Feminism

I was raised by mostly men so studying about feminism is a real eye opener. The men never really treated me like a girl. I was always treated like a boy with long hair. I did not even recognize that there was a difference between males and females. I did not recognize the difference until I was probably in second grade. All throughout elementary and high school the teachers were worried about my lack of feminism.

I come from a small Southern town where women are expected to act and dress a certain way. It was not necessarily bad if you did not act in the stereotypical way, but people definitely looked at you in a different way. Being a feminist is an insult where I am from. It implies that you are hard headed in all the wrong ways. After having all of the preconceived notions, it is interesting to see what the feminist movement is all about.

Split Personalities

In class, we talked about how your self was split. I feel like this is something that many people have known. I do not think that your self being split is being two-faced. I feel like it is more about your emotional self and rational self. They are two completely things. If you are thinking rationally, a person should not be able to be emotional. There has to be a split for us to function. It is not necessarily having a mental disorder or a split personality. There is a difference between a split personality and having a split self. A split self has the same personality while the split personality is two different personalities.

Clytemnestra

If Kierkegaard does not specify what the Absolute is, could one take that as any deity that they believe in? In that case, a person could have Satan as the Absolute. They could use him to kill people and cause havoc. Would it still be ethical for if the person did not try to justify his action? I just do not get how a person can follow the Absolute and kill someone and it is ethical. He uses Agamemnon killing Iphigenia as a tragic hero and being ethical. He sacrificed her as repentance for offending a goddess, and he also did it to regain her favor in the upcoming war. If that was ethical and made Agamemnon a tragic hero, does that make Clytemnestra, his wife, a Knight of Faith? Clytemnestra did not justify her reasons for killing her husband and Cassandra, his lover. So does that make her murders somehow less bad?

The Invisible Monopods

In class, we were discussing if people would act morally if no one saw them. I feel like it would depend on the particular individual. I think that the majority of people would not live very morally especially since no one would be able to see them act bad. The story about the ring in the Republic reminded me about the book Voyage of the Dawn Treader. At one island, the children meet some invisible monopods. An 'evil' magician turned them invisible, and they hated him for it. The invisible monopods were doing almost anything they wanted because no one could see them. I feel like humans would act a lot like the invisible monopods.

The story about the invisible man also reminds me about the ring story. Usually, they play the man as being nice and very moral when he is visible. After he becomes invisible, he becomes almost evil. I feel like this would be a majority of people. Why behave properly when you can't get caught?

God Is Existence

I think that a priori approach to God is a little off track. We have talked about a priori knowledge in International Relations. The professor explained it as ‘assuming there are some things you can’t prove, and you patterned a behavior un-provable; believed to be true’. If you use that definition, you are saying that you can’t prove God’s existence. I feel like God can be proved to humans. We think about God on a daily basis, and many great thinkers throughout history have made reasonable and educated reasons as to why God exists.

Personally, I like the idea of God is existence. I believe in God, and the thought of God being existence makes me feel much better than thinking of him as a big guy on a throne in Heaven. God being existence makes sense to me when you think of the world. Everything exists and most people can’t fathom something creating it all. I think people might can handle existence creating existence better than God creating everything.

Stoics

I enjoyed the lecture on the Stoics and Epicureans. It really reminded me of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Brutus is a stoic, and everyone holds him in a high regard. He reasons with all of his thought and is so calm. Even when death is approaching, Brutus is accepting. He realizes that death is the result of his choices, and he is fully accepting. He knows that he must eventually die. He is completely different from Cassius who is terrified to die.

I think the way the Stoics handle death is very noble. They realize that everyone must die. Life would be much easier for people if they would realize this. A loved one dying is perhaps the hardest thing to handle, but the Stoics have found a way to handle it in a good way. I can see why people usually see Stoics as being cold-hearted, but I think that they have a great philosophy.

Class Synopsis Feb. 9

In class, we talked about the relation of the rational part of the soul and the non-rational soul. The rational part of the soul is the highest virtue, the virtue of thought. The non-rational part of the soul has a vegetative and desirous character. We went into further discussion on how the vegetative character can not be trained, but the desirous character can be trained and must be trained early. If you can not train your desires early, virtue might be impossible for you.

We went on to discuss happiness. We talked about how happiness is the endness and is intertwined with virtue and potential. When we have achieved our full potential, we are happy. Happiness is the flourishing of something and not just a psychological effect. Virtue is what sets people apart from animals. Harmony is also tied to virtue. If your desirous soul can be trained and rationalized with, you can be in harmony and be virtuous. If your rational feelings are over-riding your desires and not agreeing, then you are not virtuous. We talked about happiness and virtue the entire class.

The Horseman's Happiness

I think that people are happiest when they have reached their full potential. I also think that people go through highs and lows while trying to reach their potential. A good example is a horseman. They constantly strive for perfection. Sometimes they are happy with the work they do, and sometimes they aren’t so happy. They just take everything in stride. They keep working until they have mastered something. After they have mastered a technique, they are some of the happiest people in the world. They don’t give up and are rewarded with happiness. Happiness for them isn’t winning a horse show; it’s being able to do something correctly.

Happiness

Happiness is a funny thing. It is something different to everyone, and it constantly changes for each person. Happiness can not be taught; it really has to be achieved. Happiness is not just having lots of money or material wealth. A person can have all the material wealth in the world and still not be happy. Any person can achieve happiness, but it takes a special person to have almost eternal happiness. Happiness is difficult to describe, and I think it fits a philosophical question perfectly.

Boleyns and Philosophers

The lecture today reminded me of a book I am currently reading named The Other Boleyn Girl. It is a story about two girls who want the same thing at first, and they strive to get it in opposite ways. This reminded me of the arguing of opposites in the Phaedo. Both girls really want King Henry, but only one can have him

The book also reminds me of all the philosophers. Each one thought he was correct. In the book, each girl thinks she is in the right. I feel like this would be many of the ancient philosopher’s views. The book ends with one sister living happily ever after, but the other sister becomes queen and dies shortly after. The sister that became queen got what she wanted but was she actually happy? I think that many philosophers felt this way. Is being famous and well-known better than happiness?

Awesome Ethics

I enjoyed the lecture about ethics. Our lives are constantly influenced by ethics. We encounter them on a day to day basis. A lot of people often associate ethics with politics. Ethics are a big part of politics, but they are so much more. Ethics can be anything. They help you decide what to do every day.

I think that ethics really help you with your happiness, and happiness makes you happy of course! Everyone is always in a much better mood when they are happy! There are lots of different groups that ethics can be divided into. I think that each person is right to an extent. Ethics are not necessarily the same for every single person; they are a set of individual beliefs. My ethics are not the same as my roommates, and probably will never be. Your ethics are a product of many factors such as: family, religion, and the place you were raised. Ethics are tricky to define because of that very reason.

Ethics are a vital part of the human world. It is what keeps us from murdering and raping everyone. I do not think that ethics should necessarily be classified. Does it really matter where you think ethics are from?