Why Philosophy?
People often ask me why I study philosophy. What can you do with philosophy besides teach?” My answer to that question is “You can think.” Part of philosophy is critical thinking which is the ability to question your (or anyone else’s) assumptions, discover and hopefully articulate good reasons for your position, no matter what your position is. Everyone has a position on every issue, even if it is, “I don’t know.” One can then ask this person, “Why do you not know? Should you have a view on this issue?” Even if your view is that some issue does not matter, you must defend that view against the person who does think that that issue matters. And defending your view requires the ability to use your reason (which of course is thinking) in order to discover what good or bad reasons are and the best support for your position.
Philosophy can be used to help convince people that you are right, and (sometimes, when it’s done correctly, and depending on your opponent’s view) that they are wrong.
As just one of its many specializations, philosophy contains the study of ethics, which is the study of happiness and how best to attain it (or indeed if and how that is possible). The main questions of ethics are “What is happiness?” and “How should I live?” There are, as you might guess, many and varied answers to these questions. I would guess that every single person is, and should be, interested in whether we can be happy, what happiness is, and how we can act so as to obtain happiness (assuming it exists).
What did you learn today that would be considered philosophy?
October 19th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Today I learned that in order to be successful in life, you have to strive to make yourself balanced. Basically, balance is the key to life. Just like the four elements of earth, there are the four elements of man which are mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional. Mr. Chung told us that our goals are outside of the box and that we need to expand that box so we can reach our goals in life. He also said that women tend to more emotional and spiritual and need to work on the mental and physical more, but men are the opposite. Another thing that I learned is that when people think they are right all the time, that’s their paradigm in life. People will then fight and that’s how genocide, wars, segregation, and other bad things start because people always think their truth is the real and only truth.
A freaky but very interesting thing that happened today is when Mr. Chung told us to connect 9 dots without lifting your pencil using only 4 straight lines. Automatically everyone thought that you had to make a square. In the end, you did not need to make a square. He just said to connect the dots. To me, that was really freaky because that’s how a paradigm works!
Today, I had a lot of epiphanies. Before I learned all of this today, I was just in my own little world. It was amazing that during the time Mr. Chung was talking about life, I never realized how much I didn’t know. What really shocked me is when he told us about the jobs thing. An adult, for example, thinks he can only do a job that pays $50,000, and he/she will only shoot for jobs that pay that exact amount when there are other jobs that pay more. So if your don’t become open-minded, everything will practically stay the same. You have to look at other perspectives and understand them to be successful.
So be open minded and have more than one perspective. It will help you in the future!:)
October 20th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Wot yu tink!
October 20th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Some things that I learned today which I would consider philosophy is when we had to connect nine dots using only four lines. Many of us thought that you had to make a square because that is our paradigm. We don’t think outside the box.
A lot of sayings are philosophy like “I think, therefore I am” and “A man who goes to sleep with an itchy butt will wake up with a stinky finger,” or “Don’t worry, be happy.” These are just some sayings or thoughts. I learned that philosophy is how a person’s thoughts guide or influence his/her behavior or choices.
Another thing that I learned that could be considered philosophy is when we talked about the world’s largest super-collider. Scientists who are working on this project hope to re-create the Big Bang Theory when life started. This tells me that they don’t believe in creation or that God created all things. They are not sure what will happen, and some worry that it will create black holes that will swallow up the Earth. I don’t agree with their philosophy in trying to re-create life from an explosion.
October 20th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Money does not mean happiness nor is it an indicator of success. Besides the best things in life are free like hugs and smiles!
October 20th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
I think when Mr.Chung made nine dots and asked us to connect them with only four lines without taking our pencils off the paper, he was teaching us about life. Everyone kept on trying to make a square but it didn’t work so finally Mr.Chung showed us that it wasn’t even a square, it was an arrow. It goes to show that everybody’s paradigm is just looking at it and doing it in the simplest way. You have to think outside of the box to be successful. When I’m doing work and I have a really hard question like the tangram project, I had to think outside of the box to find the answer. I showed my Dad and told him to try and figure it out. All he said was think out of the box. When Mr.Chung told us that everybody was just doing boxes, I was sort of amazed that no one got it.
I thought this was going to be an easy thing but actually it was very difficult. I didn’t get it but when Mr.Chung told us the answer, it all made sense. I had an epiphany that if I wanted to make it in life, I had to think outside of the box.
October 20th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
I think that the lesson we learned today was about thinking outside of the box. First, we needed to connect nine dots that were in a square position with four straight lines. Everybody was making lines inside the box. Then Mr.Chung connected it to our life by saying the box is our paradigm and a lot of the times, we can’t think outside of it. Afterwards, he made an example. Say, you think you are worth 40,000 dollars a year and you open up the newspaper and look at the jobs available. There is a job that pays 100,000 dollars a year and you say to yourself, “I’m not worth that much.” Maybe you are, but your paradigm is that you are worth only $40,000. You will then decide to look only at the jobs that are $40,000 and under.
LOOK OUTSIDE YOUR BOX!!!!!
October 20th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Today, Mr. Chung brought up the four elements (wind, water, earth, and fire). It is similar to our lives (spiritual/supportive, emotional, mental/smart/wealth, and phisical/healthy). He picked someone to evaluate himself on those four things from 1-10. Mr. Chung wrote those four things on the four sides of a box. The boy had an uneven box because of the numbers he chose, so did a girl who did the same. That lesson meant that we need to be balanced. If one is in good shape but not so smart, he’s not going to be successful in life. If someone is very spiritual but not healthy, he’ll be in the hospital a lot. So, like I said before, we need to be balanced.
We also did an activity with nine dots. We had to connect them all with only four straight lines. We had to go outside the box to achieve this task. The nine dots represent our paradigm and our life right now. OUTSIDE that box are our goals (being rich, getting a good job, being happy). If we think the same way all the time, we will never achieve those goals. We will be staying in our own little box. If we think differently, we WILL achieve those goals.
So, to recap. We need to be in balance and think outside of the box.
October 20th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Today we learned that our goal is to make our life not mediocre. We also learned that if you think that you are not good enough, then you won’t do it. For example, in a rating for you 1 to 10 on how beautiful or handsome you think you are, you consider yourself a 7, and then you see this beautiful woman that you think is a 10. What happens is you won’t go talk to her because you think she is too good for you. Instead, you would go for a girl that is your rating and not your dream girl. You would then probably have a mediocre life. If had a perfect life all the sides of a square would be equal . The sides of the square are mental, physical, emotional, and something else that I forgot. I also think this is so creapy, don’t you think.
October 20th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
I think the lesson we learned today was to be in balance and to think outside of the box. First we had to connect nine dots using 4 straight lines without lifting our pen. Everybody was drawing squares but really the answer was a triangle with a line going through it. Everybody thought it was a square because their paradigm said it was a squarish figure. Mr. Chung was trying to get us to think outside the box because if we don’t do that we are going to have a mediocre life and nothing is going to change. If stay the same, then your dreams will stay outside your box. In order to achieve your dreams, you need to expand your box so you can be successful in life. The box is our paradigm so if it’s not big enough, your life won’t show that you are successful. For example, there is a man who is 20 years old and gets a job that pays 50,000 dollars a year. When he gets fired, he looks at a newspaper. There are some jobs that pay $200,000 a year but the man crosses out those jobs because he thinks he doesn’t qualify for it. Then, there is a job that pays 50,000 dollars a year and he circles that job because he knows he will do great and won’t mess up. He just threw away a possible good job because he thinks it’s not easy and he will mess up. So don’t be afraid to change and remember to EXPAND YOUR BOX!!!
October 20th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Hey Kody! You spell creepy like this C-R-E-E-P-Y and you forgot the question mark at the end of that sentence.
October 20th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Some things that I learned today that I would consider philosophy is to go outside the box. Well when we started to learn about this, Mr.Chung told us to connect nine dots with four straight lines, without lifting up your pen. He said that everyone he saw was making a square to connect the dots (except Kyla). He said that everyone’s paradigm when they look at the nine dots is a square. They only saw those dots as a square. I think he is saying that we should think outside the box so we will be more successful in life because if we don’t, then we are going to do the same things over and over again and never change.
Also he was explaining to us about how we are four things: emotional, spiritual, mental and supportive. He drew a square and named each side. He asked some people to rank themselves from 1-10 on each side (emotional, spiritual, mental and supportive). After they did that, he drew what their square or shape would be like. Also he explained that usually men and women are different. They are better at opposite things, so we have to learn how to do all of them.
I learned that you should always feel good about yourself. If you think you’re at the bottom of everything, that’s going to become your reality. But if you think you’re at the top of everything then you are. It all depends on your paradigm.
October 20th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Think outside your box and you will reach your dreams, think inside the box and you will keep on getting the same result. Choose people and jobs that are the same level you think you are, and you will get the same result (probably a bad result)
). Instead choose people and jobs that are not at your level and that are a higher level than you! Life is not about being lucky or unlucky, it’s just the choices you make in your life. What I am trying to say here is that we need to know how to be balanced so we can have good relationships and take care of the family. The secret to reaching your dreams is not only to think out of the box, but to learn. Everything comes from education and without any education, you will not succeed in your dreams and goals.
October 20th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
What I learned today is that what you believe you think you can do is what will become. Here are some examples. If you think you are a 5 in personality and you pass by a really cool guy and you think he is a 10 in personality, you won’t go with him. You will only go with the people that you think is a 5. If you think you were a 10, and you pass by another person that you think that is a 10, you would hang out with him. What you think you are is what you are. Sometimes, your goals set how you live. The higher you set your goals, the more you try and persevere to reach that goal. Also, if you think you’re worth $30,000 and you find a job that makes $100,000 a year, you will think, “Ahh, it’s too much for me. I’m worth less than that.” If you think that you are worth $200,000 and find a job that makes $200,000 a year, you will take that job.
Another thing we learned today is that your limit is what you think about yourself. Now, we have a small little box that limits what we think. All our goals are outside of that box. To become more successful, we have to expand our box to fit all our goals. We also have to think outward. Our paradigms limit some things that we don’t have to limit. Today, Mr. Chung gave us 9 dots in the form of a square (3×3). He just said to connect all the dots using 4 straight lines. What we thought is that we had to connect the dots within the square. He didn’t say that. Instead, he made a triangle that went outside the dots and made 4 lines that connected the dots.
The last thing we learned today is that we have to balance our lives. We have 4 elements inside of us. It’s all a quadrangle or rectangle. One side is emotional. Emotional means that you can express your feelings. If you’re too silly, people aren’t going to listen to you. The second side is physical. If you aren’t healthy, you can’t even work. You have to stay home and rest until you get better. If you are healthy, you have more time to think about your goals for the future. The third side is spiritual. I think spiritual is, “What you think is what you really are inside.” I’m only guessing on this one because I forgot what it meant. The fourth side is mental. It means thinking or paradigms. It’s just the same as “You limit what you think.” I said that we have a quadrangle or rectangle because many of us don’t balance our lives. Success is balancing all of those elements. We have to play when it’s time to play and work when it’s time to work.
October 20th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Today I learned you have to go outside your box which is your paradigm to achieve your goals. For example, if you think you are going to work at a fast food restaurant, you are going to go out for jobs at fast food restaurants. So if you have your paradigm set for you, it is hard to get out of that box. On the other hand, if you set your goal high, you will get a good paying job and work hard for it too.
I also found out that if you don’t have a good balance of spiritual, mental, physical and emotional health in your life, your life will not meet its highest potential. Unfortunately, I need more spirituality and emotion in my life. Now that I know that, I can work harder to balance my life out. Lastly, I learned that if people can not get out of your box [your paradigm] and they think there is only one truth, it could start wars, make people slaves or even commit genocide.
October 20th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Today I learned that life is like a square made up of nine dots, no lines just dots. Mr. Chung asked us to connect all the dots using four lines. How you do it is up to you. You might draw some lines and then think it is impossible, but if you change perspectives and think out of the box, you will get it. I think what it means is that in life you want so much stuff like a nice house but if you stay in your box, it will seem impossible. But when you think out of the box, than it will seem possible.
I also learned if you think you are a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10, and you see a really pretty girl and think she is about a 9, you will say to yourself that she might be too good for you. Then you see another girl and say she is about a 5 too, so you go for the 5 instead of the 9 even though you might be wrong because maybe you are a 9! It means that in life don’t underestimate yourself because if you do, then your actions will show it even though it might be wrong.
October 20th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Today Mr. Chung was talking about life and how to think outside of your box or your paradigm. Then we did a small project. We had nine dots and we had to connect all of the dots with four lines only and without taking the pencil off the paper. We all failed except for Kyla who already learned how to do this activity. Anyways at the end, Mr. Chung taught us how to connect the dots, and he said you have to literally think outside of the box. Our paradigm is that the answer is inside the “square” when the answer was actually outside of the box.
Then Mr. Chung started to talk about the four elements: wind, earth, water, and fire, which brings us into the four human elements: spiritual, physical, emotional, and mental. Then he asked for a volunteer. He took
Alema. Mr. Chung asked what number Alema is from a scale from 1 to 10. Alema chose 9 for physical, 7 for mental, 3 for emotional, and I don’t know what number he chose for spiritual but his square was the shape with the bottom right corner pointed down. You could use this technique to analyze someone and try to find his or her characteristics.
In the movie Flatland, the 2-D shapes were afraid of the unknown, and also afraid of change. They believed there is only one truth so they think their ways were right.
Of all the things we learned today, I think these fit philosophy best.
October 20th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
Well, the main message today that Mr. Chung taught us was that you need to think outside of your box to be successful in life. The box is your paradigm and you need to think of different ways to do things instead of only one. When I say “successful in life,” I mean achieving your dreams. To achieve your dreams, you need to expand your box and make your box the biggest it can, and on each side, it should also be equal. To be up there in society, you need to be good in all four sides. The four sides are: physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental. In life, you will experience some problems and to get through these problems you need to improve the side that you lack of.
Mr. Chung said that men are usually more physical and mental, and girls are more spiritual and emotional. When couples fight, it is the part they are different in the box. Good couples are almost the same in the box.
Mr. Chung did an activity when he said, “Connect 9 dots using 4 straight lines”. The whole class was making the 4 lines in the box, not outside of the box. It was like life, if I kept being the same, I would never achieve my dreams, I would not have a good job, or have a good social life. I would be in my own little box and nothing won’t be able to come in.
October 20th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
One of the things that I learned was that in order to be successful, you have to think outside your box and think around your paradigm. You have to be balanced in the four elements: physical, mental, spiritual and emotional and be able to switch from one to another. If you do these things, you can be successful and happy.
October 20th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
We learned that in order to be successful, you have to have a balanced life. For example, if you are more of a physical and mental person, then one day when you have to express your feelings, you won’t be able to do it because you have to have a balance life.
We also learned that we all have our own paradigm. Mr.Chung put up nine dots up on the board and we had to connect all the dots with 4 lines, but everybody started drawing boxes. Then, he put the answer up on the board and in the answer, there wasn’t a box. It was an arrow-like shape, but since we all thought there was a box, we didn’t think another way. So for us to be successful we have to be open-minded, be able to think outside the box, and be able to think another way. When you’re a adult and you think that you should make about 50,000 dollars, then when you look for a job you will only look at the jobs that will pay you 50,000 dollars. But, if you think you deserve a better-paying job, then you would have to change the way you think because the only thing that stands in the way of you having an average life and you having an awesome life is you.
October 20th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
I learned that you have to think outside the box. Mr. Chung asked us to connect 9 dots with 4 lines. Most of us thought that we had to make a box. Mr. Chung said that we had to go out of the box to get the answer. At first, I didn’t believe him because of my paradigm but when he showed us, the answer was to go out of the box. If my dreams are outside the box, I have to think out of the little box in my mind. If we don’t, we will not be successful. It’s a life lesson.
I also learned about dimensional life. We watched a video. The man went to a 2-dimensional place. The citizens of this place couldn’t imagine a third dimensional world which the scientist was from. Then the scientist changed the citizen’s paradigm.
We also learned about the four elements of man. There’s physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. Usually the women are strong on the emotional and spiritual sides. The men are stronger in the physical and mental sides. We have to be balanced to be successful in life. That means we have to find our weaknesses and strengthen them.
Also we learned about paradigms. Paradigms are important because when you have a paradigm, you believe there is only one truth. This is what usually starts a war. The different sides have different perspectives. Like Adolf Hitler, he believed the Jews were inferior because of his paradigm but that is not true for many people in the world.
October 20th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
I learned today that what we need to do is think outside the box. Today, Mr. Chung told us to connect nine dots with four lines without lifting your pencil. The only way you can do that is to draw outside the box. Also, to be successful in life is to balance the four elements of life: physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional.
I also learned that people are afraid of change and things that are different. Also, some people think their truth is the only truth. These are the traits that could start wars and genocides.
October 21st, 2008 at 9:42 am
I learned that people have a comfort zone or a box that limits themselves and you creates their boxes. All the things you want like a good job, a great house, and everything is there but it is outside the box. The only way to do that is to strengthen the four sides of man which are the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual sides, and if you do that, you can achieve your dreams. I also learned that philosophy is a paradigm to change other people’s paradigm like how scientists say there is a fourth dimension but we just can not imagine it, just like how a two-dimensional creature cannot imagine a three-dimensional creature like us.
October 21st, 2008 at 2:33 pm
I think when Mr. Chung drew nine dots and said to connect them that is philosophy because we were so brainwashed to connect them as a square that no one got it except for Kyla. We were just so wired to use a square. I think that it was so interesting that all 23 kids without even thinking just started trying to connect the dots with a square.
October 21st, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Something we learned today about philosophy is that you already have your plans set out for you in the future. An example is that if you quit college, most people have a job that there going to work for. Something similar to that is that if you think it, you will achieve it. An example is that the next day after you got kicked out of college, you will be looking in the newspaper for jobs and at the top of the list there will be jobs that will give you $100,000 per year. You will say to yourself that you want the money but that job is too hard. Then you will be looking at the bottom of the list and you will find a job that pays $50,000 per year and you will think that is what you deserve because you dropped out of college.
Another thing that is philosophy today is Mr.Chung gave us a 3 x 3 array of dots to connect using 4 lines. We tried and tried, but no one could do it. The strange thing is that all of us tried to make a square to connect the dots. When Mr.Chung showed us the answer he told us that he didn’t say anything about not going out of the array of dots. The point of this lesson is to think outside of the box.
October 21st, 2008 at 9:01 pm
One thing we learned about life or philosophy today was how we can be successful in life. We expand our box and keep it even or balanced. For example, if you want to be big or famous, they say you have to reach for the stars. Well, the stars are out of our everyday life or box. The way to reach them is by being balanced in life with every thing. For example, you could be a millionaire but have no friends, or you could have no problems in your family about love but you are having a lot of trouble with supporting your family with money problems. You need to focus before all that responsibility comes crashing down on you. It starts in school. You need to strive for a goal and balance your home life with your school or work life. Being happy inside (your soul) will help give you special strength to accomplish anything.