Up@dawn 2.0 (blogger)

Delight Springs

Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Questions NOV 7

  • WGU -p.192. #H1 Kenji, #H2 Kaitlyn Woodland, #H3 Evan Burrell
  • SSHM ch1 Determinism and Despair, & WJ, The Dilemma of Determinism (1897) - in BNA, on reserve - #H1 Ally Brumfield, #H2 Sawyer Crain, #H3 Bobby Goodroe
  • Kieran Setiya, Life is Hard Intro-1 Infirmity (on reserve), #H2 Samwaeil Bowles

 

WGU

[Today's questions somehow got posted last time, Nov 5 (I'm blaming it on my hypothetical teaching assistant)... The correct Nov 5 questions are now posted.] 

WGU -192

1. What hallmark of modernity reversed Plato's and Aristotle's judgment?

2. What gives life meaning, for Kant?

3. In a truly human society, according to Marx, how would our capacities to work develop?

4.  Most jobs involve what, according to Paul Goodman? 

5. People were certain, as late as 2008, that what?

6. What alternatives to consumerism have small groups begun to develop?

1. What hallmark of modernity reversed Plato's and Aristotle's judgment?

2. What gives life meaning, for Kant?

3. In a truly human society, according to Marx, how would our capacities to work develop?

4.  Most jobs involve what, according to Paul Goodman? 

5. People were certain, as late as 2008, that what?

6. What alternatives to consumerism have small groups begun to develop?

SSHM ch1

1. Calvinism set out, for Henry James Sr., what impossible task?

2. Kaag thinks the Civil War gave WJ his first intimation that what?

3. WJ's entire life had been premised on what expectation?

4. What did WJ say (in 1906, to H.G. Wells) about "SUCCESS"?

5. What Stoic hope did young WJ share with his friend Tom Ward?

6. What thought seeded "the dilemma of determinism" for WJ?

7. As WJ explicated determinism in 1884, the future has no what?

8. WJ found what in Huxley's evolutionary materialism alarming?

9. Determinism has antipathy to the idea of what?

10. To the "sick soul," what seems blind and shallow?

==

Setiya Intro, ch1

1. What reminder does Kieran Setiya say he needed when he was younger? What kind of philosophy did his teachers say he needed? (pref) What has he experienced since age 27?

2. What is moral philosophy about?

3. Does Setiya think "everything happens for a reason"? What were Job's friends wrong about?

4. What did Nietzsche say about happiness and the English?

5. Who is Susan Gubar?

6. To whom should disability matter?

7. What's the difference between disease and illness?

8. What does Setiya think Aristotle gets wrong?

9. Who are Setiya's heroes? 

10. What does Setiya say about Marx's vision of communist society?

11. What was Harriet Johnson's reply to Peter Singer?

12. What did Setiya appreciate about his fifth urologist?

13. What, contrary to Descartes, does pain teach us about our bodies?


FL 41-42
1. What became of the 1998 study that promoted the false belief that vaccines cause autism?


2. How many people refusing vaccines can lead to the collapse of herd immunity?

3. What do experts say about most mass killers?

4. Who wrote a "demented" letter on behalf of gun rights in 1995?

27 comments:

  1. FL-1: In Fantasyland, Andersen notes the fallout from the 1998 study linking vaccines to autism, which became a foundation for modern vaccine skepticism. Despite being debunked and retracted, the study’s effects persist. The misinformation amplified on social media continues to influence public opinion, making the anti-vaccine movement a lasting issue in the U.S. as part of the broader rejection of mainstream science.

    FL-2: Andersen discusses how small numbers of people refusing vaccines can threaten herd immunity, especially with highly contagious diseases like measles. He explains that only a modest decline in vaccination rates can weaken herd immunity, highlighting how belief-driven choices, even by a small minority, can endanger public health.

    FL-3: He argues that mass killers are often mythologized in ways that reflect societal fantasies about heroism, rebellion, or individualism gone wrong. This glamorization, combined with a culture of gun rights advocacy, fosters a climate where violent fantasies resonate with certain individuals.

    FL-4: The “demented” letter in 1995 was written by Charlton Heston, a prominent figure in the NRA, who framed gun rights as essential to American identity and freedom. Andersen describes how Heston's rhetoric contributed to the good of the pro-gun movement by appealing to deeply held fantasies of American freedom and resistance to government control.

    ReplyDelete
  2. H01

    SSHM 1. Calvinism- the belief that God has already determined everyone’s lives and whether they will go to heaven or hell- swept Henry James Sr. into the impossible task of exercising free will. This led him to a state of religious and psychological turmoil as he navigated the conflict between his faith and actions.

    SSHM 4. James stated that the treacherous journey for “bitch-goddess” success is a disease. He argued that he, among many others, would sell their soul in favor of material wealth. People will lose their humanity and work for decades to obtain success, only to realize that they were never truly living.

    SSHM 7. According to William James, the future has no hidden trails waiting to be discovered; everything in existence is set in place.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Roman Phillips H#03
    SSHM Chapter 1
    2. While Louis Menard argued that the Civil War set the context for James's philosophical studies: the devastation of a conflict, motivated by grand ideological visions, convinced James and his fellow pragmatists to fashion a philosophy of modest, testable beliefs and goals. Kaag, however, believed that the Civil War affected James's perception in a more immediate and rattling way. While watching helplessly as loved ones went off to war and experiencing the fragileness of human life, James began to understand that he was not free, but his fate was already predestined.
    5. James wrote to his friend Tom Ward in June of 1866 encouraging him to take up Marcus Aurelius. James expressed how everything can be stripped from a person except his/her free response to the horrible situation into which he/she has been thrown. Stoicism presumes there are two basic parts of every person: the bodily self that is subject to natural laws and the "ruling" spiritual self (a soul) that can determine its orientation to the working of nature.
    7. WJ explained determinism in 1884 by expressing, "The future has no ambiguous possibilities hidden in his womb; the part we call the present is compatible with only one totality."

    LIH
    2. Philosophy is much more than moral obligation and the subject is expansive as it addresses everything in life that matters. Philosophers study abstract questions and dispute each other's views, they trade in thought experiments making the familiar strange, but moral philosophy has a practical purpose. Through much of history, there was no clear distinction between philosophical ethics and self-help because the assumption was that philosophical reflection on how to live should make our lives better.
    4. The truth is that we should not aim to be happy but to live as well as we possibly can, but Nietzche said, "Humanity does not strive for happiness, only the English do." This was a jab at philosophers like Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, who only valued pleasure over pain.

    Fantasyland
    3. According to Andersen, most experts think that "most mass killers are not psychotics or paranoid schizophrenics in the throes of clinical delusion; rather they're citizens of Fantasyland, unhappy people with flaws and failures they blame on others, the system, the elitists, the world. They worry those resentments into sensational fantasies of paramilitary vengeance, and they know that acting out those fantasies will make a big splash and force the rest of us to pay attention to them for the first time" (383).

    ReplyDelete
  4. #H01
    SSHM
    1. The impossible task that Calvinism set for James Sr was to exercise your free will in order to satisfy a God. Your actions had to matter in some moral and existential way.
    2. Kaag Believed that the civil war gave WJ the impression that we are not free but fated for the inevitable doom that is our world.
    4. WJ said that the worship of the bitch-godess success was a disease. That people will lie, cheat, and steal for success but are not really living. They will die with regret.

    ReplyDelete
  5. H02
    SSHM
    1. For Henry James Sr., Calvinism set out an impossible task of exercising the human will freely and meaningfully in order to satisfy God who was both omnipotent and removed. Meaning that it is impossible to exercise human will and action in order to completely satisfy God. However, in God's eyes, the actions to be meaningful were essentially useless. God might have a plan but human evils exist, which can impact or change God's plan.
    3.William James' life was premised on the expectation that he could exercise his free will. James' father gave the aspect of free will to his children; making, William James believe that he could do whatever he wanted, which he then discovered he couldn't. I mean if you are raised in an environment where you believe freedom and free will can be exercised you would believe it.
    4. William James, foully, said, "The moral flabbiness born of the exclusive worship of the bitch-goddess SUCCESS. That- with the squalid cash interpretation put on the word 'success'- is our national disease." He mentions that the disease progresses and then once you die you are just faced with death and regret.

    ReplyDelete
  6. #H01
    SSHM-
    1. For Henry James Sr. calvinism set out the impossible task of pleasing an omnipotent and infinitely removed God, with one's free will, meaningfully. This caused him to have a spiritual and personal crisis as it seemed that the acts of man no matter how good or bad mattered not in the eyes of his God.
    2. Kaag says that the civil war gave James his first intimation that rather than being free we were fated, that we had a set path for us and there was not much we could do to avoid it.
    3. William James’ life was premised on the expectation that he could exercise his own free will, and in Kaag’s words “It was only a matter of time before he discovered that he couldn’t.”

    ReplyDelete
  7. H01

    SSHM 4- William James described the "cash interpretation put on the word 'success'" as a "national disease". He believed that the constant strive for more, more, more was slowly killing people even if they didn't know it. It was impossible to ever be satisfied with the success they had because even if they reached the top, were able to relax and not work, they would be bored. They would get so bored that they would, as Schopenhauer put it, "pointedly seek out danger and discomfort" in order to feel alive. Without work and the belief of progress, people have nothing.

    5- James recommended the Stoic hope of internalizing that the only thing you can control is your own reactions to situations to his friend Thomas Ward. In his letter to Ward, James wrote that humans have a "purpose in [nature's] vast machinery" and it is in our best interests to take "whatever she assigns to you". You have a lot in life no matter how you feel about, and the only thing you can change is your perspective on it.

    6- James was burdoned by the "dilemma of determinism" when he came across people who did not believe in the soul, and therefore did not believe in the "ruling part" or the "reason" of a person. "Life was fully determined by nature" because now that Darwin had published his Origin of Species, humans were not special creatures that deviated from other animals. We all obey the laws of nature, the laws of causality, which, if spiralled and taken too far, leads to determinism.

    10- To the sick soul, pure and simple healthy-mindedness "seems unspeakably blind and shallow". When all you can think of are the myriad negatives in life, people who see the positives seem blind. It might appear that they are ignoring them or ignorant to them, and sometimes that's true. But often, optimistic people tend to instead focus on the positives so that they don't weight themselves down. To the sick soul, it might seem like there is no other reality than the negatives. That can be extremely hard to overcome.

    ReplyDelete
  8. #H02
    SSHM 1- The Calvinists under Henry James Sr. sought complete moral perfection, as they desired to conquer human sin. The unattainable standard of human perfection weighed on the Calvinists, as James Sr. struggled to reconcile the demand for moral perfection with the inherent flaws of humanity. The conquest left James Sr. with deep spiritual anxiety as he and many of his followers found themselves unable to achieve the dream they had set out for.

    SSHM 6- The thought that seeded "the dilemma of determinism" was the realization of the tension between the concepts of free will and determinism. William James grappled with the idea that everything is determined by prior cause, as it undermines the very notion of free choice, one of the most valued attributions of mankind. William James was convinced the deterministic view could not be accurate, as his experience of life suggested the existence of free will.

    SSHM 9- Determinism has antipathy to free will, as the concept of a being dictating the actions of all human kind eliminates the need for the ladder.

    ReplyDelete
  9. H01

    SSHM #2:
    Essentially, it gave him his first intimation of determinism, the idea that life is predetermined and that we are not truly free (Kaag 20). I am not exactly sure how the author is drawing this conclusion to be honest, but it is an interesting thought.

    SSHM #4:
    That, based on "the squalid cash interpretation of the word", the "worship" of success was a "national disease" (Kaag 22). With that being said, the act of working for money, in my opinion, is not a problem. Since money can be used for great things, even work that is not particularly enjoyable can be meaningful, but it is up to you to make it so.

    SSHM #5:
    James offered the idea that a person's response to the hardships of nature was what really mattered (Kaag 27). I generally would agree with this, and I think this piece of advice can really help you get through tough times.

    SSHM #6:
    The thought that seeded this dilemma was basically that people are only physical, and that there is no spirit or soul, which means that we are just being controlled by our circumstances like everything else in the universe.

    Kaag, John. SICK SOULS, HEALTHY MINDS: HOW WILLIAM JAMES
    CAN SAVE YOUR LIFE. Princeton University Press, 17 Mar. 2020.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Aidin Card HO2

    SSHM 1- Calvinism set the impossible task of satisfying an omnipotent and infinitely removed god with his human capabilities. it drained him spiritually and he went through a very depressing time pursuing this task only to realize after reading the work of the Lutheran Emmanuel Swedenbourg did he find peace in freedom to live and develop your character.

    SSHM 2- The Civil War was the first intimidation that wasn't sought out freely but instead fated or forced upon not just him but all Americans during that time.

    SSHM 3- James life was been premised on the idea of using your free will to carve your own path through life, but during his early adulthood he was constantly stuck being a passive part of his own life only reacting as the troubles impacted him one after the other.

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  11. SSHM 1- Calvinism set the harrowing task for Henry by making him believe as if he had no purpose. How can one get into heaven if it is predetermined? It was hard for him to separate this from his love for God. He believed the improving his character may lead to salvation

    SSHM 6-The thought that created this dilemma is that humans are only physical beings. We exist in the present and as living beings, once we die that's it. We wither away and get thrown back into the energy cycle. This dilemma started from the doubt of humans having a soul.

    FL1- The study that perceived that vaccines cause autism was by Andrew Wakefield and was published in The Lancet. It now has been withdrawn due to several ethical violations done during the study, and misinterpreted/manipulated data.

    ReplyDelete
  12. H03
    SSHM
    1: Since Calvinism believes in predestination it was difficult for Henry James Sr. to be able to exercise free will with any meaning since his fate was predetermined.
    2. The Civil war Kaag believes lead to James feeling that he was not in control and able to exercise free will, but rather that his destiny was controlled.
    3. William James' entire life had been premised on the idea that he would be able to exercise his free will. However, this obsession with free will in his family didn't completely rub off on him in his youth, as he contemplated whether he really did have free will.

    ReplyDelete
  13. #H1 - Zoe Kuhn
    SSHM - #1
    Calvinism set out, for Henry James Sr., to practice the impossible task of free will.
    SSHM - #2
    Kaag thinks the Civil War gave WJ his first intimation that we are not free and we are tethered to the doom of our world.
    SSHM - #3
    WJ’s entire life had been premised on the expectation that you are able to exercise your free will.

    ReplyDelete
  14. H01
    SSHM

    SSHM 1- Calvinism set the impossible task of satisfying an omnipotent and infinitely removed god with his human capabilities. causing him to become very depressed while trying to pursue this task. He realized after reading the work of the Lutheran Emmanuel Swedenbourg that he could find some peace in freedom he would live to develop his character.

    SSHM 2- The Civil War was the first intimidation that wasn't sought out freely but instead fated or forced upon not just him but all Americans during that time.

    SSHM 3- James' life was premised on the idea of using your free will to carve your own path through life, but his family's obsession didn't really rub off on him and he began to doubt whether free will existed or not.

    ReplyDelete
  15. H1
    FL
    1. The study that started the myth that vaccines cause autism was debunked and the author of the study's medical license was revoked. Autism is determined by genetics. It's a neurological disorder that cannot develop later in life; autists are born autistic.
    3. Most mass killers are not crazy. They're right in the head and understand what they are doing. Most mass killers are privileged white men who blame the world for their problems. They know that by committing these crimes, they will receive a lot of attention, which is what they want.

    ReplyDelete
  16. #H02-

    WGU-1-
    Calvinism gave Henry James Sr. a pretty tough job. It basically told him he had to balance the idea that everything in life is already decided (like fate) with the idea that he still needed to take responsibility for his actions and grow as a person. This was super confusing for him because he wanted to believe he had control over his own life and could improve himself, but Calvinism’s strict rules made it seem like that wasn’t possible. So, he was stuck trying to figure out how to mature and become a better person while feeling like his fate was already sealed.

    WGU-2-
    The Civil War gave William James his first hint that life was full of uncertainty and unpredictability. It was during this tumultuous time that he began to realize how fragile and chaotic the world could be, which deeply influenced his thinking and philosophical outlook. This realization marked a significant moment in his journey towards understanding the complexities of life and the human condition.

    WGP-3-
    William James’s entire life had been based on the expectation that he could find a stable and secure place in the world. He believed that through his efforts and choices, he could create a life that was predictable and under his control. This expectation was a big part of how he approached life and made decisions. However, the unpredictability and chaos of events like the Civil War really challenged this belief and made him rethink his understanding of life and stability.

    Maheswari Ramesh (Maahi)

    ReplyDelete
  17. H02 Erick Martinez


    SSHM ch1
    1. Henry James Sr, the father to William James was a Calvinist. It was taught to him by his own father. Calvinism basically stated that we don’t have control. We are born either to do great things and go to heaven or dammed to hell, we had no idea how that was chosen or who was in which category. It was all about obedience to a GOD and him having complete control. He believed Calvinism set out the impossible task of exercising our free will in a meaningful way in order to satisfy a God who is both omnipotent and infinitely removed. Henry Sr would later term the word vastation which was a state of personal and spiritual emptiness and misery. We were supposed to live life thinking we matter but in God rules, our actions meant nothing. Henry Sr believed that god may have had plans for us, but humans evilness still stood.

    2. John Kaag believed that the Civil War gave William James his first intimation that everyone living in our universe was not free but rather fated. That we all had a fate and nothing we do in this life could change that. When the Civil War started, James younger siblings both enlisted. William James never did due to his bad eyesight and always getting sick. He watched on the sidelines as his family fought for ideals, they all shared. He watched how many things in human existence were inevitable and it led him to the conclusion of humans not being free.

    3. William James entire life had been premised on the expectation that he exercises his free will. His parents didn’t restrict him as a kid, they didn’t force him towards a certain path, they only allowed their kids opportunities to allow them to reach their full capabilities wherever they found themselves. Even when his father didn’t agree when James wanted to explore art, he didn’t stop him and even allowed him to study under the greats of the time. James had never been chained by anything, but with so much freedom at some point you may find yourself feeling stuck, which is where James found himself unable to exercise his freedom

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  18. Annlee Head H02

    SSHM1: Calvinism set out the impossible task of exercising the human will freely in order to satisfy both an omnipotent and infinitely removed God. Henry James Sr. was led into a “vastation” from this; defined by himself as “a state of utter spiritual and personal desolation.”

    SSHM2: The Civil War gave James his first intimation that he and the rest of the universe “was not free, but rather fated.” William James, as a sickly man with bad eyesight, was unable to join the fight in the Civil War, so he had to watch as his siblings fought in the war while he was at home. William James felt as if he was stuck, and that he was unable to exercise his free will because of his health.

    SSHM3: William James’ entire life was premised on the expectation that he could exercise his free will, and that he couldn’t because of his health. He had to move from making physical marks on society by wanting to serve in the war to studying chemistry and physiology in order to make some kind of mark on the world.

    ReplyDelete
  19. H#2

    SSHM#2- Kaag believes that the Civil War gave WJ the idea that everyone was not free but fated instead. The time period gave WJ the impression that the world is chaotic and unpredictable. This made him strive to further his understanding of human life.

    SSHM#3 - WJ lived his whole life under the idea that everyone had free will because during his entire life he never had a set path and felt like he made his own decisions.

    SSHM#7 - WJ believed that the future had no secrets and that everything in life was already set in place.

    ReplyDelete
  20. H02
    Life is Hard
    Intro-CH 1
    3. Does Setiya think "everything happens for a reason"? What were Job's friends wrong about?
    He thinks it is cold comfort to those going thru suffering. Job’s Friends were wrong about him doing something to deserve the suffering that he endured.
    5. Who is Susan Gubar?
    American author and distinguished Professor Emerita of English and Women's Studies at Indiana University that wrote about having cancer and what that means in regards to living.

    11. What was Harriet Johnson's reply to Peter Singer?
    “To Singer, it’s pretty simple: disability makes a person ‘worse off.’ Are we ‘worse off’? I don’t think so.”
    12. What did Setiya appreciate about his fifth urologist?
    How honest he was about the situation.

    ReplyDelete
  21. H03

    SSHMs 1-

    Henry James Sr. was set out for an impossible task due to Calvinism: "to exercise the human will freely, meaningfully, to satisfy a God who was both omnipotent and infinitely removed.” Overall, when trying to accomplish this task, James Sr. fell into a state of desolation, both personally and spiritually. The task was a paradox, so it contradicted itself at all steps. The conditions of how God has a plan make it so the actions one does seem meaningless in the end.

    SSHMs 5-

    The Stoic hope that young WJ shared with his friend Thomas Ward was that he could be stripped of everything except his ability to freely respond to a horrible situation. The reason behind this advice was that Ward had recently had a bout of illness, and so he gave him some advice. Specifically, he urged him to take up Marcus Aurelius, imparting the Stoic Hope to him. So, while he was thrown into this situation, he could be stripped of everything and still retain his free will; he could respond to it however he pleased.

    SSHMs 10-

    To the “sick soul,” healthy-mindedness seems blind and shallow. For example, to those with a “sick soul,” being able to think brightly about life or themselves is so far away from them that it seems to be unspeakable as well. Not only is it blind and shallow, but one shouldn’t even be thinking of it as it appears that far out of possibility, but also like a taboo to mention how they think that. With the way he described it, he wanted those who were healthy-minded to be able to comprehend how those with a “sick soul” saw their mindset and beliefs.

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  22. SSHM Ch. 1 - Determinism + Despair
    1. With his exposure to intense Christian philosophy regarding deterministic values, Henry Sr. could not find a meaningful reason to push against it. Striving for free thought seems pointless in the face of an uncaring and omnipotent Deity. Personally, I sympathize with this experience as I grew up in a Christian academy that shared the same approach. I was overwhelmed with fear, unsure if my next stray thought would condemn me.

    2. According to Kaag, the intimidation that resulted from the Civil War most likely influenced James' immaturity. He was chosen by his father to essentially be the "non-expendable".

    3. WJ's entire life had been premised on the idea that he would be something great. Those expectations most likely warped James' sense of self. When he found that the most profitable and prestigious paths went nowhere for him, he became lost and without a perceived purpose.

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  23. SSHM

    1. Calvinism required James Sr. to satisfy the divine will of an unreachable and unempathetic god. According to Calvinism, God has already made his ruling regarding the fate of every person. You are either going to heaven or to hell, and there's no changing it. The goal is to act as someone who is going to heaven to assure yourself that you are such; however, there is no way to determine whether God is actually pleased with you or not. And, under the beliefs of Calvinism, there is no changing your fate, so James Sr. also had to grapple with the thought that his persistent efforts to please his god may never amount to anything, rendering his mortal life utterly meaningless.

    5. James's stoic hope was that, if one is to submit their life to the will and calling of nature, then one can be relieved of the dread of responsibility. If you are guided by nature, then you have no obligation to make your own decision or take action. You simply follow. So, all responsibility save or your natural response to a situation is taken from you. Personally, this hope is not reassuring. I would prefer to use my won discernment rather than follow a leader blindly, even if it is nature herself. Of course, it is hopeful to believe that things are out of your control and that you must simply follow h whims of fate, but the potential to make change is too great a sacrifice to follow this dogma.

    9. According to James, determinism is the antipathy to the "idea of chance." He means that determinism, the idea that all things are a result of uncontrollable external forces outside of human will, conflicts with the existence of random chance. Determinism directly rejects the idea that there are infinite possibility of what could happen each day, instead limiting it to a set schedule of events charted by omnipotent force. It also eliminates the concept of free will because if something is truly out of control and cannot be stopped by a person, that could imply that the harmful things humans can do are not their fault. I you killed someone, then you did not you free will to do so; you were influenced. There, you are not to blame or punish, as your actions are not decide by you.

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  24. H03

    SSHM

    1. The task in question was "excersize the human will freely, meaningfully, in order to satisfy a God that was both omnipotent and infinitely removed".
    2. The imitation that WJ got was that man was not free, rather they were fated.
    3. WJ's life always held the expectation that he would be able to exercise his free will.

    ReplyDelete
  25. H03

    SSHM, Question 1

    For Henry James Sr., Calvinism's deterministic model of heaven and hell resulted in a life that was constituted as meaningful if one satisfied, "...a God who was both omnipotent and infinitely re-moved." This conflict sent the elder James into a spiral of detachment from the religion, and influenced his goal of giving his children absolute freedom.


    SSHM, Question 2

    William James' slightly sickly constitution meant that he could not participate in the Civil War, unlike his younger brothers. This limitation may have revealed to James that, contrary to his father's rhetoric, he was not completely free to act, but indeed had some limitations imposed on him through un-chosen fate.


    SSHM, Question 10

    To those with 'sick souls', the idea that you who slip through life in complete healthy conscience or even seemingly without exhibiting much deep consciousness at all seems shallow and blind. To such 'afflicted' people, it can feel incredibly isolating to look around and only see others who seemingly are unconcerned with their existential or even more immediate position in life. Those who don't experience or at least able to effectively ignore such worries appear both lucky and also somewhat fake to those who do, as they miss out on both the emotional pain and triumph.

    ReplyDelete
  26. SSHM
    Q1: The impossible task set out by Calvinism that Henry James Sr. struggled to reconcile with was the ability to exercise human will freely, meaningfully, to satisfy an all knowing and infinitely disconnected God. Basically, how can humans reasonably be making meaningful and impactful decisions while Gods design of our world seems to suggest that they and we don’t matter.
    Q2: The Civil War was Jame’s first intimation with a world that wasn’t actually free, wth people needing the correct outlook to avoid its horrors. But actually fated with brutality and a certain weakness that sometimes, you’re simple unable to act.
    Q3: His entire life had been filled with the expectation that he would be able to act freely whenever he wanted regarding any circumstance; he wasn’t and wouldn’t be able to always do what he wanted.

    ReplyDelete
  27. #H02

    SSHM 1. Calvinism is the belief that everybody’s life has already been predetermined by God and have decided whether they will go to heaven or hell. This concept encouraged Henry James Sr. to try and exercise what he thought of to be free will. However, this sent him into a spiral of both psychological and religious trouble as he discovered more about faith and his actions.



    SSHM 7. According to William James, the future truly does not have any hidden paths for us to later discover, considering that he thought that everything that exists in the universe is already set in place.

    ReplyDelete