Cause of military plane crash in Poland sought
20 killed; officers on board had been attending flight safety conference
Savage or Noble – Do you wnt to know?
I worked out deductive arguments to answer this question; i have the logic written out, I won’t give it out to anyone who hasn’t tried to work the solution outo themselves – but if you’ve tried and you’re stumped – or want validation, let me know and I’ll be happy to provide it!
You are the sole survivor of a shipwreck and are drifting in a small raft parallel to the coast of an island. You know that on this island there are only two tribes of natives: Nobles, kind folk who always tell the truth and Savages, cannibals who always lie. Naturally, you want to find refuge with the Nobles. You see a man standing on the shore and call out, “Are you a Noble or a Savage?” The man answers the question, but a wave breaks on the beach at that very moment, so you don’t hear the reply. The boat drifts farther down along the shore when you see another man. You ask him the same question, and he replies, pointing to the first man, “He said he was a Noble.” Then he continues, “I am a Noble.” Your boat drifts farther down the shore where you see a third man. You ask him the same question. The man seems very friendly as he calls out, “They are both liars. I am a Noble. They are Savages.”
Who are the Nobles and who are the Savages?
(From Philosophy: The Quest for Truth, Louis P. Pojman)
Do you search for truth?
“Very few really seek knowledge in
this world. Mortal or immortal, few
really ask. On the contrary, they try
to wring from the unknown the
answers they have already shaped in
their own minds – justification,
explanations, forms of consolation
without which they can’t go on. To
really ask is to open the door to the
whirlwind. The answer may
annihilate the question and the
questioner.”
Spoken by the Vampire Marius in
Ann Rice’s book The Vampire Lestat
Ballantine Books. New York, NY. 1985.
A presuppositional Compatibilist?
I have met so many people that seem to subscribe to what I would call Objectivism (although in truth, after looking this up for this post, it appears that someone has already laid claim to this term, and I make no claim to a comparison between my use and their use), where they believe that their views are totally mind independent, that they can interchange in the economy of idea’s without having any presupposed bias.
In my view of existence, that there is no being-independent reasoning, I would make references to Aristotle’s Prime Mover (The First Cause) – to state that outside of the prime mover there is no uncaused cause (in some ways I’m a Compatibilist [That is – I believe in determinism and free-will all at the same time]) – in fact, in regards to pre-existing thought – I would probably be considered a presuppositionalist like Van Til – stating that all human thought presupposes the existence of the God of the Bible – but no – I’m not prepared to argue that point (yet). 🙂
To me reason is not abstract from being.
Prayer of Thanks…
This Prayer of thanks just came out of my mouth today while walking to get the mail…..
Prayer of Thanks
01/08/2008
Thank you Lord for the break today
From the cold and nasty weather
As if you planned to remind us Lord
That winter’s don’t last forever
What Philosophy means to me..
The formal definition of Philosophy can be stated as such: The Love of Knowledge (from the two Greek words philos and sophia). The material definition of Philosophy can be described as Lewis Pojman does:
[Philosophy] begins with wonder at the world, aims at truth and wisdom, and hopefully results in a life filled with meaning and moral goodness. It is centered in clarifying concepts and analyzing and constructing arguments regarding life’s perennial and perplexing questions. (Pojman, 2006).
Marcus Buckingham wrote a book called “Now Discover your strengths”, in this book, it was made evidently clear to me what I have almost always known, since becoming conscience of my own cognitive aberrations – I am truly a philosopher at heart.
Of my top 3 greatest strengths are Strategy, Learning and Context – I am driven by examining all portions of a problem and seeking the best and most intelligent strategy, constantly driven to learn and grow, taking a strong emphasis on the past to understand the context of every situation before looking towards the present in relation to the future.
Young children have this tendency to walk around in their lives and constantly ask “Why”, “Why”, “Why”; most adults (as I do) find this a rather annoying quality of children. However, I have never grown out of it myself.
From an early age, long before I was introduced to ideas like Descartes Method of Doubt, it has been my life’s goal to constantly question my own beliefs, question the teachings I have been given as a child, and to search for truth.
This quest has brought a lot of trouble and heart ache into my life, walking away from convictions that your friends and family hold to be true, because they are unsupportable and irrational can be a dark and lonely road, and yet, as was stated by Martin Luther when standing before the Church fathers at the Diet of Worms: “Unless I am convinced by holy scripture, or by evident reason… I cannot and will not recant, because acting against one’s conscience is neither safe nor sound”
Regardless of the problems in my life that the love of knowledge has caused, with this relentless drive in the pursuit of knowledge comes a greater appreciation and an awakened beauty, for each and every new concept that comes through and knocks down my world as I know it. As I grow and grasp, I am left with the sense of waking up on a summer’s morning inside of a hot and stuffy tent, unzipping the door and stepping out into fresh sunlight and to indescribable sights and sounds.
I will never cease to be awestruck through, in and around the world as it exists – I shall cling to the reformation motto of “Semper Reformanda” – and hope there never comes a time in my life that I am not ready, able and willing to learn and grow.
Philosophy to me is the foundation of my existence.
Works Cited
Oberman, H. A. (2006). Luther: Man Between God and the Devil. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Pojman, L. P. (2006). Philosophy : The Pursuit of Wisdom 5th Ed. Belmont: Holly J. Allen.
Are you really free?
Premise 1) If everything is caused, then no one is free
Premise 2) Everything is caused
Therefore: No one is free
This statement is a valid, solid deductive argument. If you don’t agree with the conclusion, then you must disagree with one of the two premises.
I’m curious – what are your thoughts?
Wow – what happen next?
I only checked his blogs every one to two months – last time I read, everything was going fine – if only I had been using RSS back then.
Today I found out that Robert Jordan passed away over two months ago. I’m deeply saddened.
He is by far, to me, one of the best Sci Fi writers I have ever read (in fact, I have read his 12 books in his series so far two times over), with his intricate, detailed, masterful weaving of the wheel of time, I have always been amazed.
I didn’t know him personally, but by reading his blogs, and reading his books, I felt that I knew quite a lot about him; seeing someones creative nature really gives you an insight of what they are capable of – a reflection into the creator who created them with their gifts.
Our loss is his gain. Not even knowing him, but being so enthralled with his books, I sit here feeling like I have also lost a part of me – strange I know.
Gone but not forgotten…
I only checked his blogs every one to two months – last time I read, everything was going fine – if only I had been using RSS back then.
Today I found out that Robert Jordan passed away over two months ago. I’m deeply saddened.
He is by far, to me, one of the best Sci Fi writers I have ever read (in fact, I have read his 12 books in his series so far two times over), with his intricate, detailed, masterful weaving of the wheel of time, I have always been amazed.
I didn’t know him personally, but by reading his blogs, and reading his books, I felt that I knew quite a lot about him; seeing someones creative nature really gives you an insight of what they are capable of – a reflection into the creator who created them with their gifts.
Our loss is his gain. Not even knowing him, but being so enthralled with his books, I sit here feeling like I have also lost a part of me – strange I know.
Quid Est Veritas
Why did the Greeks Analyze and Critique their religion?
Philosophy from its inception has always tried to answer the quintessential question “Why is there something, rather than nothing” as well as the famous question of the Roman governor Pontius Pilate “Quid est Veritas?” (What is truth?). Our reading also describes what it feels to be the ultimate philosophical question: “What is the nature of the cosmos”
The Greek Philosophers like Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle had within themselves what Philosopher’s many years later referred to as “our need to know God”. I think one of our strongest desires to know God, is to thus know ourselves. We want to understand God, because, as our creator, we are made in his image (so we are told in the book of Genesis) and the more we know about that image, the more we can understand about ourselves.
As Augustine of Hippo stated, our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God
Greek Philosophers had this insatiable desire to be filled with knowledge and understanding, but had at their disposal only a general revelation of the origins of humanity. They were, however, given this strong desire to seek out and study the nature of knowledge and the world around them.
It is interesting to me, to see many years later, the Apostle Paul walking into the Areopagus in Athens and using words from their own Philosophers, Epimenides and Aratus, to explain to them that they have this idea of God that has been placed in their minds through general revelation, and that if they truly want to know God, he is not far from any of them.
This is, as C.S. Lewis puts it in his book “Mere Christianity”,
God sent the human race what I call good dreams: I mean those queer stories scattered all through the heathen religions about a god who dies and comes to life again and, by his death, has somehow given new life to men.
The Greek Philosophers, therefore, I believe were analyzing and critiquing their religion to continue the ever relentless quest to answer the question “Quid Est Veritas?” which in bitter irony was the question asked of the man called Jesus of Nazareth, of which, he himself was the answer.
Works Cited
Augustine. (2002, 07 13). Confessions of St. Augustine Bishop of Hippo. Retrieved 12 07, 2007, from Leadership University: http://www.leaderu.com/cyber/books/augconfessions/bk1.html
Bishop, P. (2007). Adventures in the Human Spirit. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Groothius, D. (2006, 05 15). Incorrect Pascal Quotes. Retrieved 12 07, 2007, from The Constructive Curmudgeon: http://theconstructivecurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2006/05/incorrect-pascal-quotes.html