Yes, I have not been writing about philosophy for a month of so. I shall pin the blame on English homework, psychology tests, U.S. history quizzes, photography work (paid and non paid), blah, blah, blah....
I got lazy.
That simple. However, due to circumstances, my history class today was cancelled. At first, I worried about the reason it was cancelled but rejoiced in the realization that I do not have to spend five, six hours from 8 am to 2 pm going to school, attending school, and going back home. Ever since I finished the first day of class, I realized why going to school on a Saturday morning is not a wise choice.
The irony of today was that I worked at a cake show (long story that I would not get into) from 9 am to 3 pm. At least, I earned money, admired pretty cakes, learned how to use PayPal on a tablet and a smartphone, and later embarrassed myself in an Italian restaurant. Apparently, licking a plate is not accepted in a formal restaurant neither is making failed origami creations using the black table cloths. Also since my family always take me to Asian restaurants, I yearned for chopsticks as I repeatedly stabbed my noodles with a fork because it does not pick up the penne ( Italian noodles..yes, I googled up the word). How do people use forks? Honestly, I do not care about eating according to social convention, since my family raised me to eat all of your food if you like it. I never learned about the proper to use spoons or forks, mostly because my kitchen has five spoons and no forks while amount of there are ∞ chopsticks in the house.
I guess I'm writing this all out as a warm-up and to share this memorable day.
Rain, keep raining. I want to see lighting in the sky! (I'm currently listening to raindrops outside my home, so I'm not imagining things)
October 13, 2016 Thursday
As an overview, my philosophy teacher talked a variety of historical philosophy, ranging from Eastern Philosophy (Confucius 孔子, Buddha, Lao-zi 老子) to Western Philosophy (Pre-Socratic, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle). After our exam, we learned about Scholastic Philosophy with archetypes such as Saint Augustine, Saint Anselm, Rene Descartes, John Locke and George Berkeley.
In terms of class material, my teacher Wayne went over empiricism, the belief that all knowledge is ultimately derived from sense experience and that all ideas can be traced to sense data. I felt empiricism is partially true because there is evidence that there are innate ideas and functions within us such as the function to breathe. In babies, no one taught them how to suckle for breast milk, yet they are able to with guidance from the mothers who bring their children close to them. However, innate ideas are mainly used for survival as we create our own ideas about the world through our senses and other people's ideas.
The archetype of empiricism is John Locke, nicknamed the father of empiricism, not the inventor. He claimed that all ideas came from sensation/reflection (the mind being aware of the environment) and abstraction (anyone's experiences), leaving no room of consideration for innate ideas. The idea of tabula rasa (blank, clean state) overall captures empiricism's theory that all ideas came from somewhere, similar to the corresponding theory of truth, which states that an idea is true if it can refer to things that actually exists. The rebuttal for this would be how we treat fictional characters as real life people such as Percy Jackson is the son of Poseidon and that he is dating Annabeth Chase (Yes, I'm a Percy Jackson fan!) and how we treat abstract concepts as reality like perfect circles. Personally, I felt the correspondence theory of truth is not applicable because people can perceive the same object under different facts. For example, light can be defined by scientists as an electromagnetic wave that has photons and be characterized by its duality, both a particle and both a wave. For others, light is the presence of God who opposes darkness. This example leads in the difference between direct and indirect realism.
Seeing the moon would be an example of direct realism because you are directly experiencing the light exactly the way it is, a bright little dot in black cloudy paper. Yeah, that ain't true. Indirect or representational realism states that what we experience through our senses is a representation of the external world, the world outside our minds. My teacher adamantly states, "This is one of the few times philosophy gets something absolutely correct." How so?
Let's say we see a cat, a cute fluffy cat sitting on a couch, sleeping all curled up. For nearsighted people who does not know there is a cat there may perceive the cat as a dog or a stuffed animal from afar. For those who know it is a cat may assume it is sleeping or licking itself. From merely seeing a cute cat, there are different interpretations. Another example I remembered back in 10th grade is when my English teacher taught my class about signifier and signified which was created by Ferdinand de SausssureI.
A signifier is a symbol of the object such as a drawing, word, stuffed animal or the origami tree.
A signified is the internal concept or idea that can vary between each perceiver. It can be the actual object or not.
For example, the word "tree" is a combination of the letters t, r and e, thus it is a signifier. It is not an actual tree, but the word represent the concept of a tree, which is the signified.
The flip side is the a signified can be a signifier, In the second example, the drawing of the tree has green and brown colors in some organized fashion, not the actual tree. Thus the drawing is a signifier. What it represents is the actual tree, which can be in different colors from the signified. A tree's bark does not necessarily have to be brown. It can be white like the birch tree.
Overall, signifier and signified represents representational idealism because what we perceive of the same object is not necessarily the same. During class, I have this concept in the back of my head, yet I could not recall its name until I looked back in my English notes.
Moving on to the next philosopher is George Berkeley. When my teacher told everyone that Berkeley is supposed to be pronunciated as Bark-ke-li and not Berk-ke-li, my head was saying Bo-ke-li. I later put this on the UCB's Overheard group and someone commented it as Broccoli.
Futhermore, sometimes it is not wise to trust on our senses portrayed by the McGurk effect, mirages and the shepard illusion. Funny story with the sound illusion. Because my parents got this new TV that allows you to have your computer, smartphone, tablet's videos on the TV, I pulled a prank on my parents by replacing their Korean drama with the auditory clip. I latter reassured them that it was me, not a hacker (but I admit I am a troller, hahahaha).
That's all I have for now. I think another reason I put off these post is because it takes me.....over five hours to write them out...
(ugh, I should not be an overachiever. I need to set low expectations).
Now............sleep.
The archetype of empiricism is John Locke, nicknamed the father of empiricism, not the inventor. He claimed that all ideas came from sensation/reflection (the mind being aware of the environment) and abstraction (anyone's experiences), leaving no room of consideration for innate ideas. The idea of tabula rasa (blank, clean state) overall captures empiricism's theory that all ideas came from somewhere, similar to the corresponding theory of truth, which states that an idea is true if it can refer to things that actually exists. The rebuttal for this would be how we treat fictional characters as real life people such as Percy Jackson is the son of Poseidon and that he is dating Annabeth Chase (Yes, I'm a Percy Jackson fan!) and how we treat abstract concepts as reality like perfect circles. Personally, I felt the correspondence theory of truth is not applicable because people can perceive the same object under different facts. For example, light can be defined by scientists as an electromagnetic wave that has photons and be characterized by its duality, both a particle and both a wave. For others, light is the presence of God who opposes darkness. This example leads in the difference between direct and indirect realism.
Seeing the moon would be an example of direct realism because you are directly experiencing the light exactly the way it is, a bright little dot in black cloudy paper. Yeah, that ain't true. Indirect or representational realism states that what we experience through our senses is a representation of the external world, the world outside our minds. My teacher adamantly states, "This is one of the few times philosophy gets something absolutely correct." How so?
Let's say we see a cat, a cute fluffy cat sitting on a couch, sleeping all curled up. For nearsighted people who does not know there is a cat there may perceive the cat as a dog or a stuffed animal from afar. For those who know it is a cat may assume it is sleeping or licking itself. From merely seeing a cute cat, there are different interpretations. Another example I remembered back in 10th grade is when my English teacher taught my class about signifier and signified which was created by Ferdinand de SausssureI.
A signifier is a symbol of the object such as a drawing, word, stuffed animal or the origami tree.
A signified is the internal concept or idea that can vary between each perceiver. It can be the actual object or not.
For example, the word "tree" is a combination of the letters t, r and e, thus it is a signifier. It is not an actual tree, but the word represent the concept of a tree, which is the signified.
The flip side is the a signified can be a signifier, In the second example, the drawing of the tree has green and brown colors in some organized fashion, not the actual tree. Thus the drawing is a signifier. What it represents is the actual tree, which can be in different colors from the signified. A tree's bark does not necessarily have to be brown. It can be white like the birch tree.
Overall, signifier and signified represents representational idealism because what we perceive of the same object is not necessarily the same. During class, I have this concept in the back of my head, yet I could not recall its name until I looked back in my English notes.
Moving on to the next philosopher is George Berkeley. When my teacher told everyone that Berkeley is supposed to be pronunciated as Bark-ke-li and not Berk-ke-li, my head was saying Bo-ke-li. I later put this on the UCB's Overheard group and someone commented it as Broccoli.
Yeah, I black out the faces and names so there would be no stalkers here. Besides, it's rude to do so without consent.
Anyway, his main idea was to counteract deism, the belief that God only created the universe and does not interfere with it, surmised by a famous quote by Elif Shafak,
“God is a meticulous clockmaker. So precise is His order that everything on earth happens in its own time. Neither a minute late nor a minute early. And for everyone without exception, the clock works accurately. For each there is a time to love and a time to die.”
What Berkeley did to fight against deism is vouch for idealism, which states that only ideas (sensible experiences and thought) exits, rejecting the external physical world and accepting the mental things. He coined the phrase "Esse est percipi", which means "To be is to be perceived." For example, if I do not see the due date for the a homework assignment, then it does not exist! Sadly, that is not true, but to refute it is challenging.Futhermore, sometimes it is not wise to trust on our senses portrayed by the McGurk effect, mirages and the shepard illusion. Funny story with the sound illusion. Because my parents got this new TV that allows you to have your computer, smartphone, tablet's videos on the TV, I pulled a prank on my parents by replacing their Korean drama with the auditory clip. I latter reassured them that it was me, not a hacker (but I admit I am a troller, hahahaha).
That's all I have for now. I think another reason I put off these post is because it takes me.....over five hours to write them out...
(ugh, I should not be an overachiever. I need to set low expectations).
Now............sleep.
