4 of 4 Philosophers (Hume)

Hume

• Nothing is actually invented by the mind; mind puts things together and constructs false ideas
• Descartes believes in distinct idea of God while Hume refutes this by calling it a 'complex idea'
• Ideas are regularly connected
• Empiricism: knowledge comes from our senses
• Skepticism: doubt and ambiguity
• Humans only have knowledge of what they directly experience
• Content of the mind is whole product of experience
• Miracles are not true because there is no tangible proof they are possible or exist
• Reason is a process in human condition, but is secondary to emotions and senses
• Epistemology
• Questioned common notions of personal identity
• Argued that there is no permanent self that continues over time
• Person is a collection of properties and nothing more; bundle theory
• Theory of passions
• Passions fall under the category of impressions of reflection as opposed to impressions of sensation

3 of 4 Philosophers (Kierkegaard)

Kierkegaard

• Existentialism: our being as 'subjective individuals' is more important that what we have in common objectively with other human beings (essence)
• More important to search for personal truths than the ultimate 'truth'
• Reasoned truth not relevant to our everyday lives
• Three stages of life's way
• Aesthetic stage: living in the moment; slave to desires; our senses
• Ethical stage: living by the law of morals
• Religious stage: road to redemption
• Meaning of existence
• Escaping the despairs of life and striving for happiness is what gives life meaning
• Absolute faith can overcome the meaninglessness of your existence
• Confrontation with existential dread -- obsessive, unavoidable fact of death
• Insignificance of life
• Problem of fear
• Meaning is embedded in a broader sense of God's plan; human life is full of suffering
• Morals are universal; we know things innately that are morally right and wrong; because of permeating wonder of faith, we have the 'teleological suspension of the ethical'; Abraham, when going to sacrifice his son, goes against his moral law to obey God; faith goes beyond morality
• Morals are objective; moral law comes from God
• Sees beauty of individual; every person has anxiety and fears
• Ubermensch: recognize own weakness and fallibility but put faith in something greater than oneself; strength to put oneself into unknown

2 of 4 Philosophers (Hegel)

Hegel

• Romanticist
• Self-consciousness: the recognition and confirmation of self-understanding that we receive from others
• Consciousness: awareness of environment and surroundings
• Desire: self-consciousness takes the form of desire through the negation of surrounding objects; find desire through negation
• Absolute knowing: self-knowing spirit
• Everything is here and now, because the present is the manifestation of the past and history. Without the past, the present would not exist; it is a paradox
• Perception ceases and becomes understanding; at first, we look around us and observe what surrounds us, but when we notice the inner unity of the objects we sense, then it transforms into inner understanding
• Unity of the one with itself; we seek to enjoy objects, because ultimately, we want to enjoy ourselves
• Self-consciousness achieves its satisfaction only in another self-consciousness; reciprocity between self-consciousnesses; they affirm each other; we can't expect others to affirm our self-understanding without doing the same for them
• Mutual recognition will never be sustainable
• Intersubjectivity: shared between conscious minds; like Twitter
• Mutual recognition is the ideal situation, but something like that will never by perfectly lived out
• I can't fully understand who I am if I remain alone

1 of 4 Philosophers (Marx)

Marx

• Dialectical materialism
• Capitalism -- mode of production in which a few humans own and control the major forces or means of production as their private property and they employ those who have nothing to sell but their own labor power
• Real material man in a real material world; existence is in the material world
• Man becomes alienated from the products of his own labor in the money economy of capitalism
• Trapped in a state of uneasiness
• Deepest alienation: alienation from one's own family
• Division of labor, class struggle, class consciousness, and revolutionary overthrow of capitalism
• Every concept, structure, institution must be criticized
• Ultimate weapon to change the world is the organized power of the proletariat
• Man's divinity can be realized with a worldwide revolution against the existing conditions of the world...a human being can then live as God
• Master/slave relationship
• Moral regeneration of humanity through world revolution

Wittgenstein Notes 2

Atomic propositions contain the material of every proposition -- like a base. The theory of knowledge has the task of finding truths. Wittgenstein believes that if you find them, you can find the logical nature of problems themselves.


According to Ramsey, a particle in two places at the same time is a statement that it cannot have two velocities at the same time. Space, time, and matter are physical, while logic is abstract.


Wittgenstein had to rethink his whole approach to "logic and language" because he found that "adequate symbolism" is not sufficient to say whether a conjunction of a proposition is or is not a contradiction. He then said that some atomic propositions are mutually exclusive. His use of space, time, and matter weren't right: they're physical.


Explanation would cause an idea to change, because it's based only on something inexpressible. An explanation would essentially give new information. Description, however, would only rearrange what has always been known.


Ubersicht is understanding in seeing connections. There is a contrast with the kind of understanding produced by explanation. Language becomes a product of the changing of people.

Wittgenstein Notes

Tautologies can be true, such as in the case, "Either it is raining or it not raining", but that doesn't mean anything because it's merely an either/or statement. It's always true, so really, there's no importance in it...it's senseless. Tautologies are not nonsense, however, because they are true.


Logic, ethics, aesthetics, and religion are all part of the transcendent, according to Wittgenstein, because each of them has to be shown rather than said. This means that nothing can be said about them.


Wittgenstein asks, "What is a proposition?" A proposition is the basis of everything and constitutes everything. Even things like words don't have any meaning unless they are a part of a proposition.


Take philosophy out of language and put in into math. Logic is the only way to truth.

Yoga

Last week, Jordan's dad came to our class to help us do yoga, being a yoga teacher and all. So we all went outside with our yoga mats and, well, did yoga! Fortunately, it was a beautiful day out, which was better for me because I think the nice atmosphere definitely adds to the feeling you get when you do yoga.

I've done yoga before, but not seriously. I was able to better experience yoga the day we did it in class because I took myself doing it more seriously. The physical part of it wasn't easy, but it wasn't painfully difficult, either. You definitely have to relax yourself in order to stretch yourself farther. That applies to your mindset, too. When you do yoga, I think it's best to forget about your situation, whether you're overwhelmed with a million problems at the moment or you have an essay due next period. It's like mind-cleansing!

After yoga, I did feel more relaxed and "loose", and also more refreshed. Just laying down on the grass towards the end of the session allowed me to rest a bit so I was ready for the rest of the day.