Karl Marx

I must admit.... I had to force myself to read Marx, which is first for all of the readings this semester. But, if you actually try to look into what he is saying, it becomes quite a bit more interesting. (I also find Marx himself interesting, the crazy man he was)

First, Marx exotic claim that all struggles come the fact that class struggles forms the basis for his entire argument. Without a reason for change, why would anyone want to listen his lovely argument anyways? Class struggle is the reason the laborers (proletariats) must overcome and overthrow their masters (the bourgeoisie people).

Second, Marx's argument seems to follow logical format. Why shouldn't the workers control the means of production? Why should the bourgeoisie decide prices and wages? The most shocking thing about Marx's argument is the removal of private property (though he admits it seems strange, because it is).

Also, Marx proposes no mechanism to undertake all of these measures...very strange man....very strange ideas.

Poetry, Particularly Tintern Abbey

I have realized, in the small amount of poetry that I partake of, that I like reading poetry but I fear analyzing it. My favority poem, of the 7 that were assigned, is Proverbs of Hell. (sinister, I know!)

Proverbs of Hell has interesting messages in it, and I just love how Blake entitled teh poem. (Of the three, Blake is my favorite, though I like Byron the best of them all). Proverbs of Hell has the idea of truth, wisdom, selfishness, and morals. Blake has an interesting style with all of his poems, and his grammer in this one proves no less strange. I love the last line of irony: Enough! or Too much

But, back to Tintern Abbey. Wordsworth (great name by the way...do you think he changed it to that or just decided to live up to his name) wrote a poem full of many...words. I think the most important word in this poem is TIME. Time changes, nature changes, views on nature change, and people change. Wordsworth is telling his sister how she should view nature and he reminisces about the days when say nature differently. I don't think it is necessarily bad that the narrator's view on nature has change, change is inevitable. I think the point of this poem is to appreciate nature and understand how one's ideas about nature change over time.

John Locke's Ideas on Religion

Are the religious concepts that appear in the Second Treatise central to Locke's political argument? Why, or rather, exactly why not? In hopes of clarifying my essay, I will undertake a blog post involving ideas on both why religion is central to Locke's political argument and why religion is in fact NOT central to Locke's political argument?

Yep, Religion is Central to Locke's argument because

• Locke mentions God so much...why would he bother if it wasn't revelent
• People fo the time truly believed that the church and God were central to life, in order to make his argument seem valid to these lovely people
• Acceptance with the common man is really important (since this is a main idea in the State of Nature and so on)...the best way to ensure success is to establish some common ground

No! Religion is a minor detail to John Locke

• His ideas are all his own and he just uses God as some examples
• He's a religious man but his ideas are totally separated from this
• He mentions God for fun?
• He reasons through some arguments without using religious terms exactly

Progress's Trade-Off History

In biology class, we talk about trade-offs between how many eggs a mother can produce and the size of all those eggs.

But in CIE, how does the trade-off between progress and human aggression work? If we already know all we can possibly need to know about a pigs heart, then no one would probably dissect it just for giggles without using the rest of the pig to feed someone. In my AP Bio class, little pigs were developed just for a bio company that sold dead fetal pigs to dissect... poor little Spanky. Anyways, what is the connection between human aggression and progression? Descartes obviously put his heart to good use. Doctor's learn on a cadaver's body so that at a later time they don't kill someone in the OR. (Novel concept, huh?) But how do we define what is amoral when it comes to human progress? Should only certain medical students that want to be surgeons be able to open up cadavers? How do we put away our own biases when it comes to defining what is moral and amoral about something that humans dominate? Do animals have all the rights that humans have? Should they? If we used Descartes method we could perhaps find out the reasonable and logical answers to these questions. But would anyone accept them as true?

What Is Real?

Well, we've have certainly gotten into the deeper aspects of CIE.... something that I think is pretty cool. On the order of discussion today: do animals think, distinguishing what reality is, and the implications of Descartes thoughts.

1. Animals rationalize...based on their instincts. Humans can rationalized based on common sense and reasoning, and we are aware that we can do this. Existing, in Descartes sense, implies that you can make decisions for yourself based on your own reasoning and sense, not on the genes that tell you to do this. (Not that Descartes knew about genes....Mendel was a bit after his time)

2. I think that defining what is real and what is not real differs from person to person. Just because your sense tell you that it real, the logical part of your mind may tell you differently. This is the difference between us and animals, I doubt that animals can consciously control their thoughts as they run away from a predator.

3. One of the questions today was: Why didn't Descartes publish his other works during his life. Apparently he was a hell of a lot smarter than Galileo. The Discourse had such strong implications that topping that could have been pretty hard. Or maybe he did not want to touch on the whole religion and science aspect and thus shyed away from distrubing anyone in order to keep his private life private. I think most people favored free thought during the time of Descartes books but never actually came and decided for themselves that they could question the reality of some issues.

Cartesian Discussions...

Let's just say that if Henry Clay wasn't my favorite historical person, it could be Rene Descartes at a close second. Why you ask (and look at me like I'm crazy)? Well, I do enjoy calculus, and Descartes kind of helped with that whole scene quite a bit. I also enjoyed Dr. Florca's lecture on Descartes. The man doesn't lie... he promised 120 slides of pure fascination, and I must admit, my ADD barely kicked in during the hour long talk. (The slide with his head on his dog.... downright creepy though!)

But onto a real post about what I thought of The Discourse. First, I would like to point out that I think Dr. Florca made an excellent point in the fact that the title doesn't say it defines the method, it just kind of explains the rules, the points and such. I liked the first part the best so far. I like how Descartes explained why he chose philosophy, though he says he didn't to describe his method. He even discredits mathematics and yet writes books later on that topic. Whatever, anyone crazy enough to move when they found out his address probably didn't think straight all of the time. ( I guess all geniuses are a bit weird). Descartes says that his Method has four rules to it. They all seem so impossible to follow. And how would you know if broke the rules? Wouldn't it just be your own biased judgement telling you if you did indeed break those rules? I'm this will come up in class at some point... but overall, I found the rules and goals of his method kind of hard to comprehend as realistic....

Gender and Religion

Wow.... I think I still may have a bit of shock from CIE today. First, I definitely thought that Kelly was teaching again, but instead we had a nice surprise! (too bad he didn't visit on Halloween). Anyways, our substitute began the class by talking about how men used to play women in what he termed a "gender f**k" (can I swear in this? hmmm) anyways, I really enjoyed CIE today. It was quite the class.

So for Monday I must become a Duke for 150 lines (I must find a pimp crown!)

Onto a real blog post about real ideas however. Does Shylock really become Christian? Does Jessica become Christian by marrying Lorenzo? What defines becoming a real Christian, and how do you go about this? Why does Jessica want to become Christian so badly? Why, of all punishment, must Shylock become Christian? What does this mean to Antonio and Bassiano that they force him to convert? (there are a lot of questions to be answered)
1. Converting to Christianity involves Baptism and accepting Jesus as your Savior right? But what if Shylock lies about this and doesn't accept his new beliefs?
2. If Jessica marries a Christian, is she converted automatically by the system? It seems that she wants to become Christian, unlike her father. It must mean a lot to her to convert to Christianity. I cannot imagine her life was easy a Jew with people like Antonio around...

Anyways, I'm quite excited for Monday and extra-credit for dressing up as a Duke.