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This week we read C. S. Lewis. This was my first time reading anything written by Lewis, and I must say that I am not disappointed. His writing was very succinct and detailed. He explained his points thoroughly and provided excellent examples. I really liked how his writing provided such a stark contrast to all the other postmodern philosophies we have been reading recently.
While I had previously been a stranger to Lewis' works, I have read many of his quotes before. So I decided to peruse his quotes some more after our reading. One quote that really stood out to me is in the picture below. It really relates to the ideas of postmodernists.

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In class this week, we yet again discussed the postmodern idea that there is no objective truth, that truth is relative. At one point, we brought up societies current use of media, and how major companies truly can influence our whole society. When we were talking about the fact that so many people put so much blind trust in the media, we became concerned with how much influence the media has on our life. It was then that I remembered this picture I had seen floating around on social media and I immediately looked it up. There was not another good opportunity for me to bring it up in class, so I figured I would post it here.
I think this picture perfectly illustrates the way the media can twist and alter events, often completely changing their context. I really think it is important as individuals, to take the time to fully asses news and research it before making conclusions/assumptions.

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When we read Foucault, despite his writing “What is Enlightenment” be wordy and somewhat difficult to understand, I couldn’t help but wonder about his life. I wanted to know what lead him to come up with his philosophy. So I researched him and found a few interesting videos about him. These videos really discuss Foucault’s thoughts on power and the ruling class. I found these videos very interesting and informative. I couldn’t help but find myself agreeing with what Foucault thought.
Video 2:
https://youtu.be/EFaxgB5TygE

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Postmodernism is certainly interesting, but it brings up interesting thoughts about if what we know as fact is actually factual. I found this picture online when I type 'facts' into google. It has always intrigued me to know that we believe facts to be absolutely true, yet so many of the "facts" we have believed throughout history have been disproved. Take geocentrism for example, for a while people believed that until someone rose up and contested it. It really makes me wonder if postmodernism really had some merit in the claim that there is no absolute truth. Obviously, as Christians, we believe in an absolute truth but I can understand how others might not think there is an absolute truth. I think it interestingly links back to Nietzsche's perspectivism. Is fact really all based on a person's individual perspective.

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I could not help but agree with Marx when he claimed that the bourgeois gained their wealth at the exploitation of the working class. So many people try to act like these injustices do not exist. They even make claims like "it's not as bad as when there was child labor" or "at least workers aren't beaten or forced to work in unsafe environments. They say these things like we should be grateful enough to have moved past these atrocities, that we keep our mouth shuts about current problems. I think that is a recipe for disaster. So many problems are swept under the rug with the whole "it could be worse" spill. I think this the real problem that hinders progress. People (mostly those unaffected) refuse to acknowledge that there are still things that need to be fixed. They think people should just suck it up and deal, because it's not as bad as it was/could be. I think this is the excuse people use to convince themselves and others not to strive for change.

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Week 1: Existentialism
So, when we were reading Sartre, I was very confused by some points. I definitely did not fully grasp what Sartre was trying to say, nor did I understand the full thought process of Existentialism. I struggled through those 40+ pages for a long time ( I also wondered when I had forgotten how to comprehend English). I wish I had seen this video before reading that long essay and feeling dumb for not being able to get it.
I’m sure many of you know how awesome crash course videos are. I found this video to be very interesting because it even includes the teachings of earlier philophers, such as Plato, and shows the differences between Existentialism and any other philosophy that came before it. It explains why Existentialism kind of blew up out of nowhere and why people were so confused by it.
Anyways, I hope it helps you if you need to understand Existentialism a little more.

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Existentialism: Crash Course Philosophy #16

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Week 7: Dancing through the Lies of History?

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Week 7: Dancing through the Lies of History?

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In class, I spoke about two songs that reminded me of some of Nietzsche’s ideas that we discussed from On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense.
The two songs were "Dancing Through Life" and "Wonderful" from the Broadway musical Wicked.
"Dancing Through Life" reminded me of Nietzsche's thoughts that there is no overarching purpose for life. In class, we then wondered what was the point of ever trying to accomplish anything. One of the lines from the song that I mentioned was "Life's more painless, For the brainless" and "Nothing matters, But knowing nothing matters". Sounds a lot like postmodernity's "there is no absolute truth (except for this statement)" spiel.

"Wonderful" relates to the idea that all truth is relative. It reminds me a lot about Nietzsche's ideas on perspectivism. The lines I mentioned in class were, "Elphaba, where I'm from, we believe all sorts of things that aren't true. We call it—"history."
A man's called a traitor—or liberator
A rich man's a thief—or philanthropist
Is one a crusader—or ruthless invader?
It's all in which label
Is able to persist."
I really think these songs hit on some interesting points that show Nietzsche's ideas.
(also, padlet only let me formally link one video, so the link in pink below is for "Dancing Through Life")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNA3RTvFH6E

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Wonderful Lyrics Video From Wicked The Musical

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Week 2: Darwin and Theories
This week in class, we discussed Darwin’s ideas on moral evolution. Also known as, the development of consciousness and social/moral norms in humans. However, when Darwin is brought up, the biggest elephant in the room is his theory of evolution. You can’t speak about Darwin without talking about evolution.
In class, it was brought to my attention that sometimes, people don’t understand the difference between a scientific theory and a hypothesis. This has always been something that has frustrated me because so many people think they can entirely throw out what Darwin discovered because they are ignorant to the true definition of a scientific theory. A scientific theory is not a hunch, it’s not something that has been cooked up by tin-foil hat wearing conspiracy theorists either. I find it disappointing that people think scientists would accept something without researching it thoroughly. I mean, the definition of science is “knowledge about or study of the natural world based on facts learned through experiments and observation.”
So, in order to clear up some of the confusion about theories, I have linked a video that was shown to me in high school when I first learned about Darwin. This video explains why saying something is a “theory” in science isn’t a bad thing, in fact, it’s quite the opposite.

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Fact vs. Theory vs. Hypothesis vs. Law… EXPLAINED!

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I spoke about this picture in class on Thursday and I really wanted to find the exact picture to post here this week . So, the first time I started questioning how America’s economic system worked was in the 4th grade. I asked my dad how our country could possibly be in debt when we print our own money. I just couldn’t fathom the idea, and I was incredibly naive. My dad then proceeded to explain inflation, taxes, and capitalism to me at a level that I did not completely understand. He then asked me this question, “should the people that make more money (by that he meant the 1% millionaires and billionaires) pay more taxes?” I confidently said yes, thinking that those who are fortunate enough to have so much should have no problem sharing with those who were less fortunate. My dad then adamantly explained to me why that was wrong and how too many people take advantage of other people’s hard work. I just couldn’t help but think, as my naive little 10 year old self, why wouldn’t people want to help others. I never thought about how dishonest people would then see the perfect opportunity to live off of someone else’s livelihood.  I remember being so sad learning about this. As I grew older, it continued to bother me that humanity can’t live in a way where everyone cares for other people and works together so that everyone can succeed. It makes me think about how selfish people are, both the ones that make millions and keep it all to themselves and those who cheat systems set in place to help the poor or disabled just so they can live an easy life. This picture makes me long for a world where we can trust and care for each other without having to worry about people cheating them.

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Week 3: Freud and Religion
I found this quote from Freud’s “Future of an Illusion” to be so interesting. We discussed in class how Freud thought that humanity relies on religion because they crave for a “powerful father figure” to protect and love them. I couldn’t help but wonder about Christianity when he said this. As Christian’s, we call God our father and He says we are His children. We have a healthy fear of our Father and we know He will protect us. God gives our lives meaning and provides an example to follow.
I just wondered if I would agree with what Freud was saying if I was an atheist like him. It made me think about what atheists may think when they look in on Christianity from the outside.
If for example, you were an atheist like Freud trying to explain why people cling to religion, do you think you could agree with him?