Feminine, women?

When it comes to describing what a women is, it is always hard to give the right description. While reading The Second Sex, I would say that a big key factor in being a woman is being able to have children and have feminine features. However, when I got deeper into the reading I questioned what I thought before. A man can too be feminine and some females cannot bare children. So, I still question what distinctly makes a woman a woman.

Antiquarian

If I had to pick which form of history I would agree with, it would be antiquarian. The past is irrepeatable. There may be times where the present may resemble the past, but it will not be exactly the same. The past can never be understood fully. Historians can look back and interpret what they can, but can not fully understand what actually happened because he or she was not there.

Religious Stage

I think that the religious stage is the most fascinating. What caught my attention was the statement made in class that you can not truly be in the religious stage unless you question it. Having a leap a faith is the most important way of living. I always thought that if I had doubts, I would not be considered really religious. Now I know for faith to be true one must doubt.

Capitalist vs The Laborer

In class we discussed "capitalist vs the laborer". Marx view point about how the poor and the laborer will make one big middle class got me thinking. How is that even possible? Even if people are covered for like in a socialist country, there will still be poor people. The system will not work for everyone's situation or it will work to some extent. However, I feel as though it would not be possible to have one big middle class.

All Activity Begins With Desire?

I would have to disagree with Hume, to some extent, on the matter of all activity beginning with desire. When I have a paper or test, I doubt I begin either with desire. I do them because I have to. It is not my passion to write papers because I am not a good writer and hate doing stuff I am not interested in. I have no desire to complete the activity for fun or even for a grade. Wouldn't this contradict what Hume believes activity begins with? Half the things I am doing right now I don't desire to do, but I do them anyway because it will benefit my future. There is only to some extent that activity begins with desire.

Class Synopsis, March 2

In class we went from rationalism (via reason) to empiricism (via senses). First, we did a review of Descartes methodological doubt. Methodological doubt is the rejection of any ideas that can be doubted, in order to arrive at a firm foundation for genuine knowledge. Descartes does this to support Newtonian physics and arrives at I think, therefore I am a thinking thing. We used the example of a baby not being concerned with its existence until the baby begins to think and question its existence. Once concerned with existence than the baby can prove its existence. Once you know you are thinking than you know you exist and only you can know you exist. We discussed dualism between mind/body and reason; the wax example. Wax may take different forms, so senses do not give the idea of wax only reason. Also, we discussed the ontological proof of the existence of God and the concept of benevolent God which allows us to trust perception and reason. We concluded Descartes review with reason allowing us to have knowledge of the external world.

Next we discussed Hume, a scottish philosopher, who was a empiricist. He rejected newtonian physics and lost faith at an early age. Hume felt desire, not reason, governs human behavior and all activity began with desire or want. Everything is at the service of our passion and there is no innate knowledge, all knowledge gained is by experience. The problem of induction is going from particular to general. It is assuming there is a pattern in the behavior of objects and assuming it does not change. A example of induction we discussed in class was the sun came up today, the sun came up yesterday, thus the sun will come up tomorrow. Assuming that what is the same now will be the same in the future. Deduction is going from general principles to particular conclusion. For example, if you have a cough than you are sick.

We talked about the uniformity of nature and how it cannot be demonstrated because things can change. Because we associate A and B together, we constantly conjoin them which is a mental habit. Hume also felt the self is not separate from experience. He had an anti-rationalist view. Hume criticized the design argument and felt it is an incomplete analogy. Lastly, we discussed Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. In this Hume questioned what philosophy is and came to the conclusion that moral and natural philosophy should be combined. Moral is active philosophy, forming manner and making good people. Natural is light of reason and to form understanding rather than manners. It is questioning moral philosophy. Hume believed in order to be a good moral philosopher you must also be a good natural philosopher. Also, in order to be a good philosopher you have to relate thoughts with deeds.

Existence of God

Being brought up in a Christian household, there was no question whether God exist or not. However, there was a time I did wonder how I can believe in someone I have never seen. I was always taught or told that God exist. It was not until I experienced a situation that I knew there was no way I could have control over. It was one of those "Thank God" moments. When I am having a rough time or even a really a good one, I can feel his presence. It's not just the fact that because I think he exists that he actually exists, but that I can really feel him with me.

Eudaemania

In class, we went over the fact that all desire happiness (eudaemaina). I doubt I can say I do it intentionally. Who wouldn't want to be happy or experience happiness in our life? As people we always do what makes us happy so that we can lead and live happy lives. Just today I watched a number of people by valentine gifts so that they can make their special someone happy. It is that need that makes us do things in which the result is happiness.

Moral Expert

It is known that to be a moral expert than you would have to have all the virtues. Does this mean that everyone who is good and happy is considered moral experts? There are people who perform good deeds everyday and are considered good people. They would most likely consider themselves happy and be seen as happy by other people. Does this qualify them to be an expert? If that is true, then I would consider my mother or even myself a moral expert. If virtue equal happiness and I have happiness, then I must equal virtue. Is this possible?

Appealing to the crowd

I have always had one of those "old school" moms who had an age appropriate time for everything. There was an age for when I could go out, how long I could stay out, date, get piercings and even dye my hair. So I would always use the line "well my friends are doing it or has it". Similar to what other people do, she would tell me if they jumped off the bridge would you? I was always a sarcastic person and tell her yes! This was just to get under her skin, but her answers never change. I found that the method, appeal to the crowd, never works. However, if you’re anything like me you'll use it anyway just to bother you parents.

Free Will

When we touched on the topic of free will in class the subject seemed very familiar. That's because it was something that has been questioned time and time before. Especially in my faith, Christianity. For as long as I can remember, I heard the story of how God created the world, Adam and Eve. How they disobeyed God and he allowed them to have free will. That is how I know was taught free will came about. Even though God gave us "free will" how can we say we are truly free? Since the beginning there has always been some set of rules. For example, the law, rules from our parents or even rules at school. Being the people we are, we set up these rules so that ciaos will not arise. But, does this mean that our free will is limited? This maybe so, because to some extent we can exercise our freedom. However, that will imply that we are not totally free.

Self, Ignorance, Philosophy

I must admit that on the first day of class the meaning of philosophy was not something I knew off the top of my head. Little did I know that I had a case of simple ignorance. Instead of finding out the meaning of philosophy before the question arose, I told myself I would learn it eventually.What I did learn this past week was that I had been engaging in philosophy for several years. I have always been a curious person wondering what my purpose was in life. Why am I here? How come I believe one thing and not the other? Sometimes i would actually try to find the answers. However, there were a number of times when I let my laziness and ignorance get the best of me. Not only did I learn what philosophy is, but that self and ignorance play key roles in this subject. Most importantly, I now have the understanding that will allow me to embark on this philosophical journey.