UPDATE: You'll have a substitute taking care of things. (Thanks, Alina, and thanks Jacob!).
I want this class to function as a review for the midterm.
Get a piece of blank paper and proceed to write down each one of the concepts, as they appear in my review for the mideterm (dated Wednesday, July 9).
For instance, you would actually write down: "Logical Behaviorism," "behavioral disposition," "Perfect pretender," "Super Spartans", "Qualitative content," "Identity Theory," "Nagel's Bat," "Putnam's Conscious Computer." ... and so on.
I want you to discuss each concept outloud with your fellow students. Go as far as the time permits. Keep the sheet of paper as an outline and come back to it. You should have at least two more sessions to cover all the topics in the review.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Thursday, June 5, 2008
UPDATE
This is the link for "Doing Philosophy" Website. Click on Chapters (1, 7) and then review the section you are looking for. Each section has flash cards, true/false, and multiple choice questions. Test yourself and good luck. You must bring a scantron to the quiz. Buy the 48 TSM rectangular, which is for sale (15 cents) at the bookstore.
SUGGESTED STUDYING METHOD
Do flash cards. Get yourself a pack of them and write down each topic per card. When you are done with all the concepts (how many? 100, 200 concepts?), then go over each one, trying to memorize them by suffling the cards. Memorizing concepts is important in the act of registering knowledge. Good luck!
Do flash cards. Get yourself a pack of them and write down each topic per card. When you are done with all the concepts (how many? 100, 200 concepts?), then go over each one, trying to memorize them by suffling the cards. Memorizing concepts is important in the act of registering knowledge. Good luck!
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Aurobindo's idea of planes of existence
Spiritual
The consciousness beyond mind that connects to the underlying spiritual reality of the universe and the transcendent Divine.
Mental
The facts, thoughts, sentiments, opinions, beliefs, values, ideals, ideas, and concepts that guide our conscious thinking, conceptualizing and decision-making processes.
Vital/Emotional
The semi-conscious sensations, urges, desires, feelings, emotions, and attitudes. The vital provides the energy for human action and expresses itself through attraction, liking, desire and enthusiasm.
(1) We experience the vital sensation of the central nervous system, our primal urges, desires, and fears; (2) where we experience our feelings, emotions, and passions of life; and (3) is where the emotions are processed into emotional thought, i.e. into the emotions' perception of knowledge, and it is where our attitudes, our life intelligence, and higher emotions reside.
Physical
Definition: The subconscious awareness and impulses of the body expressed in animal instincts, basic drives of human nature, and inherited character traits. The primary drives of the physical are for self-preservation and reproduction.
(1) It comprises all material form, our raw physical existence, consisting of matter; (2) it is where our movements originate; (3) it is the seat of our physical urges and sensations, and (4) it is where the body learns how to act, i.e. where it learns the primary skills needed for existence.
The consciousness beyond mind that connects to the underlying spiritual reality of the universe and the transcendent Divine.
Mental
The facts, thoughts, sentiments, opinions, beliefs, values, ideals, ideas, and concepts that guide our conscious thinking, conceptualizing and decision-making processes.
Vital/Emotional
The semi-conscious sensations, urges, desires, feelings, emotions, and attitudes. The vital provides the energy for human action and expresses itself through attraction, liking, desire and enthusiasm.
(1) We experience the vital sensation of the central nervous system, our primal urges, desires, and fears; (2) where we experience our feelings, emotions, and passions of life; and (3) is where the emotions are processed into emotional thought, i.e. into the emotions' perception of knowledge, and it is where our attitudes, our life intelligence, and higher emotions reside.
Physical
Definition: The subconscious awareness and impulses of the body expressed in animal instincts, basic drives of human nature, and inherited character traits. The primary drives of the physical are for self-preservation and reproduction.
(1) It comprises all material form, our raw physical existence, consisting of matter; (2) it is where our movements originate; (3) it is the seat of our physical urges and sensations, and (4) it is where the body learns how to act, i.e. where it learns the primary skills needed for existence.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Yoga terms
Buddhi/cittam: Thought faculty, still within the mind.
Kaivalya: The ultimate state of perfection in Yoga.
Pakriti: The matter-principle, uncaused cause.
Purusha: The supreme self.
Dukkha: Sorrow or basic condition of existence because of the essential nature of the
unrealized man.
Gunas: The qualities of pakriti.
Sattvas: The goodness in matter, that which can be realized only through the knowledge of the
enlightened subject.
Tamas: The opacity, the dark quality of matter, its propensity to destruction.
Raja: The tension, dynamic force behind matter.
Kevala: Life-monad for Jaina and Yoga.
Mahat: The Great One, or what emerges from pakriti.
Mana: The lower mind, the third in the cycle from Mahat.
Yama: Restraint, the fixing of the path, to curb, to bridle.
Niyama: Spiritual discipline.
Asana: Posture.
Pranayama: Controlled breathing.
Pratyahara: Abstraction of the senses.
Dharana: (One-point concentration) or total stillness.
Dhyana: Sustained attention, chan, jhana, or zen; the eightfold path of self- absorption.
Samadhi: Simple and total overtaking of the mind by the cosmic mind.
Kaivalya: The ultimate state of perfection in Yoga.
Pakriti: The matter-principle, uncaused cause.
Purusha: The supreme self.
Dukkha: Sorrow or basic condition of existence because of the essential nature of the
unrealized man.
Gunas: The qualities of pakriti.
Sattvas: The goodness in matter, that which can be realized only through the knowledge of the
enlightened subject.
Tamas: The opacity, the dark quality of matter, its propensity to destruction.
Raja: The tension, dynamic force behind matter.
Kevala: Life-monad for Jaina and Yoga.
Mahat: The Great One, or what emerges from pakriti.
Mana: The lower mind, the third in the cycle from Mahat.
Yama: Restraint, the fixing of the path, to curb, to bridle.
Niyama: Spiritual discipline.
Asana: Posture.
Pranayama: Controlled breathing.
Pratyahara: Abstraction of the senses.
Dharana: (One-point concentration) or total stillness.
Dhyana: Sustained attention, chan, jhana, or zen; the eightfold path of self- absorption.
Samadhi: Simple and total overtaking of the mind by the cosmic mind.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Scantron sheet and Link for "Doing Philosophy" textbook
This is the link for your textbook Doing Philosophy. If you click on Chapters 1 & 7 you'll find the different chapter's sections with flash cards, true or false quizzes, and multiple choice questions. Test yourself and good luck.You most bring a scantron to the quiz.
___________________
Scantron sheets: Buy the red colored 5-column-choiced scantron #48/TSM which is for sale (15 cents) at the bookstore. Don't buy the 4-column scantron. It doesn't work!
___________________
Scantron sheets: Buy the red colored 5-column-choiced scantron #48/TSM which is for sale (15 cents) at the bookstore. Don't buy the 4-column scantron. It doesn't work!
Monday, January 14, 2008
Hinduism (general overview)
Yoga ("royal yoga", "royal union", also known as Classical Yoga or simply Yoga) is one of the six orthodox (astika) schools of Hindu philosophy, outlined by the sage Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras. Raja yoga is concerned principally with the cultivation of the mind using meditation (dhyana) to further one's acquaintance with reality and finally achieve liberation. Sage Kapila is traditionally considered to be the founder of the Sankhya school, although no historical verification is possible. It is regarded as one of the oldest philosophical systems in India. Samkhya: one of the six orthodox systems (astika, those systems that recognize vedicHindu philosophy. The major text of this Vedic school is the extant Samkhya Karika, written by Ishvara Krishna, circa 200 AD. This text (in karika 70) identifies Sankhya as a Tantra and its philosophy was one of the main influences both on the rise of the Tantras as a body of literature, as well as Tantra sadhana.
(Read more here)