Etsy shop-by-color vs. Minority Report interactive UI.
Yes, I did just blow your mind.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Thursday, December 11, 2008
A Crash Course in Ancient Western Philosophy (Or: What I Learned from the Old Graybeards)
This semester, I took my first philosophy class. It wasn't an intro class, in fact, it was a junior/senior level class, and I was by far the youngest one there, but there was no pre-requisite. The class was called "Ancient Philosophy."
Going into it, the class seemed like one that could be any number of things. I knew of philosophy in Ancient Egypt, China, and Greece/Rome. It turned out that the class ignored Buddha and Confucius in favor for the famous trilogy in Greece: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Let me impart upon you a young woman's view on the philosophies of these great thinkers--the "old graybeards," as a certain English instructor of mine affectionately calls them.
First, a bit about philosophy itself. A dictionary definition, while bland, is the best way to start:
Philosophy - n - plural -phies - the rational investigation of the truths and principles of being, knowledge, or conduct.
That is the most boring way to describe such a fascinating concept. Philosophy, in my own words, is thinking about the world. That's it. It's investigating, learning, exploring, discovering, arguing, and knowing life and all its intangible mysteries. It's not a science, mind you, it's much more complex and less concrete. It's all about questions, big and small, but all significant in their own way. Ancient philosophy, in particular, focuses more on small inquiries that carry a heavy weight, like, "what is virtue?" "why do we love?" and "what is happiness?"
Philosophy itself has been around as long as humans have had rational thought. The word philosophy is of Greek origin, however: "philosophia," meaning "love of wisdom" in Greek and simply "wisdom" in Latin. The roots of the word should tell you that yes, Greeks are the first recognized "philosophers," rather than great thinkers; philosophy in that sense is used to refer to western philosophy, and that is where we truly begin.
In Ancient Greece, there were men called "sophists," or wise men. They were mostly looked down upon by Greece's population for being dirty, poor, and tricky, for they taught rhetoric, or using language to win an argument. Technically, these men were philosophers by the definition, but this is called the pre-Socratic period, because, well, it was before Socrates (we'll talk about him in a minute). The term "philosopher" is usually acredited to Pythagoras, who is most famous for his Pythagorean Theorem, but was quite the thinker himself. It was said by one of Aristotle's disciples that Pythagoras replaced the word "sophist" with "philosopher," changing wise men to lovers of wisdom.
The pre-Socratic period was mostly questioning the norm with huge questions, but answers weren't usually agreed-upon. "Where do we come from?" "What started the Earth?" It was more scientific than later philosophy was, but that was a large jump at the time, when all the credit was given to the gods and not science. They gave more rational answers to questions previously explained away with mythology, but none of the answers were really that
rational.
Why is this period called the pre-Socratic period? Because it came before Socrates, that's why! Socrates is often called the father of western philosophy. He perfected the rhetoric practiced by the sophists, and is the namesake of the still-used Socratic method. Socrates was known for trapping people with words and making them realize that their arguments were flawed, contradictory to themselves, and that his points were better. However, Socrates was a man who lived a life of poverty through his own devices, and never recorded anything. So why is he famous? He lived on in his student, Plato. The bulk of Plato's works are merely dialogues between Socrates and other Greeks, and almost unfailingly, Socrates comes out on top.
Socrates, in Plato's dialogues, argued about the huge questions I mentioned before. One of the earliest dialogues, Meno, is between Socrates and Menon, where they discuss whether virtue can be learned. First, they must figure out what virtue is, and on the way, they come up with many side points; Socrates believed in the immortality of the soul, and thus said that learning isn't really learning anything knew, it's merely recollecting what your soul remembers from a past life. In the end of Meno, Socrates comes to the conclusion that they can't find out what virtue is, and until such a time, it must be acredited to divine intervention from gods or spirits.
Most of Plato's dialogues had a similar layout. In The Symposium, Socrates and several other Greek men speak about what love is--they all have different views, from that it is the child of Plenty and Poverty, to that it is our bodies naturally trying to find their other halves from the primal days when people were really two people put together. Socrates says that love is the yearning for procreation, whether through ideas or children, love of the soul and love of the body.
While Socrates believed in human issues on a personal scale, he also believed in solving humanity's problems. He believed that the only truly successful state could be ruled by an enlightened Philosopher King, and those too ignorant to be philosophers would have to be lied to, and the philosophers would be higher-class citizens. This idea was very popular among philosophers at the time, as you might imagine. While he claimed to know nothing, he also claimed to "believe" in a hell of a lot, thus contradicting one of his most famous lines.
One of Socrates' best feats is possibly his death. He was put on trial, accused of corrupting Greece's youth, disbelieving in the gods, and making up false entities. He argued and philosophized till the end, and refused to pay a fine instead of die. He said that dying did not bother him, because every great philosopher should want to know the unknown, and death is the ultimate unknown. He died by suicide, and it's still one of the most famous deaths in the world's history.
Plato had some feats of his own in his original writings. His most famous thesis is the Theory of Forms, which says that by knowing a concept, one can grasp anything related to that concept. In example, if you know what cake is, because you've eaten cake several times in your life, you know the qualities of cake and what it is to be a cake. You know a cake when you see a cake, because you are well-versed in what a cake is. If you see something that doesn't necessarily strike you as a cake right away, but you see it on a cake stand and someone cuts it in half to reveal layers of moist, delicious, pastry, then you see that it is a cake. And if you encounter something that you don't know as a cake, but someone proves to you that it is, in fact, a form of cake, you expand your concept of cakeness. It's an idea we take for granted now, but explaining it was nearly miraculous in Ancient Greece.
Another accomplishment of Plato's was his Academy--he thought that philosophy could only be effectively taught in a school system of teachers and students, all not just learning philosophy, but living it. He said that one could only truly be a philosopher if they learned orally through another philosopher, not just reading what they wrote. Students of the Academy learned how to use rhetoric and how to defend against it. Plato's motivations for this were mainly political, says Hadot, author of "What is Ancient Philosophy?" Plato agreed with Socrates that only philosophers could lead a state, and so he hoped the students of his school would go on to lead Greece.
One such student was (my favorite) the third in the series of great thinkers, Aristotle. Aristotle was radically different from his teacher and his before him--whereas Plato and Socrates tended to agree, Aristotle is most famous for his differences from the two. Aristotle actually created a system of philosophy that encompassed ethics, logic, politics, and metaphysics. He was much more scientific than his predecessors, and while most of that science we know now not to be true, at the time it was what was widely accepted. He invented scientific method, which all students still use today.
One principle belief of Aristotle's is his theory on happiness. He said that happiness is up to the individual. Everyone works toward ends, and their actions are always means to those ends. We don't do things without a positive reason behind it, though sometimes we find out that it wasn't actually desirable. But no one does anything for no good reason, in their mind. Even serial murderers have some motivation for what they do. One concept of this is called an "end of itself." Everything we do is a means to some end, and some ends are means for another end. In example, I go to school to learn things so that I can get eventually get a degree. That degree is the ends that justifies the mean of going to school. I don't want a degree just for the sake of having one, though; the degree is a means to get a job that I'm good at. The job is another end, but also a means to get money. Money isn't just desirable because it's money--I want money so that I can buy things that will give me a more comfortable life. I want to be comfortable so that I can be happy. Happiness is the ultimate end of my life. Aristotle outlined this for the first time, and honestly, he's the only one of these old graybeards that I can truly agree with on one thing.
So while modern philosophy is much more evolved and complex than these ancients, I still appreciate them because they're what started it all.
Going into it, the class seemed like one that could be any number of things. I knew of philosophy in Ancient Egypt, China, and Greece/Rome. It turned out that the class ignored Buddha and Confucius in favor for the famous trilogy in Greece: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Let me impart upon you a young woman's view on the philosophies of these great thinkers--the "old graybeards," as a certain English instructor of mine affectionately calls them.
First, a bit about philosophy itself. A dictionary definition, while bland, is the best way to start:
Philosophy - n - plural -phies - the rational investigation of the truths and principles of being, knowledge, or conduct.
That is the most boring way to describe such a fascinating concept. Philosophy, in my own words, is thinking about the world. That's it. It's investigating, learning, exploring, discovering, arguing, and knowing life and all its intangible mysteries. It's not a science, mind you, it's much more complex and less concrete. It's all about questions, big and small, but all significant in their own way. Ancient philosophy, in particular, focuses more on small inquiries that carry a heavy weight, like, "what is virtue?" "why do we love?" and "what is happiness?"Philosophy itself has been around as long as humans have had rational thought. The word philosophy is of Greek origin, however: "philosophia," meaning "love of wisdom" in Greek and simply "wisdom" in Latin. The roots of the word should tell you that yes, Greeks are the first recognized "philosophers," rather than great thinkers; philosophy in that sense is used to refer to western philosophy, and that is where we truly begin.
In Ancient Greece, there were men called "sophists," or wise men. They were mostly looked down upon by Greece's population for being dirty, poor, and tricky, for they taught rhetoric, or using language to win an argument. Technically, these men were philosophers by the definition, but this is called the pre-Socratic period, because, well, it was before Socrates (we'll talk about him in a minute). The term "philosopher" is usually acredited to Pythagoras, who is most famous for his Pythagorean Theorem, but was quite the thinker himself. It was said by one of Aristotle's disciples that Pythagoras replaced the word "sophist" with "philosopher," changing wise men to lovers of wisdom.The pre-Socratic period was mostly questioning the norm with huge questions, but answers weren't usually agreed-upon. "Where do we come from?" "What started the Earth?" It was more scientific than later philosophy was, but that was a large jump at the time, when all the credit was given to the gods and not science. They gave more rational answers to questions previously explained away with mythology, but none of the answers were really that
rational.
Why is this period called the pre-Socratic period? Because it came before Socrates, that's why! Socrates is often called the father of western philosophy. He perfected the rhetoric practiced by the sophists, and is the namesake of the still-used Socratic method. Socrates was known for trapping people with words and making them realize that their arguments were flawed, contradictory to themselves, and that his points were better. However, Socrates was a man who lived a life of poverty through his own devices, and never recorded anything. So why is he famous? He lived on in his student, Plato. The bulk of Plato's works are merely dialogues between Socrates and other Greeks, and almost unfailingly, Socrates comes out on top.Socrates, in Plato's dialogues, argued about the huge questions I mentioned before. One of the earliest dialogues, Meno, is between Socrates and Menon, where they discuss whether virtue can be learned. First, they must figure out what virtue is, and on the way, they come up with many side points; Socrates believed in the immortality of the soul, and thus said that learning isn't really learning anything knew, it's merely recollecting what your soul remembers from a past life. In the end of Meno, Socrates comes to the conclusion that they can't find out what virtue is, and until such a time, it must be acredited to divine intervention from gods or spirits.
Most of Plato's dialogues had a similar layout. In The Symposium, Socrates and several other Greek men speak about what love is--they all have different views, from that it is the child of Plenty and Poverty, to that it is our bodies naturally trying to find their other halves from the primal days when people were really two people put together. Socrates says that love is the yearning for procreation, whether through ideas or children, love of the soul and love of the body.
While Socrates believed in human issues on a personal scale, he also believed in solving humanity's problems. He believed that the only truly successful state could be ruled by an enlightened Philosopher King, and those too ignorant to be philosophers would have to be lied to, and the philosophers would be higher-class citizens. This idea was very popular among philosophers at the time, as you might imagine. While he claimed to know nothing, he also claimed to "believe" in a hell of a lot, thus contradicting one of his most famous lines.
One of Socrates' best feats is possibly his death. He was put on trial, accused of corrupting Greece's youth, disbelieving in the gods, and making up false entities. He argued and philosophized till the end, and refused to pay a fine instead of die. He said that dying did not bother him, because every great philosopher should want to know the unknown, and death is the ultimate unknown. He died by suicide, and it's still one of the most famous deaths in the world's history.
Plato had some feats of his own in his original writings. His most famous thesis is the Theory of Forms, which says that by knowing a concept, one can grasp anything related to that concept. In example, if you know what cake is, because you've eaten cake several times in your life, you know the qualities of cake and what it is to be a cake. You know a cake when you see a cake, because you are well-versed in what a cake is. If you see something that doesn't necessarily strike you as a cake right away, but you see it on a cake stand and someone cuts it in half to reveal layers of moist, delicious, pastry, then you see that it is a cake. And if you encounter something that you don't know as a cake, but someone proves to you that it is, in fact, a form of cake, you expand your concept of cakeness. It's an idea we take for granted now, but explaining it was nearly miraculous in Ancient Greece.Another accomplishment of Plato's was his Academy--he thought that philosophy could only be effectively taught in a school system of teachers and students, all not just learning philosophy, but living it. He said that one could only truly be a philosopher if they learned orally through another philosopher, not just reading what they wrote. Students of the Academy learned how to use rhetoric and how to defend against it. Plato's motivations for this were mainly political, says Hadot, author of "What is Ancient Philosophy?" Plato agreed with Socrates that only philosophers could lead a state, and so he hoped the students of his school would go on to lead Greece.
One such student was (my favorite) the third in the series of great thinkers, Aristotle. Aristotle was radically different from his teacher and his before him--whereas Plato and Socrates tended to agree, Aristotle is most famous for his differences from the two. Aristotle actually created a system of philosophy that encompassed ethics, logic, politics, and metaphysics. He was much more scientific than his predecessors, and while most of that science we know now not to be true, at the time it was what was widely accepted. He invented scientific method, which all students still use today. One principle belief of Aristotle's is his theory on happiness. He said that happiness is up to the individual. Everyone works toward ends, and their actions are always means to those ends. We don't do things without a positive reason behind it, though sometimes we find out that it wasn't actually desirable. But no one does anything for no good reason, in their mind. Even serial murderers have some motivation for what they do. One concept of this is called an "end of itself." Everything we do is a means to some end, and some ends are means for another end. In example, I go to school to learn things so that I can get eventually get a degree. That degree is the ends that justifies the mean of going to school. I don't want a degree just for the sake of having one, though; the degree is a means to get a job that I'm good at. The job is another end, but also a means to get money. Money isn't just desirable because it's money--I want money so that I can buy things that will give me a more comfortable life. I want to be comfortable so that I can be happy. Happiness is the ultimate end of my life. Aristotle outlined this for the first time, and honestly, he's the only one of these old graybeards that I can truly agree with on one thing.
So while modern philosophy is much more evolved and complex than these ancients, I still appreciate them because they're what started it all.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Thankful
I hate when people tell me that Thanksgiving commemorates the passing on of smallpox to Native Americans, or that it marks the day we started taking away their freedom. Yeah, it turned sour not long after, but the holiday is made to commemorate things we should be proud of, not the part of the history we're ashamed of. Just like with Christmas, I have my own, very unique views on holidays, but there's an entirely different topic. Instead of the broad topic of holidays, let's talk about Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is a totally straightforward name for a holiday. Giving thanks, duh? So I've been compiling a mental list all day, and here's a list of things I'm thankful for (in no particular order).
Thanksgiving is a totally straightforward name for a holiday. Giving thanks, duh? So I've been compiling a mental list all day, and here's a list of things I'm thankful for (in no particular order).
- My family means the world to me--my mom, stepdad, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and all the rest. I love them, and I'm so happy that I have them. They're the most fantastic group of people I could ever hope to know, let alone be related to. I appreciate you guys so much.
- My friends are a different kind of family to me. It's the same kind of feeling--I love you guys exponentially. We make fun of each other, we know each other, and we have fun no matter how a situation presents itself. We rock.
- I'm totally thankful for artists. I know that's really broad, but it's true. Authors, photographers, poets, painters, sculptors, writers, designers, architects, potters, musicians, seamstresses--the list goes on. The world is beautiful without them, but it's only with their talents that we can see it in different perspectives. Without art, I think I'd be pretty bored. So, thanks.
- Food. I'm not shitting you, we take it for granted so often, but I'm so thankful for good food. Delicious food... Mmmn... Oh, gawd, now I want Thanksgiving leftovers.
- The person I've become. Simple enough, that. Thank goodness I'm able to love myself.
- So many million little things. I just fell asleep writing this, so that's where we're gonna end. I think you get the picture, though. Most of them aren't things that could read my thanks to them, anyway.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Saturday, November 22, 2008
So, to keep this from being inappropriate...
This is one of the best poll studies I've read about in a long time. I relate to these women's opinions, and some of them hit especially close to home.
I won't go too in detail, but y'all know how much I love human communication, and this is just one of those done to improve it. Honestly, I've said it before and I'll say it again: communication issues are the worst and most common things to ruin a relationship of any kind. Reading stuff like this helps me understand it (and this area is especially one that seems unimportant but should be paid heed to).
I won't go too in detail, but y'all know how much I love human communication, and this is just one of those done to improve it. Honestly, I've said it before and I'll say it again: communication issues are the worst and most common things to ruin a relationship of any kind. Reading stuff like this helps me understand it (and this area is especially one that seems unimportant but should be paid heed to).
Teacups in the rain.
Not five minutes ago, I saw the opening scene to the second Pirates of the Carribbean movie. Granted, not my favorite film of all time, but still a good one--the thing with me and movies is that only two of three things have to be good for me to like it: acting, visuals/composition, and plot. I could blather on about that for hours, but I digress.
The opening scene of Dead Man's Chest is an abandoned wedding scene, teacups and music stands flooded with rain. The lovely Keira Knightley is playing the annoying (I hate this character, even with one of my favorite actresses portraying her) Elizabeth Swann, but the character doesn't matter and it's simply beautiful to see her in her wedding dress, after spending hours readying herself, totally drenched in rain.
This beautiful visual was, of course, interrupted by the stupid plot, but I could watch forever. Anyone who's read anything I've written knows that rain is a very important symbol to me. Personally, rain is my favorite kind of weather, followed closely by gray days that promise rain. There's so many kinds of precipitation, too--sprinkling, storming, pissing, pouring. Of course, to me, it's not just rain, but different types of rain that make the symbolism come out.
These are definitions of my use of rain as a symbol.
Soft rain, or sprinkling, in my writing, usually symbolizes a cleansing of some sort. Spiritual or emotional cleansing, a clean slate, just like the pristine cement left after a gentle, rainy afternoon. It's usually a good thing, too, one that is what the character needs, and they usually know they do to be happy. It can also mean that the character is realizing that they're at a great point in their life, and are reveling in the zest of their life. Peace or refreshment is another meaning.
Storms are generally used to portray anger, fear, or emotional stress, and even a horrible decision the character must make. Especially with thunder, lightning, and heavy cloud cover, this chaotic weather symbolizes a situation that is just that--disorderly and, well, chaotic.
A steady rain that's moderate and somewhere between a sprinkle and a storm symbolizes sorrow or sadness, generally. It's more depression than anything else, though, because depression feels like a rut you can't get out of, and it's usually just the same thing day after day--steady rain that shows no sign of changes, or only looks like it'll get worse, is linked to that in my view.
Anyway, that's just my take on it. What do you think?
The opening scene of Dead Man's Chest is an abandoned wedding scene, teacups and music stands flooded with rain. The lovely Keira Knightley is playing the annoying (I hate this character, even with one of my favorite actresses portraying her) Elizabeth Swann, but the character doesn't matter and it's simply beautiful to see her in her wedding dress, after spending hours readying herself, totally drenched in rain.
This beautiful visual was, of course, interrupted by the stupid plot, but I could watch forever. Anyone who's read anything I've written knows that rain is a very important symbol to me. Personally, rain is my favorite kind of weather, followed closely by gray days that promise rain. There's so many kinds of precipitation, too--sprinkling, storming, pissing, pouring. Of course, to me, it's not just rain, but different types of rain that make the symbolism come out.
These are definitions of my use of rain as a symbol.
Soft rain, or sprinkling, in my writing, usually symbolizes a cleansing of some sort. Spiritual or emotional cleansing, a clean slate, just like the pristine cement left after a gentle, rainy afternoon. It's usually a good thing, too, one that is what the character needs, and they usually know they do to be happy. It can also mean that the character is realizing that they're at a great point in their life, and are reveling in the zest of their life. Peace or refreshment is another meaning.
Storms are generally used to portray anger, fear, or emotional stress, and even a horrible decision the character must make. Especially with thunder, lightning, and heavy cloud cover, this chaotic weather symbolizes a situation that is just that--disorderly and, well, chaotic.
A steady rain that's moderate and somewhere between a sprinkle and a storm symbolizes sorrow or sadness, generally. It's more depression than anything else, though, because depression feels like a rut you can't get out of, and it's usually just the same thing day after day--steady rain that shows no sign of changes, or only looks like it'll get worse, is linked to that in my view.
Anyway, that's just my take on it. What do you think?
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Kodak moment.
The closer we come to Christmas, the more I realize: one year from now, I'll be on my own. One year from now, I'll be beyond this stage of my life.
I'll miss it, and I know that. I'll miss coming in from day to day and seeing the same people, none of whom I hate, and having the honor of learning with them, working with them, talking with them, and knowing them. It's still there, now, but it won't be for much longer. I'm determined not to cling to it.
I think of who I'll still be in touch with in a year, and in all honesty, I can count them on my fingers and still have a couple to spare. Even now, people who I would have once called "best friends" are just "friends" in my mind. Dr. Immel was right--I don't really have many ties to these people anymore. They're friends, but they're separate from myself, and myself is what I'm working on right now.
I'm taking a mental snapshot of this awkward stage, because I treasure it. I'm at a place where I'm still cushioned by what I have been for the last four years, this safe environment, but I realize that it'll all be gone in a mere matter of months, and things will be totally different in a year. I've had stages like this before, like moving across the country, but for the first time, this is my time. This is under my control. This is my life I'm working toward.
It feels so good.
While I love all of my friends, I'm sure we'll fade away from each other. We'll always be connected, and maybe later in life we'll be super close again; but for now, there's only a few of you that will truly be with me in the foreseeable future. In advance, I wish you all good luck, and I hope you're in the same boat I am, where you're realizing the importance of yourself, and how much bigger we will become.
I hope you get where you want to go.
I'll miss it, and I know that. I'll miss coming in from day to day and seeing the same people, none of whom I hate, and having the honor of learning with them, working with them, talking with them, and knowing them. It's still there, now, but it won't be for much longer. I'm determined not to cling to it.
I think of who I'll still be in touch with in a year, and in all honesty, I can count them on my fingers and still have a couple to spare. Even now, people who I would have once called "best friends" are just "friends" in my mind. Dr. Immel was right--I don't really have many ties to these people anymore. They're friends, but they're separate from myself, and myself is what I'm working on right now.
I'm taking a mental snapshot of this awkward stage, because I treasure it. I'm at a place where I'm still cushioned by what I have been for the last four years, this safe environment, but I realize that it'll all be gone in a mere matter of months, and things will be totally different in a year. I've had stages like this before, like moving across the country, but for the first time, this is my time. This is under my control. This is my life I'm working toward.
It feels so good.
While I love all of my friends, I'm sure we'll fade away from each other. We'll always be connected, and maybe later in life we'll be super close again; but for now, there's only a few of you that will truly be with me in the foreseeable future. In advance, I wish you all good luck, and I hope you're in the same boat I am, where you're realizing the importance of yourself, and how much bigger we will become.
I hope you get where you want to go.
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