just stop watching

After talking about feminism in class i couldn't help but think about the media and television and how they have objectified women relentlessly over the years. Even more frustrating is the women that are allowing themselves to be put out in front of millions of viewers to be seen as entertainment. I think about shows like "Keeping up with the Kardashians" or any other mindless reality television show that follows the life of a "celebrity." Or even shows like the "bachelor" or the "real world." They all portray images of women allowing themselves to be used and desired for surface reasons. We are finally in a time where a woman can achieve great things, yet we are still supporting a media that could care less what a woman is thinking as long as she is wearing the right clothing. I just feel like some things will never change if we as women or furthermore as people don't begin to open our eyes and turn away from things that superficially label us.

More sugar on that please

We talked in class about the difference in approaching life with the mindset of Apollo vs. the mindset of Dionysian. Apollo approached situations with a self comforting attitude whereas Dionysian took more of the "it is what it is" approach. I fear that in our culture we have been programmed to believe life will always work out, no matter what happens we will survive another day, much like Apollo would think. But what of the realities of this world? Everyday people suffer, lose loved ones, and even die. But it is easy to numb ourselves to this in our homes and life that we deem "safe and normal." But are we really? What happens when we find ourselves in a situation that we never thought we would be in? We have no idea how to progress and move forward because we have ignored the experience that others have gathered in their misfortune. Rather than sugar coating the world around us, why don't we begin to look at it how it truly is. If we do not like it can we not begin to take a stand to change it. But let us not forget to learn from our own experiences and the lives of those around us. It is only in the understanding of the realities of how things truly are that we can learn to progress and become better. If we go through life ignoring truth and pain we will never understand how to advance ourselves. But if we latch on to life, no matter what it brings, we can surely begin to understand that we all have a place of importance on this earth.

Class Synopsis 4/4

Today in class, we recalled the three forms of history according to Nietzsche: monumental, antiquarian, and critical. All three forms of history have healthy forms and diseased forms. Monumental history, in a healthy culture, looks to the past and recognizes the greatness of the past in order to influence our own greatness. A diseased culture is unable to affirm its own greatness, and only sees the past as something that cannot be repeated. Antiquarian form, in a healthy culture, has a pious reverence of the past and views it as a unique string of events that one can not impose current values upon to understand fully. A diseased culture though does not believe that they should impose their own values on the past because they believe their own values do not hold enough meaning for the past. Diseased culture denies the fact that they give meaning to anything. Finally, critical approach criticizes and questions the past when studying it in order for us to overcome the past and for us to not make the same mistakes made in the past. There is a reason for being critical. The diseased culture though does not see any value in itself; therefore they do not see value in anything else and simply criticizes for no purpose.

The healthy forms of doing history recognize the life activity of being human: the will to power. Humans are creative beings that create psychological works that connect us with the external world and give it meaning. Will to power is this process of putting meaning into the external world and us affirming that the external world is in accord with the cycle of those psychological works.

Nietzsche revered the tragic age of the Greeks as healthy, because there was a life affirming will to power, according to Apollo and Dionysian. Apollonian part of society uses reason and has optimistic ideas about how to live life. This part of oneself projects our ideas on to reality of the external world in order to safe guard everything. The Dionysian part of oneself though affirms the madness and flux of life, but also does not care about it, just simply affirms it. The classical world though transforms the will of power on the search of the will of truth. Our individual will to power is denied by asserting the will to truth. The history of the world is a dominance of the will to truth, but that the truth needs to be questioned. One’s personal will to power must be given up in order to see the will to truth, the will of God. Nietzsche uses a Master and Slave simile. Master’s will to power affirms itself and asserts itself over the external world. The slave, or weak will, wants to figure out how to assert his/her own power. But what the master believes is good is not considered good in the eyes of the slave. So the slave makes the master’s values seem bad in order to gain power over the master.

The Age of Nihilism involves a world where meaning is not given to anything. Such as an artist saying, “No, do not look at my piece of art because it is not good and dos not have any meaning.” This is impossible according to Nietzsche because he believes that meaning will always exist and humans will always search for it.

Beyond a stage to a story

A previous blog titled "The three Stages" posed the question: Is it possible to have qualities from all three or does a person have to be in one stage exclusively?" I believe it is a constant struggle that we as humans are trying to weigh out in their lives. It seems as though it would be rather easy to be in the aesthetic stage. It doesn't take much thought to live in the moment and look after ones need, not caring much about the people around us. But it is in my own opinion that as a human race we know instinctively that there is more to life than just looking after ones own desires. As we get older and more mature we begin to struggle finding ourselves leaning towards the ethical stage, and eventually we may even find ourselves in the religious. We are always looking for more meaning in life, and these latter stages help us discover and learn about what our time on this earth can truly mean. The aesthetic stage doesn't provide much depth in a life, so we are always struggling with filling our own desires and being part of a bigger story. So yes I do think we can have qualities from different stages as we continue to discover more about the life we are meant to live.

Safe Faith??

Outsiders often see people of faith as ignorant or ridiculous. And people of faith are often to hung up on their own mindset to see the world from a different set of eyes. In class we talked about faith and doubt, and how in order to have true faith one must doubt. But for those who think faith in a God is absurd, doubt comes naturally and freely. I believe that the harder task is having true faith in something and being strong enough to state the doubts or questions you have in relation to that faith. So often "believers" want to believe so badly they act as if their ideas on faith are the only tried and true ones, and in these instances I would say their faith is lacking. Is it because they are so unsure about their faith they have to convince themselves that is fail safe? The real way to grow in faith is to ask questions, let your faith be tested, allow yourself to hear your own doubts and the doubts of others. You may never win a conversation with a non-believer, but the more begin to understand what your faith means in your life, the more real it will become to you. In the end choosing to believe in something is much riskier than choosing not to believe at all, but if you ask questions and look for answers, your eyes could possibly be open to something much bigger than yourself.

No Desire to learn...

We were talking in class about how Hume said "Desire, not reason, governs human behavior." It got me to thinking about how we learn here in America and the educational system our government puts us through. It is my belief that education should be about self enlightenment and about learning things we desire to learn. But so often our schools put us through classes in our formal education that are of no interest to different individuals. It seems our schools could care less about self enlightenment, rather they care that we pass the standardized tests the states say we should. Education is now a process of "school to work." No one desires to learn about things that do not interest them. Hume also said there is no disinterested learning. If this is the case are students really absorbing the knowledge teachers are throwing on them, or are they just doing what they must to fit into a society that tells them this is how it has to be? I believe the latter to be true. When a student doesn't care about a subject they will not take it seriously. But give students something they care about and I believe they will be able to succeed in that desired subject. I believe we should spend less time focusing on trying to teach students "everything" later in their educational career. Rather we should begin focusing on the things that a student desires to learn so they can begin to excel in something they will love and be good at. This could help our education and educators become much more effective in our country.

I think...sometimes...

I am not sure that I am totally on board with Descartes conclusion that we only exist if we are thinking. I do believe that in almost all things in life we have choices and decisions to make, therefore we are thinking. But then I was thinking about an infant and how it survives and makes it to an age where they can think for themselves. Do they survive off of the thoughts of others until they are old enough to do so own their own. Or does nature provide us the correct foundation. A new born does not have to be told that they need food or water to survive. That is existing in my view, however the child does not need to think about this, they just know, as we all do. My realization is that the mind, or soul, or "I" and the body are connected. Their is not one without the other, at least for our time on earth. To exist we must think, but we also must rely on our instinct and the tools nature has provided us with. It is not one thing that leads us to existing and surviving in this world, but rather all things. It is our mind and our body, our thoughts and our senses, our passions and our needs.

Binger

While I do not agree with many of the Epicurean beliefs, I do agree that humans often try to fill a void within themselves with unnatural and unnecessary act to receive pleasure. I hear so often the phrase, "I want to get smashed." While I'm not opposed to drinking, I've see this juvenile act become a cop out for people to be able to let go of certain issues momentarily. Binge drinking like this does not achieve true pleasure and can often lead to more discomfort in the aftermath. True pleasure should not be sought through external means like this, but rather through one's self and the relationships with those around him or her.

Happy Lately?

All this talk of happiness got me thinking about Aristotle's question, Can a Man Be Called "Happy" During His Lifetime? If Happiness is what we are always working towards, will we ever find it, or will we just continue to search for and work towards it until the end of our life. If we are always working towards it when can we finally say "I am happy?" And will we ever be satisfied? In my experience i have come to realize that we are born with the ability to achieve and maintain happiness throughout our lives. Not to say that our moods will not change from day to day, the inevitably will. But with each decision we make we open ourselves to the pursuit for happiness or sorrow. And these outcomes may reveal themselves immediately or at much later times. But within us is the ability to decide if each day will be a day of joy or misery. And oddly enough over time the decisions we make daily add up to create a full life of overall happiness or overall destruction. Therefore it is in all that we do that will define a life, which can be measured in multiple ways, daily and over the long hull.

Argument Of The Mind

In the past twenty minutes, I've convinced myself that there is nothing I can write this blog on. I've worked myself up into a frenzy trying to somehow connect the material we're learning in class to aspects of my life. I'm sure there are plenty of way that the material does relate. But I convince myself that there is no way. I read some of the amazing posts made by my peers and think there's no way I can come up with something so brilliant. I've always believed that I am the worst writer of all time... and still do to be honest... but in the process of all this thinking, I have led myself into a slippery slope. I've told myself that I am a weak writer, therefore I won't be able to blog anything, therefore my post is going to look so dumb compared to everyone else's, therefore I'm performing poorly in the class, therefore I can't make this post. I create this argument in my own head that is just full of fallacies. I've made a hasty generalization that since I haven't liked writing in the past for other classes, that I will not like writing for a blog, even though I've never actively participated in a blog. I appeal to the pity, as I pity myself for feeling unable to create a post. And I'm appealing to force, as I have to create the posts in order to pass this class. Moving forward, I have to stop creating all these fallacies in my own mind in order to clearly focus on the topics and to grasp a full understanding of the material presented.

Religion Supported By Philosophy

In class, we discussed how Philosophy is not a Religion. Religion is rather having a set of practices and beliefs that give meaning to our lives. My faith is very important to me and has developed greatly over the past couple of years. Even though Philosophy is not a Religion, I use Philosophy to understand and shed light to the questions proposed through religious practices and writings. I believe that one must use faith and reason, which develops from philosophical thinking, to support their stated beliefs. How can anyone influence or believe another person if they haven't used reason to back up their beliefs? This is where double ignorance occurs within religious practices. I've witnessed countless people declare certain beliefs, but are unable to explain their thinking or reasoning. I find myself in this state sometimes as well though. Religion is so often "inherited" from persons' parents and never fully understood. It's so easy for me to state that I am a Christian, yet am I only this way because my parents were as well? I need to use my own reason to examine my beliefs and form an opinion of my own rather than relying on others' knowledge or ignorance.