"In the harvest feast or the fallow ground,
My certain hope is in Jesus found
My lot, my cup, my portion sure
Whatever comes, we shall endure."
- Sandra McCracken, In Feast or Fallow
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
So, Tuesdays and Thursdays I have one class: Intro to Philosophy from 11-12:20 with Dr. Robinson. Pretty sweet gig.
Before I describe how that experience went (though I'm sure most of you could guess), I want to comment on a strange phenomenon that has emerged on my hands and wrists. In the past week or so, my knuckles specifically have been looking bruised and scraped. And if not that, then very dry. On my right hand especially. Then on my left wrist, there is an extremely dry spot that looks scraped and cracked. I mean, what is this? I'm actually having to moisturize every day so I don't look like I have some strange disease. What in the world?
Here are a few images I just took of my hand to give a visual. I tried to make them pretty contrasted, so they may or may not be slightly dramatized.
Doesn't it look like I just punched the lights out of someone?
Anyways, so Philosophy class. I really like the professor, of course. But it was really overwhelming whenever I walked into the class, because there are probably 50 or so students in there. Woah! And most of them are upperclassmen.
I can already tell that I'm going to have a lot of trouble in this class. Not necessarily academically, but more or less trouble not passing judgments. I'm pretty sure I rolled my eyes about 20 times today in class, and even more so than that thought, "Why in the world does this matter?".
Our first exercise was this: Rank in order from Most Real to Least Real (first of all - what the heck does that even mean?!): God, The desk I'm sitting in, The idea of the desk, the universe, love, and the atom.
I had to buy this homework packet, and the first assignment includes that question above (which we discussed at length in class - and of course I still have no idea what the "right" order is. We pretty much covered every pointless question imaginable; "Are thoughts physical or something more?", "Is it 'rational' to believe in God or say that He's "most real", or is that all faith?", "What does it mean to be?", "What is an 'idea'?", etc.). The other two questions are: What is one thing people do that you consider to be wrong and why, and then (the most annoying of all) - something along the lines of "Are you still in bed sleeping? How can you be sure?".
Well, the rest of the day will consist of getting all my class stuff organized, doing a little reading/homework, and then resting until Lifegroup! I'm super excited to get back into LG :). We're having brisket tonight, as well. Yum!
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Comments on "Lord, Help Me":
3. Molly
- 01/12/2010 3:51 pm CST
Mom: Will do tonight at Lifegroup. :)
Zach: Well, in class it was different than my actual consensus. He said a particularly interesting thing that spurred me on - that perhaps the "whole" is more real than its "parts". To just be consistent with that idea, I kind of ordered them from greatest to smallest, or from "whole" to each of the "parts", starting with, of course, the Creator. of the "whole". And then the last two are the abstract ones that I had no idea what to do with. :)
God, universe, desk, atom, love, the idea of the desk.
4. Andrew
- 01/12/2010 6:59 pm CST
You asked, "Why does this matter?" The immediate answer is, it doesn't. Questions about whether your desk is more real or less real don't really matter. Even if the desk were not real, we would still treat it as if it was, because we can't really do otherwise. But the questions you had to answer are questions designed to lead you someplace else. And as someone who has kind of paid his dues, I can tell you that the place you are going is important.
The questions you asked ("What does it mean to be 'more real' or 'less real'") are the exact questions you are supposed to ask. Philosophy, from the outset, sought to show how much we take for granted, and how much we assume any time we take an action. For instance, when it comes to politics, everybody has an idea of what justice is, but what we call justice looks very different depending on the situation. We assume it, but hardly any one can give a satisfactory definition. Perfect circles don't exist in nature (mathematicians can tell you this), but we all have an idea of what a perfect circle looks like. Why? Is it something abstract and metaphysical, or did we just make it up? In ethics, we ask, is it right to sacrifice one to save many, or is it right to harm someone in hopes of saving many (in the last few years, this has become a very hotly debated question, even by people who know nothing about philosophy). In politics, we have wide ideological differences as to what we think a good society looks like. While it's true that politics are temporary, don't matter in the long run, and that the vast majority of the little quibbles we have day in and day out are pretty inconsequential, political theories have affected literally millions of lives (look at men like Stalin, Lincoln, Reagan, etc.). So, in that sense, it does matter what works and doesn't work. I always point to politics when people say philosophy is all abstract. 
Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Adam Smith, Jean-Jaques Rousseau, Karl Marx, Machiavelli, et al., have affected countless lives, and their theories, or mixtures thereof are in place all over the world.
We pretty much covered every pointless question imaginable; "Are thoughts physical or something more?", "Is it 'rational' to believe in God or say that He's "most real", or is that all faith?", "What does it mean to be?", "What is an 'idea'?", etc.)
Well, it is important if you think thoughts are merely physical phenomenon or the product of an eternal soul. You may not feel the need to argue about it, but calling the question "pointless" is kind of insulting to anyone who believes in the soul.
The question about God strikes me as extremely relevant, because I've had to wrestle with that in my own life. I'm not sure I ever believed it was 100% rational to believe in God, but I did believe it more than I do now. And it has altered the way I live my life. It's not pointless.
Questions of existence are strange, at first, but it's something very relevant. Just look at the abortion debate. The debate centers around what it means to be a person. Questions of being are really questions of dignity. Is the essence of who we are just a specific conglomeration of matter at one point in time, and if so, why do we try so hard to defend it? At first glance, that doesn't seem any more rational than going to war to defend a stone or a beetle. We insist on the dignity of life. Why? These questions may not affect you directly, but they are relevant to our society, and we talk about them all the time.
I'll leave the question about ideas to Plato, because I think I know where that was supposed to lead you. I'll just say that Plato has influenced Western Christianity more than most people know. Part of the tension between the Western and Eastern Church centered around the Platonic influence over the West. Anyways, Plato is good enough to at least give him a shot.
Anyways, I think you're approaching it with the right attitude. Asking the question, "Why does this matter," is a good question. You should try and answer it. You're asking the right questions. I hope you'll give it a fair chance.
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Have one of your nurse friends look at your hands! Looks like some kind of rash.
About your philosophy class, at least you have your brother and Prof. Amy to bounce your many many questions to come over this semester.
Will be a fun semester!