It is interesting to see and hear different opinions on becoming “god like”. I am not the most religious person but I am open to the different views and opinions people have. Some see divinity as unattainable while others think we may possibly be closer then we know.
The definition that is currently in the dictionary for god is...
"a being or object believed to have more than natural attributes and powers and to require human worship"
and
"the Being perfect in power, wisdom, and goodness who is worshiped as creator and ruler of the universe"
I guess I mean being immortal, fully understanding ourselves and the universe in its entirety. Or do you believe that there our limits to our intelligence or boundaries in science that we will never be able to cross. Are humans completely capable of understanding everything given enough time, or are there limits to what we can collectively accomplish?
Depending on where you put your beliefs, you might side with either definition. In philosophy, I think it is put more so in that of being perfect in wisdom and goodness. If one has the capacity to be “perfect” then yes it is attainable. But the word perfect brings a meaning of no fault in any means and by that standard, nobody is ultimately and fully perfect.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Broken Home to Good, Is it Possible?
We had talked about how coming from a broken home can somewhat cause a predestination effect on the life of kids. It is easy to see how this is a common thought amongst most people because home life plays a huge part in shaping who we are. It is how we associate how to act when we get outside the walls of our house and how we govern right from wrong.
Coming from a home that has witnessed its’ share of bad events, I for one can attest that while it does play a huge factor, if you can push beyond this, you can and will become the thing that you may fear most. One will realize that there is more to life then taking the “easy way out” and that hard work, and dedication do pay off in the end.
My childhood was based in a fairly rough part of Dallas due to the fact that my mother was a single mother raising three kids. I had been witness to many violent things and have seen first hand, how a broken home can turn a person bad. It is interesting to think how things for my family might be different if my mother had not been the strong person she is. She instilled a sense of right and wrong in us and taught us that even though times are rough and you can be down on your luck, you have to push on. For tomorrow is a new day and with new days bring new opportunities.
With the right kind of morals and ethics instilled within us from child hood, we can turn the worst of situation into the best. It is not always the easiest thing to do, but if we actually come to a sense of realization, then it is extremely possible to break the common mold and become a “good person”. It is something to be admired and reckoned with because hard work and determination are what it means to make this society work.
Coming from a home that has witnessed its’ share of bad events, I for one can attest that while it does play a huge factor, if you can push beyond this, you can and will become the thing that you may fear most. One will realize that there is more to life then taking the “easy way out” and that hard work, and dedication do pay off in the end.
My childhood was based in a fairly rough part of Dallas due to the fact that my mother was a single mother raising three kids. I had been witness to many violent things and have seen first hand, how a broken home can turn a person bad. It is interesting to think how things for my family might be different if my mother had not been the strong person she is. She instilled a sense of right and wrong in us and taught us that even though times are rough and you can be down on your luck, you have to push on. For tomorrow is a new day and with new days bring new opportunities.
With the right kind of morals and ethics instilled within us from child hood, we can turn the worst of situation into the best. It is not always the easiest thing to do, but if we actually come to a sense of realization, then it is extremely possible to break the common mold and become a “good person”. It is something to be admired and reckoned with because hard work and determination are what it means to make this society work.
Beauty is Not Skin Deep
In today’s world, beauty is defined in so many different ways; from short hair to large rings around necks. Beauty has been one thing that has always been around from the beginning of time, it just differs from one culture to the next. We often place such importance on “being beautiful” that we tend to over look such small things like what actual beauty is. The old saying, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” is more relevant then ever. People in our society go to such great lengths to make themselves beautiful that they often do not see what they possess and just want to be like the celebrities they see within the magazines or the internet.
Beauty is such a magnificent thing. It can make you feel like a prince or princess, it can make a bad day turn good and it has the power to make the sick feel whole again. It saddens me to think that people seem to gravitate towards the negative sides and often do not see the beauty within. It is always easy to say that I am not beautiful but to be beautiful is not just an aesthetic or visual thing.
Inner beauty is one of the most golden things any one person can possess. It cannot be taken away or classified as ugly. It is a feeling from within whether everyone sees it or not. It is easily the most gratifying emotion to have. In America, beauty is almost solely focused on the outside. How skinny you are, what you eat, the make up you wear, and the hair cut you have. These are all exterior, basic, almost primitive wants and needs. What happened to the simple things like; how healthy you are, you smart you may be, how personable you are? It is everything that actually means something to us and the thing that is most often not included into our everyday vocabulary and meaning of beauty.
The world would greatly benefit if we could get back to the fundamental meaning of beauty and hold onto what little bit we have left. It would do everyone so much good if we had a chance to travel the world and see how I every country, the meaning of beauty is different. We might finally come to a realization that beauty truly is “In the eye of the beholder”.
Beauty is such a magnificent thing. It can make you feel like a prince or princess, it can make a bad day turn good and it has the power to make the sick feel whole again. It saddens me to think that people seem to gravitate towards the negative sides and often do not see the beauty within. It is always easy to say that I am not beautiful but to be beautiful is not just an aesthetic or visual thing.
Inner beauty is one of the most golden things any one person can possess. It cannot be taken away or classified as ugly. It is a feeling from within whether everyone sees it or not. It is easily the most gratifying emotion to have. In America, beauty is almost solely focused on the outside. How skinny you are, what you eat, the make up you wear, and the hair cut you have. These are all exterior, basic, almost primitive wants and needs. What happened to the simple things like; how healthy you are, you smart you may be, how personable you are? It is everything that actually means something to us and the thing that is most often not included into our everyday vocabulary and meaning of beauty.
The world would greatly benefit if we could get back to the fundamental meaning of beauty and hold onto what little bit we have left. It would do everyone so much good if we had a chance to travel the world and see how I every country, the meaning of beauty is different. We might finally come to a realization that beauty truly is “In the eye of the beholder”.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Do We Benefit When Society Progresses?
Many people feel that we have become better as a human race over the course of time. We have done many things that would make one say "Yes we have done well in progression" and then there are those who would say "No we are no better off then the neanderthals". As a society, we must try to better ourselves from our predicessors and try to progress further then they had in an effort to "make our mark" on history.
At the beginning of the semester, we read about how Roochnick fealt we might or might not have progressed over time. In my opinion, we have and yet we have not. There are many things that play into progression of society. If you look at the scientific side of things, you could argue for progression due to the fact that we have such a better understand of how the body works right now then ever before. We have cures for disease and illness and replacing missing limbs with artficial ones. These are a few of the positives we have had as a modern society.
My question lies in that of have we really progressed as much as we think? We are no better off in that of war. In fact, some would say we are even worse then ever before. We have the ability to kill on such a massive scale in todays' world. We can drop one bomb and level an entire city within seconds. Does this ability show as a benefit or are we worse off now then ever before? We are leading the same amount, if not more wars, right now and we still deem ourselves "better".
Progression of society leads to many new and exciting times. It is also a factor in many unjustices. To progress as a society, we should hold ourselves to an idea that we must make the same amount of progress in science as we do in war and politics. The gains we see in these are few and far between because these bring such negative outcomes. Benefiting from progression should be something that helps find an end to war and unneeded death. The playing field should be leveled and we as a society should be willing to put the same amount of effort forth as we do to finding cures.
If we measure by the amount of lives taken, we have progressed. But is that progression or regression?
At the beginning of the semester, we read about how Roochnick fealt we might or might not have progressed over time. In my opinion, we have and yet we have not. There are many things that play into progression of society. If you look at the scientific side of things, you could argue for progression due to the fact that we have such a better understand of how the body works right now then ever before. We have cures for disease and illness and replacing missing limbs with artficial ones. These are a few of the positives we have had as a modern society.
My question lies in that of have we really progressed as much as we think? We are no better off in that of war. In fact, some would say we are even worse then ever before. We have the ability to kill on such a massive scale in todays' world. We can drop one bomb and level an entire city within seconds. Does this ability show as a benefit or are we worse off now then ever before? We are leading the same amount, if not more wars, right now and we still deem ourselves "better".
Progression of society leads to many new and exciting times. It is also a factor in many unjustices. To progress as a society, we should hold ourselves to an idea that we must make the same amount of progress in science as we do in war and politics. The gains we see in these are few and far between because these bring such negative outcomes. Benefiting from progression should be something that helps find an end to war and unneeded death. The playing field should be leveled and we as a society should be willing to put the same amount of effort forth as we do to finding cures.
If we measure by the amount of lives taken, we have progressed. But is that progression or regression?
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Reflections on the "Point of View" Article
Looking at the Emerson quote, "Character is higher than intellect" and then examining the article we read really got me thinking about society and how we overlook the right moral and intellectual character and look just at the intellectual side. I can relate with the girl mentioned in this book because I know how hard it is to work for everything you have and still put you time in at a prestigious university trying to better life for yourself and family.
It is interesting to look at how everything is so skewed on what makes a person moral. We take for granted that just because we may say we are moral and have learned it from many people, a lot of people in todays' world are not as moral as they say they are. We are constantly learning and everything we do, every person we meet in some way plays some form or fashion on the person we ultimately are. We learn characteristics, knowledge, and intigrity from all facets of life. What we fail to do is realize this and apply the good to ourselves to better ourselves. You can learn about being a good person or doing the right thing, but the test is if you will actually apply it to yourself or if you just think about it and not act upon it. Every person plays a pivotal role in who we are. From the time we are born to the time we die. Each new experience or interaction is in some way connected to us as a whole.
As a student, you sit in class and think how you might do things differently if or when you were the professor. Now you have learned what you percieve are the do's and don'ts to teaching a class. The thing is, I bet more times then not that a given perosn will teach just like the professor before him because it obviously played a natural role in how he learned the material he is teaching. It is always easy to be a critic and say you would do it differently but in the end we are creatures of habit and instinct and we tend to do what we know.
Se la vie
-SWS II
It is interesting to look at how everything is so skewed on what makes a person moral. We take for granted that just because we may say we are moral and have learned it from many people, a lot of people in todays' world are not as moral as they say they are. We are constantly learning and everything we do, every person we meet in some way plays some form or fashion on the person we ultimately are. We learn characteristics, knowledge, and intigrity from all facets of life. What we fail to do is realize this and apply the good to ourselves to better ourselves. You can learn about being a good person or doing the right thing, but the test is if you will actually apply it to yourself or if you just think about it and not act upon it. Every person plays a pivotal role in who we are. From the time we are born to the time we die. Each new experience or interaction is in some way connected to us as a whole.
As a student, you sit in class and think how you might do things differently if or when you were the professor. Now you have learned what you percieve are the do's and don'ts to teaching a class. The thing is, I bet more times then not that a given perosn will teach just like the professor before him because it obviously played a natural role in how he learned the material he is teaching. It is always easy to be a critic and say you would do it differently but in the end we are creatures of habit and instinct and we tend to do what we know.
Se la vie
-SWS II
Intellectual or Moral Virtues in Academia?
Today in class we discussed Artistotles views on Intellectual virtues and Moral virtues. When we broke into groups we discussed or rather went on a rant about the way college's conduct themselves on grading and how society has accepted this GPA scale for how "successful" you are. From what I have learned, college is the yearning for a person to want to expand their mind and become a better person. With this thinking of GPA is all and how society focuses on getting the highest GPA possible, it leaves little or no room for freedom of thought. We have been taught that grades are the only things that tend to matter up. What ever happened to the idea that we are in college to not only test ourselves and better ourselves but to become better as a person? We praise this idea that the higher the grade you get, the "better" or smarter person you are.
I for one am terrible at taking written tests because of a lack of reading comprehension and focus. Thus I tend to get below average grades in many of my classes because it is simply a read and regurgitate method of teaching. Todays' society prides itself on learning the material for the time being then never remembering it again. Thus it feels to me like we have lost site of what college is really about. Its frustrating to know that for a lot of jobs, they make first impressions off of you through a peice of paper (resume) before they even get to know you as a person. I know the material, I have great work ethics and I am great with people. The thing that scares me about todays society is that we look waaaaaay beyond that of the moral aspects of people and only look at the intellectual side.
We have lost the moral side of college where we learn through teaching, habit and then instilling these habits to everyday life. My ultimate question with all of this is, Is this actually how college is intended to be or should we strive for something more? I for one know what I am capable of but when placed on paper and put side by side with another, it is easy to be "tricked" into picking the other.
"We are not here to merely make a living. We are here to enrich the world" - Woodrow Wilson
-SWS II
I for one am terrible at taking written tests because of a lack of reading comprehension and focus. Thus I tend to get below average grades in many of my classes because it is simply a read and regurgitate method of teaching. Todays' society prides itself on learning the material for the time being then never remembering it again. Thus it feels to me like we have lost site of what college is really about. Its frustrating to know that for a lot of jobs, they make first impressions off of you through a peice of paper (resume) before they even get to know you as a person. I know the material, I have great work ethics and I am great with people. The thing that scares me about todays society is that we look waaaaaay beyond that of the moral aspects of people and only look at the intellectual side.
We have lost the moral side of college where we learn through teaching, habit and then instilling these habits to everyday life. My ultimate question with all of this is, Is this actually how college is intended to be or should we strive for something more? I for one know what I am capable of but when placed on paper and put side by side with another, it is easy to be "tricked" into picking the other.
"We are not here to merely make a living. We are here to enrich the world" - Woodrow Wilson
-SWS II
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
It's Been Awhile - Late Night Thoughts
Well it has been a little while since my last post. I got off from work not long ago and I began to think about this blog we have.
Sorry if it seems like I am rambling in this blog entry. Life has been crazy busy and I have all these thoughts swirling around upstairs...........
It is funny how I have no prior background in Philosophy but I find myself trying to figure out and apply what we have learned in our lectures and readings. I try to take tidbits from philosopher X and tidbits from philosopher Y then see how these relate to everyday life. I think the greatest thing we have at our disposal is this ability to look at philosophers from the past and not be subjected to one form of thinking. We can take what we feel applies to what we believe and work off of that. I for one would have found it hard to be on of Pythagoras' followers because I could never sit there and listen to someone behind a curtain nor be a follower of one ideal. While I understand why people did and still do these things, for me it is more about learning from the past and further bettering ourselves on what they had only begun to scratch the surface on. It is about having the ability to combine all of these different philosophers into my beliefs and adapting what makes the most sense to me. I mean this thing about freedom of thought is one of our most sacred things we have that many in the past have not. It just goes to show how far we have come from our ancestors and the progress we have made.
As Forrest Gump said, "That's all I have to say about that."
For now =)
Good Night Folks
-SWS II
Sorry if it seems like I am rambling in this blog entry. Life has been crazy busy and I have all these thoughts swirling around upstairs...........
It is funny how I have no prior background in Philosophy but I find myself trying to figure out and apply what we have learned in our lectures and readings. I try to take tidbits from philosopher X and tidbits from philosopher Y then see how these relate to everyday life. I think the greatest thing we have at our disposal is this ability to look at philosophers from the past and not be subjected to one form of thinking. We can take what we feel applies to what we believe and work off of that. I for one would have found it hard to be on of Pythagoras' followers because I could never sit there and listen to someone behind a curtain nor be a follower of one ideal. While I understand why people did and still do these things, for me it is more about learning from the past and further bettering ourselves on what they had only begun to scratch the surface on. It is about having the ability to combine all of these different philosophers into my beliefs and adapting what makes the most sense to me. I mean this thing about freedom of thought is one of our most sacred things we have that many in the past have not. It just goes to show how far we have come from our ancestors and the progress we have made.
As Forrest Gump said, "That's all I have to say about that."
For now =)
Good Night Folks
-SWS II
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