Friday, November 30, 2018
Thursday, November 29, 2018
Tuesday, November 27, 2018
Monday, November 26, 2018
shamanism & religion
why is the shaman so important?
the shaman brings three fundamental things to the group: healing, meaning & divination.
1. shamanism originated prior to the great human diaspora some 80,000 years ago and has been preserved since. shamanistic practices keep coming back countless times in premodern human cultures.
2. early homo sapiens does not differentiate between the material and mental. early homo sapiens was ANIMISTIC in its interpretation of reality. that is, to say, all objects, places and creatures possess a distinct spiritual essence. everything IS CONNECTED!
3. the shaman is the interface between the spiritual and the material world.
shamanism works both mentally and physically as a source of meaning for the tribe. shamans are the early prophets, providing cohesion through spiritual awareness.
shamans are the early doctors, early botanists, gathering medicinal knowledge and healing practices by natural selection. the shaman is the group's shrink! they knew the soil medicinal properties (what today is known as fangotherapy, i.e., clay, peat and mud), which are known to help neurological, rheumatological, cardiovascular, gynecological, inflammatory and menstrual cycle disorders.
WE NEED MEANING AND WE GIVE MEANING, but anthropologically speaking, OUR MEANINGS TEND TO CONVERGE!
WHY? one hypothesis proposed by Karl Jung is that culture's archetypes are innate, universal prototypes for concepts to interpret observations of the world.
MEANING is part epistemic, part psychological, part magic (magic in the sense of preternatural). WE INVEST the world with meaning as a way of creating and reshaping our milieu.
4. shamans's job is to offer redemption. it means forgiveness and hope. why? we need to channel our destructive energy and the shaman and the elders are the right conduit.
5. one last point: the shaman is always in tension with the elders. the two have different interests: elders are conservative, they seek stability. the shaman is a healer/seer.
Sunday, November 25, 2018
final paper (monday 5:40pm class) fall 2019
dear class: this paper takes the form of how phi 2604 has changed me
1. pick a chapter or topic you really like. it could be from anything we've discussed in class.
2. this is a personal exercise in the sense that this is you and philosophy.
3. bring your own personal history here: what this topic means for you, how has it made you think and changed your thinking, or even how much you disagreed only to agree with it later.
4. once you have gathered all this information, write a two moment description with you as the protagonist.
click here for samples of phi 2604 drafts,
this paper is due the date of the final exam, we'll talk next week about the format of it as well as refine ideas. Ok?
1. pick a chapter or topic you really like. it could be from anything we've discussed in class.
2. this is a personal exercise in the sense that this is you and philosophy.
3. bring your own personal history here: what this topic means for you, how has it made you think and changed your thinking, or even how much you disagreed only to agree with it later.
4. once you have gathered all this information, write a two moment description with you as the protagonist.
click here for samples of phi 2604 drafts,
this paper is due the date of the final exam, we'll talk next week about the format of it as well as refine ideas. Ok?
Monday, November 19, 2018
Thursday, November 15, 2018
what is character?
according to Aristotle, character is what you do.
on the other hand, character is a process which emerges from the different notes of your personality. the sum of these behavioral notes are evaluated by witnesses in response to a diversity of relevant note-eliciting conditions.
1. it's clear that character happens in time. thus,
2. you (the subject) cannot fully grasp your character, only behavioral notes apprehended by witness' testimonies of your character.
3. the person grasping these notes is a witness. you (the subject) and your witness belong in a context.
4. since contexts always change, different witnesses obtain different character notes.
Remember:
A person's character consists of traits (notes) in response to external stimuli. These notes are:
1- public, objective,
2- negotiable, based on stimulus response.
3- your character is different to different witnesses because of the specific contexts causing the different notes.
4- character may change, but since it reflects behavioral attitudes it changes very slowly.
on the other hand, character is a process which emerges from the different notes of your personality. the sum of these behavioral notes are evaluated by witnesses in response to a diversity of relevant note-eliciting conditions.
1. it's clear that character happens in time. thus,
2. you (the subject) cannot fully grasp your character, only behavioral notes apprehended by witness' testimonies of your character.
3. the person grasping these notes is a witness. you (the subject) and your witness belong in a context.
4. since contexts always change, different witnesses obtain different character notes.
Remember:
A person's character consists of traits (notes) in response to external stimuli. These notes are:
1- public, objective,
2- negotiable, based on stimulus response.
3- your character is different to different witnesses because of the specific contexts causing the different notes.
4- character may change, but since it reflects behavioral attitudes it changes very slowly.
SEEK TRANQUILITY
Z generation people are super angsty these days:
fear of uncertainty,
of war,
of climate change,
of economic crisis,
of being being stereotyped,
of your girlfriend (boyfriend) cheating,
of taking risks,
chances are you're a victim of CONFIRMATION BIAS. it happens this way: 1. you already presume there's pending doom. then, 2. you watch the news or talk to other millennials and 3. BINGO! your worst fears are confirmed!
heed the skeptic's advice: ATARAXIA. practice it and your preoccupations will vanish.
why is INNER PEACE so important? because you have more time and energy to focus on things that really matter TO YOU.
Tuesday, November 13, 2018
iF YOU'VE ALREADY HAD A MAKEUP IN MY OFFICE, DO NOT MISS THIS TEST
be advised that if you have had a makeup in my office and you happen to miss your test this week YOU WON'T BE GIVEN A CHANCE FOR A MAKEUP AND AUTOMATICALLY FAIL THE CLASS. this point is irrevocable!!
Monday, November 12, 2018
Aristotle's virtue morality
The main attraction of Aristotle’s ethics is the way it encourages human flourishing.
Aristotle’s ethics is largely concerned with what promotes human flourishing and leads to a fuller and happier human life.
The Greek word for happiness is eudaimonia, which can be translated as ‘‘flourishing’’ or ‘‘well-being.’’
Virtues are excellences of character that promote human flourishing.
Vices are those weaknesses of character that impede flourishing.
Aristotle tells us that virtue is a disposition or habit. We are not born with virtues. They are not natural or inborn. Virtues are acquired through practice.
A virtue is an admirable human quality, marked by a disposition to behave in certain ways in certain circumstances.
Acting, feeling: Virtue is an admirable human quality. Yet, virtue is not simply a matter of acting in a particular way; it is also a question of feeling in certain ways. Virtue includes emotion as well as action. The compassionate person not only acts in certain ways that help alleviate the suffering of others but also has certain kinds of feelings toward their suffering.
Intellectual and moral virtues: Intellectual virtues are dispositions, such as wisdom and understanding, which help discover truth. Moral virtues are dispositions such as courage, temperance, friendliness, justice, etc.
Intellectual virtues can be thought, moral virtues ARE NOT TAUGHT, they need to be practiced. They help us avoid moral problems but more importantly, they help our moral balance (since generally a poor action is a manifestation of defect or excess).
The highest good, the highest aim of all human practical thinking, is eudaimonia. This is what makes a virtuous character possible. Aristotle describes a sequence of necessary steps:
1- Righteous actions (under the influence of teachers) allow the development of the right habits. see that a habit is the repetition of an action.
2- Right habits allow the development of a good character in which the habits are automatic, and this in turn gives a chance of achieving eudaimonia.
once again: one cannot have good character without good habits. to have good habits one has to repeat individual actions until they become automatic. ONLY THEN ONE CAN FEEL THE HABIT.
Theory of the GOLDEN MEAN (between excess and defect)
defect golden mean excess
fear and confidence cowardice courage rashness
engagement apathy gentleness short temper
handling wealth stinginess generosity extravagance
social conduct grouchiness friendly flattery
conversation boorish witty buffoonery
honesty self deprecation truthfulness boastful
self-expression insensibility self-control debauchery
click here for my notes on character.
Aristotle’s ethics is largely concerned with what promotes human flourishing and leads to a fuller and happier human life.
The Greek word for happiness is eudaimonia, which can be translated as ‘‘flourishing’’ or ‘‘well-being.’’
Virtues are excellences of character that promote human flourishing.
Vices are those weaknesses of character that impede flourishing.
Aristotle tells us that virtue is a disposition or habit. We are not born with virtues. They are not natural or inborn. Virtues are acquired through practice.
A virtue is an admirable human quality, marked by a disposition to behave in certain ways in certain circumstances.
Acting, feeling: Virtue is an admirable human quality. Yet, virtue is not simply a matter of acting in a particular way; it is also a question of feeling in certain ways. Virtue includes emotion as well as action. The compassionate person not only acts in certain ways that help alleviate the suffering of others but also has certain kinds of feelings toward their suffering.
Intellectual and moral virtues: Intellectual virtues are dispositions, such as wisdom and understanding, which help discover truth. Moral virtues are dispositions such as courage, temperance, friendliness, justice, etc.
Intellectual virtues can be thought, moral virtues ARE NOT TAUGHT, they need to be practiced. They help us avoid moral problems but more importantly, they help our moral balance (since generally a poor action is a manifestation of defect or excess).
The highest good, the highest aim of all human practical thinking, is eudaimonia. This is what makes a virtuous character possible. Aristotle describes a sequence of necessary steps:
1- Righteous actions (under the influence of teachers) allow the development of the right habits. see that a habit is the repetition of an action.
2- Right habits allow the development of a good character in which the habits are automatic, and this in turn gives a chance of achieving eudaimonia.
once again: one cannot have good character without good habits. to have good habits one has to repeat individual actions until they become automatic. ONLY THEN ONE CAN FEEL THE HABIT.
Theory of the GOLDEN MEAN (between excess and defect)
defect golden mean excess
fear and confidence cowardice courage rashness
engagement apathy gentleness short temper
handling wealth stinginess generosity extravagance
social conduct grouchiness friendly flattery
conversation boorish witty buffoonery
honesty self deprecation truthfulness boastful
self-expression insensibility self-control debauchery
click here for my notes on character.
Thursday, November 8, 2018
different types of causation (plus correlation not leading to causation)
Let's start with different possibilities of causation:
*A causes B (direct causation).
*A causes B (direct causation).
The pool stick striking the billiard ball causing it to jump.
*B causes A (reverse causation).
The correlation between recreational drug use and psychiatric disorders. Perhaps the drugs cause the disorders, or else, people use drugs to self medicate for preexisting conditions, which brings causes the disorder.
Children that watch a lot of TV are the most violent. Clearly, TV makes children more violent.
This could easily be the other way round; that is, violent children like watching more TV than less violent ones!
*A and B are consequences of a common cause, but do not cause each other.
Example (from psychology): The relationship between anxiety and shyness shows a statistical value (strength of correlation) of +.59. Therefore, it may be concluded that shyness, causally speaking, influences anxiety.
Yet, there is a catch, the so-called "self-consciousness score", with a sharper correlation (+.73) where shyness brings up a possible "third variable" known as "self-consciousness". So now we have shyness, anxiety and self-consciousness together. When three such closely related measures are found, it suggests that each may be a cluster of correlated values each influencing one another to some extent.
So, the first conclusion above (in gray) is false.
*A and B both cause C,
*A and B both cause C,
In the case of COVID 19, a person with a preexisting condition. John gets Covid, but he's 76 years old, and has a heart condition.
Is COVID a direct cause of death?
Before we answer let's keep in mind these 4 conditions:
1. COVID must precede John's death (IT DOES),
2. It's nearly impossible for COVID being there and John not dying (FALSE, John could survive the COVID and his existing heart failure and not die). At this point the answer is already NO, because we need the four conditions together, but revise the last two:
3. the cause must make a difference (IT DOES to some extent).
4. there is no common cause (AND HERE THERE IS: the heart condition!).
So, this shows clearly that COVID IS CANNOT BE THE DIRECT CAUSE OF DEATH.
*A causes B and B causes A (bidirectional or cyclic causation).
In predator-prey relationship, predator numbers affect prey numbers, but prey numbers (i.e. food supply of predators) also affect predator numbers.
*A causes C which causes B (indirect causation);
Ishmael hits Ahab with his car. Ahab is rushed to the hospital and is sent into surgery. During the course of the operation, the surgeon is careless and causes Ahab more injuries.*There is no connection between A and B (the correlation is a coincidence).
* Confounding (in statistics: A situation where one or more unrecognized variables (conditions or events) were responsible for some effect. This could give the faulty impression that the effect was due to something else. Confounding often occurs when researchers did not “control” for the possibility that other variables were or could be at work.
Example: The estimated risk ratio for CVD (cardiovascular diseases) in obese as compared to non-obese persons is RR = 0.153/0.86 = 1.79, suggesting that obese persons are 1.79 times as likely to develop CVD compared to non-obese persons.
However, it is well known that the risk of CVD also increases with age. Could any (or all) of the apparent association between obesity and incident CVD be attributable to age?
If the obese group in our sample is older than the non-obese group, then all or part of the increased CVD risk in obese persons could possibly due to the increase in age rather than their obesity. If age is another risk factor for CVD, and if obese and non-obese persons differ in age, then our estimate of the association between obesity and CVD will be overestimated, because of the additional burden of being older.
Thus, age meets the definition of a confounder (i.e., it is associated with the primary risk factor(obesity) and the outcome (CVD).
In fact, in this data set, subjects who were 50+ were more likely to be obese (200/400 = 0.500) as compared to subjects younger than (100/600=0.167), as demonstrated by the table below.
Correlation: A mutual relationship or connection between two variables. When there is a positive correlation, an increase in one variable is associated with an increase in the other. (For instance, scientists might correlate an increase in time spent watching TV with an increase in risk of obesity.) Where there is an inverse correlation, an increase in one value is associated with a decrease in the other. (Scientists might correlate an increase in TV watching with a decrease in time spent exercising each week.) A correlation between two variables does not necessarily mean one is causing the other. is not sufficient for causation.