Philosophical Reflections

Email versus paper quizzes

2012-02-10T11:33:00.001-08:00

Instead of paper quizzes, having quiz questions answered by email later has given most the opportunity to say much more than I used to get. This is terrific! Why was I afraid of asking for more writing? Clearly most people love the opportunity to express themselves on these philosophical questions.

2011-12-30T23:54:00.000-08:00

I watched "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" yesterday. Horrific but I suspect clearly worth it though I am trying to puzzle out what the take away is. Apart from having nightmares afterwards - the power of the medium does not require our eyes to be taped open or that we be drugged to insure we remember the images - so Burgess was wrong in A Clockwork Orange - so how will I ever enjoy Enya again? I will always make that association.

But apart from the brutality and sexual nature of many of the scenes, we have Elizabeth as the new superhero. Notice her appearance is imitated by many young women in town. The males on the other hand tend to look like the Geek in Jurassic Park. But the moral is Geeks will inherit the earth. Is this our next evolutionary step? Is she the postmodern individual?
But what kind of government do you get when it is ruled by Geeks?

2011-12-30T23:27:00.000-08:00

I think we all start out as fundamentalists - but through philosophy and literature we move through further stages that imitate the history of thought. So that we seem to keep moving through stages. Here is an interesting bit from Bernard Lewis "The End of Modern History in the Middle East":

"Democracies may negotiate and compromise with other democracies. For religions this is much more difficult and, for fundamentalist religions, impossible." p. 22

Following Francis Fukuyama (and others), in order to have a successful democracy you need (enough) modern individuals - those who have moved beyond the stage of fundamentalism - or tribalism! - and for an individual to reach that stage (following Harold Bloom "Shakespeare and the Invention of the Human") you have to become like Hamlet in being able to self reflect. Interesting thesis since modern democracies arose only in conjunction with the literature and culture of the modern individual.

If our school system fails to raise enough modern individuals we slip back into tribalism ourselves.

I haven't finished Steven Pinker's book "The Better Angels of our Nature" but that would seem to lead to the idea that peace and propserity goes with the success of that sort of education as well.

Initial notes on some scenes from HPSS

2011-12-27T15:11:00.001-08:00

On watching the first few scenes of the first movie of the Harry Potter series, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” (because the original title Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone reportedly would not sell in the USA where the editors thought no one would go see a movie with the word “Philosopher” in it): we note that the special effects are ancient already even though the movie was made in 2001, Richard Harris is dead, the snake is supposed to be Nagini, Christopher Columbus with John Williams makes a much less scary movie than the later films would be, Hagrid is obviously two different actors depending on the shot, and we have a metaphorical use of a device called a “putter outer” that puts out street lights (will later also turn them on) and as we shall see works on people’s “lights” as well as gas lamps and electric lights.

Harry is underfoot literally and figuratively. The Snake does not speak Parsel tongue (snake language) neither does Harry, as they will in the second movie. (Do they speak English in the book?)

Voldemort and Harry’s wands are twins, and Gandalf and the Balrog’s swords (in the Lord of the Rings) are twins. Matt wonders if when people see Harry some of them know that he is the last phylactery of Voldemort’s soul (Diary, ring, locket, cup, diadem, Harry, Nagini, Voldemort.

A Biblical interpretation of the creation of Adam and Eve is that they had no purpose initially. When Satan gives them the fruit they now have a curiosity to know things but continue to seek a sense of purpose but they still do not have one.

Posted video

2011-05-29T18:55:00.000-07:00

I am now allowed to upload longer videos on Youtube. I have no idea how I earned this privledge but decided to celebrate with a video tour of the Anchorage Municipal Greenhouse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eITNFOMYZsg

Nozick or Brooks?

2011-05-19T13:37:00.000-07:00

I have been using the Robert Nozick book "The Examined Life" since we lost use of the videos to go with the on line course by that name. This year David Brooks published a great book that covers the same topics but does it with more recent work in mind and also uses a story format that makes the book a bit more interesting to read. So perhaps for the next iteration of the course I will make a switch. "The Social Animal" by David Brooks in place of "The Examined Life". But will the topics line up? Brooks' book should be read from front to back to follow the story line. Nozick you can skip around. Dilemma!

American Philosophy

2011-05-19T13:02:00.000-07:00

What is philosophy? More specifically, what is American Philosophy? Here is an interesting video on the subject:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTw65nvMPgc

Welcome to Introduction to Philosophy for Summer 2011

2011-05-10T07:55:00.000-07:00

As a trial tool to make life interesting I am encouraging students from my Summer 2011 courses to participate in this blog by making comments regarding their thoughts on philosophy and the course. So please join in!

Rochelle's term paper for TBG with her permission

2011-04-21T09:11:00.000-07:00

Rochelle Tarbert
LSIC A231
William Jamison, Instructor
Term Paper
April 20, 2011

The Moral Narrative of Willow and other Random Tales
“Forget All You Know…or Think You Know”
~High Aldwin

George Lucas’s award-winning 1988 drama/adventure Willow follows a classic good versus evil plot, borrowing its ideas heavily from the Bible and other stories (which, undoubtedly, also have borrowed ideas from the Bible. After all, doesn’t every good story take its ideas from the Bible? On that note, we might begin to wonder if it should be considered plagiarism to more or less copy scripture in screenplays. Can we plagiarize ancient scripture? Are the early prophets going to come back and sue us for copyright infringement? Will God Himself take us to court for stealing His work? Well, maybe not for that, but we have been told that we will be JUDGED, so maybe we won’t really be judged for our own thoughts and actions as we have all undoubtedly assumed; we will actually be judged for stealing story lines from the Bible. That is just something to think about. Okay, back to Willow…)
In the very beginning of the film, the quintessential evil Queen, Bavmorda, learns that the prophecy is about to be fulfilled; a baby who will overthrow her wicked government of is about to be born in the kingdom. If this seems suspiciously familiar, that is not surprising. In Isaiah, chapter seven, verse 14, we see that Christ’s birth was foretold: “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
Bavmorda, like the Bible’s King Herod, will not stand for some infant ruining her delightfully dreadful empire, so she orders that all pregnant women be imprisoned. If a woman gives birth to a daughter, and the baby has a specific birthmark (signifying that she is “the one”), that baby will be murdered. The time comes, the baby is born, the sign is recognized, and Bavmorda is summoned. Willing to sacrifice her own life for her child (another Biblical reference from the book of John, where Jesus tells the people that there is no greater expression than love than to give up one’s life for another), the baby’s mother sends her child with the midwife.
At this point, the music is majestic. James Horner, who has conducted the music for Titanic, Avatar, and other box-office hits, convinces the audience that, even though the midwife struggles to trudge through snowstorms, climb mountains, and slog through dense forests, she is able to save the baby. As the orchestral notes guide us happily through images of the midwife carrying the growing infant through spring meadows, we believe she will escape, in spite of the fact that Bavmorda had released the crazy royal dog-wolf-monster hybrids to chase after the midwife. Without a single word spoken, the music suddenly changes to ominous notes; we hear snarls of the vicious hounds. The midwife rushes (pun—ha ha. Moses. In the rushes… get it?) to place the baby on a patch of grass at the edge of a stream and dislodges the patch to send the baby off to parts yet unknown. The dog things come and rip the midwife to shreds (another woman who sacrifices for a child’s welfare and, ultimately, for all mankind).
Just like Moses, whose life had been endangered by yet another evil ruler, Pharoah, the baby (Elora Danan) floats to safety and is rescued by some Elwyns (little people).
Okay, so now that I have already provided plenty of spoilers, here is the rest of the story in a nutshell: The baby lives, the bad queen dies. Good triumphs over evil, and there is a lot of suspense, excitement, and adventure along the way.
Willow explores many contemporary and historical examples of good and evil. Prejudice is one theme in the story line. Willow is of a race of “little people” called Nelwyns. The “giants” (average-sized people) are called Daikini, and they typically use the derogatory term “peck” when referring to the Nelwyns. The Nelwyns, on the other hand, consider themselves superior to the even smaller, obnoxious Brownies.
Throughout the story, much of the discrimination dissolves as the different races learn to work together and value each other’s contributions toward the common goal of defeating the evil queen. The characters discover that they really are not that different after all, providing they can agree that the queen is someone who needs to be destroyed. Evil queens really do not fare well throughout history. They always get picked on. No one loves an evil queen. It is probably because the queens are always given names that sound bad. Who wants to be friends with someone with an ugly-sounding name? Most of the names given to evil queens, when spoken aloud, sound like a wad of phlegm or something else that needs to be hacked up, like a hairball or vomitus. Bavmorda. BaaaavMorrrrrda. It sounds like the noise that would be made when trying to expel un-chewed orange pith from the back of one’s throat. Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty—Princess Aurora’s evil nemesis) sounds bad, “mal” being the Latin prefix for “bad.” Grimhilde, the alleged name of the wicked queen in Disney’s “Snow White” has a very grim sounding name. These ladies were probably not ever picked first for teams in P.E., nor did they get crowned homecoming royalty. I’m willing to wager that no one wanted to summon them over at lunch: “Yoo hoo! Grimhilde, Maleficent, Bavmorda, come sit at our table!” In fact, it was probably because of the rejection in the junior high cafeteria that gave Grimhilde the great idea to use an apple as a murder weapon in the first place. (Actually, the whole apple thing was probably another rip-off from sacred text, because, as we have already established, everybody likes to steal plots from the Bible. But I digress. )
So, Willow Ufgood, the protagonist in the story, continually struggles with issues of self-confidence. He lacks faith in his abilities as a sorcerer. He is like Dumbo the Elephant who doesn’t have the faith in his ability to fly, or Dorothy Gale who, according to the Good Witch Glenda, had the power to return home all along. The townspeople tend to follow the lead of Burglekutt, the hefty town prefect who thinks Willow is a completely incompetent fool. As Burglekutt leaves the Ufgood farm, threatening to foreclose upon Willow’s property, the camera flashes to the large hog that Willow uses to plow his field. Associating Burglekutt with a “filthy pig” seems quite appropriate. He is rude and unkind and constantly pokes fun at Willow, decreasing Willow’s confidence even further. Fortunately for Willow, The High Aldwin recognizes the inner doubt and gives Willow the Nelwyn version of Dumbo’s magic feather: magic acorns, which, when thrown at an enemy…say, a nasty troll or an evil queen, turn the enemy (or at least parts of the enemy) to stone. Wait a minute. Was this in the Bible, too? No, no… it was salt. Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of SALT. Oh, but in C.S. Lewis’s tale of Narnia, the White Witch turns people to stone. And, of course, the classical bad chick of Greek mythology, Medusa, liked to turn people into stone, but received her comeuppance and was turned to stone herself. Here is one moral to the movie Willow: be good or you might be turned to stone. What does that mean, though? Some stone is good, right? So it isn’t necessarily bad to be turned to stone. People who remodel their kitchens these days are clamoring to use natural stone for countertops. Does anyone, in his or her description of a “dream” kitchen, say, “Oh, please give me some Formica?! I would love nothing more than to have some orange plastic Formica countertops (to go with my harvest gold appliances)” No, people want STONE—granite, slate, marble, Medusa…

The element of magic is at the basis of the movie. Willow, like his mentor, the benevolent, grey-haired sorcerer, the High Aldwin, would only use magical powers for good, whereas Queen Bavmorda clearly uses her skills with sorcery for malevolent purposes. This is an interesting concept, especially when compared with different interpretations of the Bible. Some Christians believe that any reference to magic, sorcery, or witchcraft is of the Devil and should be avoided at all cost. They do not consider that some so-called “magic” can be good and can be used to fight against evil. I suppose this is because they look upon magic as something coming from “man” instead of coming from “God.” Or they take the Bible literally. There are a lot of references to magic in the Bible, but really, it is all a matter of semantics. There are some who would “allow” for the “good” kind of magic, providing it is distinguished from the “bad” kind of magic—what they refer to as “black magic.” It is the kind of magic practiced by Draco Malfoy and, of course, Voldemort, in the Harry Potter books/films. It is the kind practiced by queen Bavmorda in Willow. (It is probably even the kind that Louis Prima sings about.) Now, why do we call it “black” magic if it is bad? Using this rationale, we would assume that if it were good magic, it should be called “white” magic, just to indicate that it is the very opposite of black magic. Is this yet another example of how we judge things, people, or abstract concepts based on how light or dark they are? Well, thanks to the miracles (magic?) of the Internet, I just learned that there IS such a thing as “white magic” and it IS generally considered to be the “good” kind of magic. Of course, as with any kind of magic, we are advised to be cautious about how we use it. Willow isn’t always terribly cautious about using his magic. He ends up in a tree, turns Fin Raziel into a crow, and then a goat, instead of her human form (which actually turns out to be fortuitous when confronted with the queen’s soldiers at Tir Asleen). Aha! Two more morals taught to us by Willow: Do not mess with things that you are not sure about; they could be dangerous, and, when things don’t turn out how we expect or plan, be optimistic because it may be a “blessing in disguise” (a blessing disguised as a goat, in this case). We might question why Raziel is transformed into a goat instead of a horse or bear or even a unicorn. Raziel is supposed to be a good character, yet she spends some of her time as an animal commonly associated with the Devil. Once again, summoning the magic of the Internet, I have learned that goats in the Bible were not always associated with Lucifer. They were actually listed among the “clean” animals for the Hebrews’ dining. It seems to just be silly humans who have assigned the negative connotations to the goat. Oh, those silly humans! Goats actually were (at least the Ibex) probably looked upon as beautiful creatures. They were among the only animals suitable for sacrifice. There isn’t always a lot of differentiation between sheep and goats in the Bible; they can both be sacrificed at the altar. My little cousin, William, who is two, can definitely tell the difference between kids and lambs. Here is a recent conversation related by William’s mommy, Allison on (of course) facebook:
‎"Look William, goats!" - "no, sheep" - "um, I think those are goats sweetie" - "sheep!" - petting zoo employee: "those are sheep". Can't believe my 2 y/o corrected me! He's been studying his farm books...
We return, once again, to Willow. Back in the Daikini tavern, (a very raucous place full of large, sweaty men—and women—with unkempt hair), we find Madmartigan hurrying to disguise himself to “hide” from Llug, the large, sweaty man who is married to the woman with whom Madmartigan has recently been committing adultery. The movie makes no moral commentary about the illicit affair between Llug’s wife and Madmartigan. In fact, it seems to glorify it. The moral of this particular segment of film seems to say to women that it is okay to screw around if your husband is big and oafish, as long as you do it with a hot warrior like Madmartigan.
Beauty is another subject that is woven into the story line of Willow. When the queen’s army bursts into the tavern in search of Elora Danan, Madmartigan gives away his feminine ruse because he is so instantly smitten with the dazzling looks of Sorsha, Bavmorda’s daughter. Chaos ensues as Llug, presently aware that his wife’s “cousin” is really a man, lunges for Madmartigan, crashing into soldiers as he struggles, unsuccessfully, to reach the fleeing Madmartigan. Blinded by his lust for the cross-dressing warrior, Llug wreaks havoc on the scene, and blinded by HIS lust for Sorsha, Madmartigan nearly loses his life as well as Elora Danan’s. The moral here could be “Look beyond the outward beauty of something or someone because sometimes beauty can be deadly.”
While in the tavern, another character in the story was learning that being attracted to something beautiful could spell danger. Rool and Franjean, the brownies, had stolen some magical fairy dust, “dust of broken hearts,” that causes the person who is sprinkled with the dust to fall in love with the first face of the opposite gender it sees who would likely not return the love. Rool accidentally gets some dust spilled on him and becomes infatuated with the tavern cat, a very risky love-interest. This results in Rool plunging into a vat of beer to escape the cat’s response to his advances. (So, could we then use that adage, “Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder?”) Fortunately, Rool was an adept swimmer and did not drown; furthermore, he did not seem to mind being stuck in a keg of brew. This illustrates a common coping method and might be another moral (though probably not): When scorned by a woman, getting drunk helps ease the pain.
Willow offers another moral lesson, courtesy of Madmartigan. After escaping Llug and the soldiers in the tavern, Madmartigan steals a cart and horses to put as much distance as possible between himself and the army pursuing him. Willow has stowed away in the back of the cart with the baby and the brownies. Madmartigan drives the cart at breakneck speeds along rutted roads, through the woods, with the enemies in hot pursuit. Arrows are flying, wheels on the cart are shattering, and yet Madmartigan continues forward at full bore. Willow, who has vowed to protect Elora Danan at all cost, screams for Madmartigan to slow down or stop. Madmartigan completely ignores Willow and somehow manages to elude his pursuers. Once they are stopped, Willow angrily chastises Madmartigan, informing him, “You never, ever drive that fast with an infant!” (To which Madmartigan, exasperated, responds, “I just saved that infant’s life!”) The moral here is that sometimes it is okay to break some rules if it results in a positive outcome.
Okay, now let’s go back to the whole good versus evil narrative. Willow uses an assortment of symbols, which, through the ages, have represented bad or evil things. I’ve already mentioned the goat symbol and the use of “black” for a “bad” kind of magic. Bavmorda seems to be particularly fond of the number 13, which, according to superstition, is a bad, unlucky number. While she is trying to cast a spell on Elora Danan, Bavmorda commands that the baby be “…. exile [d] to the 13th night.” It sounded poetic, but I had no idea what that meant. Apparently, the 13th night has something to do with Christmas Eve in Iceland. Maybe not, but that is what I found. It is one more than “Twelfth Night,” which, besides being a play by Shakespeare, is a celebration from Christmas to the Epiphany. So really, what Bavmorda is doing with her incantation, is to send the baby to Christmas for an extra day of celebrating. That can’t be an altogether bad thing, can it? Hmmm. Maybe Elora Danan was already practicing her own magic, sending subliminal messages to the queen to get “exiled” to Christmas Eve. I doubt it. Bavmorda then yells to no one in particular to “light the 13th candle.” This obviously must have some evil significance. In some cultures, the number 13 is not unlucky, but in most Western beliefs, it is a number to be avoided. I would not go so far as to say that the number 13 is an immoral number. How can a number, being only a symbolic representation, be immoral? It really can’t. Nor can it be evil or good. Thirteen just “is.” Nevertheless, Bavmorda likes it a lot. I wonder if she likes daisies and spider webs, too? (Those were some of the favorite things of Sarah Winchester. She had woodworkers design corner medallions of daisies with 13 petals each. Drains in her sinks had the 13-leaf daisy motif, too. Sarah was a bit of an eccentric, to say the least.)
After Bavmorda fights a battle with Raziel (and temporarily defeats Raziel), she informs Willow (who has, in the meantime, during the distraction of the fighting, removed Elora Danan from the altar) that she is about to send the child into the “Netherworld.” That is definitely a reference to Hell, so there is little to discuss here. Of course, Willow disobeys, which only infuriates the queen more. When he blatantly defies Bavmorda, she comes after him with her wand and, in so doing, knocks over one of her potions and ends up sending her own spirit into the Netherworld (exactly where evil hags like she belong, of course). The music changes from somber and foreboding to light and happy as we next see Willow receiving a book of magic from Fin Raziel. Returning home from his adventures, Willow has gained confidence in his abilities and is given a hero’s welcome. “Have faith in yourself” is the overarching theme/moral of the story. As a demonstration of his newfound skills, Willow turns an apple into a bird, which delights the crowd, especially when it bombards Burglekutt with a hefty blob of poop. The final moral of the story: Be a big jerk and you will eventually get hit by a pile of sh----aving cream.

October 15

2010-10-16T00:26:00.000-07:00

I found the interview Charlie Rose did with Gergiev this evening absolutely exceptional. I am not sure when it will be posted on the web but think this will be where you can find it: http://www.charlierose.com/guest/view/2310
I wish I had a recording of it that I could trust to keep instead of the temporary internet records. I will have to ask Rick if he has played any of his CDs. I was lured into ordering his Parsifal to see what it might be like.

Meanwhile, the interview interrupted a great evening with Peter Hitchens whose new book is a great counter to those I have read of his brother. I suspect many friends will love it if they have a chance to pick it up. So far the description of growing up in England when they did is quite startling in its effect on me. Maybe there has been too much estrogen in my food lately? Between Peter and Gergiev my evening was full of ammunition against the likes of Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins.

I enjoyed Steve's article this morning on the impact of the Internet on Alaska villages and can't but help to think I am posting this via the Mukluk Telegraph. It was great seeing some of the beautiful prose from Steve's earlier messages in the article so that others could enjoy it as well.

Looking at everything through an energy lense

2010-10-02T11:41:00.000-07:00

http://www.math.uaa.alaska.edu/~afkjm/video/MaryLogan-Energy/MaryLogan-Energy.html Or added as a link:

This is a very nice summary of the issues that seem to be the ground of everything else that is happening.

Feminist tools of the trade

2010-09-04T20:01:00.000-07:00

Reading Jane Austen
The irony of it all. There are lots of differing points of view regarding how to interpret the irony in her novels. Part of this problem I suggest is the nature of thinking to be recursive. Do I interpret a line like "imbecility in females is a great enhancement of their personal charms" to be meant as true? Is it a comment on the nature of males? Is it irony in that is is ridiculous because of the injustice of it but still true of males attitudes? Is there irony since the smart women use this to charm stupid men? How many other levels of irony might be interpreted here? Which, if any, were the intentions of the author? All of them?
But it certainly shows one way of dealing with the injustice of the situation in Jane Austen's day and certainly still applies in many respects today. This is certainly one tool feminists have at their disposal.

Reading Slavoj Zizek

2010-07-25T15:19:00.000-07:00

Spur of the moment purchase for me the other day was "Living in the End Times" by Slavoj Zizek. It has been a great relief! Having watched Slavoj on multiple Youtube videos I have grown used to his presentation style: very fast speech with a nice Slavic accent and frequent spastic movements that suggest a very active mind more than some sort of disorder. The relief in reading the book comes from the fact that while I can still hear his voice as I read his pace has slowed down considerably! In fact, he can even repeat himself when I want to hear something over again. But there has also been a terrible disappointment. Having never read one of his books before I wanted to review some of his research and started with the startling summary of Martin Luther's point of view regarding human beings as God's excrement. Did Luther say anything of the sort I wondered? A friend said yes. But using Google to check this have so far found multiple exact quotations of Zizek's point - made in multiple books - such as "The Parallax View" where virtually two pages from the new book are there complete. And still again in another web page. Typing ths before continuing my explore I wonder if anyone else has noticed a propensity for Zizek to repackage his books under new titles and reissue them? I can see using similar material to make similar points but would certainly not want to be paying the price for a new book that is mostly an old book.

Anticipation

2010-06-05T00:36:00.000-07:00

Ok, so maybe there is a difference between the old edition owned by a philosopher who liked Bloch and penciled notes in the text and a new copy in paperback:

http://www.amazon.com/Werke-20-B%C3%A4nden-ein-Registerband/dp/3518097180/ref=pd_ecc_rvi_cart_1

But I am anticipating its arrival non the less. Where on my shelf will I put this? Perhaps in the office?

Wish list

2010-06-04T00:21:00.000-07:00

Had an interesting eye opening experience several weeks ago at Title Wave Books when I found a new complete set of Kant's works for $19.95 - all six volumes for that! I confess when I went to the counter it was initially to see if they were really going to charge that for the whole set or per book! When the clerk said it was the whole price I could not help myself. So then I figured - I ought to start reading it. So far I made it through the biography and started the first Critique. Hey! It is not bad. I am managing and find I am following it. So I became curious and checked the Consortium and sure enough the edition they have is different but it is there. So is the complete set of Fichte's work. But for Hegel? Nada. Nichts on the pommfritz. So had a look at Amazon:
Sämtliche Werke: Jubiläumsausgabe
Now that would be an interesting set for the library to have! But how do I get them to buy it?

Meanwhile. Donna took pity on me and let me order the paperback set - 20 Banden for $349! No kidding. The odd thing was she would not let me order that for my birthday but insisted it would be for Father's Day. (In other words she already has something for August.) So within 12 business days I should have it - and be wondering what to do with it.

Reading in the sun

2010-06-01T12:07:00.000-07:00

Except today so far is not as sunny as it has been! So I shiver out on the deck with Aristotle for awhile then retreat into the house for something to eat and read E.D. Hirsch or stop in the garage (my office) to check if there are any new emails. A radio is playing KLEF in both places.

Better catch up

2010-05-28T13:07:00.001-07:00

Today a friend has created a blog at long last. This has reminded me that for months I have given up on adding to mine. I guess I better catch up!

Not your mother's Alice in Wonderland

2010-03-05T19:41:00.000-08:00

Tim Burton has created an interesting work of art that plays on Lewis Carroll's "Alice" but this is not the children's story in continuo unless the children are made of sterner stuff. We must determine the outcomes of our own dreams if we are going to be true to ourselves. If we do not become the hero of our own dream we can't be our own hero in life either. I suppose. An odd feeling when the movie ended - you feel almost as if there is an emotional let down in finding yourself back in the real world. Does everyone feel this? What causes it? Are we able to reach an emotional high similar to a drug high because of the way the music and cinematography act on us? And when it ends the body goes back to stasis. How can everyday life compete with this?

Intro to Humanities II Mar 4

2010-03-05T19:21:00.000-08:00

Today we looked at the theory of the semiotic. C. S. Peirce, William James, and John Dewey were basically reviewed in order to discuss pragmatism. Since the origin of pragmatism was Peirce's theory of meaning - "the meaning of a word is its use in the language" we looked at art from the literary perspective of how a work fits into the story it tells. Van Eyck's "Arnolfini's Wedding" was a starting point for a discussion about how we "record" weddings today. From this painting to photographs to DVD recordings of our weddings - to YouTube videos of "wedding dance". From this we went on to Baroque music and asked if the Alleluia chorus of Messiah could be as powerful a piece to someone who did not know the story it is part of? Or further to someone who both knows and believes the story? This was the quiz question.

Intro to Philosophy Mar 4

2010-03-05T15:38:00.000-08:00

Today we moved on to John Locke. Two main issues include the problem of Empiricism and the Social Contract Theory. The problem of empiricism results from Locke's recognition that the things in themselves do not have the characteristics we sense but instead those characteristics result from the interaction of our senses with what he called the primary characteristics of those things. This leaves us in a quandry regarding what we can know about the things in themselves since the primary qualities - the matter of those things - are essentially unobservable by us. This leads to a very skeptical point of view which George Berkeley will be concerned with later. This also begins the point of view regarded as Materialism. The second issue: since Jefferson honored John Locke along with Frances Bacon and Isaac Newton as his favorite philosophers, Locke's version of the Social Contract was fundamental in Jefferson's philosophy and use of political theory in his work in Virginia and the Federal Government. I emphasize that the state of nature as conceived by Locke is different than with Hobbes and this changes the purpose of the social contract. Instead of concluding that an absolute authority should govern Locke argues for a balance of powers. Under this members of the contract do not yield their rights to absolute monarch but instead maintain the right to overthrow the monarch if the executive does not ahere to the legislature's intent. Another important point inherited by Jefferson from Locke (that comes from Locke's reading of Spinoza) is the need for toleration of different religions. Since all great religious prophets were essentially doing science and religions based on their teachings are in the end all aiming at the same thing, there should be tolleration of those with different views. After all, with education and the improvments of science we will eventually all be in agreement anyway! So Jefferson fights for a seperation of Church and State. We ended this session puzzled with the famous question concerning the tree falling in the forest with no one there to hear it. Does it make a sound?

Truth Beauty Goodness March 3

2010-03-03T21:38:00.000-08:00

A main focus of today's discussion concerned the impact language may have on the development of music. Do the tones in speech in different languages have an impact on the melodies we use to communicate emotion in song? This may even effect dialects as well. We laughed at Robin Williams immitating a Scottish accent for this. (By the way, I did not ask this but should have, what is the significance of taboo sounds and words? Why do they have the power they do? Why do comics use them so much?) We looked at a variety of cultural arts using music especially contrasting oriental music such as the Beijing Opera and Japanese Court music with pop music from Asia and wondered why pop music from the west would have such an impact on music with such a different tradition. We also re-discussed the idea of the Golden Ratio and what it might have to do with the way nature develops. If mathematical proportions have a bearing on what we find to be beautiful (perhaps because symetry and balance indicate health) then do the same sorts of mathematical proportions have an effect on what we find beautiful in music? In poetry? We also revisited the Dove Evolution commercial and spoofs on the same to think about the Golden Ratio in its use to remake faces to fit a mathematical ideal of beauty that real people cannot match.

Intro to Humanities II Mar 2

2010-03-02T23:20:00.000-08:00

Today our topic was Feminism. We looked briefly at my link: http://afwsj.uaa.alaska.edu/fem.htm I took a very conservative tack - usually a good move to start a lively discussion, but discovered for the most part the class seemed in agreement! When asked who felt as though they were feminists only one person raised a hand. There was agreement that most of the goals of the first and second waves of feminism were achieved! In fact today it seems that males are in decline for lots of reasons. Lionel Tiger's book "The Decline of Males" was mentioned as were current problems with employment for males. There was agreement that males are more often the care givers for their children. We then moved to address the art of the Northern European Renaissance in light of the feminist interpretation of art. I suggested after looking especially at music from southern European opera - Monteverdi through Andrew Weber that music in southern European Catholic culture is sexy! But Northern European music is much more restrained as is the art. Is this true? Could we argue that feminism would only have developed in a culture dominated by Northern European Puritans? We ran out of time to discuss this further! We should pick it up next class.

Intro to Philosophy Mar 2

2010-03-02T23:14:00.000-08:00

We finished by discussing the traditional view of Descartes as the beginning of Continental Rationalism and Hobbes as an empiricist (though Locke is traditionally viewed as the beginning of the British Empiricist tradition as we will see.) We then briefly discussed a few highlights about Pascal including his wager, his triangle, and his calculator. But Spinoza was the main topic for the day and we dived into the Ethics reading the definitions, axioms, and propositions. I argue that his conclusion that the Scholastic definitions lead to a view of Pantheism - God is all there is. How persuasive was his argument? That was one quiz question for today. The other was: given how light looks to us, how do we look to light?

Truth Beauty Goodness Mar 1

2010-03-02T22:49:00.000-08:00

We listened to the noises made by lots of mammals from North America courtesy of
the Audubon North American Mammals disk. Maybe we had to guess at a few but it
was pretty clear at least how large the animals were. My attempt was to bridge
the gap between song and noise. Where do we draw the line? Family resemblance
tells us what is a song and what is not but once we realize that line is a
result of our preference can we interpret the noise a buffalo makes as music?
Music at least to the buffalo? This discussion led to song - the human variety
and we listened to "When you're alone, you're not really alone," Charlotte
Church doing "Pie Jesu" followed by an interesting comparison with Sarah
Brightman doing the same piece - noticing her relative maturity and so a
different nuance in the prayer for pity from the Divine. From this we went to a
selection from Leonard Bernstein's Judaica album - from the Kadesh - or funeral
for President Kennedy. I selected the piece where the tenor yells at God - "Your covenant is tin!" Is this song? How about rap? While this is usually as far as Iwould go for this session some naturally brought up the question about poetry and what difference there was between that and song. I played with the idea that, at least with Shakespeare in "Much Ado About Nothing" the song "Sigh no more ladies" is a poem until the directions say it should be sung. We should be clear that we know what is song and what is not, what is poetry and what not, but we also should be clear how dependent we are on a muddling consensus that enables us to have such a sense of what is what.

2010-02-26T19:54:00.000-08:00

I have enjoyed asking several classes what they thought the cultural implications of this ad for headsets were. The ad was in the Chicago Airport between gates.

Feb 26 Charles Wolhforth

2010-02-26T19:48:00.000-08:00

CW gave his presentation to the LS Dept today as well as others that elected to come. The presentation was a continuation of themes in his book "The Whale and the Supercomputer" (It occured to me afterwards that I have never had him sign my copy of his book) and what will be his new book coming out in June (?) I made mention of the book by Kathleen Dean Moore "The Pine Island Paradox".

On Lincoln and Shakespeare

2010-02-26T19:39:00.000-08:00

The Polaris lecture the evening of Feb 25 (See the Polaris web page for details) left me with the interesting question of how the development of human rights were tied to the evolution of the self (thinking here of Charles Taylor's two books "The Sources of the Self" and "A Secular Age") and following Harold Bloom's book "Shakespeare and the Invention of the Human". As Lincoln was influenced by Shakespeare and this is evident through an analysis of his use of Shakespeare in his speeches, is Lincoln a great source of this evolution of the self especially as it played out in America through his political power. Prof Briggs focused on the nature of tyranny in his lecture and viewed Lincoln's understanding of it as Shakespearean - Falstaff, Macbeth, and others. The tyranny is internal and a property of the modern individual that wants to be free even from the tyrannical parts of himself - the demons we most have to fear.

2010-02-26T19:37:00.000-08:00

Intro to Humanities II Feb 25

2010-02-26T19:24:00.000-08:00

The task today was to delve into formalism, sociological theory, and Marxism, to see how those theories would effect our view of art. The art to be the topic of our analysis was late Renaissance. Of the art the only piece we looked at was Primavera and we did not do much with that. Instead we spent most of the time talking about the Socially Constructed Reality and implications of the theory. A major part of this concerned the limits of social construction and trying to figure out what those might be. I mentioned Wilson and Daly's book "Homicide" as the book that started the Evolutionary Psychology point of view which is often contrasted with those that take the Social Construction of Reality too liberally. The contrary view is that Evolutionary Psychology is just the old status quo in a new disguise.
On Marx I discovered the class was basically unfamiliar with Marx and Marxism so the remaining portion of the class was a review of who Marx was and the essential nature of his philosophy as a revolt against Hegelianism. As usual, I touched on Kierkegaard to contrast how two students of Frederich Schelling both sought to discredit Hegel's philosophy but from contrasting points of view. Soren K took the view that the individual is isolated and must create meaning for themselves. Marx took the view that the individual is a myth and all "individuals" are as the culture creates them. And how the culture does that is not top down as Hegel thought but bottom up. The economy, or means of production, is the source of culture and the nature of the individual from one community to the next.

Intro to Philosophy Feb 25

2010-02-26T19:01:00.000-08:00

We continued discussing Hobbes. A main concern I have in presenting the concept of social contract is the idea that what makes the theory coherent is understanding the concept of rights as coming from the contract. In the conceptualization of the State of Nature everyone has all rights - to take anything - but even from others - in short, the State of Nature Hobbes describes is a dog eat dog anarchy where rights are meaningless. Then the contract is formed and everyone that is a member of the contract gets the rights as described in the contract. I point this out with regard to a person who buys a house. By contracting with the bank and municipal authority the person who pays successfully for the house gets the rights of ownership. We would all realize just how wrong it would be for someone else - homeless - to declare they also have a right to live in the house. That right is not given them by the contract. Apply this to citizenship and you have a way of understanding much of what seems confusing to many. Aliens do not have the rights of citizens. Slaves were property and not members of the contract - nor were women, children, and others not recognized as the sort of person Jefferson et al were thinking about. But as the nature of the contract changes others are admitted and the nature of the rights change. Notice how silly this makes it seem for someone to argue about the rights of women in China, for example. They are certainly not citizens of the US and so do not have the rights such membership gives a woman who is a US citizen. A person who thinks they do is just confused. Notice the question of whether or not women in China should have such rights is a totally different question!
Another different question concerns what the founders thought regarding the rights they described. It seems they clearly thought what they were describing were God given and so they may have understood all persons - whatever they may have considered worthy of the name - had those rights. But notice this requires acceptance of such an authority for that to be coherent.

Truth Beauty Goodness Feb 24

2010-02-24T20:29:00.000-08:00

Today's discussion was a continuation on the intuition of beauty. One hypothesis is that what appeals universally to human beings may be the source of our sense of loss in stories like the Fall. Was paradise a life where human nature fit nature making subsistence sustainable? Jared Diamond titles his first chapter of the book "Guns, Germs, and Steel" "Yali's Question". Is New Guinea and example of what sustainable human life have been before the Fall? As civilization becomes more complex, human beings develop more complex social structures that require the imposition of rules on what otherwise would have been our free natures. Good and evil arrive. An interesting contrast seems also there regarding the development of the brain. Are certain abstract thinking abilities developed because of the necessity resulting from more complex social structures? (Referring to the Charlie Rose Show on the Developing Brain series 5.)

Intro to Humanities II Feb 23

2010-02-23T13:05:00.001-08:00

Applying Psychology to art, especially with regard to the art of the late Middle Ages.
Using Youtube videos of Hildegaard von Bingen Ecclesia, the Shadowlands trailer, Sainte-Chapelle, I tried to contrast the nature of art from the context of traditional religious narratives with that of scientific - objectivity narratives with an emphasis on the psychological affect on the adherents of the narrative. I used Lucian Freud as an example of how depressing his grandfather's narrative is compared to Lewis whose re-conversion reflects the psychological viewpoint of William James, that for psychological reasons it is better to beleive in traditional religious narratives than not to. Brian Boyd's book "On the Origin of Stories" and a video of him (search string on Youtube "science religion Brian Boyd") emphasized that we are dependent on symbolic universes in order to think as humans. Quiz question was: What narrative sustains you when modern life is so depressing? What is your escape?

Intro to Philosophy Feb 23

2010-02-23T12:58:00.000-08:00

The Discussion today continued on Descartes but included Galileo. The previous quiz question was: Does the earth go around the sun or does the sun go around the earth? I argue for an answer that these are each useful models, that there are other useful models besides these, each of which has truth value for us just as they are useful. But was Galileo thinking this way?

But back to Descartes: we left with a quiz question for today regarding Cartesian Mind-Body Dualism wondering what people thought today regarding the existence of a soul. Do we have a soul?

2010-02-22T20:04:00.000-08:00

Today we began a discussion of the nature of the beautiful and just as we earlier did with the nature of truth started asking what gave us each an intuitive sense of happiness. As a discussion starter we looked at some Youtube videos of places in Disney World. First stop: "Its a Small World". The discussion went pretty well with this as it turned out that many members of the class had been to Disney World or Disney Land and had their favorite memories of specific rides. This were good examples of that intuitive feeling of happiness. But what explains that happiness? Is it a direct biological connection or does a complex system of cultural connections have something to do with it?

Thanks to Mudflats

2010-02-21T19:58:00.000-08:00

Had a very engaging presentation today by the blogger who started Mudflats and considered doing a blog an interesting idea. My intention would be to use the blog to be a web log of my thoughts teaching philosophy. What kind of lessons I present, what kind of reactions I get from students, what works, what does not, all would be topics for the blog. This would also include the books I am reading and my thoughts on the usefulness of those. I shall see how this goes. If anything, I would imagine it to be a good way to keep a diary of my thoughts on these efforts.