Discussion question: Do you believe as Montaigne did, that your own personal beliefs vary from day to day and even from moment to moment depending upon your mood?
In class, we briefly discussed Montaigne's point of view about judgement. He claims that there is not a single right belief about a subject at any particular time since we are always changing our mind. He stated that the ancients may have claimed to be all knowledgeable, but they all had different views and that in the end it did not keep them from the sufferings of life.
In class we discussed how your views in life are always changing based on new experiences and even how you are feeling at that particular moment. As Montaigne pointed out, we change our opinion if we are hungry, mad, sad, or happy. We pointed out that if we look at our past self, we would call ourselves stupid and inexperienced, and if we think about the future, our future self will most likely say the same about us. In the end, I beleive Montaigne was right to beleive in skepticism.
Factual question: What skeptic expanded upon Descarte and came up with Pantheism?
Spinoza
I really enjoyed reading about Montaigne, and I definitely think that he has a good grasp on the human condition, and (at least to me) he seems like one of the more personal and/or practical philosophers - or, I suppose what I mean to say, is that it feels refreshing to have a philosopher acknowledge and comment on the notion that everything we know or think we know is really very changeable and temporary, and that the human mind is always changing, both agreeing and disagreeing with itself. Like Montaigne says, we change our ideas and opinions of things in a instant or with our mood, and I think it's very important to realize that our own personal philosophies are susceptible to our ever changing minds. I think being a skeptical person is a good stance to take, and that we need not only question the world around us, but also our ideas and opinions which we think to be true . I also definitely think that it lends insight into the minds of the ancient philosophers when you remember that they were human beings just like any of us, and that their 'superior knowledge' didn't save them from the human condition.
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Discussion Question: Do you agree or disagree with Spinoza's idea that God is Everything? Why or why not?
Factual Question: Which philosopher wrote Tractatus Theologico-Politicus?
A: Spinoza.
I agree with Alexa and I think that humans are very interesting in the sense that we can change our minds very quickly. I also believe that the humans are ever changing and we change base of our life experiences. For example, I saw a case of a young woman that was extremely religious and strongly believed in God. But one day a series of very unfortunate events happened to her, including the death of her husband. Thus, she completely turned against her religion and God, and she began worshiping the devil and started practicing all kinds of satanic rituals. Therefore, this shows how our moods can cause us to change. I also think it is good to keep an open mind to everything around us and to keep in mind that it is alright to change our thought and opinions, because nothing is written on stone. And just as times and the life around us change our thoughts and opinions may change as well.
ReplyDeleteFactual Question: Who came up with the phrase: "to determine truth, we must find out if there is one thing that we can know for certain, and build from there just as in ancient geometry"?
A: Descartes
Discussion Question: Do you agree with Descartes, in that "the only substance and the only thing one could know for certain was God"?
I do believe that our own personal beliefs change from time to time. As far as from one day to the next, I would say that they only take on minor forms of change, not necessarily something drastic and permanent. But this is not to say that any given life experience at any moment in life may just be influential enough to completely change one's outlook on something, I do believe this is true, and as humans this kind of thing happens all the time. As far as moods, yes that is true as well, our given mood at a certain time will most definately effect out state of mind and the way we perceive things, based off of the natural biological chemical processes taking place in the brain. These in my opinion are more minor changes in perception and decision making however, I believe that after the given emotion has passed or has had it's needs met, we tend to go back to our mental plateu and traditional way of thinking more so. I do not think that decisions based off of emotion alone are necessarily drastic and 100% sincere at the time of them being made. For example, an individual with rage acts upon pure anger, and may do things they do not truly mean to do, or would not have done if they were in a stable and balanced mind set.
ReplyDeleteFactual Question: What did Spinoza later change his name to; which turns out to be the latin equivelant of the word.??
A: BENEDICT
Discussion Question: Do you think that the universe is, "a self-caused substance within infinite attributes; and that we human beings are just nodes of that substance; referred to as God or Nature??"
I mostly agree with what he thinks because yes we all in some point change our mind on things we thought were right. We as humans base our thoughts on how we feel about the subject and how we are feeling at that moment. He was right to have some skeptisim because people change their minds in everything there is no telling what is right or wrong.
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