Philosophy Study Abroad

Professor Mark Thorsby regaled our LIFErs today with stories from his study abroad class with Professor Maria Sanders to the United Kingdom. This was a philosophy and logic class which challenged their students to examine their lives and find out what makes them tick. Mark highly recommends Aristotle’s Ethics. We took a virtual tour via Google Street View to Oxford University in England and stood on the steps of the Bodleian Library questioning why we want an education. It is not only to improve our lifestyle, but also to further knowledge. Mark spoke about the Dark Ages when our society collapsed and records were not kept. It was the monks who founded Oxford University and to this day the students and faculty wear robes during exam time to commemorate the renaissance of knowledge and history. Christ Church School’s cathedral was the model for the Harry Potter dining room in Hogwarts School. The pubs of Oxford are places where community meet to discuss life, not just drink beer.

On we went to Edinburgh, Scotland and saw the beauty of a city not destroyed by bombs of the world wars. The architecture is rich and varied and David Hume, the famous philosopher, gave much of his wealth to create a beautiful public park. Lewis Carroll also wrote in Edinburgh and used the daughter of the dean of Christ Church, Oxford as a role model for Alice in Wonderland. His tailor had a funny hat and he turned out to be the Mad Hatter. Not to mention a big fat cat.

On to Belfast they went to question war and how the seeds of war and strife were sown over 500 years ago. The students were exposed to this culture of the United Kingdom and came home with an expanded life view full of depth and nuances.

We were especially struck by the study abroad program's wilderness training. It took the students' complicated lives, stripped them of paraphernalia, and allowed them to appreciate the simplicity of an unencumbered life: what matters is the character on the inside, not the window dressing of material goods.

Mark says that LIFE should take a trip abroad!

Feng Shui

Greetings LIFEers! Today we were joined by Katherine Ashby from Feng Shui Houston who gave us a crash course in the Chinese Philosophy of Feng Shui. We learned how to calculate our Kau numbers, determined if we are eastern or western people, and how those two things impact our Feng Shui patterns. Check out the websites below and see if you can add a little harmony and balance to your life through some simple adjustments.

What is your Kua number?

http://fengshui.about.com/od/mainconcepts/qt/fengshuikua.htm

How to calculate your Kua number (or someone else's).

http://fengshui.about.com/od/fengshuicures/qt/kua_number.htm

Visit Katherine's website at

http://www.fengshuihouston.com/

Think Factory

Greetings LIFEers! Professor Mark Thorsby joined us again to talk to us about philosophy this week; specifically, where is philosophy? He walked us through different philosophers and how they might answer the question.

Friedrich Nietzsche believe that philosophy protects the truth.
Jorge Luis Borges in his story "Ficciones" imagines philosophy as a library of babel.
Albert Camus believed that suicide is the only philosophical problem.
Plato believed that philosophy was a journey.
Professor Thorsby believes that philosophy is living, and occurs within us all. We can search for the truth, but we will never find it. But we get a little closer each time we make the journey.

As Kyle Broflovski said in the South Park episode "The Tooth Fairy":

"...I've learned something today. You see, the basis of all reasoning is the mind's awareness of itself. What we think, the external objects we perceive, are all like actors that come on and off stage. But our consciousness, the stage itself, is always present to us."

Reminder: Think Factory is the last Wednesday of each month from 4-6PM.

http://www.lonestar.edu/thinkfactory.htm

An Unexamined Life

Why do you do what you do? In a multi-verse of infinite possibilities, are you doing this because it is what everyone around you is doing, or because this is the choice you would genuinely make, even in a vacuum? I often ask myself this question when I see a woman with a really ugly purse. Does she really like that purse, or did she buy it because the fashion magazines declared that purse to be the "it-bag" of the moment and she is trying to squeeze herself into other people's perceptions of cool, trendy and popular? Of course, this question is not just handy in identifying stupid fashion trends. Applied on a broader scale it helps us understand our own behaviors by making us confront how we make decisions. And this, my fellow LIFEers is the basis of philosophy, a subject we had a teasing glimpse into by Professor Mark Thorsby this week.

"The unexamined life is not worth living." So said Socrates, in Plato's Dialogues, Apology. Professor Thorsby took us through his views on how 3 famous philosophers would address that statement. Kierkegaard, a Danish philosopher in mid 1800s, focused mainly on the ideas of the subjectivity of truth, and faith. Kierkegaard would argue that an unexamined life is ultimately an ignorant and dogmatic life, because the person never questioned the world around them and accepted the "truths" given to them by society. Next, Karl Marx, a German philosopher in the mid 1800s, applied philosophy to socio-economic struggles and determined that working classes are alienated from their true nature because they don't own their work. Marx would have responded to Aristotle by saying an unexamined life is an alienated life, that until you realize you have no ownership over your work (your ability to transform the world) you are removed from your true potential. Lastly, Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher in the late 1800s, who believed that morality evolves with society. Nietzsche would say that the unexamined life is a common life, one lived with the herd, never challenging the social norms. The examined life is radical, untethered from assumptions.

"So what should we do?" you ask. Are we supposed to question our every action? Why do I brush my teeth, why did I buy a blue Honda Odyssey, should I obey this stop sign if no one is coming the other way? The answer is "yes". No, there is no ultimate answer, and the answers that do come will be as varied as the people who ask the questions. But if there is no ultimate answer, why bother asking the question, and isn't saying there is no ultimate answer an ultimate answer itself? And if the answer varies by the individual experience, then truth is completely subjective, thus negating the idea of "truth" at all, right? Uggh, my brain hurts from all this heavy thinking. I think I'll watch some TV. Now which channel should I watch? Wait, should I even ask that question? Does the fact I'm asking that question have any meaning? Arghhhhh!!!