Reprising this series of … errr … insights from my students, collected from exams and essays over the years. I offer you:
A Student History of Philosophy
(Being a compilation of student research, gently edited by Stephen R.C. Hicks, Rockford University)
Is philosophy a waist of time?
Ethical debates have been around for a long time, but nobody seems to have any answers. Ethnics are very important. Basically, what you do with your life comes down to your personal ethnics. For the world to be good means having strong Altruistic people to help the society survive in this doggy dog world.
Socrates started democracy in Greece so he is a democrat. When Socrates was in court he was blamed for piety and disturbing the youth. Melekus is the accuser in the case of Socrates. Another of the charges brought up against him was pity. Socrates argues that the son is not a god but simply a burning rock in the sky. So Socrates was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
To Socrates, having a good life meant dying. Socrates was completely opposed to the Sophists. Not only did the Sophists not have reasons, they also did not have reasons. Sophists felt that there were no real reasons.
For Aristotle, the virtuous person can be known as temperature, someone who is under complete control. Aristotle thinks the Principle of Noncontradiction is an axiom is because it is one.
In the Bible, God created the heavens and the universe in seven days, so there are seven planets. (Seven is a big thing in the Bible.)
The existence of God is questionable since evil does have some good points to make. The greatest gift is to be in God’s presents, but when we are in God’s presents we should not think about ourselves. John Hick rebukes the concept that God would not allow suffering if he existed in the third paragraph of his essay. Because of evil there is said to be another force in the universe—a dark force. His name is Satin.
Mysticism is the direct and immediate experience of the scared.
In feudal times, jobs were passed on from fathers to sons. For example, if your father was a priest, you would probably become a priest too.
Priests vow poverty and while money isn’t everything a priest should be able to have a little of life’s enjoyments just like every other human bean. Priests also take the vow of celibacy. On the conventional view, sex without the possibility of recreation is immoral. Priests want to sustain themselves from sex so they can have eternal childhood in the Lord’s eyes. One thing religions teach is that you should prey regularly.
Some people base their life solely on religion, which may be perceived as silly, but imagine how lost they would be if they didn’t have something so vital. That would be like me going without coffee.
In modern times Decarrt explains why reason is wrong. He shows that I am a real thing but what kinda of thing? Descartes proved that God exists in Medication III. The argument is sound, me being from the South and a firm believer in the Lord.
Galileo was on trial for his blasphemic saying the Earth is the center of the universe. Galileo had people follow his exact word, and those people were called the people of Galilee.
Justice is really a double bladed sword: at times it is a warm blanket keeping you safe and at other times an uncontrollable juggernaut ready to mow you over.
Basically, we need to decide what’s best for society as a hole. That is the purpose of laws. Some states have laws that if broken cause one to be a criminal. Power definitely corrupts; both power and corruption are all too often abused.
In our country, the Deceleration of Independence sets the basic rights and laws. Some people have the right to liberty, but are unable to exorcize it. Shall I go against the laws put forth by my four fathers, who wrote, “All men are entitled to certain unalienable rights”?
Capital punishment is the death penalty for a crime that dates back to the beginning of civilization. Some people believe in capital punishment because of the “eye for an eye” theory: for instance, if you kill me, I should be able to kill you. Capital punishment is mostly about whether persons who have been executed will commit further offenses if and when released. Cruel and unusual punishment is included in the Constitution. Though capital punishment violates the Eighth Amendment because it makes people feel like they are less of a person. But really, the death penalty is not necessary because it is not needed.
In modern times, Utilitarianism is the doctrine that we should all strive to pleasure our neighbors. John Stuart Mill said that even if what is being said is true, it is still wrong to censor it. Of course, we cannot take it for granite that all of Mill’s assumptions are true.
According to Freud, the USA became a frightened country after the terrible events of 9/11. Freud opposes the tabula razor theory of human nature. According to Freud, the child has lust during the breast-feeding stage. Eventually his mother stops, and his lust is suppressed until his adultery stage.
Marx says the broughers who employ the workers can and do enslave the proliterate workers. So Marx promoted socialism which operates the production of products produced by the society. Marx believed socialism was the best form of government for the world after World War II. Communist Russia failed because of Mises and Hayek’s lack of knowledge. Socialism is an ideal, but come on now! Let’s be realistic!
Against Marx, Rand advocates free enterprise and selfishness. The rich are able to create new jobs and hand them out to the poor, which takes many poor people out of poverty and also gives the rich something to do. She said that minimum wages increases raise the cost of labor, so workers may lose their fridge benefits. But her philosophy is sort of controversial, in a sense. She commits the fallacy of hoc poc der doc.
[Updated December 2010.]
tabula razor lol
Hilarious, in a pathetic sort of way…
Oh my. Some over-optimistic parents are paying for this. As it is said in “Fargo”, “Oh, jeez!”
“the Deceleration of Independence sets the basic rights and law”
Wow. That’s almost as delightful as watching a Latin Christian prove that she doesn’t understand even the basic features of her own cult when she gives you a blank look after being asked to explain the difference between originating original sin and originated original sin.
Say, what is “Deceleration” if not acceleration of which the magnitude is expressed with a negative number?
It just got worse and worse, each one topping the previous ones. And then the last had me laughing out loud.
What could that “student” possibly mean by “hoc poc der doc?” I said it out loud a few different ways trying to figure out what he/she might have meant, but no luck.
Perhaps it’s the good ole Dr. Seuss fallacy of “Hop on Pop?”
I think the student was going for “post hoc ergo propter hoc.” Kinda sorta in the area, maybe?
What’s so delightful about the last one is that the student wrote it with great earnestness. It reminds me of a Christian who I saw once hassling the customers of a coffee shop on the north side of Chicago. He was haranging people already seated, running to the door to open it for any woman with a child, etc. It was zeal of the convert in living caricature.
Anyhow, I wish to offer my own suggestion of what the student really had in mind:
“Hoc[us] Poc[us] der Dok[torin]”.
“der Doktorin” is the genitive singular form and would be a pejorative, given “Doktorin”. For another humorous insight from a student, see #56 at http://www2.fiu.edu/~hauptli/malapropisms.html.
“A contradiction is valid although it…”.
The portion withheld will be a “fridge benefit” for looking up the malapropism. #57, too, is pretty good, athough Hauptli, the professor who compiled the list, hasn’t organized them into a term paper of their, the malapropisms’, very own.
On a scarcely related note: Does anyone know if Ayn Rand knew German? It was widely spoken in Russia at one time and it stands to reason that even her own father might have picked up some given his education and line of business. I would not want to rule out the possibility that she had picked up at least a few phrases and bits of pieces of German grammer, esp. since she was so intensely interested in language and since German was a language by which much antirationalism and collectivistic philosophy was advanced.
“Ein Rand”, by the way, is pronounced in German as “ayn rahnt”, but “Rand”, does not mean “rant”, for which “Schwulst”, literally “bombast”, is the first entry in my German dictionary next to “rant”.
Rather, “Rand” means edge, brink, etc. So we would have “One Edge” or “One Brink”. Figuratively, we have “One Verge”. There’s also “One Border”, “One Brim”, and “One Rim”. In German, “ein” is both a cardinal number and an indefinite article, so you can substitute “a” or “an” in the translation. “Eine” is the feminine form of the article, but “Rand” is masculine.
Of course, I speculate.
Still, I can already hear feminists and cynics railing that she wanted to be a man. -Eine Randbemerkung
Fyio, see: http://translate.google.com/# for “eine Randbemerkung”.
Also, “a marginal note” and “comment”, according to Langenscheidt’s pocket German dictionary.
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Deceleration of independence, indeed, as by action of the strangling vines of the S.R.E. and it’s cousin in Russia.
Sancta
Romana
Ecclesia
-Can. 349 of “Codex Iuris Canonici”, code of canon law, of the Latin Ecclesia. “SRE” does not stand for the college of cardinals as reported at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.R.E.
I am not ashamed to admit that I scoured this for anything I may have written. Though I really didn’t need to worry, since my stance on ethnics is clearly supported by years of reasons.
We can take it for granite that you do quality work, Nathaniel.
Thanks prof.! I was just afraid that I would never develop beyond the adultery phase. I mean, I try to pleasure my neighbors, but they don’t seem to appreciate that aspect of Utilitarianism.
I enjoyed this very much – I needed a laugh. There was almost nothing serious to be taken from this.
For the runner-up, we have…
“To Socrates, having a good life meant dying.”
And tonight’s winner is…
“Sex without the possibility of recreation is immoral.”
Thank you, Ladies and Gentleman, for tuning in to What I Really Meant to Say.