ok, so i dident know what to talk about so sorry bout the crappy title. to start off, Mark, Hobbes is my curent favorite philosopher, so i know alot of his quotes, and they kind of stick out to me, because alot of what he belived is the base of what i belive.
ok so my week was prety boaring. even today sucked, and normaly im really happy on fridays. well it dident help that after the afternoon anouncments (the ones that basicaly just tell us to get the hell out of school haha) my teacher held us after class, told us noone care about world civ, or his homework, and that for now on he would assighn homework, and dident want us to do it because it made him sick how little we cared. now if this was english, i would be pumped because i really dont like that class, and have little respect for that teacher, but i LOVE world civ, and am alittle offended that he thinks im putting forth such little effort.
well ill step away from the topic because its getting me pissed off.
in like 45 minuets, im going to see how to train a dragon. idk if the movie will be any good, i just wana hang out with my friends. Sara will be there (from my party post). it should be fun. Oh and Patrick will be there too.
ill tell you guys if anything cool happens. Peace!!! PS 500 hits! yay =)
Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is an opinion
-Democritus
And So It Goes (2014)
9 years ago
6 comments:
Hi there, Spys!
I'm sorry to say that I barely know anything about Hobbes beyond his name and what I've just read on the Wikipedia page :-(
Can you recommend any good references (preferably online) that explain his thinking?
Also, is there any particular reason for the quotes that you've chosen?
About your World Civ class: might it be worth asking your teacher, probably in private, whether his opinion of the class includes you, and, if so, why he thinks that?
I like the quote from Democritus: it's very true, especially if you use the original Greek meaning of "atom" as "fundamental, indivisible particle". I think a lot of modern academics would do well to remember this one!
Take care
Mark
hey Mark, i dont know any off the top of my head, but if you head over to stumbleupon.com and undercatagories put philosophy, then hit stumble a few times, youll end up on a large database with lots of good info.
the quote at the top i just really like. i always used to belive in God and the 10 commandments, but then i thought about them. it made no sence to me, and i realized that i only belived them because of the (mediforicaly) sword God was holding over me. well then i realized i dident belive in God, so that all went away.
your right, i should ask him, but to he honest, i respect him too much to have him tell me to my face that my efforts havent been enough for him.
i also like the Democritus quote. i broght it up in chem class, but my deacher dismissed the quote as "a made up science" (refering to philosophy, which isent a science at all).
Peace!!!
hey kid... Apparently, you were taught the 'angry God' theory... Maybe that's why you don't believe... Christ, of course, came to us to teach us the 'New' way... He preached the 'loving' God theory, and that's what I believe. It is very difficult to navigate the troubled waters of life by yourself... If you ask God for help, you will receive it, only it may not always come in the form that you expect... You see, God doesn't solve every problem for you- He won't fix your car if it's broken down, He won't do your homework for you, He won't cook your dinner... What He will do, is give you the strength AND guidance to do these things for yourself.... It's not an easy way to live, but it is a rewarding way...It starts tho, in a place that many never visit, deep in your soul, and becomes a part of everything you do. If you want it, it's there- for everyone... We are ALL equal in His eyes... luv, tman<3
Hi there, Spys
Thanks for telling me about stumbleupon.com: two stumbles got me to Squashed Philosophers, which looks like exactly the sort of thing I want. I've just skimmed through the page on Leviathan - I hadn't realised that Hobbes starts from first principles and sets out a great deal of general philosophy before working up to the political material. I also love the language - there's a quality, a "texture" if you like, that I find very appealing.
I think the Hobbes quote refers to the logic of any legal system: there have to be punishments sufficient to deter people from breaking the law. And, whatever your view on God and religion, I think the Ten Commandments provide some good rules to live by. The Bible contains a lot of wisdom, even for non-Christians.
I would encourage you to talk to your World Civ teacher: I suspect that he's disappointed with a lot of the class, but not all of you, and is trying not to single out those people whose work he is satisfied with. If he really does believe that your work should be improved, he should be willing to explain how and why.
As a matter of interest: what does the "Civ" stand for, and what does the subject include? We don't have anything with name in schools in Britain, I think.
It's a shame your chemistry teacher couldn't see what the Democritus quote was about - it's very relevant for chemistry as a subject, and it seems particularly appropriate in relation to your teacher's own statement! Teachers can get like this after a while of teaching their subject: they teach on autopilot, and stop thinking about their subject, let alone outside it.
Philosophy and science are closer than you might think. Science grew out of philosophy when philosophy's logic and desire for understanding were linked to a new method for getting answers about the world: experiment. In fact science was described as "natural philosophy" for a long time.
Take care
Mark
hey Tman, i know it looks that way, but when i was a beliver, i actoualy would talk to Him alot. it just dosent make sence to me anymore, and there is another reasone, but im not going to post it in fear of offending somone, so if you want to know it, and wont be offended, email me. i think its in my profile. if not comment and ill give it out.
Mark, i really like Squashed too. i found it about 6 months ago, and when ever i hear about a new philosopher, ill look for him there. its funny how you talked about his politics, then World "Civ"ilization. thats what i knew him from, his polotics, then i explored him deaper.
and yes, science and philosophy are close, but not to somone who purley knows science. i talked to him about it, and he said he can not respect philosophy because if somone asked him to write a paper about poving a chair was really there, he would just leave the class because "of course the chair's there"
Peace!
Hi there, Spys
Your e-mail address is in your profile; you can expect one from me, because I think I'm as interested as tman in why you stopped believing, even if I'm coming from a very different viewpoint.
I've done a bit more plodding around Squashed Philosophers: there are some interesting choices of people and books there - I wouldn't have expected Copernicus, Newton, Darwin and Einstein, for example. But I guess they have all been important in shaping the way we think about the universe - science as experimental philosophy again!
I've spotted some interesting bits in the squashed version of Leviathan:
- Chapter II: "THAT a thing will lie still forever, unless somewhat else stir it, is a truth that no man doubts. But that a thing in motion will be in motion eternally, unless somewhat stay it, ..." This looks very much Newton's First Law, some 36 years before Newton himself published it! I wonder whether Newton read Hobbes...
- Chapter XVIII: "Fifthly, no man that hath sovereign power can justly be put to death, or punished by his subjects." This strikes me as a very brave statement, only two years after King Charles I had been executed!
I will keep on browsing: I'm sure that there's a lot more to get my teeth into.
Hmmm... I sense that your chemistry teacher hasn't thought for a long time, if at all, about the basic principles of his subject. How would he prove, for example, that a particular susbtance was iron filings, or sodium chloride, or ethanol? He'd carry out some tests, some experiments. And I'd like to think that he could describe the logic or purpose of the process he was carrying out. It's unfortunate that he doesn't seem to be able to extrapolate from there to more general questions. And even in a purely scientific way, he ought to appreciate that the question of whether the chair is there gets interesting at an atomic or quantum level, where the chair dissolves into a mass of fuzzy electron distributions with the occasional nucleus dotted around.
Take care
Mark
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