Up@dawn 2.0

Thursday, February 28, 2019

Native American Pragmatism




The Tlingit people are native to the icy islands of Southeastern Alaska with exceptional skills of fishing and hunting of fish, cod salmon, seal, venison, sometimes bears, and variety of berries. Throughout history, Russian fur traders were sent by Aleksey Chirikov. Then in 1802, began the Battle of Sitka for control over native lands. Foreword to 1867, Russia sold Alaska to the U.S. and as Europeans colonized, they killed natives with various diseases. Soon after, logging and mining profited in Alaska.
 Some traditional beliefs of creation of all things that gave everything spirits and control of the Sun, Moon, and Stars, and daylight is Kah- shu-gooh- yah. Which prompted deep respect and thanks for the plants and animals that gave them a means to survive. Living near the sea, fish, caught with harpoons, nets, and made bone fishhooks while on canoes. Halibut, herring, cod, and salmon can be cooked in a variety of ways and preserved for colder months. In addition, seal, clams, shellfish, fish eggs, venison, and berries were also eaten. Potlatches are traditional feasts to honor their dead, building houses, and totem pole raising. They gather with neighboring tribes in peace to sing, dance, and give speeches and gifts. 

With a population of 22,000 falling under the umbrella of the Inuit people, the Yup’ik people are located in Southwest Alaska and have roots in the Inuit tribes who occupied Russia (Siberia) and Greenland.
In terms of traditions and beliefs, the Yup’ik people look to Ellam Yua, the Creative Force or Spirit of the Universe. Ellam Yua holds great significance to the Yup’ik people - it is believed that Ellam Yua granted them their ways and rules of life, and has endowed everything - the land, the sea, the animals, and the people - with spirit.
Because of this understood connection between themselves, animals, and nature as spiritual beings, utmost respect is to be given to the various types of food and the respective animals from which it came. Fish collected from the ocean are carried in cases, as to not let them touch the ground out of water; seals that are to be used for food are given water before preparation, as they are water animals and should be treated as such, even in the afterlife. It is through these kinds of traditions that they strengthen their bonds with not only nature, but also with Ellam Yua. Certain animals are regarded as sacred in the eyes of the Yup’ik - animals such as wolves, brown bears, killer whales, raven and others are believed to hold spiritual significance, and as a result, killing them can bring about severe misfortune.
To the Alaskan Native tribes, maintaining this relationship with the natural world is vital for our survival - for the Yup’ik, keeping these bonds with nature gives life greater meaning, and provides us with subsistence. In Native tribes all over the world, learning from the elders is the greater part of sustaining the cultures and philosophical beliefs of the Native. However, this personal connection between us and nature is found to be one of personal experience. Back in the more traditional days of tribe life, this meant going out into nature, learning to hunt and do things for yourself, and making mistakes so that you may learn as much as you can through trial and error.

Citations:
Ainana, Ludmila, et al. “Alaska Native Collections – Sharing Knowledge.” Arctic Studies, alaska.si.edu/culture_ne_siberian.asp?subculture=Yupik (Asiatic Eskimo)&continue=1.
Ayunerak, Paula et al. “Yup'ik culture and context in Southwest Alaska: community member perspectives of tradition, social change, and prevention” American journal of community psychology vol. 54,1-2 (2014): 91-9.
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Yupik.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 21 July 2016, www.britannica.com/topic/Yupik.



Quiz Questions:
1. What was the name of the battle fought by Russia and the Tlingit?
2. What were the traditional feasts known as?
3. What is Ellam Yua?
4. Name three animals that held significance to the Tlingit and/or the Yup’ik people.
5. For the Yup’ik, maintaining our relationship with the world around us provides us with what? 


Discussion Questions:
  1. What do you think of the concept of all life on Earth having a deeper, spiritual connection (People, animals, land, etc.)?
  2. Do you believe, personally, that you have discovered this deeper understanding of the natural world? If not, would you like to?
  3. What do you believe is something to take away from the philosophies or beliefs of Indigenous people?





Freedom vs security?


Freedom is good, but security is better. That’s what Thomas Hobbes believed. He made his point by imagining what it would be like to live without government, laws, or society. In this ‘State of Nature’ you could do whatever you wanted to. But anyone else could do whatever they wanted to to you. You’d have plenty of freedom; but you’d live in constant fear. It would be grim.

bbc 

Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes was born in 1588 in England. He lived to the age of 91, which is amazing for his time. He was not born into money but he had a wealthy uncle that supported his development. Eventually, through his uncle's support he made it to the University at Oxford and began tutoring a noble families son and later on would tutor King Charles II. Through this connection, he gained knowledge about the royals and their operations. in 1640 - 1651 Hobbes fled England to France due to the Civil Wars of 1642-46 and 1648-51. His connection to the royals causes him to fear for his safety since during this time they were being assassinated.
    Hobbes would have long drawn out arguments with people from different fields. He was so passionate about arguing that at 80 when he could not write himself, due to “Shaky Palsy”, he would have a secretary write for him to defend his views.
    Hobbes had his hand in a vast amount of fields but his greatest and fame earning achievements were his books on morality and politics. Hobbes famous writings include The Elements of Law(1640), De Cive(1642), Leviathan(1651), De Corpore(1655), De Homine(1657), Behemoth(1682). His biggest intellectual influences can be seen throughout his books. His stance against religious authority being involved in politics and his passion for science and geometry. He was not atheist even though that would seem the case. One of his major points was against the Christian theology being mixed with Aristotelian metaphysics. In other words, he strongly believed that religion and politics should not be mixed.
    Hobbes subscribed to materialist metaphysics, which is the belief that all things that exist are made of matter in some way. Yet he still believed in a spiritual God. Hobbes believed that God should oversee religious worship but not interfere with political ordeals.
    Hobbes belief about how the man should act is pretty simple. If political authority is lacking then save yourself. If it is not, just obey those in power. To him, humans being were machines and the world was essentially a human being too. For the world to be effective it needed a head or an unaccountable leader to decide the political and social direction. This view is based on reasoning from first principles, not science causing many do not subscribe to it.
    Human nature, according to Hobbes, was based around 2 points: human motivation and judgment and reasoning ability. He believed that human judgment ability was lacking and that science should serve as our guide. To Hobbes, war was inevitable due to the natural state of mankind. He believed that government was the best way to stop social conflicts from happening. Hobbes believed freedom was the ability to move freely. Also, he believed that promises held a heavyweight. He is willing to betray promises, it seems, if his personal safety may be affected. Though Hobbes believed that the world should be governed by a head like a king or queen, he did not believe that the monarchs got their power from God.


Quiz:
It was said that Thomas Hobbes was the founding father of what?

What year was Hobbes born?

What school did Hobbes attend?

What book is Hobbes famous for?

Hobbes was a scholar in mathematics, in what branch was he particularly known?

Thomas Hobbes left England in 1640, where did he go to?



Discussion Questions:
   
How can Hobbes believe in God and Materialist Metaphysics?

How is political authority justified and how far does it extend?

How can humans live in peace without fear of conflict?

Are humans machines?




Montaigne 🎂🎂

Happy birthday Michel de Montaigne, (books by this author) born in Perigord, in Bordeaux, France (1533). He is considered by many to be the creator of the personal essay, in which he used self-portrayal as a mirror of humanity in general. Writers up to the present time have imitated his informal, conversational style. He said, “The highest of wisdom is continual cheerfulness: such a state, like the region above the moon, is always clear and serene.” WA

He said, "Even on the most exalted throne in the world, we are only sitting on our own rear end." That's French author Michel de Montaigne (books by this author), born near Bordeaux (1533). He was a learned man, a lawyer and a statesman, but he retired from public life in 1571 — on his 38th birthday — to begin a life of study. His chief subject was himself, and he wrote about it in a series of essays called Essais, after the French word meaning "trial" or "attempt." He was revolutionary in his belief that, by examining one's own life, one could better understand the wider world and the human condition. His best friend, the humanist scholar and poet Étienne de la Boétie died in 1563, and Montaigne missed their conversations greatly. His essays were like letters, a kind of conversation between Montaigne and an unknown correspondent; perhaps he thought of his dead friend as he wrote them.
In the essays, he wrote, "Don't discuss yourself, for you are bound to lose; if you belittle yourself, you are believed; if you praise yourself, you are disbelieved."
And "Not being able to govern events, I govern myself."
And "The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself."
And "I care not so much what I am to others as what I am to myself."

Wednesday, February 27, 2019

The Fermi Paradox


The Fermi Paradox: Are we alone?


Ever since humanity has gazed into the abyss of the cosmos we have wondered if there is life beyond this small world in which we find ourselves. It is a common interest all humans share, one that is ingrained deep within our psyche, an urge for discovery, a call to the cold void.

One such example is the Italian scientist Giovanni Schiaparelli. When  he peered through his telescope at the planet Mars in 1877, he noticed something strange. It seemed as though the Red planet had what seemed like large channels on the surface, channels that could possibly carry water, and thus harbor life. Schiaparelli jumped to conclusions, and called these channels Canals, and as this discovery spread throughout the scientific community, astronomers began to speculate that these Canals were made artificially by a Martian civilization.

Of course, with the advancement of technology, better telescopes were developed, and with this scientists discovered that the "canals" on Mars were nothing more than an illusion caused by the poor optics of the time, where scientists were once optimistic about the possibility of a neighboring civilization, they now found themselves at a loss. When Mars was viewed with more powerful tools, it was revealed that Mars was nothing more than a desolate wasteland, a giant ball of dust surrounded by an equally lifeless dark sky.



Scientists continued to search for life within our Solar System for decades, but as astronomical tools improved even more, and rovers plopped down on the surface of distant worlds it became all too clear that there was no apparent signs of life, but there were a lot of rocks.

From here scientists turned their attention outside of our cosmic neighborhood, some opting to use large radio telescopes to comb the skies for unusual radio activity. If they found a strong radio signal, and the data appeared artificial enough, they would try and pinpoint where it came from and continue to monitor that area of the sky for more activity, if these signals repeated, then they would have a candidate for a possible alien civilization. In 1977 they got an answer.

While going through recorded data, Astronomer Jerry R. Ehman, expecting to see the usual cosmic background noise that he usually records, noticed something incredible. A strong signal, incredibly strong in fact, coming from the constellation Sagittarius. He was so impressed with the data that he wrote "Wow!" in red pen right next to the readings, as it looked very possible that they had hit the jackpot, a signal from an alien civilization.



So they pointed their radio arrays towards the signal source and found... nothing. The signal never repeated, and to this day, this radio burst remains a mystery.
After more than 30 years of monitoring the Stars, we have never heard another signal like this. So the question remains, where are all the aliens?


Buddhism & Philosophy by Abby Pittman, Olivia Edgar, and Whitley Allen

Most of us became familiar with Buddhism in elementary school and middle school through our study of different religions. The Buddhist idea that often comes to mind is reincarnation. However, we often don’t see Buddhist practices past the religious aspect of it. 
Robert Wright, in his book Why Buddhism Is True, explores the connection to science and philosophy that Buddhism correlates to. Wright compares Buddhism to the popular movie The Matrix. The character Neo is stuck living in a hallucination, which he believes to be very real. His body is kept inside of a pod along with many others who were put there by robots. The dreams were designed to keep them pacified. Rebels entered in to Neo’s dream to inform him of his delusional life. Because it’s a difficult thing to explain without seeing, Neo is offered a red pill in order to break through his shell of delusion, but he is also given the chance to take a blue pill to return to his dream world. He chose the red pill. 
Following the practices of Buddhism is taking the red pill. The basic premise of Buddhism is to see the metaphysical truth, the way things truly are. Our feelings, thoughts, and perceptions are often illusions. Our brains were designed to delude us. Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, a Tibetan Buddhist, said “Happiness comes down to choosing between the discomfort of becoming aware of your mental afflictions and the discomfort of being ruled by them.” Buddhists believe that you must deal with the discomfort of being aware of your problems in order to solve them. Meditation is a common way that people choose to reflect on their feelings and see clarity and truth. 
Then, there’s the idea of natural selection. We’re all familiar with the idea of natural selection (hopefully), so I’ll describe it briefly to refresh our memories. The idea of natural selection is accredited to Charles Darwin (remember the birds?) and is defined as the process that organisms developed and changed over time to suit their environment to increase their chance of reproduction and survival. One of the ideas expressed by the Buddha was that feelings are often delusional, and he said our feelings are judgments about things within our environment. We can decipher our real feelings from our illusional ones by determining if our feelings lead to the benefit of our well-being, pulling us back to the idea of natural selection. 
Two other fundamental ideas of Buddhism are the ideas of not-self and emptiness. The term self is used to describe the mental and physical experiences that make up a person such as feelings, thoughts, ideas, and attitudes. The Five Aggregates (Form, Feelings, Perceptions, Mental Formations, and Consciousness) can be used to support the idea of not-self. The aggregates are aspects that are out of your control and are constantly changing, so the Buddha create the idea of not-self to stop clinging to these ideals. For example, we cannot willingly change our feelings by saying so; therefore, feelings are not-self. Emptiness is the idea that all things are empty of inherent, independent existence, and this means that nothing stands alone.  

Quiz: 
1) Name one fundamental principle of Buddhism. 
2) How many aggregates are there? 
3) What idea do the aggregates help us understand? 
4) What movie does Robert Wright use to make a comparison to Buddhism? 
5) How can we decide if our feelings are illusional or not? 
6) How are feelings described by the Buddha? 

Discussion Questions: 
1) Have you ever practiced meditation? If so, describe your experience. If not, do you personally believe meditation could positively benefit you? 
2) Do you believe it’s possible for everyone to reach nirvana? Why or why not? 
3) Does the idea of natural selection share a relation with Buddhist ideas? 
4) It could be viewed that Buddhist philosophy could be separated from the religious views. Do you see this concept within other religions? Do you agree? Why or why not? 

Monday, February 25, 2019

Midterm Report: Martin Luther - Sara Kate Martin, Olivia Garrett, Ashley Wyatt, Emily Mannella - Section 9


Martin Luther was the child of Margaret and Hans Luther and was born on November 10th, 1483 in the Holy Roman Empire. Hans Luther wanted a stable life for Martin, so he sent him to school at the age of seven. In school Martin studied Master of Arts, so he could become a lawyer. However, one trip changed everything for Martin. In July of 1505, Martin got caught in a thunderstorm, in which he was sure that he would die. So, he cried out to St. Anna and promised her that he would become a monk in exchange for her saving his life. He survived the storm and became a monk at the Augustinian monastery that same year. He was able to get his Doctor of Theology degree and then began studying Psalms from the Bible. Through his studies he discovered God’s righteousness. This is when his interest in Philosophy began, and he started questioning the Roman Catholic church.
During Martin Luther’s time, many were already questioning the Roman Catholic Church. Translations of the Bible were becoming easily accessible. Luther believed the Bible to be the ultimate religious authority and that one could reach salvation only by faith and God’s divine grace; however, the Church taught that “good deeds” saved your soul and sold “indulgences” to supposedly provided salvation to sinners. Indulgences were banned in Germany, but the Church continued this corrupt practice.
Martin Luther’s 95 Theses, also known as the Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences, was pinned to the door of the All Saints’ Church October 31, 1517, marking the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. Johann Tetzel, a friar, sold indulgences to renovate the St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The actions of Tetzel inspired Thesis 86, which states “Why does not the pope, whose wealth today is greater than the wealth of the richest Crassus, build the basilica of St. Peter with his own money rather than with the money of poor believers?
The 95 Theses left a lasting impact. It supported the idea that all believers were equal. Therefore, you did not need priests. It also called out the Church for being greedy and over-taxing. Obviously, this did not sit well with the Church. The Church issued his writings as heretical and ordered that any of Martin Luther’s writings be burned. They also declared anyone who followed Luther’s teachings or writings heretics.
Luther wrote other works that sparked the attention of the church. In November 1518, the Pope declared Luther’s writings heretical and ordered two papal commissions to examine his work. The first stated his writings were heretical, meaning they opposed the views of the Church. The second stated his writings were “scandalous and offensive to pious ears.” Luther was given 120 days to recant, but Luther refused. He was ordered to recant several times, yet he again refused and went into hiding in Eisenach, Germany for a year and began translating the New Testament into German. The translation which took ten years to complete.

First Exam Quizlet

First Exam Quizlet--El Jo Section 006 


I made a Quizlet including all the quiz questions from our classes so far with the answers! I did not include the quiz questions from our presentations. All the EVEN numbers are marked as Dr. Oliver said he would pull the EVEN quiz questions for the Exam.

I hope this helps everyone! 

https://quizlet.com/_66ysvz




Midterm Paper: Free Will


            Free Will is the concept that we have the choice of our current and future actions, and that we have the choice between different possible courses of action unhindered. Free will is closely related to the concepts of responsibility, praise, guilt and sin. The concept of free will has been argued over the past two millennia after it was coined. The argument of its significance has been argued by some of history’s most famous philosophers Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Descartes, Kant, and many others. An example of the disagreement between some of these philosophers would be the disagreement of free will between Plato and Aristotle. Plato believed that “No one would deliberately choose a worse over a better course of action people's decisions are determined by their understanding”, while Aristotle believed, “It is obvious that there are principles and causes which are generable and destructible apart from the actual processes of generation and destruction; for if this is not true, everything will be of necessity: that is, if there must necessarily be some cause, other than accidental, of that which is generated and destroyed. Will this be, or not? Yes, if this happens; otherwise not.” In short Plato believed that people had the choice to make their decisions based on their understanding of the world and situation around them, while Aristotle believed that people will make decisions whether they understand the situation or not, and that sometimes they have no control over said situations and decisions.
Most people believe that we all have free will, we make our own decisions and choices. But what if I told you that that may not necessarily be case, what if I told you that everything you do is controlled by something else. No I’m not saying we are Sims or that we are all mind controlled, so take off your tin foil hats. There is a thesis by an 18th century philosopher, Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace, that states that scenario. His argument is that all things happen do to something else happening. This belief is called Determinism, and can be compared to the butterfly effect. This belief can be viewed in everyday life from when you get out of bed, to what you make for breakfast, to when you got to class, etc.
Determinism usually isn’t discussed as its neutral form, but instead in its extreme versions. The best way to describe determinism in an extreme way would be with Netflix original Bandersnatch, where the main character is controlled by the decisions of the viewer. The extreme side of determinism is that people actually have no choice, but instead are just puppets to what is happening around them. Determinism isn’t necessarily that, it is best explained as our choices are heavily influence by occurrences and decisions made before our current decision, instead of everything being predetermined. An example of this would be, “When you wake up to eat breakfast, and you decided to eat oatmeal.” Most people would think it was their own free will that made them eat oatmeal, which is true to an extent, but the determinism side of the argument states that because the oatmeal was in your site and other causes such as “you eating cereal all week and wanted a change,” or “it’s the only breakfast food you have at the moment.” Due to some form of external cause you decided to eat oatmeal for breakfast rather than say, eggs or cereal.


Study Guide?

Two bonus bases still available for the first student in each section who posts a Study Guide consisting of all the copy-&-pasted quizzes, including the report quizzes through Thursday.

In the meantime, search the archive for all the quizzes. The exam will be drawn from the even-numbered questions.

Walking and Cognition

Why Walk?

Part I: (Walking and the mind)

Even though I am required to type up only 250 words for my portion of the blog post, I find it very difficult to coalesce my ideas into a formulated train of thought. I attribute some of this difficulty to my lack of motivation, but I also feel that remaining stationary at a desk surrounded by lackluster walls is hardly conducive to productive thought. This is not only the case for typing up short blog posts, but writing essays, studying for finals, and other academic pursuits are hampered by sitting still in unchanging scenery. So what is the prescription? A good walk will not only solve my lack of motion problem but also offer a change of view.

So why is walking beneficial to one’s mind when preoccupied by a task that requires our cognitive abilities? One believed benefit is that by removing ourselves from a task and walking we adopt a different style of thinking. (Gorvett) The way we perceive and process information at a desk is different from when we are walking.


Additionally, sitting still inside a building is just not natural for us. The famous illustration “March of Progress” features our evolutionary lineage with us, Homo sapiens, at the end putting our right foot forward. If you look carefully at the illustration you will see that none of figures are sitting at a desk working on a mundane task. In an evolutionary sense we are not wired to be still but to expose our minds to ever-changing visual stimuli. While walking we construct a mental map of our environment, observing what is around us, determine a way forward, and then translate that plan into footsteps. (Jabr) Walking thus become an exercise in organizing the world around us which is similar to our approach when it comes to writing and studying where we navigate our own thoughts and translate it into material.

Part II: (Walking and the body)

Walking has a lot of benefits as it can affect many things like the way you think the way you feel and your health. Walking can lower your depression risk. Forty- nine Studies by King’s college in London found that only twenty minutes of walking can help with depression because it releases Endorphins that helps to make you feel good and make you don’t think about worries.
Walking can also improve your cognitive function. Harvard Health reported in 2016 that several studies discovered that just 20 to 30 minutes of walking can help you with test and thinking. Walking helps you to deliver more oxygen to your brain by delivering oxygen to the brain it helps with thinking. Walking also cause a release of BDNF which is very important for cognitive function which repairs and generation of new neurons.

Walking also helps with menta and physical fatigue study in by University of Georgia found that 20 minutes can reduce the fatigue level. walking also increases the size of the Hippocampus which it’s good because it decreases the risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease. The bigger the Hippocampus gets the less risk of getting Alzheimer. Hippocampus helps your brain a lot with memory. It improves creativity study in Stanford published in 2014 confirmed that finding walking increases the person’s output by an average of 60%. The most important thing is increasing blood flow to the body organs. Physical activity helps a lot with thinking that is how many philosophers and authors develop their ideas by relaxing their minds and think.

Questions:
  1. When walking we adopt a different style of ______?
  2. Which illustration features Homo sapiens marching forward?
  3. What hormone helps with stress?
  4. How does blood flow to the brain helps with thinking?
  5. Walking improves creativity according to Stanford by an average of ?
  6. What happens to the Hippocampus during walking?
Discussion Q's:

In the future, will it be likely that humans become sedentary beings much like the passengers on the Axiom in the movie WALL-E?

Do you feel that taking a drive or jogging in place is as effective as taking a walk, or that the combination of motion and a change in scenery necessary in enhancing thought?


James Joyce and Stephen Hawking suffered from visual and physical impairments respectively but possessed creative and brilliant minds. How would you promote creative thinking if you could no longer see or walk about your environment?

Image result for March of progress
"March of Progress"
Image result for march of progress sitting
"Modern Man"(Leandro Almeida 2015)





References: