Blogging Wars: Metaphysics and Hammers

Kevin was right that a lot of weak arguments and comments came out yesterday --

Kevin Morse said...

"look at this these comments are terrible.. blah blah blah blah"

if you are going to be witty, understand that smart is a part of the definition (root of word -- 900 AD; ME; OE wittig orig., wise).

On to Round Two -- the intelligent comments!

You are paired up with another classmate blogger.
Decide who is the Plato/Socrates or Aristotle defender and who is the Nietzsche defender and start a dialogue of at least three posts each, with quotes from the packets, debating the question below:

The use of reason to solve problems is always going to create a better understanding of how to act and what a person should be and think based on the Truth.

Nietzsche people need to read to page 49 to get more ammo -- a bigger hammer.

Miller on Aristotle's Good

Aristotle and the Good

Aristotle changes the focus of Plato's search. How is Aristotle's focus on what the "good life" is different from Plato's? What does Aristotle think the goal of life is and how does he support that claim? Give one example or citation from the text to support you thinking.

Aristotle Intro (w/Plato Reflections)

Justification for Anything?

After looking at the piece from Plato in class, and the piece we started reading in class and finished reading at home, please point to a passage that you think tries to get at a universal truth and tries to establish the ground for something absolute. You can also point out if that passage succeeds or fails to establish a metaphysical truth.

Due MONDAY (not Friday as previously stated).

PLATO VS. SOPHIST

How can we transcend language (symbols, fine art, music any form of human communicaiton) to be able to know the real Truth of what is?Can we get access to the "thing itself" as Plato would like?

Are we more like the sophists or Plato in our thinking, Why?

PLATO VS. SOPHIST DATA

Put your url's here!

General Posting Expectations

• Please be sure to post at least one blog comment for each question posted by a peer or me.
• Feel free to start a post with your own question pertaining to academics only. Your questions will become your peers' homework and responsibility.
• You should respond to any post, from this time forward, within three days. Posts after that time are considered late. Easy for me to check the time as they are date stamped.
• All posts, WHEN BASED ON A READING OR AS A WAY TO ADD SUPPORT TO YOUR OPINION, should have a snippet, swath, section, smidgen, sliver, sample, spot of quotation from the text we are reading to support your opinion. Remember my mantra: Everyone can have an opinion, but not everyone can support one.
• If you ever have any questions about instructions or posts, email me directly, and I will get back to you for clarification.

Philosophers to Read this Semester

Add to this list:

Plato
Socrates
Epicurus
Gandhi
Lewis
Homer
Nietzsche
Rousseau
Locke
Kant
Mill
Kirkegaard
Da Vinci
Appiah
Descartes
Montaigne
Sartre
Derrida
Foucault
Arendt
Gilligan

Perspective, Opinions vs. Foundations, Truths

The conversation in class has led to the conclusion that all that is is opinion or perspective about truth (and universal or absolute Truth seems lost). With examples like moral truth, family values, and education, we have stated that opinion not an objective, absolute reason or truth guides our decisions about why we do what we do, i.e. not kill each other, go to school, teach and learn the same way for so many years etc.

The question is -- Why do we (people) all seem to go along with what we are told (go to school, work a regular 9 to 5 job, not be cannibals) if the power choose is based in our own opinions? Are we all simply victims of cultural and paternal influence and lemmings to those dictates and therefore conform or is there another reason for the continuity we see in people's actions?

Links to Data and Information to Make Us THINK

The goal of the course is simplistic, yet simplicity is a willful and difficult act of metacogniton that requires, paradoxically complex thought about what thinking is, what the thinking process looks like, and how to control it; especially if you are just trying to be simple, straight forward, what you are.

Although we may not move only in chronological order, nor beg that question that one philosophical movement is necessarily a direct reaction and evolution of the previous movement in history, it is important that we look at the way that historical contexts effect philosophical movements and how seemingly disparate movements, separated by time, might participate in similar conversations about what thinking is.

Below are some links to Western Philosophical Time lines for Figures and Movements we will cover during the semester:

Kent State Professor of Computer Science Link

Philosophical Society .COM

Pre Socratics