Question

Describe a philosophy of life based on the ideas learned in this course.

 

Part II: Based on your journal entries and the important ideas you selected, describe any common themes and messages you have learned in this course. Be sure to demonstrate what you have learned from the text and the lessons.

 

MLA format with citations and reference as needed. About 1 - 1.5 pages double spaced. I will provide additional info if needed. Thanks!

 

Some journal entries from lessons:

 

 

Lesson 3

 

Socrates, Plato, and various other philosophers of the ancient world (including that of the East, i.e. Confucius), philosophy has evolved in terms of the science behind the inquiries -see Philosophy as that discipline concerned with ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, and logic. Each concerns complex in form and content relevant as ever in the science of knowing. Moore and Bruder in their book, (Philosophy: the Power of Ideas), charted the development of ideas from the time of the ancients, through enlightenment, postmodernism movements and structuralisms or pragmatic present. Arguments abound within the development, questioning processes of thoughts and situations of ideas influenced by history of the whole human experience. Man's quest for knowledge has seen philosophical inquiry influence every other discipline from the natural, technological and social sciences to the arts. As such, the discipline has seeped into not just how the world is but how people come to be - who we are, why we think that way. Philosophy has become that mirror in which we inquire about obvious inquiries about our particular individualities, these questions however, are never simplistic nor are the answers. Metanarratives are answers we avoid to create now - we now know better; dangerous try to and explain everything from a limited point of view.

 

Lesson 5

 

An important concept I learned is Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. Darwin's theory represents one of the most tremendous progress made in the scientific field as it provides a very sound (and practical in this contemporary period where people prefer to explain every single thing or occurrence in the universe with a plausible scientific explanation) argument against the abstract concept of God as the creator of the universe. While God is a very abstract being of which existence us humankind has no possible way to prove with concrete evidence, though philosophical theories to prove His existence are abundant along with many other theories to disprove His existence, Darwin's theory is explainable. Darwin's theory is a fundamental concept in biology with scientific roots and disputes the intelligent design argument. Based on the concept of natural selection, the theory states that all creatures evolve naturally over time because of random genetic mutations within the organism's genetic code. All this happen entirely without unique design of some supreme being because no one has ever seen. On the other hand, we are able to trace the evolution of creatures over time. As Darwin said himself, "I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created parasitic wasps with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars." Darwin's theory of evolution is one of the most important theories to date, and therefore I have included it in this reflection.

 

Lesson 7

 

 

Dualism is, in the philosophy of mind, "the theory that the mental and the physical - or mind and body or mind and brain - are, in some sense, radically different kinds of thing" (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Therefore, dualism is essentially a rather significant component of the mind-body problem that remains to this day a highly debatable concept. Dualism has various forms or types: interactionism, epiphenomenalism, parallelism, and occasionalism. Interactionism describes the causal relations between the body and the mind as defined by two ways, perception, and action. What people perceive in the world causes physical changes to our bodies, which to formation of ideas in our minds, and our minds thus form specific cues to cause our bodies to act? Interactionism is the paradigm dualist view. I chose this concept because I think Interactionism is very important for us to recognize the relationship between the mind and the body. Most people usually take it for granted that an inexplicable between the mind and the body that allows us to survive in the society through our thoughts and actions, but most people would not explore this train of thought to form plausible explanations for such a mind-body relationship. Because the mind and the body is our basis for living, I think dualism is a very interesting concept that everyone should grasp to truly understand ourselves.

 

 

 

Lesson 10

 

The concept of a social contract is that which depicts a society whereby all members of a society are in mutual agreement to an initial contract and follow that contract thereafter to guide the society. Naturally, for the social contract to be actualized, it must be completely indoctrinated into the institution, and thereby acts as a regulatory force that could govern the society peacefully. I chose this particular concept out of all the concepts in the lesson of Social Philosophy because I think this is a working concept that is currently being observed by the members of our society. For instance, all members of the society must have, at some point in history (probably some time after the barbaric medieval period), agreed to form a social contract that outlines everyone's right to live in peace and security, and that no one is allowed to disrupt the peace of the society. Of course, the idea that everyone can live peacefully without any tumult at all is a very ideal society, but an impractical one. Therefore there are also rules and regulations in the social contract that gives right to certain authorities to punish those who have violated the social contract. That perfectly depicts a real society, and therefore I think this concept is most important.

 

 

 

Lesson 13

 

The concept of logical positivism, also known as logical empiricism, can be most succinctly described in one sentence: it is "a philosophical doctrine formulated in Vienna in the 1920s, according to which scientific knowledge is the only kind of factual knowledge and all traditional metaphysical doctrines are to be rejected as meaningless" (Britannica Online Encyclopedia). This concept mostly focuses on establishing the basis of knowledge upon "public experimental verification rather than upon personal experience" (Britannica Online Encyclopedia). With its emphasis on scientific basis as the explanation for everything on earth, therefore, obvious people the first and foremost advocates of this concept are physicists and mathematicians who conclude with their discussions that the element of natural science plays the most prominent role in basically everything. However, with the demise of logical positivism, a resurgence of philosophical thoughts has appeared in the society advocating interest in religion and tradition as a philosophy of life. I chose this concept not only because these concepts are interesting in their own rights, because this illustrates a most common and constant pattern in our world: philosophy goes in circles. Concepts are influential because people believe in them, and make them important. However, in another decade, in another century, another group of believe would believe an opposite concept, and make that popular instead. This is also applicable to our daily lives. Just as people's belief shift from one concept to another with the evolution of time, people's taste, and style change in daily lives too. For instance, flared jeans might have been very popular a few decades ago, but skinny jeans are all the rage at current time.