Up@dawn 2.0 (blogger)

Delight Springs

Friday, September 3, 2021

Questions Sep 7

 Section H1 gets bonus material, thanks to the Labor Day Holiday...

William James, Pragmatism lecture 1Gymnasiums of the Mind **(on the Peripatetic philosophy); Pale Blue Dot, & WATCH: Pale Blue Dot (Sagan)What's Philosophy for? School of Life

Also recommended:  Who's Your Favourite Philosopher? (PB Philosophy Bites). And check out the This I Believe website, for examples of others' personal philosophies succinctly summarized.

READ: William James, Pragmatism lecture 1 (excerpt below)WATCHWhat's Philosophy for?  School of Life (SoL)

  • What do you think James means when he says "the philosophy which is so important in each of us is not a technical matter; it is our more or less dumb sense of what life honestly and deeply means"?
  • Do you agree with James about "the most interesting and important thing about each of us"?
  • Is your own philosophy, do you think, more "tough-" or "tender-minded"? How so?
  • What did James think, and what do you, of Leibniz's attempts "to justify the ways of God to man, and to prove that the world we live in is the best of possible worlds"? 
  • According to the video "What is Philosophy For?" being wise means what? Do you agree?
  • Did Aristotle's followers have a better approach to learning?
  • Do you ever have good ideas while walking? How do you remember them? (Do you wish you had a stick like Hobbes's?)
  • Do you (like Rousseau) find meditation possible only while moving?
  • What did Emerson call walking? Was he right?
  • Have you ever tried to walk before writing, like Russell? What were your results?
  • Have you watched or read "Pale Blue Dot"? Does it enlarge your perspective?
  • Should humans explore and eventually live elsewhere than earth?

When William James published a series of lectures on ‘Pragmatism: A New Name for an Old way of Thinking’ in 1907, he began by identifying ‘The Present Dilemma in Philosophy’ (1907: 9ff), a fundamental and apparently un-resolvable clash between two ways of thinking about things. He promised that pragmatism would show us the way to overcome this dilemma and, having thus shown us its importance, he proceeded, in the second lecture, to explain ‘What Pragmatism Means’... (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP), continues here)
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Robert Richardson's excellent book on James here... Mine here... More on James here
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Image result for william james
James with his friend, neighbor, and philosophical frenemy Josiah Royce, on the stone wall at James's summer estate in Chocorua NH.

Lecture I. — The Present Dilemma in Philosophy

LISTEN. In the preface to that admirable collection of essays of his called 'Heretics,' Mr. Chesterton writes these words: "There are some people—and I am one of them—who think that the most practical and important thing about a man is still his view of the universe. We think that for a landlady considering a lodger, it is important to know his income, but still more important to know his philosophy. We think that for a general about to fight an enemy, it is important to know the enemy's numbers, but still more important to know the enemy's philosophy. We think the question is not whether the theory of the cosmos affects matters, but whether, in the long run, anything else affects them."
I think with Mr. Chesterton in this matter. I know that you, ladies and gentlemen, have a philosophy, each and all of you, and that the most interesting and important thing about you is the way in which it determines the perspective in your several worlds. You know the same of me. And yet I confess to a certain tremor at the audacity of the enterprise which I am about to begin. For the philosophy which is so important in each of us is not a technical matter; it is our more or less dumb sense of what life honestly and deeply means. It is only partly got from books; it is our individual way of just seeing and feeling the total push and pressure of the cosmos. I have no right to assume that many of you are students of the cosmos in the class-room sense, yet here I stand desirous of interesting you in a philosophy which to no small extent has to be technically treated. I wish to fill you with sympathy with a contemporaneous tendency in which I profoundly believe, and yet I have to talk like a professor to you who are not students. Whatever universe a professor believes in must at any rate be a universe that lends itself to lengthy discourse. A universe definable in two sentences is something for which the professorial intellect has no use. No faith in anything of that cheap kind! I have heard friends and colleagues try to popularize philosophy in this very hall, but they soon grew dry, and then technical, and the results were only partially encouraging. So my enterprise is a bold one. The founder of pragmatism himself recently gave a course of lectures at the Lowell Institute with that very word in its title-flashes of brilliant light relieved against Cimmerian darkness! None of us, I fancy, understood ALL that he said—yet here I stand, making a very similar venture.
I risk it because the very lectures I speak of DREW—they brought good audiences. There is, it must be confessed, a curious fascination in hearing deep things talked about, even tho neither we nor the disputants understand them. We get the problematic thrill, we feel the presence of the vastness. Let a controversy begin in a smoking-room anywhere, about free-will or God's omniscience, or good and evil, and see how everyone in the place pricks up his ears. Philosophy's results concern us all most vitally, and philosophy's queerest arguments tickle agreeably our sense of subtlety and ingenuity.
Believing in philosophy myself devoutly, and believing also that a kind of new dawn is breaking upon us philosophers, I feel impelled, per fas aut nefas, to try to impart to you some news of the situation.
Philosophy is at once the most sublime and the most trivial of human pursuits. It works in the minutest crannies and it opens out the widest vistas. It 'bakes no bread,' as has been said, but it can inspire our souls with courage; and repugnant as its manners, its doubting and challenging, its quibbling and dialectics, often are to common people, no one of us can get along without the far-flashing beams of light it sends over the world's perspectives. These illuminations at least, and the contrast-effects of darkness and mystery that accompany them, give to what it says an interest that is much more than professional... (Pragmatism Lecture 1 continues here)
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The Gymnasiums of the Mind

Christopher Orlet wanders down literary paths merrily swinging his arms and pondering the happy connection between philosophy and a good brisk walk.

If there is one idea intellectuals can agree upon it is that the act of ambulation – or as we say in the midwest, walking – often serves as a catalyst to creative contemplation and thought. It is a belief as old as the dust that powders the Acropolis, and no less fine. Followers of the Greek Aristotle were known as peripatetics because they passed their days strolling and mind-wrestling through the groves of the Academe. The Romans’ equally high opinion of walking was summed up pithily in the Latin proverb: “It is solved by walking.”

Nearly every philosopher-poet worth his salt has voiced similar sentiments. Erasmus recommended a little walk before supper and “after supper do the same.” Thomas Hobbes had an inkwell built into his walking stick to more easily jot down his brainstorms during his rambles. Jean- Jacques Rousseau claimed he could only meditate when walking: “When I stop, I cease to think,” he said. “My mind only works with my legs.” Søren Kierkegaard believed he’d walked himself into his best thoughts. In his brief life Henry David Thoreau walked an estimated 250,000 miles, or ten times the circumference of earth. “I think that I cannot preserve my health and spirits,” wrote Thoreau, “unless I spend four hours a day at least – and it is commonly more than that – sauntering through the woods and over the hills and fields absolutely free from worldly engagements.” Thoreau’s landlord and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson characterized walking as “gymnastics for the mind.”

In order that he might remain one of the fittest, Charles Darwin planted a 1.5 acre strip of land with hazel, birch, privet, and dogwood, and ordered a wide gravel path built around the edge. Called Sand-walk, this became Darwin’s ‘thinking path’ where he roamed every morning and afternoon with his white fox-terrier. Of Bertrand Russell, long-time friend Miles Malleson has written: “Every morning Bertie would go for an hour’s walk by himself, composing and thinking out his work for that day. He would then come back and write for the rest of the morning, smoothly, easily and without a single correction.”

None of these laggards, however, could touch Friedrich Nietzsche, who held that “all truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.” Rising at dawn, Nietzsche would stalk through the countryside till 11 a.m. Then, after a short break, he would set out on a two-hour hike through the forest to Lake Sils. After lunch he was off again, parasol in hand, returning home at four or five o’clock, to commence the day’s writing.

Not surprisingly, the romantic poets were walkers extraordinaire. William Wordsworth traipsed fourteen or so miles a day through the Lake District, while Coleridge and Shelley were almost equally energetic. According to biographer Leslie Stephen, “The (English) literary movement at the end of the 18th century was…due in great part, if not mainly, to the renewed practice of walking.”

Armed with such insights, one must wonder whether the recent decline in walking hasn’t led to a corresponding decline in thinking. Walking, as both a mode of transportation and a recreational activity, began to fall off noticeably with the rise of the automobile, and took a major nosedive in the 1950s. Fifty plus years of automobile-centric design has reduced the number of sidewalks and pedestrian-friendly spaces to a bare minimum (particularly in the American west). All of the benefits of walking: contemplation, social intercourse, exercise, have been willingly exchanged for the dubious advantages of speed and convenience, although the automobile alone cannot be blamed for the maddening acceleration of everyday life. The modern condition is one of hurry, a perpetual rush hour that leaves little time for meditation. No wonder then that in her history of walking, Rebecca Solnit mused that “modern life is moving faster than the speed of thought, or thoughtfulness,” which seems the antithesis of Wittgenstein’s observation that in the race of philosophy, the prize goes to the slowest.

If we were to compare the quantity and quality of thinkers of the early 20th century with those of today, one cannot help but notice the dearth of Einsteins, William Jameses, Eliots and Pounds, Freuds, Jungs, Keynes, Picassos, Stravinskys, Wittgensteins, Sartres, Deweys, Yeats and Joyces. But it would be foolish to suggest that we have no contemporaries equal to Freud, et al. That would be doing an injustice to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Edward O. Wilson, James D. Watson, and the recently departed Stephen J. Gould. But as to their walking habits, they varied. Gould, a soft, flabby man, made light of his lack of exercise. Edward O. Wilson writes that he “walks as much as (his) body allows,” and used to jog up until his forties. Watson, the discoverer of the DNA molecule, frequently haunts the grounds of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, particularly on weekends, and is said to be both a nature-lover and bird-watcher.

There seems no scientific basis to link the disparate acts of walking and thinking, though that didn’t stop Mark Twain from speculating that “walking is good to time the movement of the tongue by, and to keep the blood and the brain stirred up and active.” Others have concluded that walking’s two-point rhythm clears the mind for creative study and reflection. Though not every man of letters bought into this. Max Beerbohm, in his essay ‘Going Out for a Walk,’ found walking to have quite the opposite effect:

“My objection to it is that it stops the brain. Many a man has professed to me that his brain never works so well as when he is swinging along the high road or over hill and dale. This boast is not confirmed by my memory of anybody who on a Sunday morning has forced me to partake of his adventure. Experience teaches me that whatever a fellow-guest may have of power to instruct or to amuse when he is sitting on a chair, or standing on a hearth-rug, quickly leaves him when he takes one out for a walk.”

And while Einstein may have been a devoted pedestrian (daily hoofing the mile-and-a-half walk between his little frame house at 112 Mercer Street and his office at Princeton’s Fuld Hall), the inability to walk has not much cramped Stephen Hawking’s intellectual style.

There is also reason to suspect that creative contemplation in the solitude of one’s automobile may be as beneficial as a walk in the woods, though considerably more hazardous. J. Robert Oppenheimer was known to think so intensely while driving that he would occasionally become a danger to motorists, pedestrians and himself. He once awakened from a deep academic reverie to find himself and his car resting at the top of the steps of the local courthouse.

While the intellectual advantages of walking remain open to debate, the health benefits are beyond doubt, though you would never know it by the deserted American streets. Here, where the average citizen walks a measly 350 yards a day, it is not surprising that half the population is diagnosed as obese or overweight. Despite such obscene girth, I have sat through planning commission meetings and heard civil engineers complain that it would be a waste of money to lay down sidewalks since no one walks anyway. No one thought to ask if perhaps we do not walk because there are no sidewalks. Even today, the typical urban planner continues to regard the pedestrian as “the largest single obstacle to free traffic movement.”

To paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, walking remains for me the best “of all exercises.” Even so, I am full of excuses to stay put. My neighborhood has no sidewalks and it is downright dangerous to stroll the streets at night; if the threat does not come directly from thugs, then from drunken teens in speeding cars. There are certainly no Philosophers’ Walks in my hometown, as there are near the universities of Toronto, Heidelberg, and Kyoto. Nor are there any woods, forests, mountains or glens. “When we walk, we naturally go to the fields and the woods,” said Thoreau. “What would become of us, if we only walked in a garden or a mall?” I suppose I am what becomes of us, Henry.

At noon, if the weather cooperates, I may join a few other nameless office drudges on a stroll through the riverfront park. My noon walk is a brief burst of freedom in an otherwise long, dreary servitude. Though I try to reserve these solitary walks for philosophical ruminations, my subconscious doesn’t always cooperate. Often I find my thoughts to be pedestrian and worrisome in nature. I fret over money problems, or unfinished office work and my attempts to brush these thoughts away as unworthy are rarely successful. Then, again, in the evenings I sometimes take my two dachshunds for a stroll. For a dog, going for a walk is the ultimate feelgood experience. Mention the word ‘walkies’ to a wiener dog, and he is immediately transported into new dimensions of bliss. I couldn’t produce a similar reaction in my wife if I proposed that we take the Concorde to Paris for the weekend. Rather than suffer a walk, my son would prefer to have his teeth drilled.

In no way am I suggesting that all of society’s ills can be cured by a renaissance of walking. But maybe – just maybe – a renewed interest in walking may spur some fresh scientific discoveries, a unique literary movement, a new vein of philosophy. If nothing else it will certainly improve our health both physically and mentally. Of course that would mean getting out from behind the desk at noon and getting some fresh air. That would mean shutting down the television in the evenings and breathing in the Great Outdoors. And, ultimately, it would involve a change in thinking and a shift in behavior, as opposed to a change of channels and a shift into third.

© CHRISTOPHER ORLET 2004

Christopher Orlet is an essayist and book critic. His work appears often in The American Spectator, the London Guardian, and Salon.com. Visit his homepage at www.christopherorlet.net.

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The following material, and generally anything posted below the daily quiz and DQs,  is (as they say in Cajun country) lagniappe. Take it or leave it, it's not required but you might find it instructive or interesting.

 *

 

* "Philosophy" is a word which has been used in many ways,
some wider, some narrower. I propose to use it in a very wide sense, which I will now try to explain. Philosophy, as I shall understand the word, is something inter- mediate between theology and science. Like theology, it consists of speculations on matters as to which definite knowledge has, so far, been unascertainable ; but like science, it appeals to human reason rather than to authority, whether that of tradition or that of revelation. All definite knowledge so I should contend belongs to science ; all dogma as to what surpasses definite know- ledge belongs to theology. But between theology and science there is a No Man's Land, exposed to attack from both sides; this No Man's Land is philosophy. Almost all the questions of most interest to speculative minds are such as science cannot answer, and the confident answers of theologians no longer seem so con- vincing as they did in former centuries. Is the world divided into mind and matter, and, if so, what is mind and what is matter? Is mind subject to matter, or is it possessed of independent powers ? Has the universe any unity or purpose? Is it evolving towards some goal ? Are there really laws of nature, or do we believe in them only because of our innate love of order ? Is man what he seems to the astronomer, a tiny lump of impure carbon and water impotently crawling on a small and unimportant planet ? Or is he what he appears to Hamlet ? Is he perhaps both at once ? Is there a way of living that is noble and another that is base, or are all ways of living merely futile? If there is a way of living that is noble, in what does it consist, and how shall we achieve it? Must the good be eternal in order to deserve to be valuc'd, or is it worth seeking even if the universe is inexorably moving toward? death ?

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An old post:


That's the Philosophy Bites question we take up today in CoPhi. If you think it puts Descartes before the horse you can visit What is Philosophy? first. (That was the first bad phil-pun I heard, btw, from a perky Scot called Cogan on my first day of Grad School back in 1980. Not the last. It was already an old joke.)




We don't all agree on what philosophy is. Not even we "Americanists," amongst ourselves. But we try to disagree agreeably. A little post-HAP 101 exchange between a pair of students once threatened for a moment to become disagreeable (unlike the class itself, which was thrilling in its impassioned civility). Almost made 'em watch the Argument Clinic. "An argument isn't just the automatic gainsaying of any statement the other person makes," etc. etc. But I don't want to argue about that.

Maybe a round of Bruces would be welcome today, simultaneously introducing several stars of philosophy, teaching us how to pronounce "Nietzsche" (and mispronounce "Kant") and disabusing anyone who falsely presumes our subject to be overly sober and serious about itself. If any doubt about that persists, just drop in on the Philosophy Club's Thursday Happy Hour - not that I'd want to reinforce the spurious conceit that philosophers are drunks. G'day.

I don't have a "favourite"... but my favorite (as I've already told my classes, on Day #1) is of


course William James.I don't always agree with him, but I almost always want to know he'd say about the topic du jour.

Philosophy, beginning in wonder, as Plato and Aristotle said, is able to fancy everything different from what it is. It sees the familiar as if it were strange, and the strange as if it were familiar. It can take things up and lay them down again. Its mind is full of air that plays round every subject. It rouses us from our native dogmatic slumber and breaks up our caked prejudices. SPP

My favorite living philosopher is John Lachs. He came for a visit last year, to my CoPhi classes.

It's no surprise that David Hume outpolls everyone on the podcast, given its Anglo-centric tilt, or that Mill and Locke pick up several votes. They're all on my short list too, as is Bertrand Russell (who definitely knew the value of philosophy).

I notice that my Vandy friend Talisse is one of the handful of Americans here, and he, like Martha Nussbaum, picks Mill. Sandel picks Hegel.) Other big votegetters: Aristotle, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein.

No surprise either that James, Dewey, Peirce, Santayana, Rawls, and other prominent Yanks don't win wide favor across the pond. (But I hear the Rawls musical has been a hit with the Brits.)

I did hear an English philosopher praising James once, on the BBC's excellent "In Our Time." But generally they prefer William's "younger, shallower, vainer" (and more Anglophilic) brother Henry, who lived most of his adult life in Sussex.

The British roots of American thought do run deep, and the branches of reciprocal influence spread wide. Stay tuned for info on our Study Aboard course, as it moves from drawing board to future reality.

Why do I find WJ so compelling? Hard to put my finger on a single reason, there are so many. I was first drawn to him through his marvelous personal letters. Then, his essays ("On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings," "The Moral Philosopher and the Moral Life," "What Makes a Life Significant") and lectures-cum-books (Varieties of Religious Experience, Pragmatism, A Pluralistic Universe). His warm, charming, playful, disarming, sympathetic personality shone through all. He was so great at tossing off wit, profundity, and practical wisdom with seeming effortlessness and concision. A born tweeter. But his health, physical and emotional, was a lifelong challenge. He expended vast effort to become William James.

Honestly, the best explanation for why I became a lifelong student of, and stroller with, WJ may just be that little moment in the Vandy bookstore back in my first year of grad school - the moment when my new mentor John Compton noticed me browsing the McDermott anthology o fThe Writings. John's warm and enthusiastic familiarity with "Willy James" hooked me. Thank you, John.

The thing James said that's stuck with me longest and made the most lasting impression, I think, is the little piece of youthful advice he once wrote to a despondent friend. I'm not quite sure why, but it lifts my mood every time I think of it:


Remember when old December's darkness is everywhere about you, that the world is really in every minutest point as full of life as in the most joyous morning you ever lived through; that the sun is whanging down, and the waves dancing, and the gulls skimming down at the mouth of the Amazon, for instance, as freshly as in the first morning of creation; and the hour is just as fit as any hour that ever was for a new gospel of cheer to be preached. I am sure that one can, by merely thinking of these matters of fact, limit the power of one's evil moods over one's way of looking at the cosmos.

Is this true? Maybe. Is it useful? Definitely.

We're also looking today at Nigel Warburton's introduction to Philosophy: The Basics.(5th ed., 2013), in which he quite rightly points out that while philosophy can help you think about who you are and why you're here - about the meaning of your life - it isn't an alternative to other fields of study. "It is important not to expect too much of philosophy," to the neglect of literature and history and science and art, et al.

That's right. But it's equally important not to expect too little of yourself, and to think you're not up to the challenge of an examined life. To repeat Professor James's empowering declaration: "I know that you, ladies and gentlemen, have a philosophy, each and all of you, and that the most interesting and important thing about you is the way in which it determines the perspective in your several worlds." If you don't all know that yet, CoPhilosophers, we'd better get to work. Serious fun, dead ahead. 8.27.14
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 The Biggest Misconception About Today’s College Students

You might think the typical college student lives in a state of bliss, spending each day moving among classes, parties and extracurricular activities. But the reality is that an increasingly small population of undergraduates enjoys that kind of life.

Of the country’s nearly 18 million undergraduates, more than 40 percent go to community college, and of those, only 62 percent can afford to go to college full-time. By contrast, a mere 0.4 percent of students in the United States attend one of the Ivies.

The typical student is not the one burnishing a fancy résumé with numerous unpaid internships. It’s just the opposite: Over half of all undergraduates live at home to make their degrees more affordable, and a shocking 40 percent of students work at least 30 hours a week. About 25 percent work full-time and go to school full-time.

The typical college student is also not fresh out of high school. A quarter of undergraduates are older than 25, and about the same number are single parents.

These students work extremely hard to make ends meet and simultaneously get the education they need to be more stable: A two-year degree can earn students nearly 20 percent more annually than just a high school diploma... (continues, nyt)
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LISTEN:
Truthiness (U@d 8.28.19). 

16 comments:

  1. H03
    "What does James consider the most interesting and important thing about each of us?"
    The way our own personal philosophies change our perspective of the world.

    How does James define "the philosophy which is so important in each of us"?
    He says it's pretty much an idea of what life "honestly and deeply means".

    What's the difference between "tough- and tender-minded" philosophies?
    Tender-minded philosophies go by principles. They're defined as religious and idealistic. Tough philosophies go by facts. They're pessimistic and materialistic.

    ReplyDelete
  2. HO1
    I believe that walking is a sort of gateway towards more effective thinking and philosophizing. In my experience, walking makes ideas flow more freely and productively, possibly as a way to pass the time while doing, to the brain, a seemingly meaningless task. I think the monotony of walking, putting one foot in front of the other, is the reason for this. When I have good ideas while I'm walking, I use a notepad to write them down and review my notes at the end of each day. However, I am able to meditate and have a steady flow of ideas when I am not walking as well, usually by performing a ritual for a mental reset, such as making a snack or washing dishes. Walking before writing is also very effective for me because it refreshes my thoughts and helps me to think clearly and see where a story, essay, or paper needs to go. I find that, usually, my best work is done shortly after a walk.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That sounds like it probably works, I will definitely have to try walking before writing.

      Delete
  3. What do you think James means when he says "the philosophy which is so important in each of us is not a technical matter; it is our more or less dumb sense of what life honestly and deeply means"?
    - I think he means that philosophy can seem confusing at times, but really it's an explanation of parts of life.

    Is your own philosophy, do you think, more "tough-" or "tender-minded"? How so?
    - I'd say im tender-minded, I believe somewhat in religion and freewill.

    Do you ever have good ideas while walking? How do you remember them? (Do you wish you had a stick like Hobbes's?)
    - Yes I do have ideas while walking, I usually forget about them. I guess a stick like Hobbes would be beneficial, or just my notes on my phone.

    Do you (like Rousseau) find meditation possible only while moving?
    -I completely agree, i find it hard to relax being still sometimes, walking outside is very therapeutic.

    Have you ever tried to walk before writing, like Russell? What were your results?
    -Iv'e never tied that, but id like to in the future.

    Should humans explore and eventually live elsewhere than earth?
    -It'll probably happen eventually, I don't really know if thats a good or bad thing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. When I walk, I like to be listening to something or going somewhere. I plan on meditating next time I walk because it sounds relaxing. However, I doubt I will be bringing a stick.

      Delete
  4. H1
    On some occasions, I do get good ideas while walking. I like to walk my dog when working on assignments, as it sometimes helps me think better. I dont do this often, though, I tend to do it only when I am struggling to complete an assignment. In order to remember them, I either repeat them in my head until I get inside, or i write them down in the notes app on my phone.

    I have in fact taken walks before writing. Sometimes I walk before a planned writing time, and other times I am working on a piece when I have time. I have found that walking helps me think clearly. It gets the extra energy out and helps me remain focused. Usually, I am able to get some pretty good ideas for writing during my walks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. H03- I generally use philosophy as a way to discover what others think and truly discover what I personally don’t know. In many parts of the world, philosophy differs than that of Western philosophy.

      In the video, the narrator covered philosophy by referring to its function. Many use philosophy to

      Solve big questions

      Fully submit logic to reason

      Expand self-knowledge

      Discover the meaning of true happiness

      Strengthen the mind

      These reasons the philosophers in the video use philosophy lines up with how I use it as well.

      In my opinion, I believe philosophy is for both the weak minded and tough minded. The perspective shift is what is important to the individual. I get epiphanies sometimes while walking and I feel that it could happen to anyone. Evidence of this is the subreddit of r/showerthoughts. I do not know, though, what affects this state of open-mindedness or wondering throughout my day. Some days I have more questions than other days.

      Delete
  5. H01

    - Do you (like Rousseau) find meditation possible only while moving?
    I think meditating is possible while moving,but I find it is also possible while stagnate. In both situations I just focus on stablizing the mind.

    - Have you ever tried to walk before writing, like Russell? What were your results?
    I have not done thos before, but it sounds like an ideal way to organize thoughts.

    - Have you watched or read "Pale Blue Dot"? Does it enlarge your perspective?
    I watched it and it reminded me how small and insignifigant the world is in comparison to the rest of the universe.

    - Should humans explore and eventually live elsewhere than earth?
    Yes. By living elsewhere we can discover more about the Universe and even the beginning of time and space.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Looking at the other comments I think I definitely need to go on more walks before writing. When I write I find myself easily distracted, so I think taking myself away from the distraction will be helpful.

      Delete
  6. What do you think James means when he says "the philosophy which is so important in each of us is not a technical matter; it is our more or less dumb sense of what life honestly and deeply means"? Philosophy is not a materialistic object or something you can physically see. Philosophy dives deeper into questions regarding life, not physical problems in it.
    Is your own philosophy, do you think, more "tough-" or "tender-minded"? How so?
    MY own philosophy is to keep pushing forward. I wouldn't necessarily call it tough or tender minded, but I would call it a more stubborn mind. I am very hard headed and if I think I can do something, I will do it!

    Did Aristotle's followers have a better approach to learning?
    They didn't necessarily have a better approach to learning, however, with their constant walking and thinking it helped them get their minds moving.
    Do you ever have good ideas while walking? How do you remember them? (Do you wish you had a stick like Hobbes's?) When I walk I usually think about theoretical situations and sort of day dream, but I do not think about real life problems.
    Do you (like Rousseau) find meditation possible only while moving? I do not think this is always true for every person who meditates. A lot of the time people just sit in a quiet room to relax and meditate and it doesn't involve walking. Also, yoga is a very common thing to do while meditating, and it does involve moving, but it is not technically walking per say.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I like the idea of peripatetic philosophy. It combines exercising the brain and body which is a nice concept. In my mind both have to be beneficial. I certainly want to try more of both. Hopefully this will help my physical and mental health. I do have good ideas while walking sometimes but I would not say that that is the only time I have good ideas. I also have good ideas in restaurants out of all places. I do not think that meditation is only possible while in motion thought because many great thinkers have made an effort to relax their whole body with stillness and in doing this have meditated a great deal.

    ReplyDelete
  8. (H2)
    In your own philosophy, do you think, more “tough” or “tender-minded”? How so?

    In my personal philosophy, I possess traits of both a tender-minded and tough-minded thinker. For instance, I typically base my decisions and beliefs more on facts rather than principles because facts are proven and truthful information while principles tend to represent assumptions that follow a personal truth. However, the majority of the terms used to characterize a “tender-minded” thinker align better with my method of thought: optimistic, free-willist, idealistic, and intellectualistic.

    Do you ever have good ideas while walking? How do you remember them? (Do you wish you had a stick like Hobbes’s?)

    Walking is a fairly tranquil activity for me because it allows my mind to produce novel ideas and clear itself from my typical thoughts. Many of the ideas that form in my mind tend to be good and creative. For instance, I may think of verses from a song, lines of a poem, or new concepts. Usually, I am able to remember these ideas by typing them in the notes app on my phone and revisiting them when my walk has concluded.

    Have you ever tried to walk before writing, like Russell? What were your results?

    Occasionally, I have decided to walk without writing down any of my ideas and see the results. However, it usually ends with me forgetting or misremembering several details from my ideas. Perhaps, if I attempt to “walk before writing” more frequently, I could strengthen my memory and not feel obligated to disrupt my thought process to write down ideas while walking.

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  9. H3 - In your own philosophy, do you think, more “tough” or “tender-minded”? How so?

    I take things seriously in life, I show up, I work hard, and I try to find the best in everything. I'm not fighting to live my life, and for that I am thankful. I take things on tenderly and thoughtfully; it's my best approach, and it takes much less stress. I'll put up a fight against things needing fighting for, but I don't find myself a tough minded person, I just take it easy.

    - Have you watched or read "Pale Blue Dot"? Does it enlarge your perspective?
    no

    - Should humans explore and eventually live elsewhere than earth?

    It's very tricky. I believe that people will never be able to agree enough for us to settle on another planet. Could you imagine the sudden race for outer-space weaponry and demand for galactic vehicles? We are not technologically ready to travel space, and we definitely are not ready as a society, it will become a big political clusterfrick.

    Exploration is cool though

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  10. H03

    What do you think James means when he says "the philosophy which is so important in each of us is not a technical matter; it is our more or less dumb sense of what life honestly and deeply means"?

    I feel James was saying that philosophy doesn't really have a set dictionary term to it when it comes to how individuals may go about defining or living by philosophies they find important.

    Is your own philosophy, do you think, more "tough-" or "tender-minded"? How so?

    I would say I’m more tender minded in most circumstances. I say this because I do try to be optimistic because I think it’s important to have some type of positive mindset to make things in life go a little better, instead of always being doubtful. Because to me if you at least try to be open minded any task that you do won’t seem impossible to accomplish.

    Do you ever have good ideas while walking? How do you remember them? (Do you wish you had a stick like Hobbes's?)

    I sometimes do have good ideas when walking. Usually, I try to remember them by making a quick mental note, type some of the thoughts on my phone or laptop, or even grab a pencil or piece of paper to write the ideas down.

    Have you ever tried to walk before writing, like Russell? What were your results?

    I have walked before writing and the results have come out to be good because it feels like the ideas flow better for whatever project I’m working on.

    Should humans explore and eventually live elsewhere than earth?

    I think if people can find the time and have the finances they should explore and find other places to live because sometimes when someone or people live outside of their hometown or even travel a little bit it can contribute to learning new things in regards to new languages, culture, foods, and gain more education on topics they don’t know about.




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  11. (H2)
    Do you agree with James about "the most interesting and important thing about each of us"?

    I do agree with James. He says that what is interesting and important about us is the fact that we each come with our own interpretation of what life is. Whether we know our interpretation fully or not, we at least have the ability to interact with the world the way we see fit, positively or negatively. Separate from an actual philosophy, this internal guidance is at the very least what carries us day by day.

    According to the video "What is Philosophy For?" being wise means what? Do you agree?

    They say that being wise is getting smart to what activities in your life will be beneficial. I agree, but as a Wiseman I believe there is more to it than that. Learning what activities you should and should not do is a great start on the path to becoming virtuous in your own right. Removing negative activities or burdens from your life is the first step. But that doesn't overtly mean you've changed as a person. One also needs to learn how to interact with people in a new way once they're in that headspace. You can't apply the same techniques you've used before in a new way, that will only cause internal conflict.


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