombies are not about the zombies themselves, but on how people cope or with the reality of the undead.

  What Is the Most Important Thing Zombies Can Teach Us About Being Human? - Science and Religion Today

• Samsara = Life of a Zombie

  

  Samsara is a belief in Buddhism meaning the cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth . It is new life, but it is still full of suffering. As long as we are alive, suffering is present because it is natural for us to wish for good things not to end even though we knew that it would. Just like the zombie which suffers because of its endless hunger, never satisfied and moves on to another prey which also ends up as a zombie.

  What Is the Most Important Thing Zombies Can Teach Us About Being Human? - Science and Religion Today

• Zombies illustrate our own ignorance

  If we realized and came to grips with the impermanence of all things, it would make no sense to become attached to them.   Ignorance of the impermanence of all things, especially our own life, leads to craving happiness through things that will all come to an end. Thus, we are like zombies stumbling mindlessly through life, denying our mortality, striving for fulfillment, finding what we achieve unsatisfying, and seeking more.

  What Is the Most Important Thing Zombies Can Teach Us About Being Human? - Science and Religion Today

• Zombie Craze as Medium and a Message

  As a medium, zombies can be used as a comparison and an example to better discuss concerns and problems in the community. It could also serve as a message to promote awareness on how zombies are being reflected in the society.

  Embrace the Zombie Apocalypse | B.K. Marcus

• Zombie Symbolism

  A lot of symbolism can be interpreted in popular zombie films.  The undead are the ultimate other of any us-and-them division, especially if you consider us to be savvy and them to be brainless. But Zombies were not used as just a frightening enemy, but were used to show the ills of the society: consumerism, capitalism, terrorism, etc. 

  Embrace the Zombie Apocalypse | B.K. Marcus

• Zombie Economics

  Zombie economics refers to theories or ideas that are long gone, but still refuse to die. At this basic metaphorical level, "zombie economics," for example, can describe socialists or free-market thinking, depending on which side you believe holds the monopoly on functioning synapses.

  Embrace the Zombie Apocalypse | B.K. Marcus

• Zombification

  

  ... refers to a powerful image of what governments try to do to their citizens — to create a uniform, homogeneous population, incapable of acting independently.

  Embrace the Zombie Apocalypse | B.K. Marcus

• Doomsday prophecies

  American popular culture is overflowing with doomsday prophecies and end-of-the-world scenarios.. is there some weird kind of wish-fulfillment at work in all these visions of near-universal death and destruction? Wish fulfillment refers to the satisfaction of a desire through an involuntary thought process such as dreams. BUT the term can be misleading. Wish fulfillment does not designate the obviously desirable things one might openly wish for.

  Embrace the Zombie Apocalypse | B.K. Marcus

• Zombie Apocalypse shows...

  

  ... might be described as federalist in spirit. The aim seems to be to reduce the size of government radically and thereby to bring it closer to the people . Cut back to regional or local units, government becomes manageable again and ordinary people get to participate in it actively, recovering a say in the decisions that affect their lives. In some cases, people lose something valuable but later on discovers that the apocalypse has some advantages: being closer with the family, more personal health care, etc.

  Embrace the Zombie Apocalypse | B.K. Marcus

• Chaos theory

  There is, at a very deep level, a growing dissatisfaction with the centralized status quo . But for most people, the solution is far from clear. In the popular imagination, central government is associated with order; the state and the society are understood to rise and fall together. What we have lost is the key insight of the classical liberal tradition that society runs itself, that liberty is the wellspring of balance and order. Not only does the growing government bureaucracy reduce our wealth and our welfare; it is also the cause of the very chaos we fear.

  Embrace the Zombie Apocalypse | B.K. Marcus