...is not always a bad thing! I'm happy about what's to come, both class wise and life wise, and having trouble sleeping tonight because of it. Might as well do something worthwhile!
So! First impressions on classes this semester:
Spanish sounds like it's going to be intense, but ok. I know enough from before to get by at the start, and the homework thus far has been weighty, but useful. It's mostly just exercises and things, but later we have to do what is called a 'composition' which will just be a short paper on some topic the Professor assigns. The professor herself is kind of funny. Her name is Wha Sook Kim (pronounced 'Fasook Kim' with a light f) and she looks distinctly oriental, yet has a very thick Spanish accent. She's pretty intense, but more than willing to repeat herself or rephrase a question for us if we don't understand her. The class was supposed to have like 18 students, but about 4 didn't show and 5 hadn't actually met the requirements for it (which the professor says hasn't happened before), so we're a class of under ten.
Environmental Ethics looks like it's going to be awesome. I know the professor from last year and I like him a lot, and the homework is the same as well: keep up with the weekly reading and write some questions on it when it's your group's turn. The reading topics are exactly what I was hoping for: historical roots of our current crisis, ideals of 'human excellence' and what this should mean, the rights of non-humans including animals and, in some cases, plants, and just general philosophical questions about Environmentalism as a whole. And that's just the first half of the year; after that, he's letting us look through the second section of the textbook and deciding which areas look most interesting to us. Part of it will include how these discussions and problems can be to influence policy-making too, which is exciting for me. I'd like to be able to focus all of this philosophical mumbo-jumbo into real, useful situations.
History of Ethics looks good too, mostly just because I don't know a whole lot about how ethics and what is considered morally acceptable or not has changed since ancient Greece. I was disappointed to hear that it will be strictly Western, but I think the workload would be enormous otherwise, so no biggie. The focus is going to be on ancient Greece, modernism, and a little bit of 'post-modernism' (only in quotes because of how it appeared in the syllabus) including a good body of work by an influential philosopher in this past century named Bernard Williams, whom the professor has a lot of respect for. The class is pretty big, about 25 students, and there seems to be a lot more Freshmen than in the others. I'm hoping I'll have a bit of an edge with my experience last semester, but who knows.
Sociology looks fascinating. After the Professor (who is a visiting graduate student from UCLA) starting talking about the focus of the class, I realized how closely it will tie in to what I've already taken. All last semester I heard about how effective economical policy is greatly affected by public opinion and the current state of the populace, and about how the ancestors of mankind banded together and developed from tiny groups to our modern cities based only on their own group dynamics. This class will go a long ways in helping me understand the motives behind past decisions, and will hopefully give me a much better perspective into what motivates groups and individuals in the choices they make. The class has a ton of reading assignments, but these look interesting too. The books tend to focus on different aspects of society, including the need for security with fear (among other things) as a motivator, the same issues trough the perspectives of many people of different races and backgrounds, and, interestingly, the experience of college life and its effects on students. I kind of wish I had taken this course before holding any leadership role in scouts; it sounds like it would have been useful.
Alright, I think I'm tired enough to sleep now. Time to hit the hay. I leave you with a haiku I scribbled while waiting for Sociology to start:
No moss, rolling stone;
too busy for life to grow,
it misses the point.
Good morning, and have a pleasant today!
Friday, January 23, 2009
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Post-Christmas doldrums...
I'm not sad or anything, but after all of the hustle-n'-bustle of the Holiday Season, sitting at home for hours watching TV and hanging out with my cat just doesn't seem to fill in the hours like it did before. It makes me appreciate being busy with school work.
Hah! It reminds of a character I like in Catch 22. In an effort to make his life last as long as possible, the character Dunbar actively seeks out jobs and pastimes that he hates or finds boring. He reasons that, since time flies while you're having fun, time slows to an absolute crawl when you're not. When asked why he would want a life full of things he hates, he says, "Well, it's all we've got."
It doesn't help that I'm waiting for packages to arrive. I've counted the days since buying stuff on Ebay, and I swear it's been at least a week and a half since last Friday. I just gotta keep reminding myself to stop and smell the roses, and not get caught up to much in the future when there's so many great things going on around me. Think I'll go for a walk...
Happy New Year everyone! =D
Hah! It reminds of a character I like in Catch 22. In an effort to make his life last as long as possible, the character Dunbar actively seeks out jobs and pastimes that he hates or finds boring. He reasons that, since time flies while you're having fun, time slows to an absolute crawl when you're not. When asked why he would want a life full of things he hates, he says, "Well, it's all we've got."
It doesn't help that I'm waiting for packages to arrive. I've counted the days since buying stuff on Ebay, and I swear it's been at least a week and a half since last Friday. I just gotta keep reminding myself to stop and smell the roses, and not get caught up to much in the future when there's so many great things going on around me. Think I'll go for a walk...
Happy New Year everyone! =D
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
And now it's time for...
...another ridiculous philosophical question! *ahem*
Let's say there exists a person who is an absolute expert on everything having to do with human eye vision. We'll call him...I dunno, Ray. When it comes to seeing, he knows ever single process and bit of interaction that occurs in the eye, between the eye and the brain, and in the brain itself. For example, he knows exactly what seeing the color red is like for every possible structure involved in it; every wavelength received, every interpretation, everything.
However, Ray is blind. He has never seen the color red, and he cannot conceive of experiencing the color since all he has ever known is black. Still, no one is more knowledgeable on the experience and the process of seeing red than he is. He's just never done it.
Then, by some miracle or scientific advancement, he gains the ability to see red. Does he learn anything new past what he already knows?
Merry Christmas!
(P.S. And just for fun, is it possible to be an absolute skeptic if you have unbreakable proof in your skepticism? Or is imperfect skepticism, or not knowing for sure if you are skeptical, the only way to be absolutely skeptic? hmmm...)
Let's say there exists a person who is an absolute expert on everything having to do with human eye vision. We'll call him...I dunno, Ray. When it comes to seeing, he knows ever single process and bit of interaction that occurs in the eye, between the eye and the brain, and in the brain itself. For example, he knows exactly what seeing the color red is like for every possible structure involved in it; every wavelength received, every interpretation, everything.
However, Ray is blind. He has never seen the color red, and he cannot conceive of experiencing the color since all he has ever known is black. Still, no one is more knowledgeable on the experience and the process of seeing red than he is. He's just never done it.
Then, by some miracle or scientific advancement, he gains the ability to see red. Does he learn anything new past what he already knows?
Merry Christmas!
(P.S. And just for fun, is it possible to be an absolute skeptic if you have unbreakable proof in your skepticism? Or is imperfect skepticism, or not knowing for sure if you are skeptical, the only way to be absolutely skeptic? hmmm...)
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
It just occurred to me...
Randomly, while watching a goofy show online...
Christmas is almost here!!!
Family and food and presents and all kinds of great stuff that I can't think of right now!
I can't wait!!
Though, I worry how my mind got from a hero defeating a fire-breathing ninja to Christmas at home. I bet I'll have weird dreams tonight.
hmmm....
Christmas is almost here!!!
Family and food and presents and all kinds of great stuff that I can't think of right now!
I can't wait!!
Though, I worry how my mind got from a hero defeating a fire-breathing ninja to Christmas at home. I bet I'll have weird dreams tonight.
hmmm....
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Fast semester...
Whew, been a while since I last posted.
This semester has really flown by, especially with things being so busy her at the close. I swear I say this every year, but I just got used to writing 2008, and now we have to switch already!
The big thing this week was registering for my classes next semester. I had this great plan with interesting classes and plenty of down time, then everything collapsed when I learned that some of them had prerequisites. Plan B!
So, first I've got Elementary Spanish, which will be loads of fun to wake up to every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I still remember the language pretty well from high school, so hopefully it wont be too much of a drag.
Next is History of Ethics, which is kind of a followup to this semester's Problems of Philosophy. This past week has been about ethics, starting with Aristotle's The Nature of Virtue (which I talk about later) which has been interesting and looks like it has some real life usefulness. 'Cuz to tell the truth, all of this semester's stuff has been extremely interesting, but it seems like most of it doesn't exist in the real world per se. Though, if nothing actually does exist (besides my mind), then that doesn't really matter much, huh?
Then (because my other class fell through) I have Environmental Ethics. I'm hoping this will different enough to stay interesting. Who knows, maybe when I come back home this summer I'll be the most ethically knowledgeable person in Lakeport. Need to know ancient Egyptian right of punishment for stealing sacred cats?! I'm your Mr. Ethics Person!
Last is Intro to Sociology, which should go well with the others. It was kind of a spur of the moment thing when my Lit class didn't work out. I think I remember Mom saying how much she enjoyed the class, and it sure looks like a thought-provoking subject. Yeah ok, it's true I knew basically nothing about it before looking it up online, but afterwords it looked good. Really!
Class-wise this semester, next week is going to be a hurricane of due dates and frantic, late studying. Hurricane Pomona. Foremost is a big paper and presentation due in Archaeology about the Viking influence in North America before Columbus's discovery of 'India.' It shouldn't be much of a problem; I know I can produce and deliver a quality PowerPoint, but I need to make sure I practice the speech enough. I still cringe over my first semester's presentation on Sir Kay.... Oh yeah! I got my second test back from that class, the one I thought I didn't do real well on, and it turns out I did better by about 10 points. It's tough to tell, but I think my grade is balancing between A/B there. All of those early papers weren't worth many points, unfortunately.
Speaking of tests, I just got the last one in Geology, which I was confident about. Despite the great potential for irony here, that one actually turned out as good as I had hoped, with like 97.5/100. I think that makes the grade there a high B, which the soon-to-be-due project and final should raise up.
Economics is coming along well. The A/B is going to ride on the final, but as of now I think it's like a 92 or so. All things considered, it should be alright. At the moment we're studying everything having to do with international trade. Tariffs, quotas, globalization, the whole deal. Interestingly, it appears that both tariffs and quotas, which we use all of the time in the US, tend to do more harm than good. Go figure.
Aristotle's views on what make a virtuous life are pretty interesting. He had a special word for the best life one can lead: Eudaimonia, which roughly means good spirits. It doesn't really have a good translation into English, and is often (wrongly) interpreted to mean happiness. Happiness is more of a psychological state of being, while Eudaimonia is a kind of permanent evaluation of life. According to Aristotle, the 3 best lives are those of pleasure, honor (fame), and money-making. This is hotly disputed, but generally makes sense with a little explanation. First off, pleasure is an end unto itself. You can ask why someone does anything they do, and there will be an underlying purpose of some kind; but asking why someone does something for the purpose of pleasure is a moot question, since the purpose of pleasure is self-evident. He assumes (justifiably in my opinion) that even the painful things a person does are meant to bring pleasure to oneself or others.
As for fame, he's not talking about critical acclaim so much as knowing that one is the best at what one does. This is where 'honor' comes in. It's more personal than others seeing you as the best in that your own desire can be completely independant of those around you. It's kind of like the Olympic competitors not recieving money professionally, if you take out all of the endorsements. It's not saying there's anything wrong with getting praise, only that it should not be the driving factor behind your honor.
Moneymaking didn't seem very convincing to me, and in truth this kind of life just leads to the other two; getting pleasure or knowing you're among the richest. Overall, all three are just meant to be lives of virtuous activity. I like this stuff since it more of what I can relate to personally, and I like thinking about what makes a 'perfect' life. I especially like the idea of living without needing the approval of others; we all strive for personal satisfaction, but few, if any, really do. I don't mean like indifference, more like...perfect self-confidence? I dunno.
Alright, onward to those crazy vikings. Odin protect me!
Talk to you all later.
This semester has really flown by, especially with things being so busy her at the close. I swear I say this every year, but I just got used to writing 2008, and now we have to switch already!
The big thing this week was registering for my classes next semester. I had this great plan with interesting classes and plenty of down time, then everything collapsed when I learned that some of them had prerequisites. Plan B!
So, first I've got Elementary Spanish, which will be loads of fun to wake up to every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I still remember the language pretty well from high school, so hopefully it wont be too much of a drag.
Next is History of Ethics, which is kind of a followup to this semester's Problems of Philosophy. This past week has been about ethics, starting with Aristotle's The Nature of Virtue (which I talk about later) which has been interesting and looks like it has some real life usefulness. 'Cuz to tell the truth, all of this semester's stuff has been extremely interesting, but it seems like most of it doesn't exist in the real world per se. Though, if nothing actually does exist (besides my mind), then that doesn't really matter much, huh?
Then (because my other class fell through) I have Environmental Ethics. I'm hoping this will different enough to stay interesting. Who knows, maybe when I come back home this summer I'll be the most ethically knowledgeable person in Lakeport. Need to know ancient Egyptian right of punishment for stealing sacred cats?! I'm your Mr. Ethics Person!
Last is Intro to Sociology, which should go well with the others. It was kind of a spur of the moment thing when my Lit class didn't work out. I think I remember Mom saying how much she enjoyed the class, and it sure looks like a thought-provoking subject. Yeah ok, it's true I knew basically nothing about it before looking it up online, but afterwords it looked good. Really!
Class-wise this semester, next week is going to be a hurricane of due dates and frantic, late studying. Hurricane Pomona. Foremost is a big paper and presentation due in Archaeology about the Viking influence in North America before Columbus's discovery of 'India.' It shouldn't be much of a problem; I know I can produce and deliver a quality PowerPoint, but I need to make sure I practice the speech enough. I still cringe over my first semester's presentation on Sir Kay.... Oh yeah! I got my second test back from that class, the one I thought I didn't do real well on, and it turns out I did better by about 10 points. It's tough to tell, but I think my grade is balancing between A/B there. All of those early papers weren't worth many points, unfortunately.
Speaking of tests, I just got the last one in Geology, which I was confident about. Despite the great potential for irony here, that one actually turned out as good as I had hoped, with like 97.5/100. I think that makes the grade there a high B, which the soon-to-be-due project and final should raise up.
Economics is coming along well. The A/B is going to ride on the final, but as of now I think it's like a 92 or so. All things considered, it should be alright. At the moment we're studying everything having to do with international trade. Tariffs, quotas, globalization, the whole deal. Interestingly, it appears that both tariffs and quotas, which we use all of the time in the US, tend to do more harm than good. Go figure.
Aristotle's views on what make a virtuous life are pretty interesting. He had a special word for the best life one can lead: Eudaimonia, which roughly means good spirits. It doesn't really have a good translation into English, and is often (wrongly) interpreted to mean happiness. Happiness is more of a psychological state of being, while Eudaimonia is a kind of permanent evaluation of life. According to Aristotle, the 3 best lives are those of pleasure, honor (fame), and money-making. This is hotly disputed, but generally makes sense with a little explanation. First off, pleasure is an end unto itself. You can ask why someone does anything they do, and there will be an underlying purpose of some kind; but asking why someone does something for the purpose of pleasure is a moot question, since the purpose of pleasure is self-evident. He assumes (justifiably in my opinion) that even the painful things a person does are meant to bring pleasure to oneself or others.
As for fame, he's not talking about critical acclaim so much as knowing that one is the best at what one does. This is where 'honor' comes in. It's more personal than others seeing you as the best in that your own desire can be completely independant of those around you. It's kind of like the Olympic competitors not recieving money professionally, if you take out all of the endorsements. It's not saying there's anything wrong with getting praise, only that it should not be the driving factor behind your honor.
Moneymaking didn't seem very convincing to me, and in truth this kind of life just leads to the other two; getting pleasure or knowing you're among the richest. Overall, all three are just meant to be lives of virtuous activity. I like this stuff since it more of what I can relate to personally, and I like thinking about what makes a 'perfect' life. I especially like the idea of living without needing the approval of others; we all strive for personal satisfaction, but few, if any, really do. I don't mean like indifference, more like...perfect self-confidence? I dunno.
Alright, onward to those crazy vikings. Odin protect me!
Talk to you all later.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Funny coincidence (?!)
I was studying for my Geology test coming up and I had to make an acronym to help me remember all the Periods of the geologic time scale. Here's the first thing I came up with:
(Periods) Acronym
(Cambrian) Can
(Devonian) Dig
(Carboniferous) Coal
(Mississippian) Mines
(Pennsylvanian) Permanently
(Permian) Providing
(Triassic) That
(Jurassic) Juries
(Cretaceous) Continue
(Tertiary) Treating
(Paleogene) Poor
(Quaternary) Quadrupeds
(Neogene) Negligently?
This college has burned environmentalism into my subconscious!
P.S. Sorry it's so hard to read. This dang blog program makes it hard to make separate lists...
(Periods) Acronym
(Cambrian) Can
(Ordovician) Our
(Silurian) States(Devonian) Dig
(Carboniferous) Coal
(Mississippian) Mines
(Pennsylvanian) Permanently
(Permian) Providing
(Triassic) That
(Jurassic) Juries
(Cretaceous) Continue
(Tertiary) Treating
(Paleogene) Poor
(Quaternary) Quadrupeds
(Neogene) Negligently?
This college has burned environmentalism into my subconscious!
P.S. Sorry it's so hard to read. This dang blog program makes it hard to make separate lists...
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Thoughts on the election.
Dad can attest as to how worried I was about the outcome of this election. While I did not think that it would decide the fate (or end) of the world, I definitely thought it could be a step in that direction.As to how it all turned out? Well, if you haven't been watching the election coverage, Sen. Obama won by a considerable margin (as of 9:40, 338 electoral votes to 156). I guess I feel happy, but now here comes the next big worry. Now, I know that no presidential candidate can complete every single thing they promise along the two-year campaign trail, but I really hope that Prez. Obama will follow through on his word. This is a tricky climate to enter into office to say the least.
Personally, I think think I did a fare job researching the candidates' policies, and I did my best to let their individual characters supplement, not decide, my decision. However, I do think I let some things affect me a lot, particularly how much attack media Sen. McCain released near the end of the stretch. This is not to say that Sen. Obama didn't release these ads as well, but the shear amount of McCain's, not to mention some of the claims made therein, definitely cinched my final vote.
This year's classes in Philosophy and Economics have made me a bit more knowledgeable in understanding the drives behind much of the pomp and process, and I guess this more than anything is what makes me a bit apprehensive towards the future. I just have to remind myself of some of the better things I've come to realize this year. Specifically, that I really believe this world is the best one that can be, and since it is foolish to try and predict the future beyond what I myself can know or change, I might as well not worry about it. Things go wrong all the time, but everything is a process based off of everything before it, so everything bad and evil today is the result of the way this world developed. I'm not saying one can't hope and try to make the world; in fact, I believe that the good we do is a result of natural processes too, and this gives me more hope for the future than anything can. Evil will never completely disappear, but neither will good. I'm not one to define what the definitions of 'good' and 'evil' are; most of things I can think think of have some kind of gray area of disputable worth (minus things like genocide, which I refuse the see any good in.) Still, I don't think that the goodness in humanity will ever be completely stamped out, in whatever form it comes in. Whatever happened here and whatever happens in the future, I can know that good will stay; all I have to worry about is what part I will play in building it up or destroying it.
Wow. Now THAT'S a monologue. Sorry everyone.
I would like to know what everyone else thought of the election if you don't mind sharing. I promise I wont get angry at your opinions, though I may call you a doodyhead. I can't guarantee anything there...
Personally, I think think I did a fare job researching the candidates' policies, and I did my best to let their individual characters supplement, not decide, my decision. However, I do think I let some things affect me a lot, particularly how much attack media Sen. McCain released near the end of the stretch. This is not to say that Sen. Obama didn't release these ads as well, but the shear amount of McCain's, not to mention some of the claims made therein, definitely cinched my final vote.
This year's classes in Philosophy and Economics have made me a bit more knowledgeable in understanding the drives behind much of the pomp and process, and I guess this more than anything is what makes me a bit apprehensive towards the future. I just have to remind myself of some of the better things I've come to realize this year. Specifically, that I really believe this world is the best one that can be, and since it is foolish to try and predict the future beyond what I myself can know or change, I might as well not worry about it. Things go wrong all the time, but everything is a process based off of everything before it, so everything bad and evil today is the result of the way this world developed. I'm not saying one can't hope and try to make the world; in fact, I believe that the good we do is a result of natural processes too, and this gives me more hope for the future than anything can. Evil will never completely disappear, but neither will good. I'm not one to define what the definitions of 'good' and 'evil' are; most of things I can think think of have some kind of gray area of disputable worth (minus things like genocide, which I refuse the see any good in.) Still, I don't think that the goodness in humanity will ever be completely stamped out, in whatever form it comes in. Whatever happened here and whatever happens in the future, I can know that good will stay; all I have to worry about is what part I will play in building it up or destroying it.
Wow. Now THAT'S a monologue. Sorry everyone.
I would like to know what everyone else thought of the election if you don't mind sharing. I promise I wont get angry at your opinions, though I may call you a doodyhead. I can't guarantee anything there...
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