Notes on Buddhism

Julie Mehretu, Black City, 2006.

... l'homme n'est pas ce qu'il est, il est ce qu'il n'est pas.-- Jean Paul Sartre

Buddhism is a spiritual movement founded by Siddhartha Gautama in India in the 6th century BC and became the first multicultural spiritual tradition in the higher civilization of the Eurasian world. Buddhism lasted in India for some 1500 years, until it disappeared from India as that country became progressively dominated by Islam. Buddhism moved then to Ceylon, China (first century AD), Korea (fourth century AD), and Japan (sixth century AD); eastward into Burma, Thailand (third century AD), Cambodia (fourth century AD), Indonesia (third century AD) and the other countries of southeastern Asia with the exception of the Philippines. It became the dominant spiritual movement in Tibet (eight century AD), and Mongolia (thirteen century AD).

The teaching of Buddha was handed down to succeeding generations in the form of a threefold refuge: the Buddha, the teaching and the community. These are three aspects of the Buddha reality. 1- The teaching itself is a form of Buddha presence. The teaching is supreme insofar as it is in virtue of the teaching that a person is guided to experience the saving illumination concerning the nature of sorrow and the way to release from sorrow. 2- The community has a certain priority since it carries and sustain the entire Buddhist tradition. 3- The doctrine would have had no inner development or preservation or propagation except through the community. Yet supreme over everything is the Buddha reality.

The Message
Buddha's teaching was transmitted orally to his disciples. It consists of the theory, the path and the sangha. The core of the theory is the concept of human suffering and the possibility of emancipation. Individuality implies limitation, desire causes suffering since what is desired is transitory, changing and perishing.

Reality
Reality is composed of dharmas (components) or a succession of microseconds of existence. Buddha departed from the teachings of must Hinduism by not having a precise eschatology (a theory of final things). Life is a stream, a river, of manifestations and extinctions. There's nothing permanent and thereby no fixed self. To make clear this concept Buddhism puts forward the theory of five constituents 1- rupa or corporeality or physical form, 2- feelings or sensations (vedana), 3- ideations (sanna), 40 mental formations or dispositions (sankhara), and consciousness (vinana). Human existence is only a composite of these aggregates.

Karma
Buddhists accept the notion of karma, however, this presented a problem with their notion of no-self. How could one prove that one can reincarnate with a no self, i.e. with no permanent subject? Some scholars have considered this to be unsolvable. The relations between existences has been compared to the analogy of fire, which maintains itself unchanged in appearance and yet is very different in every moment. A sort of ever changing identity.

The Four Noble Truths
There are four noble truths. 1-The truth of sorrow, 2-the truth that sorrow originates within us from the craving of pleasure, 3-the truth that this craving can be eliminated and 4-the truth that a methodical path must be followed to obtain this goal. Otherwise human beings would remain indefinitely in samsara.

The Eightfold Path
Hence Buddha formulated the law of dependent origination or paticca-samuppada) whereby one condition arises out of another, which in turn arises out of prior conditions. Given the awareness of this law, the question arises as to how one may escape the continually renewed cycle of births, suffering and death. There must be a purification that leads to overcoming this process. Such a liberating purification is effected by following the Noble Eightfold Path constituted by 1-the right views, 2-the right aspiration, 3-the right speech, 4-the right conduct, 5-the right livelihood, 6-the right effort, 7-the right mindfulness and 8-the right meditational attainment.

Nirvana
The aim is to be rid of the delusion of the ego, freeing oneself from the fetters of this mundane world. One who succeeds has achieved enlightenment. The term is nirvana translated as dying out. But nirvana is not extinction. And Buddha repudiated this. Buddhists search for salvation, not annihilation. Although nirvana is often presented as negative, it can be seen as the ultimate goal for salvation in Buddhism.

List of terms for our test next Thursday (Vedanta, Jaina & Yoga)

EARLY VEDANTA

Atman/Brahman: The two-in-one idea of the universal Self. As a monad, it’s the real immortal soul of human beings. Atman is hidden deep, but it can be known by discipline and meditation.
Brahman: An essence without attributes, or beyond attributes: The Universal principle of selfhood.
Brahma: God as creator, one of the trinity in Hinduism, the other two Vishnu the preserver and Shiva the destroyer.
Bhakti: Devotion, worship, love.
Maya: Illusion, what we take for “reality” but it’s not. It’s similar to Plato’s “forms.”
Avidya: Ignorance: that is, the path of evil and alienation from true selfhood.
Moksha: The final liberation and release from all worldly bonds. Moksha is the highest of the four human goals: artha (wealth), kama (pleasure) and dharma (duty)
Dharma: (skt: “carrying, holding”): That which determines a true essence. Righteousness; the basis of human morality; the lawful order of the universe and the foundation of all religions. Dharma is inseparable from one’s karma since dharma can be realized only to one’s karmic situation.
Karma: (skt: “deed”) 1- A mental or physical action, 2- The consequence of a mental or physical action, 3-The sum of all consequences of an individual in this or in previous life. Each karma is created by each person’s samskara (or impressions= mental formations forces)
Jñana: Wisdom, higher knowledge.
OM: The cosmic sound, heard in deep meditation; Holy word taught in the Upanishads.
Samsara: The constant and endless cycle of life and death.
Yajna: Sacrifice


JAINA

Karman: Bits of material, generated by the person's actions, that bind themselves to the life-monad or soul through many births. This has the effect of thwarting the full realization and freedom of the soul.
Kalpa: A world cycle. A period of time comprising 4,320,000 yrs. Pali-kappa is an endlessly long period of time. The metaphor is that of a piece of silk rubbed one on a solid piece of rock one cubic mile in size every 1000 yrs. When this wears the rock away, a kalpa has passed.
Jiva: “One who lives in the body,” a mortal being. The embodied self, which identifies with the mind as ego. It creates the notions of duality and causality and thereby becomes bound to the cycle of birth and death. It has been defined as a life-monad.
Ajiva: Non-soul, inanimate substance. Ajiva is divided in two categories: non-sentient (i.e. a feeling being) material and non-sentient and non-material.
Kevala: State of omniscience. Kevala is necessarily accompanied by freedom from karmic obstruction by direct experience of the soul's pure form, unblemished by its attachment of matter.
Ratnatraya: The basis of Jaina ethics. It comprises 1- the right knowledge, 2- right faith and 3- right conduct. They must be cultivated at once. Right faith leads to calmness and tranquility, but right faith leads to perfection only when followed by right conduct. Knowledge without faith and conduct is futile. Right conduct is spontaneous, not a forced mechanical quality. Attainment of right conduct is a gradual process. The process to achieve this is ahimsa.
Ahimsa: Skt (non-harming) Jaina doctrine of non-violence. Since thought gives rise to action, non-violence of thought is more important than non-violence of action. It is also one of the five virtues in Raja-Yoga.
 
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 primary qualities of Nature. They are three in number: 
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. Rajas: The tension, dynamic force behind matter.
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.

Ramakrishna & Vivekananda

On the Ramakrishna Mission (click Ramakrishna on the left-hand side, the link takes you to Ramakrishna's Gospel). Yet another link for Vivekananda, Ramakrishna's main disciple.

For the complete works of Swami Vivekananda, here.
Vivekananda was a known Hindu poet (Here is a small selection).

list of terms for midterm exam (fall 2016)

Hinduism Vedanta / Upanishads/ Gita

Atman/Brahman: The two-in-one idea of the universal Self. As a monad, it’s the real immortal soul of human beings. Atman is hidden deep, but it can be known by discipline and meditation.
Brahman: An essence without attributes, or beyond attributes: The Universal principle of selfhood.
Brahma: God as creator, one of the trimurti in Hinduism, the other two: Vishnu the preserver and Shiva the destroyer.
Bhakti: Devotion, worship, love. Bhakti is the love felt by the worshiper towards the personal God.
Maya: Illusion, what we take for “reality” but it’s not. Similar to Plato’s “forms.”
Avidya: Ignorance: that is, the path of evil and alienation from true self-hood.
Moksha: The final liberation and release from all worldly bonds. Moksha is the highest of the four human goals: artha (wealth), kama (pleasure) and dharma (duty).
Dharma: (skt: “carrying, holding”): That which determines a true essence. Duty. Righteousness. The basis of human morality; the lawful order of the universe and the foundation of all religions. Dharma is inseparable from one’s karma since dharma can be realized only to one’s karmic situation.
Karma: (skt: “deed”) 1- A mental or physical action, 2- The consequence of a mental or physical action, 3-The sum of all consequences of an individual in this or in previous life. Each karma is created by each person’s samskara (or impressions= mental formations forces)
Jnana: Wisdom, higher knowledge.
OM: The cosmic sound, heard in deep meditation; Holy word taught in the Upanishads.
Samsara: The constant and endless cycle of life and death.
Yajna: Sacrifice. In the Gita it means an economy beyond the calculus of exchange. Action for the sake of the action.


Jaina Philosophy / Niyamsara

Karman: Bits of material, generated by the person’s actions, that bind themselves to the life-monad or soul through many births. This has the effect of thwarting the full realization and freedom of the soul.
Kalpa: A world cycle. A period of time comprising 4,320,000 yrs. Pali-kappa is an endlessly long period of time. The metaphor is that of a piece of silk rubbed one on a solid piece of rock one cubic mile in size every 1000 yrs. When this wears the rock away, a kalpa has passed.
Jiva: “One who lives in the body,” a mortal being. The embodied self, which identifies with the mind as ego. It creates the notions of duality and causality and thereby becomes bound to the cycle of birth and death. It has been defined as a life-monad.
Ajiva: non-soul, inanimate substance. Ajiva is divided in two categories: non-sentient (i.e. a feeling being) material and non-sentient and non-material.
Moksha: liberation from Samsara, the endless cycle of death and rebirth.
Kevala: state of omniscience. Kevala is necessarily accompanied by freedom from karmic obstruction by direct experience of the soul’s pure form, unblemished by its attachment of matter.
Ratnatraya: The basis of Jaina ethics. It comprises the 1- right knowledge, 2- right faith and 3- right conduct. They must be cultivated at once. Right faith leads to calmness and tranquility, but right faith leads to perfection only when followed by right conduct. Knowledge without faith and conduct is futile. Right conduct is (becomes) spontaneous, not a forced mechanical quality. Attainment of right conduct is a gradual process. The process to achieve this is ahimsa.
Ahimsa: Skt (non-harming) Jaina doctrine of non-violence. Since thought gives rise to action, non-violence of thought is more important than non-violence of action. It is also one of the five virtues in Raja-Yoga.
Pudgala: It refers to the different aspects of reality that cause the world we live in. It includes jiva & ajiva

Yoga Philosophy / Patanjali Sutras

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: (or qualities of pakriti). They comprise: 1- Rajas: The tension, dynamic force behind matter. 
2- Sattvas: The goodness in matter, that which can be realized only through the knowledge of the enlightened subject. 3- Tamas: The opacity, the dark quality of matter, its propensity to destruction.
Yama: Restraint, the fixing of the path, to curb, to bridle.
Niyama: Spiritual discipline. In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, a set of prescribed actions comprising observances, requirements & obligations.
Asana: Posture associated with the practice of yoga. Usually seated in the lotus position.
Pranayama: "prana" or life force, and "ayama" to draw out. Controlled breathing in yoga.
Pratyahara: withdrawal from the senses. At this stage of supra consciousness the sensations from the senses become quiet.
Dharana: (One-point concentration) or total stillness of the mind.
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.

Stoic cosmogony (Epictetus)

Last class I hinted at some similarities between Yoga and Stoic cosmogony. For more on stoicism, click here.

I've found a good site with Epictetus' Discourses. Check it out.

For a better choice, I recommend this one.

Link for Doing Philosophy

Check out the link for our textbook, Doing Philosophy. There are quizzes, flash cards, etc.

Dharma or karma?

Your turn #2

This homework is going to take us to a different site: Make your comments here.

Please, become a friend of miami bourbaki. Yes, it's my personal site and sort of a higher forum for discussion. Be who you are, be argumentative, be yourself.

PHI 2010 T,R 9:50am (closed by Wednesday next week 11pm)

PHI 2010 MWF, 8am (closed by Thursday next week, 11pm)

The decimation of leatherback turtles in Costa Rica: Ignorance or poverty or both?

A friend sends me the following images from the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, a "Paradise on Earth."  But even in paradise there are ecological horrors:

Above a bunch of turtles after laying their eggs (it's known that the 2-to-3 hour labor of laying and burying the eggs represents a grueling task). Below a group of locals invading the beach not to help the turtles but to fetch their eggs (See that I don't use the word "steal," because, legally, turtles don't own their eggs -the disadvantage of not being human). 

Are Costa Ricans so hungry? Of course not. Can they understand the ecological difference between chicken eggs and turtle eggs? Donno.  They definitely like turtle eggs better for their pancake batter!

 

 

I cannot help thinking how many would-be turtles are there in all those sacks that will never get to swim the high seas?

 

No wonder poaching is the major factor in the decline of leatherback turtles.

It's pretty hard to watch the still impotence of the washed-out turtle loose its barely-laid offspring against such a formidable predator. These poachers are not starving. This is not to suggest that poaching and poverty -and ignorance- are not linked. It turns there is a whole industry of poaching. 

In this news, a man was caught with 4,500 turtle eggs! Can the sea turtle survive its worst enemy? Let's not waste time now examining the cause of poaching. What needs to be done now is to stop it, and the only way is to enforce the Costa Rican legislation against poaching turtle eggs.

The moral of the story? Where there is money to be made, there are always "smart" men seeking opportunities!
____________ 
According to reliable sources three of the seven species of marine turtle are critically endangered:

Hawksbill Turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) - Critically Endangered
Kemp’s Ridley Turtle (Lepidochelys kempii) - Critically Endangered
Leatherback Turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) - Critically Endangered
Loggerhead Turtle (Caretta caretta) - Endangered
Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas) - Endangered
Olive Ridley Turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) - Vulnerable
Flatback Turtle (Natator depressus) - Vulnerable

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, 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.

Gandhi's logic of ahimsa

* ... a steady progress with discipline.

Discipline is auspicious, we get more from it which gives us -more- reasons to go on.

* The power of the satyagrahi is greater than if he were violent.

We're taking violence in the subjunctive, the necessity of what doesn't occur. Think of my power vis-a-vis an ant's power. Or the sublated possibility of a miracle, one that doesn't need to happen because if it did, it would destroy the very possibility of being itself. "The miracle it happens before it happens."

* There is no defeat in a-himsa.

Not a put on, one would be defeated if the motive was wrong. Defeat begins when we give up our principles.

* In a-himsa the bravery consists in dying, not in killing.

A problematic one, because if one dies the bravery seems empty. There is another angle, "bravery" needs to be seen as a balanced, proportioned, response. And yes, sometimes people die without killing, particularly if "killing" means transgressing one's threshold.

* The satyagrahi should never have any hatred toward his opponent... must be prepared to suffer until the end.

In Hinduism, hatred is toxic, it achieves nothing. Does hate make me understand love? Yes. But there is a limit to hate. This suffering needs to be justified. It must be suffering for the right reasons.

* ...truth never himsa a cause that is just.

If it does, the cause if unjust.

* A satyagrahi is never vindictive. He believes not in destruction but in conversion.

Vindictiveness is worse than hate.

* A-himsa presupposes the ability to strike.

Here there is the presupposition, to strike presupposes the option of not-striking. Better, ahimsa means striking in a different way. A non-violent strike, the symbolic strike of not striking.

* ...injustice must be resisted. A-himsa is better, but where is does not come naturally himsa is both necessary and honorable.

* So long as one retains one's sword, one has not attain complete fearlessness.

My favorite one. Gandhi presents the carrying of the sword as a condition of fear. On the other hand, Aristotle would disagree with Gandhi that fearlessness is something worth pursuing. It would not be balanced.

* A-himsa is impossible without self-purification.

* A weak man is just by accident. A strong satyagrahi is unjust by accident.

* A satyagrahi is dead to his body even before his enemy attempts to kill him, i.e. he is free from attachment to his body and only lives in the victory of his soul.

where do we come from?

Fresh from the NYTimes and at the level of hypothesis:

Physicists at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory are reporting that they have discovered a new clue that could help unravel one of the biggest mysteries of cosmology: why the universe is composed of matter and not its evil-twin opposite, antimatter. If confirmed, the finding portends fundamental discoveries at the new Large Hadron Collider outside Geneva, as well as a possible explanation for our own existence. 

The new effect hinges on the behavior of particularly strange particles called neutral B-mesons, which are famous for not being able to make up their minds. They oscillate back and forth trillions of times a second between their regular state and their antimatter state. As it happens, the mesons, created in the proton-antiproton collisions, seem to go from their antimatter state to their matter state more rapidly than they go the other way around, leading to an eventual preponderance of matter over antimatter of about 1 percent, when they decay to muons.

Become a friend of 2070

By the way, it would be a good idea to become a follower of this site. Please, sign in! Be a friend!

Your turn #1

I had a nice time with you guys. Probing questions, nice points. I'd like to stress the fact that our conversations should not become yessing tutorials. It's good to contend, to spar, to put these ideas to the test to see if they come out of the fire unscathed. Only then, we have the best reasons to support them. 

Below, Kafka's "Prometheus" and a bit of my reference to spirituality* as "the inexplicable." I didn't want any talk about mystery in the traditional sense. We're trying to pay close attention here to metaphors. I go by the verse of Carvaka:

Springing forth from these elements itself
solid knowledge is destroyed
when they are destroyed—
after death no intelligence remains.**

We have a better grasp of the Upanishads and some of its main ideas: Brahman, atman, moksha, karma, samsara, avidya. Let's try to see the big picture. All this is pointing to a path of liberation from samsara: MOKSHA. I liked the flavor of ONENESS as doing for others, as seeing ourselves in others. What I termed social activism.

What's our duty to others?

If he who departs from the body goes to another world,
how is it that he come not back again, restless for love of his kindred?***

Which brings the discussion of karma back to the table. As Jose suggested, Karma seems like double edge sword (it needs to be further discussed).

We talked in passing of meditation as separating time/space that is worthwhile. Let's try to seek peaceful, constructive, hopeful thoughts (remember, hope should not be blind).

Let's not fall ever for what I call thetic happiness!! Mildly, detachedly, happy; a deceiving sign. As I suggested in class, suffering has a -too- bad a reputation.     

I'm sure there is more, but this is the best I can do right now. Go ahead, say what you want, but say it meaningfully, sincerely (close to 100 words!).

______
*One can find solace in "the spiritual," a highly personal symbolic constellation, where all these metaphors we've been discussing bear fruit. ** Sarva-Darsana-Samgraha by Madhava Acharya, translated by E. B. Cowell and A. E. Gough. (Paul Kegan: London, 1914). *** Patanjali Sutras.

PHI 2010 T,R 9:50am (closed by Wednesday, next week, 11pm)

PHI 2010 MWF, 8am (closed by Thursday, next week, 11pm)

The Vedas

The Vedas is the product of the Aryan invaders of the Indian subcontinent and their descendants, although the original inhabitants (disdainfully called dásyus, or "slaves," in the Veda) may very well have exerted an influence on the final product. The Veda represents the particular interests of two classes of Aryan society, the priests (Brahmans) and the warrior-kings (Ksatriyas), who together ruled over the far more numerous peasants (Vaishyas). Vedic literature ranges from the Rigveda (Rgveda; c. 1400 BC) to the Upanishads (c. 1000-500 BC). This literature provides the sole documentation for all Indian religion before Buddhism and the early texts of classical Hinduism.

2- The most important texts are the four collections (Samhitas) known as the Vedas (i.e., "Books of Knowledge"): the Rigveda ("Wisdom of the Verses"), the Yajurveda ("Wisdom of the Sacrificial Formulas"), the Samaveda ("Wisdom of the Chants"), and the Atharvaveda ("Wisdom of the Atharvan Priests"). Of these, the Rigveda is the oldest.

3- In the Vedic texts following these earliest compilations, the Brahmanas (discussions of the ritual), Aranyakas (books studied in the forest), and Upanishads (secret teachings concerning cosmic equations), the interest in the early Rigvedic gods wanes, and they become little more than accessories to the Vedic rite. Polytheism begins to be replaced by a sacrificial pantheism of Prajapati ("Lord of Creatures"), who is the All.

4- Deities: One of the principal Vedic deities was Indra, the god of war and thunder; nearly one quarter of the Vedic hymns are dedicated to him. Other key deities were Varuna, the sky god who maintains cosmic order and protects moral action; Mitra, the sun god who stimulates life and brings prosperity; Rudra, the god of violence, destruction, disease, and death; and Soma, the god of intoxicating juices consumed in ritual.

Thanks for a gret semester!

I wanted to thank you for your company, the discussions, for all the questions. It has been an honor to share time with all of you.

Big Bang Theory

For those of you interested in the Big Bang.

Chapter 4: Topics for QUIZ #2

1. Numerical identity: two people are identical if they are one and the same. The idea of "individuality" = indivisibility. Qualitative Identity: Two people are identical if they share same qualities.
Animalism: Sort of "I'm my body." We are embodied, bodies being crucial for our physical interactions. C/E Locke's Tale of the Prince and the Cobbler, Siamese Twins. Also with the phenomenon of "transgender" (the transgender rejects his/her body for a different one, i.e. "I was born in the wrong body" is the claim).
 
2. Memory Theory of personal Identity.
a- Direct memory, indirect memory (by virtue of this theory, when the senile general remembers being the hero but not the boy, he's indirectly remembering the boy).
b- Real memory, apparent memory (the difference between a memory whose experience I can consciously recall and one I may have created myself).
C/E Circularity in Locke's theory.
 
3. Psychological Continuity Theory: Real memory, apparent memory, quasi-memory. Pshychological conectedness. Two people are psych-connected in they form part of an overlapping series of persons who are...
 
4. C/E: Williams’ (Reduplication Argument) Parfit's Teletransporter: Consequences. If Parfit dies, Parfit (the copy) is psych.-continuous with the original and has a similar body (remember that it is not really the same body, i.e., Parfit is only numerically identical to himself). One implication at the end of section 4.2 is that identity IS NOT a necessary condition for survival.
 
5. Brain Theory. Two people are psych-continuous if their psyches caused and realized in the same brain. C/A: Split Brains, Multiple personality syndrome (see the movie Identity) , Parfit’s Division (in this case Parfit's surviving brothers are psych with Parfit and have similar bodies being that they are twins). The experiment shows that one can be psyhc identical to someone else in the same brain (each brother share Parfit's half-brain hemisphere).
 
6.  Character. Character NOT SELF is what matters for responsibility.  

7. What is the SELF? A PROCESS. It means a transformation whereby the self is constantly changing while maintaining certain characteristics. Process is time-dependent in the sense that if we look for the change minute by minute we may not see it at all. Once we let time take its course, we start perceiving the change (as when we don't see a person for 5 years and notice how much she has physically and psychologically changed).
_________
An interesting summary on Personal Identity here.
On Thought experiments.
What matters for psychological continuity?

Hi kids: questions, worries, suggestions, here.

FINAL EXAM FOR T 5:40PM IS TUESDAY, APRIL 27

FINAL EXAM FOR T,R, 9:50AM IS TUESDAY, APRIL 27

FINAL EXAM FOR T,R, 8:25AM IS THURSDAY, APRIL 29

I'm closing this post tonight saturday, at 10pm.

PHI 2010 T 5:40pm

PHI 2010 T,R 9:50am

PHI 2010 T,R 8:25am