WEEK #1

Post #1 The history of Philosophy

The history of philosophy is studying the philosophical ideas through time. Eachculture has there own way of thinking and beliefs. Western philosophy is dividedinto four sub cultures; Ancient, medieval, modern, and contemporary. Greekphilosophers such as Plato and Aristotle is part of the Ancient Era. TheMedieval period runs in between the 1400's and the renaissance. The Modern partplays into the 20th century.Western Philosophy is said to be in Greek cities. Plato's best student wasAristotle, and is truly the first systematic philosopher. Aristotelian logic wasthe first logic to attempt to catergorize syllogism. Syllogism is a form ofargument between people that is understood by well educated people.The definition of "philosophy has changed over time over the medieval timesand centeries. Any fields of theology or medicine was called "philosophy" afterthat. The 21st century's philosophy is difficult to define since the short timethat has lasped since the new millennium.

Post #2 Aldous Huxley
In his interview, he was asked about the future. What he sees in the futureahead and how propaganda is played out in the future. He explains that televisonwas not used at the time for propaganda and he wonders why. Hitler's use of theradio for propaganda had subliminal messages hidden in them. Aldous Huxley is asmart man but i think he didn't quite make sense when he says that sublimalmessages were used. How would anyone really know if sublimal messages were usedin propaganda?
It really dosen't add up.When i think of sublimnal messages i think of a message that is hidden to thepublic but affects you in you mind and you don't think of it as a sublimnalmessage but rather act on it. If we were able to identify sublimnal messagesthen it wouldn't be a sublimnal message, it would just be propaganda.

Post #3 The Socratic Universe
What do you think happens to us after death? That was the one of the questionsasked to about fifty philosophers. Cohon from Stanford University says: "Theevidence shows that we decompose. Iadmit it is hard to believe that a personality can abruptly cease toexist, but that seems to be the case. Our influence on each other isall that remains of us." Evidently we decompose after death, but we don't wantto think of it that way. We would like to think that we are reincarnated intosomething esle. I believe in god, and my beliefs might be different than others.Like McGray from the University of San Diego says, "Either heaven or hell." Apart of me believes that i would be reincarnated into a different person, or ananimal. The other half believes that i would just be dead and disenagrate andnothing would be left of me.
This actually leads me to think deeper and makes me think what we are orwho we are before we were borned into the life we live now? Were we nothing orwere we a different person? Was there just a blank in between us before we wereborned? Have any of you guys ever thought of that, i believe iam not the only onon this planet that has thought about that. So believe there is an after lifethat we live after death. This is something i believe in also.

Post #4 The Socratic Universe pt.2
Do you think Artificial Intellegence will equal or surpass human intellegence?All of the philosophers gave their opinion on this question. Dreyfus from U.C.Berkeley has wrote two books on this subject. He explains that there are twodifferent kinds of Artificial Intellegence. The first one which was back in the1960, that was called phusical symbol system. Dreyfus says, "The computer wouldhave in it symbols that represented features of the world and the programs ofthecomputer would be used to make inferences and deduce conclusions fromthis representation of features." He then explains in his other book in 1972that this would not work because our way in this world is not having in our mindof representation and features. Our brain is too complicated and we don't reallyknow how it is wired up.
I think that one day Artificial Intellegence will surpass us. The technologywe have nowadays is incredible. We have robots that can do things that us humanscan do and cannot do. We use robots in wars to seek out our enemies and alsorobots that can help us around the house. Whats really fascinating to me is thatwe have the technology to clone humans. Maybe in the near future we would beable to bring back a person that we have missed.

Post #5 The Socratic Universe pt.3
Does God Exist? This question can be the most controversial topic. I believe in god but i dont go to church or anything. Things happen for a reason and i believe god knows or path in life. But some might not believe in god and are athiest. I know there is no proof or evidence that god exist, but in my mind he does. He exist in our spirits. Iam not a spiritual person or anything, but i believe he is all in us in a way through spirits. Some of the philosophers answered that question with a simple yes or no or in 4 words or less. They should explain the answere a little more in why they believe in god or why not. A simple no doesen't really explain why you don't believe in god. Maybe if you would explain yourself a little more you might come to realize that there isn't a reason why you shouldn't believe in him. I am not a religious person at all. I don't really have a religion. I am also saying this through an Atheist point of view, but i do believe in god.

Post #6 Nicholas of Cusa
Okay first of all, this video is trippy. I had to watch this video 4 times to actually get what it was talking about. The first time i watched it i kind honestly had no clue what the video was trying to explain. I thought the pictures were some kind of illumination in which if you kept staring at it you would find some thing interesting about it. I remembered i use to like math back when i was in Jr. High. But when high school came around i hated it. This video doesn't really explain much other than Nicholas of cusa invented numbers. I didn't really pay attention much to this video. I would try to, and play everything back but the music in the background made me think i was on a 007 mission or something. I didn't really like this film, and numbers also.

Post #7 Java Philosophy
I liked one of the quotes that was presented in this film. It was by J.P.S " Freedom is what you do with whats been done to you." Our life is how you see it and react to it. The first time i watched this film i thought of it kind of weird. But after watching it a couple of more times i get the message it was trying to tell us. The beginning of the film the title says "Who are you?" Through out the film, they show people being in social enviroments and controversial quotes over what they are doing. This points out to why do people do the things they do? Most of the quotes in this film was part of my liking. I didn't really find one that i was against, All of them i can relate to.

Post #8 The Socrastic Universe pt.4
Are science and religion compatible? I think they are in a way. Like Adams from U.C. Los Angeles said, "Certainly they are compatible. There's a lot of scientists who are religious. Science is a human activity which proceeds on certain principles, has certain institutions, and serves certain functions of human life." I agree with his answer to this question. Religion is ones own beliefs and priciples and iis a function in our society. It has a huge affect on human life and beliefs. Science on the other hand has its own system of principles and beliefs. Science use theories and experiments to back up its theories. The difference between the two though is science can be proven and shown in the light while religion falls on beliefs and norms that others think of. They both work in similar ways but then again are different in ways. For the most part they can be compatable. There are mutiple ways in which you can compare the two.

Magazine Post :"The Future of information and memory"
This article or magazine is hilarious. It makes no sense at all. When I read thetitle of this article, I thought I was going to be reading about how technologyis going to change our world in the future. Like how everything is going to fitinto a small chip which can be put into your phone. Instead I get a table whichdescribes "kilobytes", "godbytes", "zettabytes" etc. It says that one "byte"equals "H" for Homer Simpson which makes no sense at all. "Yottabyte" equals 250trillion films or 1 quinttrillion doctoral dissertations if that even makes anysense. I guess when you read this or look at this outside the box, what itstrying to say is that in the future a lot more things are going to be able tofit in a byte size thing.

Post #9 Francis Fukuyama
Francis Fukuyama's Lecture was based on religion and how it opens up to other religions in our society. I believe that people shouldn't depend on religion to chose how they should live. I very well believe in god, but i don't go to church. This doesn't make a atheist because i don't go to church, but some people say i am. But going to church makes that religion stronger. It brings unity and a set standard. But people shouldn't have to live like if you miss a day of church or if you miss a pray before eating that you have commited a sin. This way of living is unhealthy. My whole family believes in god but we don't go to church. Some people might hate you for your beliefs and others might love you for them. This brings conflict to other religions. I think we are at a never ending war between religion.

Post #10 The Socratic Universe
Which five books would you bring to a desereted island? The philosophers answered this questions mostly to what philosophical books they would bring. I wouldn't really bring a philosophical book because i know i would get bored of them really easy. But something that might interest me would be facts about logical things. Things that might need to use thinking to figure out. I think i am a pretty logical person so thats why i think books that might use some logic thinking wouyld interest me. I would also probably bring some books on survival tactics, and cooking books. This is a necessaity when it comes down to surviving. Oh, and also some skateboard magazines.