Wednesday, December 2, 2020
Monday, November 30, 2020
Tuesday, November 10, 2020
Saturday, October 31, 2020
Wednesday, October 14, 2020
Friday, October 9, 2020
Wednesday, September 23, 2020
homework 4 (fall 2021)
questions 1-4 pertain to this post,
1. is there moral knowledge from the evolutionary stand point? explain.
2. explain how does the fact of killing becomes the moral fact "killing is wrong"?
3. is "killing is wrong" a soft fact? explain.
4. what is the difference between consensus and best consensus.
5. provide one proposition of your own that represents a hard fact and one that represent a soft fact (remember a proposition is presented as a regular sentence within quotes).
Explain requires at least 40 words.
From our textbook Philosophy Here & Now, go to page 148 section 3.1 and answer questions 1 & 2.
Tuesday, September 15, 2020
homework, fall 2021
1. knowing what you know about validity, try to write down at least one premise that would provide support for the following conclusions (try to be as succinct as possible):
a. It is morally permissible to experiment on nonhuman animals.
b. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
2. tell whether these arguments are valid or invalid.
a. Alvin likes Jane. Jane likes Chris. So, Alvin likes Chris.
b. Trees are plants. Oaks are plants. Therefore Oaks are trees.
c. If Lincoln was killed in an automobile accident, then Lincoln is dead. Lincoln was killed in an automobile accident. Hence, Lincoln is dead.
3. tell whether these arguments are sound.
a. Cats are mammals. Mammals are animals. So, cats are animals.
b. If the Taj Mahal is in Kentucky, then the Taj Mahal is in the USA. But the Taj Mahal is not in the USA. So, the Taj Mahal is not in Kentucky.
4. tell whether these inductive arguments are strong or weak.
a.. The last twenty-two lottery tickets that Francis has purchased have been losers. Therefore, the next one he buys is almost certain to be a winner.
b. Both Dorothy and Olivia have trouble seeing distant objects clearly. After purchasing a pair of prescription glasses, however, Dorothy reports that she can see perfectly. Therefore, chances are that if Olivia purchases a pair of glasses identical to Dorothy's, her vision should be as good as Dorothy's is now.
5. identify the right cause (based on this lecture)
Paul is 79 years of age and has been just diagnosed with covid-19. He's a smoker and has diabetes (smoking is a risk and diabetes a pre existing condition). After surviving covid-19, Paul develops hypertension (see the possible link between covid-19 and hypertension).
a. Identify what kind of a cause covid-19 is to Paul's new developed condition of hypertension.
b. If Paul had died, is covid-19 a direct cause of Paul's death? Explain.
7. identify the following fallacies:
a. Thomas Elder attack on social welfare should not be taken seriously. He is said to have been a degenerate.Saturday, September 12, 2020
Friday, September 11, 2020
Thursday, September 10, 2020
Tuesday, September 8, 2020
Wednesday, September 2, 2020
Monday, June 29, 2020
Sunday, June 14, 2020
Monday, June 8, 2020
Friday, June 5, 2020
Thursday, June 4, 2020
Philosophy paper sample (summer 2021)
PHI 2010, #6065, John Doe,
Summer 2021
Final Paper
How to make virtue win over vice
Many interesting topics were discussed during this awkward semester of controls, safe distance, where I only met half of my classmates. I learned how to make tomato sauce and hummus, but most importantly I learned about the different ways philosophical masterminds think.
Philosophers have the objective of finding “the truth”, but being the truth so absolute, they come up with different theories through which they hope we accomplish true living. The one theory that stuck the most with me was Aristotle’s moral virtue.
According to Aristotle, moral virtue is a disposition to behave in the right manner and having the ability to do so by creating habits and a positive mindset that allows you to make the best out of yourself during any sort of situation. A virtuous person is the one that can find the golden mean in all of their actions. The golden mean is the perfect balance between excess and defect. A person of virtue is courageous without being rash, generous without extravagance, and ambitious without being greedy.
I, personally, have always been a person that lacks discipline in most aspects of life. I am always able to convince myself to take the easiest path, the shortest road, and the less tiring way. While I have never been a lazy person in the sense that I am almost hyperactive, I procrastinate a lot by pushing on the things that present difficulties even if I understand that the end result is very rewarding.
I started this semester with the personal goal of quitting cigarettes. After several fights with many loved ones in which I proposed that not only did I have a strong addiction to nicotine I also very much enjoyed smoking cigarettes. I finally convinced myself to not quit but to diminish the number of cigarettes I would smoke in a day. This way I would control my addiction and my addiction wouldn’t control me anymore.
I was able to find a golden mean of nicotine that allowed me to get by with my day without cravings but that also did not cost me too much money nor time. My plan was that once I was able to find Aristotle’s “Golden mean” and control my addiction. It would only take effort to fully quit and exploit the virtue of self-discipline for the first time in my life.
Guess what? I’m doing it!
By quitting cigarettes (even for the time being), I was able to understand myself in a completely different way. I was able to push myself and find the strength of character I have needed in order to grow and improve for the greater being that is my overall health and happiness.
I must confess that my win also relates to other things that I don’t mention for the sake of brevity. I feel that if I’m able to win this battle, that will be a model for other problems that are part of my character.
The idea is that fighting bad habits should be in the same bracket as creating new ones. So far, the purification of my body through the act of not smoking has helped me improve my mind. I’m happier about being a person that was able to draw mental strength to eliminate a vice that impeded me from flourishing.
Before this course I didn’t have these tools. I feel that if I take Aristotle as a model, there is going to be a point in which I will find happiness through being an overall virtuous person. It’s not easy, but it’s worthy!
Tuesday, June 2, 2020
are we running out of sand? an exercise in finding out sfuff
First, I noticed that almost all the articles treating the subject of the sand crisis at the top of the google search exhibit this consensus: We're running out of sand.
Here is one written by Sam Meredith (he's a correspondent in business for CNBC).
Our entire society is built on sand. It is the world’s most consumed raw material after water and an essential ingredient to our everyday lives. Sand is the primary substance used in the construction of roads, bridges, high-speed trains and even land regeneration projects. Sand, gravel and rock crushed together are melted down to make the glass used in every window, computer screen and smart phone.
That opening salvo is pretty confusing. Not that it's untrue. The information is way too simplified, almost digested for you. More interestingly: the article appears in the World politics section of the online paper, which shows where the message is going.
One thing is to talk about science, another to talk about politics.
This is a much better article for Forbes Magazine. I picked the author, Laurie Winkless, amongst the many pseudo journalists because she actually has a degree in physics (and an entry in Wikipedia, you want someone with at least a bit of background in science talking about natural science, right?).
Her article is opens with an interesting detail of how and where sand goes:
The Burj Khalifa is an engineering marvel. Stretching 828 m into the Dubai sky, it is the tallest building the world has ever seen. Its construction used huge quantities of materials; 39,000 tonnes of steel, 103,000 square metres of glass, and 330,000,000 litres of concrete (enough to fill 132 Olympic-sized swimming pools). From the top floor, though, one material dominates the view – sand. So, you might be surprised to learn that the world is running out of this grainy material, mostly thanks to the concrete megastructures that we fill our modern cities with.
So, sand is used in construction and we're in the middle of a construction boom. What is sand?
Concrete has three basic components: cement, water and aggregate, combined in slightly different proportions. Cement is the powdery substance that reacts with water to form a ‘glue’. The third element is "aggregate," which gives concrete its bulk. Aggregate is actually made from a combination of course gravel and fine sediment, also known as sand. And sand is a $70B industry.
Why are we running our of sand?
The answer is rapid urbanization, driven largely by China’s recent construction boom. In his book, Making the Modern World, historian Vaclav Smil shared a truly mind-blowing fact (which Bill Gates went on to feature on his blog). Between 2011 and 2013, China used more concrete than the US did in the entire 20th century.
So, how about the "crisis"? Here is Winkless' conclusion:
There are lots of people out there looking for more sustainable ways to make concrete (including Solidia and Finite), but as yet, none can provide even close to the quantities industry needs. And we can (and do) meet some of the demand by recycling old concrete, but our sand stocks are still in trouble. By every measure, our current level of sand use, particularly for concrete production, is unsustainable.
What do I gather from this balanced article?
The high demand on specific types and grades of sand is increasing faster than production can keep up, and natural sources of those particular types of sand are being depleted.
What happens when they are close to running out? This will be en engineering problem. We may find substitutes, as we generally do. Winkless hints that we may treat other types of sand, or grinding and crushing rocks, or bricks, or old concrete. All this will certainly be more expensive than scooping up and transporting existing sand, so the things that sand is used for (primarily construction) will become more expensive. More expensive concrete will have a lot of downstream effects,
But why does it have to be catastrophic?
Few resources are irreplaceable. We'll replace sand at a higher cost, and go about our business, as we've done with lots of materials.
To find this more optimistic article was quite difficult @ Ecomagazine:
There is hope for the future, with a multitude of different alternatives that can already be explored. In developed countries such as the UK, where new construction often replaces demolished buildings, there is potential to recycle rubble instead of using new concrete. The Shard, a recently built 95-storey skyscraper in London is one example of construction in the UK using recycled aggregate. To help with its green credentials, the Shard was built using 140,000 Lignacite LTD blocks that contain 10 percent recycled sand, 27 percent lightweight recycled aggregate and 15 percent recycled wood. Other substitutes for sand in the production of concrete are also available and are currently being used in Europe, including ash from power station incinerators and dust from stone quarries.
Why was this article buried? The media needs to get your attention. One way to get it is by amplifying an issue to the point of reaching CRISIS PROPORTIONS. What some people call THE FEAR COMPLEX.
What's my advice to you? SUSPEND JUDGMENT!
Sunday, April 19, 2020
Friday, April 17, 2020
Wednesday, April 15, 2020
Monday, April 13, 2020
Wednesday, April 8, 2020
topics for final exam (philosophy of religion) open book
Thursday, April 2, 2020
Monday, March 30, 2020
Friday, March 27, 2020
Wednesday, March 25, 2020
Tuesday, March 24, 2020
generation z & social media
34% consider quitting because of negative self-esteem (up from 17% in 2017)
48% of Gen Z say social media makes them feel anxious, sad or depressed
27% report experiencing a negative impact on body image (up from 18% in 2017)
30% of GenZ appears to be more scared of adult social interactions than physical injury (which could be the reasoning for an increase in depression and anxiety (Twenge, 2017). Gen Z believe that social interactions carry a risk of being in emotional discomfort and they try to avoid this.
this is a big issue: society IS NOT (in) the internet. the internet IS NOT REAL, it's virtual.
no wonder we get these numbers:
Gen Z use video games, social media, and smartphones to avoid their struggles in the real world and the pervasive use of technology has caused a 30% decline in face-to-face communication.
Social media can create a misperception of reality through highlighting positive moments in life, while excluding the difficult moments, and focusing more on the self by creating a positive, and impossible, social image, which creates an unrealistic expectation of reality causing teens to think their lives are not as exciting as others and causing teens to think that they are failures (Twenge, 2017). A study showed that youngsters using Facebook have increased feelings of envy because when using Facebook you are watching other people’s vacation photos, wedding announcements, and other positive life changes.
this brings us with a new category: Emotional Contagion?
emotional contagion is now linked to social media.
according to this MIT study: negative feelings spread more rapidly than positive ones.
why should you become a victim of someone else's emotions?
which leads us to (the recent problem) of safe space:
the problem of safe spaces (from psychology today)
here, read an interesting critique of safe spaces in the NYTIMES.
Here is a defense of safe space:
Safe Spaces could increase empathic awareness because people are able to express themselves without fear of being judged.They can be exposed to different kinds of ideas and people going through different situations in a non-judgmental safe space. Increased empathy can be seen from learning from another’s perspective. Adolescence is a critical time for empathy development because cognitive changes impact adolescents’ ability to take others’ perspectives and their concern for others.
what is the definition of "judgment"?
the process of judging; the formation of an opinion after consideration or deliberation.
how can one be exposed to different ideas in a non-judgmental space when judgment presupposes an opinion different than ours?
unless "safe space" is simply an island of consensus.
i have good news: the safest, friendliest, warmest, space is YOUR WITHIN YOUR SELF.
"non-judgmental" begs the question on agreement. humans don't agree to feel good.
humans agree ONLY after an educated process of entertaining disagreements.
to be continued, 🏃
Tuesday, March 17, 2020
the illusion of an unbiased media
let's call this brief presentation FOLLOW THE MONEY$$$
232 executives control the information of 277 million americans!
these "big six", General Electric, News Corp. Disney, Viacom, Warner Brothers, and CBS own 70% of cable and TV NEWS,
each of the five BIG TECH (Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, and Alphabet) have very different cashflow infussions, due to a diversified mix of applications and cloud services, products, and data accumulation (big tech is bigger than big oil and other major industry groups, plus they virtually influence the ebb&flow of NASDAQ).
the news and therefore the political ideas you consume are produced by corporate interests. their interests serve the pòlitical ends of the political two parties and their base.
the left controls more than the right, and donate more money, but in the end the process is similar. WE ARE MANIPULATED BY DARK FORCES.
why dark? because of their conflict of interest.
worse yet, big political projects like the GREEN NEW DEAL is in cahoots with BIG OIL and against NUCLEAR.
Wednesday, March 11, 2020
Tuesday, March 10, 2020
Monday, March 9, 2020
Wednesday, March 4, 2020
Monday, February 24, 2020
Wednesday, February 19, 2020
Tuesday, February 18, 2020
Monday, February 17, 2020
I need student assistants. Become one!
Anyone can become a student-assistant. What does it take to be one?
1. grades A or B+
2. good attendance
3. be of a "front row attitude"
4. do HW and assignments
5. exhibit leadership (you have it in you to help other classmates)
The role of a student-assistant is to be a role model and help students in need.
What's the reward? Well, one does service for its own sake, but there are objective results:
My total support of your efforts, Xtra-points, letters of recommendation, and OUR GRATITUDE.
Friday, February 14, 2020
Wednesday, February 12, 2020
Monday, February 10, 2020
Wednesday, February 5, 2020
homework #4 chapter 4 (philosophy of mind) spring 2021
1. State the mind/body problem in your own words (section 4.1 pp. 206-210)
2. What is Cartesian dualism?
3. Define logical behaviorism.
4. What is identity theory? Explain.
5. Regarding Mind-Body Identity, explain J.C. Smart description of a "sensation," p. 217
6. What's Thomas Nagel's "bat" argument? p. 220
7. What is "qualia"? Is qualia irreducible, why?
8. What's the definition of A.I. according to John Searle? p. 222-229
9. What's Searle's Chinese Room mind experiment? Why does Searle believe computers cannot think?
11. What is an emergent property?
12. What is downward causation? How does this apply to the mind? Explain.
What does it mean to say that consciousness is a systemic property of the brain? (find my lecture here)
13. Why is it that consciousness cannot be eliminated from scientific discourse? Explain.
Monday, January 27, 2020
homework #3
1. go over these characters of epistemology, belief, justification, suspension, truth, and comment each.
2. go over these knowledge forms and give your own examples.
Sunday, January 26, 2020
homework #5, chapter 6 (epistemology, Fall 2023)
4. what is Descartes' doubt? textbook, p. 284
5. from textbook, answer questions 1-3 in Section 6.3, p. 310.
6. from textbook, answer questions 1, 2, in Section 6.4, p. 319.
Friday, January 24, 2020
Wednesday, January 22, 2020
spaghetti & chicken sausage a-la-Triff
When you cook, you nurture. -- Julia Childs
This recipe is an Italian-American classic, a comforting meal. It's pretty simple, and quick to make too.
Ingredients:
3 or 4 organic chicken-sausages from Wholefoods or the Gardener's Market in Coconut Grove (they have different varieties: feta, asiago, sun-dried tomato, etc), spaghetti (any brand will do), Xtra-virgin olive oil, fresh sage and basil, peperoncino (red pepper), good Parmesan cheese, plenty of garlic, a bit of fresh ginger, a good Pinot Grigio, canned tomatoes (optimally, you should make your own sauce like I did), but for the sake of brevity, you could use Hunt's "diced" an Cento "crushed" varieties.
Execution:
Cut all the sausages in one-inch sections & set them aside. Chop the garlic and mince the ginger. Get the oil going at medium-to-high. As the garlic sizzles in the pan, add the diced tomatoes and a bit of the "crushed" tomato on top of the mix. Pour a generous quantity of white wine. You'll get a nice burst of edible aromas from the wine chocking the concoction. Get water to boil in a 6-8 quarter pan. Add the pasta "as is." How much pasta should you use? A serving is the amount of noodles that fit inside your curled index-finger over your thumb's first knuckle. The pasta should be "al dente," as such:
The saucepan above is a Ruffoni copper-ware. In it I cook my risottos and tomato sauces. Copper is an excellent heat conductor (don't worry, you can make a tasty sauce with a regular pan, just make sure your ingredients can "dance" in the pan without being overcrowded). Let the sauce thicken for 10-15 minutes at medium heat. You can always tweak for desired consistency; for a thicker sauce you could dissolve a bit of cornstarch with water or combine an egg-yolk dissolved with just a touch of lemon (when the sauce is ready to be served mix it with the rest of the sauce, caution, it shouldn't be too hot or the egg will coagulate).
To serve, add the chopped basil and sage. Trick: to properly chop the herbs so they don't get bruised, rock your chef-knife forward and back. Accompany your pasta with a nice Italian Chianti or a California Pinot Noir (here' my pick).
To mop the left-over juices, nothing better than a baguette rustic. This is the final result:
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
triff's office hours, room 3604-28
t,r: 7:30-8:15am, 9:50-11:05am
t: 4-5:30pm
w: 4-5:30pm