Sophie's world reflection Nummer Zwei

Here it goes again...



Yesterday, as I was reading Sophie's world I stumbled across the chapter two worlds, a interesting comparison of semitic and indo-european schools of thought, sending me into some rather interesting reflections on America, Buddhism, Hinduism, and morality... have fun!!

First things first, America, cause <sarcasm> we're the best </sarcasm>. While most would argue that Americans are by no means represented by what the rest of the world thinks of us, arrogant xenophobic and racist, it appears that nine times out of ten, they're correct, at least when you look at who our celebrities are. America has decided to promote idiots and buffoons over those who are the smartest or those with the clearest morals, those who portray what we should aspire to be. America is a disease, the virus of Agent Smith, that doesn't actually work on making the world a better place (for the most part) when, as the country with the best means to do so, we should at least feel obligated. In America, the general goal is to experience everything we can, everything we WANT, over what we should do to better ourselves, our country, and our world.

Buddhism is a system based on the teachings of Gautama Buddha, and has Three Jewels, Buddha,  his teachings, and community. Hinduism on the other hand is a system based on the earlier Vedic texts of earlier Indian Cultures. However,they both have similar beliefs about the nature of sould, that it is trapped in this endless cycle of regeneration, until of course you gain enlightenment. Unlike most western religions, they preach not that the only way to salvation is through their way, *glances at christianity*, or you're on a highway to hell. Instead, they preach that their are many paths to God and that while some ways are more efficient, they all eventually have the same end goal. Instead of teaching to help whenever possible, which is a very difficult thing to do, instead they preach doing no harm and speaking truth, virtues that most Americans would assuredly benefit from.

Not only that, some of their teachings mimic those being taught by Jesus in the New Testament. For example, their belief that distancing oneself from the ideals of the world and foregoing material wealth resounds with Jesus's metaphor involving treasure instructing "Store your treasures in heaven, where neither moths nor rust corrupt, nor thieves break in to steal. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."


Morals... morals are entirely subjective to a society, what is moral, what is immoral cannot be defined on a cultural basis over anythinng more than a handful of years. What bugs me is when certain fools try to say that their morals are superior to anyone elses when they only follow them out of fear rather than duty or even true belief

Peace.

tHE pHILOSOPHY oF hARRY bLACKSTONE cOPPERFIELD dRESDEN

Sorry readers, I'm a little bit sick right now, so don't expect any brilliance from me...
the main character of Jim Butcher's the Dresden files, Harry Dresden shows signs of having a deep and very strong personal philosophy. Harry is a wizard, an individual who uses arcane knowledge to affect the actual world, embodying the indo-european belief that having a deeper understanding of the world grants us power. Dresden also shows signs of stoicism, bearing all personal pain and suffering for the sake of his beliefs and ideals, refusing to trade them for anything. On the other hand he shows obvious signs of a disregard for the future in an epicurean fashion, refusing to consider it and doing as best fits his beliefs dictate at the moment, starting a war for the sake of a single person and creating a power vacuum as he ends that war. What he unfortunately doesn't realize is that this power vacuum would cause even more suffering amongst people everywhere. Likely, he would be praised in the indo-european way of thought that teaches that the soul is immortal and must be well-kept rather than the semitic which believes that all things have an end and would have cursed him for his length of foresight.

Why Source Code did indeed create an Alternate Reality

4.  Is the ending a new "movie reality" (for lack of a better term)?  Why or why not?  Is it possible that Stevens' determination somehow merged the alternate universe with the movie's original reality?
I believe the ending is a new "movie reality" because the events resemble a time-line where the teacher (don't remember his name) stopped the anarchist cold, completely denying his attempt to "remake the world". I don't really believe that any one man's determination could actually break down the barrier between parallel universes. However I do believe that the instant Captain Stevens decided that he could and was going to save everyone that was on that train, as he contemplated the idea, the alternate universe was created. In the end, within the Source Code, he took the place of the teacher and, as he had no place to return to in the "real world", he was allowed to remain within said parallel universe.
Of course, there is always the alternative that the Source Code program was much more complex than what Rutledge let on, regardless of whethere he was aware of it or not and was capable of simulating not only the events that originally occurred but seemingly allowing for random occurrences, including how Stevens was capable of completely affecting everything that happened, finding the killer even though the teacher didn't know who it was. If Rutledge didn't exactly know the extent of his program, then it would seem to suggest a Singularity, an AI which is more intelligent and creative than a human being and capable of upgrading itself. However, Occam's Razor would seem to suggest that this is even more unlikely than the previous hypothesis.

Two Lost Souls Swimming in a Fish Bowl...

So because I decided to analyze an album, Wish you were here for my first post of this kind, I decided to start with an analysis of each of the six songs with a link to the lyrics first and my analysis below.

https://sites.google.com/site/pinkfloydlyrics/wishyouwerehere

Thoughts/Analysis

Shine on you Crazy Diamond:

This song has a feel of fatalism, as well as an existential tilt. I relate it to the writings of Kierkegaard as the sang seems to intimate that who we are is determined by the dreams and thoughts we form, rather than what the world forces us to do or tells us we are. In the words Shine on You Crazy Diamond, Roger Waters calls upon us to work to shine and prove meaning of our own existence. I say it is fatalistic because he says to accept that the world will take from us what we hope and blow us on the "steel winds."

Welcome to the Machine

I don't really have anything to say about this one except its strongly anti industrial.

Have A Cigar

This song, like the last one ( and the next one) is very strongly Romantic. It rails against the common aspects of what we consider to be a futuristic society, specifically in this case the Capitalistic tendency to treat people as faceless individuals, just another cost or commodity.

Wish You Were Here

This song is again not only about how society is taking all the beauty away from the world and replacing it with ugly, unhappy images "a green field from a cold steel rail?" but it is also about how we are trapped in the world like fish in a fish bowl until we can finally break free, but not by what we can sense or see.

Shine on you Crazy Diamond

The album ends with part 2 (or parts 6-9) of shine on you crazy diamonds, with much the same tilt as the beginning.

Album

The album as a whole is very reminiscent of philosophical terms like Idealism, the opposite to materialism, where instead of focusing on what you can see and touch, its more of what you can reason out and experience(in a spiritual sense). Another thing that it is similar to is the existential movement, popularized by Kierkegaard and Nietzsche which is basically, the idea that who you are is determined by your actions, something that I wished Sophie was told before she was presented with the questions of unquestionable importance. However in wish you were here they touch upon the fishbowl, something which binds to earth, an idea discussed by many theologians, for example a Hindu would call it karma, the ties that bind us to the wheel of fate whereas a Christian would call it sin, the weights and tar which separates us from God. I don't know if this is relevant to philosophy or not but the entire album is very Romantic as a whole.

To be honest, this entire band would likely take offense to me analyzing their album and classifying it, and really I wasn't exactly sure what was going on, making connections where there may or may not be any.

Peace.

Poor Sophie...

 The protagonist of Sophie's world is unfortunate in that not only is her closest friend a clueless, vapid individual but also that a crack squad of philosophy ninjas have seen fit to send her random questions along with a syllabus in philosophy, just to give her headaches. Such questions are thrown at her to make her see reality in an unusual light. To be honest, it all seems a little bit unfair, that this poor girl, who while gifted with with an unusually sharp mind in this time and age, has to deal with such an idiotic mother and stupid friends, as while as an existential crisis. I would be quite daunted, were I a "typical" American, to be confronted with a question of who you are, when to be honest, you are what you believe and think, what you enjoy and hate, not your blog, not your job, not your name, nor grades and accomplishments. While I may sound like a certain individual(as played by Brad Pitt), I don't believe in purposefully throwing chaos into the system, its already there. Then on top of a personal crisis, he returns with the question of where the world comes from, which is, to be the most precise within discoverable history, a hyper-dense point of all matter within the universe.

From the second chapter, you can sense some underlying questions, like what is truly important, not what we are convinced by societal pressures and parental mandates we "need" to accomplish. Also evident is what is philosophical truth. Is it what can be proved by years of study? reason? faith? Is it universal or is it only true on personal cases? What can we truly believe? What we can sense? No, at least if you believe in scientific studies or religious doctrine. What we are told? No for people make mistakes, if not lie outright. What we deduce? No, for reason cannot stand on its own? Or what we intuit? Only if you believe you are the only one alive.

Then he mentions a trait, held in common amongst children and philosophers (and those who are truly religious I guess(and I mean the thousandth of a percent that actually believes)) which he calls the Faculty of Wonder. The ability of looking at the world as if it is continuously new, continuously remade, and never taking anything for granted. To, as a way of saying, live and work in the real world but think apart from said world, making what we believe to be true and reality entirely uncommon.

These things are just a combination of things that would greatly succeed to make anyone’s life a living hell, so... I feel sorry for Sophie

Introductions...

Hey whats up,
I am a student in a Honors Philosophy class at Groves and am keeping this blog to chronicle my work. Thanks for reading. First things first, an introduction so I'll post a who am I that I made for my philosophy class (slightly edited of course).

Who am I??                                By: Alex Pisano

To set the tone for this blog, I think I'll start with a quote from Fight Club, one of my favourite movies, and novels. "...you're not how much money you've got in the bank.  You're not your job.  You're not your family, and you're not who you tell yourself.... You're not your name.... You're not your problems.... You're not your age.... You are not your hopes." Showing you that I think this essay is truly not a good measure, but whatever.

Physically I am human, and 17 years old. I am an unusually tall specimen, possessing the attributes of brown hair, with a slightly red tint, hazel eyes, with rings of an orangish color around the pupil. I go to school at 7:00 Am and go to cross country by 3:30 Pm. I get home around 5:30ish and then do whatever I need to by 9:00 Pm. But this is not me.

I am a man of passions and hatreds. Looking at me you can see several things. From my appearance you can tell that I do not possess a particularly strong belief in order, with how I throw papers around and my messy hair. Also you can probably deduce that I like music that was made 40 or so years ago, I hope you know the type- The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Boston, etc. I have a ridiculously strong belief in the necessity of being well read, even going as far to fill up two bookshelves with my own collection. The sci-fi of Bradbury,  a few college level physics textbooks written by some Russian, the philosophies of Confucius and Kierkegaard(a newer addition), the high fantasy works of Jordan and Tolkien, even the Classics like Alighieri sit side by side ‘pon the oaken shelves. Seemingly naturally for one so well read, I have aspirations of being a writer, however, I'm not quite sure what I want to write.

I hate few things and they are at the same time both simple and complex. The truth is that I hate all things at extremes, strong republicans and democrats, war and peace, order and chaos. As a result, I try and meld each idea with its opposite and when they thus meet, I let their merits weigh against each of the other and let the scales fall as they may in my head. Another thing I hate is the people who blindly follow the opinions of the time, caring more about image than anything else. Sadly I am partially one of these people, vain and foolish, so I will not go on about it until I can rid myself of the flaw.

I have very simple opinions on politics, they are as follows

All politicians are self-serving and misinformed on at least one issue

Nothing worthwhile will ever get done with party lines as they exist today

The political parties are far too cohesive to ever fix the above error

Just one man cannot stop the political trend of corruption, however any movement that could overthrow said system would have flaws that are equally as strong and despicable

Similarly simple are my opinions on religion

Any system based on the beliefs of a past individual is naturally flawed in that it is incorrectly translated by imperfect humans

Any system based on the beliefs of a present individual is naturally flawed in that it is incorrectly translated by an imperfect human

The existence of a god, or gods is not something that can ever be proven, regardless of faith or supposed historical evidence, until he may so appear his existence is dubious

Quite contradictory I believe, however unfashionable or foolishly, that not only can a god, or gods, exist, but must exist.

Finally, education

All opinions must be represented in the academic field, however, such BS as pseudoscience has no place in the classroom environment

Educators work as hard as any CEO in any company but are payed far less and are far more important, therefore there should at least be some great recognition or priveleges that come with the job

People who believe that treating education like a business are incorrect, regardless of their opinion, rather it is an investment in the future.

Regardless of what you do, who you are, or where you live, the fact of the matter is that we must live in the now, not in dreams or hopes, to create a better tomorrow. That is the truth as I see it, my core belief, the quintessential element of my being.

Peace.