Up@dawn 2.0

Friday, March 28, 2014

Cody Behel, Group 2, Section 2 Floater

What up my fellow purveyors of wisdom! We had a good day of spirited discussion at the end of class on Wednesday. I was on floatation duty, and this is what had happened:

My Group

 Before floating, I discussed within my own group.  A floater from Group 3 joined us as we discussed the difficulty of being able to grasp George Berkeley's philosophy of "immaterialism" or "subjective idealism." How could one deny the existence of matter? How could one truly believe that there was no material substance, and what we perceive as matter is only an idea in our minds? It just don't make no dang sense!

Dr. Oliver joined our discussion mid-way through, and we eventually shifted our topic to the philosophy of David Hume,  particularly as it relates to the concept of miracles.  According to Dr. Phil, Hume would always state that there must be a rational explanation for an assumed miracle.

We posed the question: "What if someone was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and it just disappeared without any treatment or other means to heal it?" The Big O said that Hume would more readily believe that it was a misdiagnosis of the cancer. Hume appears to be what some refer to as a "stick in the mud" or a "wet blanket."

Group 3

I floated on out of Group 2 over to Group 3, where they were talking about freedom.  What is freedom?  Are we generally free?  Is anyone free?  Are people born free?

Freedom is red, white and blue. Freedom is the stars and bars, baby! Freedom is liberty, justice and the American Way!!

But seriously, I would have to say that we aren't free, even from birth.  Here in the U.S., we are given a social security number, birth certificate and medical record from the moment we enter this world.  Privacy is limited, and it is becoming more so faster and faster. I personally believe that we have many freedoms, more than most, but one cannot say that we are free.

After our discussion on freedom, the group asked me what we had talked about earlier in my group. I told them about our discussion on Hume and miracles, and I was surprised by the first response.

One of the members of Group 3 had an experience almost identical to the one we had discussed in Group 2.  His father had gone to the doctor, and a tumor the size of a grapefruit was found in his gut.  He returned shortly after, and the tumor had completely disappeared. I couln't believe that our hypothetical scenario from Group 2 had actually happened before to someone in Group 3! Dr. Oliver again stated that Hume would not believe that it was a miracle, but that there must be a logical explanation.

Group 1

By the time I got to Group 1, they had drifted away from their philosophical discussions, and were instead discussing more business of the class.  They had assigned readings, and they were helping a member catch up on the class after missing a couple sessions. We discussed the upcoming test as well as the final project. The end of the period came quickly, and we parted ways for the weekend.

I had a good experience as a floater, and it was fun to mix it up.  My only question: Does the floater post count as a base, a run, or what? Thank you!

6 comments:

  1. Jason dziadosz11:30 PM CDT

    In depth post dude!! Wish I had been there!

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  2. Floater is just another position on the field, you don't automatically score or collect a base just by doing it. But it's intrinsically rewarding, getting to sample and enter various conversations. Right?

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  3. Sure! Except that now I feel like this post was a waste of time...

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  5. It was only a waste of time if it didn't advance your own and others' learning. There's a lot more to this process of education than grades and rewards. "What's in it for me?" is not the right question.

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  6. Just found this while Googling my name. How rude of me to call the post a waste of time! Blame it on my being jaded during my graduating semester. Hope all is well, Dr. Oliver!

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