Philosophy sucks. Philosophers are idiots. They ask all the wrong questions and answer them all incorrectly. The subject as a whole seems totally useless since there is no practical application for their studies. I'm taking a class on Philosophy of the Mind and its place in nature. The class started with the professor claiming that philosophers wanted to know more about the mind so that they might come to know whether or not the mind can live on after the body dies.
We started with Cartesian Dualism. There were some obvious issues with Dualism, like the fact that mind and body are completely different substances, so people argue about how then can the mind control the body, or the body affect the mind. So then we look at Identity theory and Functionalism and blah blah blah. In Functionalism they basically argue that the mind and brain are a computer......wow. And computers can live on in the after life, I'm sure.
We continue on about what is the science of the mind? Is it psychology? Neuroscience? Either way, it seems that they constantly argue that the mind is somehow related to the brain and is just physical. The way I understand it, we could be robots!
I personally think psychologist are full of shit. If they cannot explain the crazy dreams I have, I think they are missing something then. And neuroscience? What about individuals? If things are all just brain functions, then so much for personality. It would be nicer to think we are more than just moving sacks of flesh.
I guess the base of my qualm with philosophy of the mind is how they went into this wondering if we can exist in some way after death, yet they toss aside any idea that recommends a description of the mind in which we are more than robots.
I am not a religious person. However, I know for a fact that I am more than my brain functions. I refuse to accept these idiotic simplifications of humanity and all life in general. If that is faith, then so be it.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Monday, September 24, 2007
Back from tutoring
I just got back from tutoring at the nearby elementary school. I tutor two fourth grade girls in math. It went well, though one is just plain wild.
I'll be alone for alot of this evening, my roommate is meeting up with her boyfriend and his friends from a neighboring college to go see the Iron and Wine concert in Cleveland tonight. Therefore my currnet dilemna is whether or not I want to go eat dinner in the dining hall or save my meal for later in the week and just eat something else tonight. I am rather feeling like cooked food (however bad it might be ) over microwave mac and cheese rigt now.
Outside, two people just walked by. I couldn't hear them. You would think I shouldnt be able to hear them, however, in the evenings there is often some loud mouth talking that I can hear clearly despite them being three stories below me.
I just noticed there is a peculiar fruit haning from the tree just outside my window. They look somewhat like small bananas, but light brown in color. I would say they are seed pods, but they look so big to be so.
We're having a bit of a drought here. All of the students couldn't be happier about it, cause who wants rain when they can be plyin ultimate frisbee or study outside rather than in? I, being the lover of late Autumn and Winter that I am, am wishing for rain and a significant drop in the daily temperature. I need cool temperatures to be comfortable. I need cool temperatures to sleep well. Currently I havent been sleeping too well because it is too warm at night. The temperatures are only just beginnging to cool enough at night that I actually turn off the fan by the window, though this is mostly out of pity for my skinny room mate who doesnt have enough fat on her body to preserve sufficient body heat to survive the winter without praying for spring after the first chill. I, on the other hand, anxiously await the first snow.
I've always loved something about winter. I love the pristine snow covered environment after the first big blizzard, I love seeing my breathe when I exhale, I love having a reason to snuggle into the deepest depths of my blanket. The first day of Autumn has passed, yesterday was it? Now I just need to have patience for the temperature to drop and the first frozen precipitation to fall, hiding the hideous filth with which we cover everything so for a moment before we clear th roads and salkt the sidewalks, everything is clean.... and everything is beautiful.
I'll be alone for alot of this evening, my roommate is meeting up with her boyfriend and his friends from a neighboring college to go see the Iron and Wine concert in Cleveland tonight. Therefore my currnet dilemna is whether or not I want to go eat dinner in the dining hall or save my meal for later in the week and just eat something else tonight. I am rather feeling like cooked food (however bad it might be ) over microwave mac and cheese rigt now.
Outside, two people just walked by. I couldn't hear them. You would think I shouldnt be able to hear them, however, in the evenings there is often some loud mouth talking that I can hear clearly despite them being three stories below me.
I just noticed there is a peculiar fruit haning from the tree just outside my window. They look somewhat like small bananas, but light brown in color. I would say they are seed pods, but they look so big to be so.
We're having a bit of a drought here. All of the students couldn't be happier about it, cause who wants rain when they can be plyin ultimate frisbee or study outside rather than in? I, being the lover of late Autumn and Winter that I am, am wishing for rain and a significant drop in the daily temperature. I need cool temperatures to be comfortable. I need cool temperatures to sleep well. Currently I havent been sleeping too well because it is too warm at night. The temperatures are only just beginnging to cool enough at night that I actually turn off the fan by the window, though this is mostly out of pity for my skinny room mate who doesnt have enough fat on her body to preserve sufficient body heat to survive the winter without praying for spring after the first chill. I, on the other hand, anxiously await the first snow.
I've always loved something about winter. I love the pristine snow covered environment after the first big blizzard, I love seeing my breathe when I exhale, I love having a reason to snuggle into the deepest depths of my blanket. The first day of Autumn has passed, yesterday was it? Now I just need to have patience for the temperature to drop and the first frozen precipitation to fall, hiding the hideous filth with which we cover everything so for a moment before we clear th roads and salkt the sidewalks, everything is clean.... and everything is beautiful.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Finally,
Okay, I have finally finished my Japanese homework, there was more than I thought there was. The last thing I needed to do was fill out a worksheet about the reading we had been doing. The last question asked us to translate the last four lines from Souseki's "夢十夜：第一夜", or " Ten Nights of Dreams: the First Night", or something like that.
The whole story is about a woman dieing an a man coming to terms with it. When the woman dies she tells the man, "Wait for me by my grave for one hundred years, then I will come to you". At the end of the story, the man has been sitting on a rock by the woman's grave for one hundred years, but she has yet to come. The final line is along the lines of, " At that moment he felt (thought?), 'One hundred years have passed'". And that's it, the story ends. Its rather sad, he waits all those years so that he may see the woman again, but she doesn't come.
Such a depressing dream... I have my share of those. I'll share them with you at a later time, but now seems like a good a time as any to hit the hay. Good night.
The whole story is about a woman dieing an a man coming to terms with it. When the woman dies she tells the man, "Wait for me by my grave for one hundred years, then I will come to you". At the end of the story, the man has been sitting on a rock by the woman's grave for one hundred years, but she has yet to come. The final line is along the lines of, " At that moment he felt (thought?), 'One hundred years have passed'". And that's it, the story ends. Its rather sad, he waits all those years so that he may see the woman again, but she doesn't come.
Such a depressing dream... I have my share of those. I'll share them with you at a later time, but now seems like a good a time as any to hit the hay. Good night.
Boredom: the first day
This isn't really the first day of anything, unless you count the first day of this blog. I was just reading my past post in my Japanese blog and noted that I had no comments whatsoever. I have many friends taking Japanese, however they are all too lazy to take the time to read my journal in another language. So on a whim I started a second blog, this time is English which will probably closely mirror my Japanese blog, except in a language more easily read by my peers. I'll have to put this down for a little while, I kind of still have Japanese homework to do before I can goof off like this. Until then...また後でね？
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