Religon

One thing that has always really bothered me is the way people react when they here the word "religon" or "god" or anything related to this. I find it really disrespectful for people to be put off by it so quickly. thats not to say I'm not also put off by people with religous views pushing their thoughts onto others who clearly aren't interested. Another thing I really wish religons did was push the views alittle bit - i realize now in days you can be labeled as "non denominational" but people with other views- why can't they push the boundries alittle bit -actually think about whats out their and experience and learn about other religons? I do respect traditions that are often played in catholic, jewish, muslim etc. religons but they seem so meaningless and overdone. I also really dislike how one sided religous - or athiest people are. I really want people to be more open to the ideas of whats out their and not completely turn different ideas off.

How should you live

I want to live my life by being the best I can be each day. My parents have always emphasized to not put things off until tommorrow, that you can do today.

Acquiring material things like that new release of the iPad doesn't make a person complete or deliver real happiness. One needs to take a step back and understand that a simple act of kindness toward your classmate, a relative, friend or homeless person on the street is an important way to live a fulfilling life. Personal sacrifice should be a priority in our lives as we can lend a hand to help out physically or monetarily, it's really pretty simple. In times of crisis like the devastation of a Tsunami, hurricanes or tornadoes, we can get involved.

Part of living life each day is that we should be aware and respectful of the environment around us. The little things add up, as it's easy to recycle or donate items you no longer need.

Try to discover your own, unique passion in life and follow that path to the best of your ability. It sounds like alot to live up to, but trying to live a well balanced life is something we should all strive for.

The Real World

This is basically a response to both Keller and Chevy's opinions on the nature of reality. They both argued that reality is subjective, and that different people see things in different ways. It's extremely easy to see where they're coming from as artists. Give a classroom of twenty people twenty identical apples to paint and you will get twenty completely different paintings of apples.

Individual perspectives are extremely important to the nature of reality because without human observation, there would be no one to assert that it existed or had a nature at all. I agree that their are discrepancies between the way that individuals relate back reality both to themselves and others. However, that is an error in the communication of the mind and the senses.

There is an objective reality or we would not all be able to point to two apples and observe they look exactly the same. When we look at the apple we are seeing the same apple everyone else in the room is seeing, but it is impossible to copy all the complexities of the apple, even though we are seeing them at once, so we invent or simplify the apple in our painting.

I enjoy speculating that the physical world may very well not exist, that I could be creating a reality all in my own mind and that my memory is the only reality that will ever be. Or that since we can never know what reality is when not faultily relaid through human observation and memory, we can assume that only our differing versions of it exist, each equally true.

Despite this speculation, I am for all intents and purposes, a practical person, and so I will continue to operate as if the material world is real and objective.

How Should We Live?

I wish everyone would just live for themselves. Doesn't that sound selfish? Maybe but I keep getting caught up in Aristotle's Vices and Virtues theory. Selfless and selfish. The excess of a virtue is a vice. Sort of like to much of a good thing is bad. Everywhere I go I see people who live there lives for everyone but themselves. I guess this sort of goes back to the discussion we had in class but I feel like to some extent you have to make yourself happy before you can make someone else happy. To many times good, selfless people lose themselves because they stop doing what is right for themselves and they live only to maintain the happiness of others. Like a host for a parasite... but hey, I guess this is what I'm about to tell you all about tomorrow so I suppose I should stop there!

So Much

I went to Barnes and Noble the other day and took alook at the philosophy section. I first tried to find a book on Descartes only to find that their are a vast amount. Many differnt views on descartes readings and interpretations but not only on descartes but their is an incredible amount of different theories, views and ideas on philosophy. I would really like to read more into philosophy but I do not want to shorthand myself by reading an overview of many different philosophers ideas, I feel it does not do them justice. but at the same time, how could I possibly read so many different ideas and thoughts without complete confusion? It will take a lifetime or more.

a common thread...

you know, one thing that i'm finding, both in people's presentations and my own doodlings, is that we really cannot answer just one of the five questions without answering and questioning another. for example, what is god like? that leads into questioning reality, which in turn leads into what exactly it is that we can know. I found it entirely interesting that, when people were presenting, more often than not (so far anyways) the presenter would end up answering  or involving the idea of one of the other questions in their response. philosophy, i have discovered (occasionally with much frustration) is a very circular subject, meaning one without an end. you can banter all you like, but there's always going to be something you've missed, something you haven't answered. how can we expect to find any one truth if we'll never be done questioning it?! perhaps that is the truth, that there is none. anyways, just found that interesting. sort of went off there a bit. but i'm sure you get the gist. i can only hope.

The Standard of Empathy

One thing I sort of forgot to go in depth about in my presentation today was my idea of the importance of empathy. As human beings we share experiences because we have the same set of emotions and react to certain situations in the same way. Although there are a variety of ways different people might react to the same situation, we can all put ourselves in the shoes of another person and understand on some level why they might react the way they do. At the very least we understand when we see a specific emotion in another person. For example if we see someone who is sad we have an emotional reaction in empathy for their sadness.

This is the reason we feel guilt when we fail to help another person. We know or can at least imagine the situation they're in, and we, at least subconsciously want to help them, just as we would want to help ourselves in the same situation. It's also the reason we have strong emotional reactions to plays and books and other forms of story-telling.

In this way, harming others really harms ourselves. This is an idea I borrowed from Marcus Aurelius, but he would say that the reason harming others harms ourselves is because we are going against the force of cosmic order, not because we feel guilt at inflicting harm on other people that we can feel through empathy on ourselves.