07/27/2017

Another day of school done, now its time to actually get to work. I have four days to get through two books and a 40 page paper. Write an analysis of the paper then take two test over the books. I also have a quiz for another class. My political philosophy class has a paper due Tuesday and a test due Monday. This is one week of school on top of which I work three jobs. A bit crazy especially knowing that the following two weeks are only going to increase in work since that will be the end of the 8 week summer semester. If I can pass all these classes, graduate school really shouldn't be any worse.... We'll see.

A Great Starting Point

"But the truly strong ones will quietly wait, observe, and then fight wars such as there have never been in mankind's earlier history." pg. 116

If you are interested in diving into a study of existentialism and the writings of Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Kofka, an amazing starting read is a small book by William Hubben. It is a concise overview of who they were, why they were who they were, and outlines in broad strokes their career and works. An excellent read for those just who just wish to grasp a basic understanding of these philosophical giants.

What should you strive for from your Undergraduate Education?

Have you ever wondered why you should pursue an undergraduate education? Perhaps you have  and spending so much money for a piece of stock paper with some printed words. Many students go off to college because it is either expected from them or because it is a standardized requirement for a good paying job. I have heard both reasons given in my time at university. While they are both correct in why we attend university, they do not explain the reason behind why the degree is important or what it represents. If we acknowledge that this small piece of paper is a symbol of something much more, we may begin to grasp the purpose and value of an undergraduate education.
wondered what was the point of taking so many classes

The Purpose of University

Jordan Peterson talks about what the purpose of university truly is. Every person who plans or is currently in college should watch this video and learn its message.

Dr. Jordan B. Peterson Research crowdfunding endeavor...

Below is a video explaining the situation of Dr. Peterson. His research has been denied funding do to political reasons and this is a great tragedy. Below outlines what donations would cover and how to go about making donations of any size to his lab. If a person is looking for a good cause to support, this is one which should be considered.

New Project / Venture

I am planning to start a new project soon. Once I get through some meetings and find some other information I will publish an update that outlines the full project. Hopefully this goes the way I want it to, so far it looks as if it will launch. Fingers crossed....

A Comment on Education by Norbert Wiener

“Lord only knows that there are enough problems yet to be solved, books to be written, and music to be composed! Yet for all but a very few, the path to these lies through the performance of perfunctory tasks which in nine cases out of ten have no compelling reason to be performed. Heaven save us from the first novels which are written because a young man desires the prestige of being a novelist rather than because he has something to say! Heaven save us likewise from the mathematical papers which are correct and elegant but without body or spirit. Heaven save us above all from the snobbery which not only admits the possibility of this thin and perfunctory work, but which cries out in a spirit of shrinking arrogance against the competition of vigor and ideas, wherever these may be found!”

The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society, Norbert Wiener, pp. 134

Quotes From Today's Reading

Below are a few quotes I came across in The Human Use of Human Being: Cybernetics and Society by Norbert Wiener.

"Variety and possibility are inherent in the human sensorium- and are indeed the

 key to man's most noble flights- because variety and possibility belong

 to the very structure of the human organism."

"The human species is strong only insofar as it takes advantage of the innate

adaptive, learning faculties that its physiological structure makes possible."

"Cybernetics takes the view that the structure of the machine or of the organism

is an index of the performance that may be expected from it."

Another Day

Today was day two of my new job. The computer systems were not working so I was only productive in the since that I showed up on time and left only moments after arriving. At which point, I spent a better part of two hours with my mother. After this, I went home where I watched a documentary on the history of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. This was about an hour long, but it was interesting to learn how unknown Einstein was up until his elder years. Following this my brother and his girlfriend wanted to go to the gym, and I myself felt the need to get out of the house for a while. We spent about and hour there, splitting the time between cardio and lifting exercises. We did close grip bench press, dips, and sets of hammer curls. As for cardio they both enjoy running; I however prefer to walk at a fast past. I have always found this to be much more enjoyable and it always feels like I produce some of my most productive thinking as I walk. While walking today, I tuned on a YouTube video produced by Dr. Jordan Peterson. He argues for free speech and in the video I watched he talked to another professor about this topic. I will link the video here. Dr. Peterson is one of a handle full of people that I am constantly watching and listening too. This may in a large part be due to the fact I study psychology and wish to pursue clinical practice. Anyway, I digress. Once I got back to the apartment, I sat outside with a Pepsi and one of my books and read a chapter out of it. This was a new book I just started yesterday, and it talks about the use of cybernetics. The chapter I read today was mainly focused on the concept of Entropy. I went back inside after the sun went down, and read a couple of pages from Beyond Good and Evil. I find this book very hard to read, mostly because I can read one page and it promotes a whole day's worth of thought. The last book I have been reading before I head to bed is always Crime and Punishment. I'm about a hundred pages into it now and I am finding it harder and harder to put down. It has been a long time since I have been this fascinated with a narrative. I have a personality test tomorrow and I have done nothing today to prepare, I am beginning to feel very sluggish when it comes to school. I feel as is I learn and understand more when I study on my own accord. Four months of lazy, busy work is not for me I guess, but what is there to do other than suck it up to receive that magical little paper that states you can now earn a decedent living pay. Anyway, today was overall a good day. Tomorrow I am back at school, and I hope something will interest me....     

A quote I ran across today while doing research:

If modern science is a religion, then one of its presiding deities must be Sherlock
Holmes. To the modern scientist as to the great detective, every mystery is a problem,
and every problem can be solved. A mystery can exist only because of human
ignorance, and human ignorance is always remediable. (Wendell Berry 2001, 27)

No Campus for White Men | Scott Greer and Stefan Molyneux

A Quote from Man and His Symbles

"Thus a rift arose between man's traditional Christianity and his rational or intellectual mind. Since that time, these two sides of modern man have never been brought together. In the course of the centuries, with man's growing insight into nature and its laws, this division has gradually grown wider; and it still splits the psyche of the western Christian in the 20th century." - pg. 273

"His soul has lost its roots and he is threatened by dissociation" - pg. 284 

Renaissance religious art shows a reorientation to the earth and the body: plans for churches based on the body's proportions, drown by the 15-century Italian artist and architect Francesco di Giorgio.

Time & Place

Today in my English course we discussed the idea of time and place while analyzing a short essay. The essay being, "Dwelling: making peace with space and place" by Deborah Tall. We talked mostly about how people identify with the local or more specifically, how our "Self" is made up largely of where we identify as "home". The idea that we associate strongly with a time and place is not a new idea; however, to what extent these factors influence who we are as an individual is something that struck me today.  In Tall's work, she provides us an example of a town which was wiped off the maps, and removed from the earth by the German army during World War II. A Jewish woman returned to the area after the war to find that everything she once knew was gone, and believed it worse than the death of her family.

When we are born the first thing we learn is where we live and our surroundings. As children we explore the woods, alleys, streams, and from these adventures, we begin to define our perception of the world. This is the foundation from which we build our world around. If we think of our personality, or even our belief of what the world contains in a hierarchical structure, it is simple to see how a large part of one's overall  "Self" can be directly rooted in their place of origin. But the question which is persistently eating away at me is, "What happens to the individual's perception when the foundation of all he or she knows is obliterated out of existence?".  Think of the 1900's when the average person was thrust out of their home to fight in a world war or was subjected to horrible governmental abuse of power in such cases as Soviet Russia, or Communism China. It is well documented that those who survived these long ordeals returned to their homes and found them unrecognizable. Even soldiers today sometimes after long deployments find it hard to reconnect with their original homes. This dissociation of place and time leads to great mental anguish. This has lessened in the past 60 years largely due to the fact people have become much more "rootless". The concept of rootless is complex and this post has become rather long so I am going to end my thoughts for now, perhaps I will return to it later with a more refined paper... for now anyway I have to go to class....