So, I woke up too late to take a shower this morning, which was on purpose. I figure, it's only philosophy, so I'm kind of making some sort of existentialist statement by going to class in a more natural state. Plus it's too damned difficult to drag my butt out of bed. My noon class isn't meeting again until after spring break, so I was looking forward to the whole 10:00-2:00 lunch/nap/shower. Nope. I forgot I was doing sound for chapel. And having lunch with a prospective. Both of which I did in a much dirtier condition than I would've liked. Now it's noon-thirty, and I should be showering, but I've got to meet Bets for lunch at one, so I'm going to dump my brain.
We hit on an interesting puzzle in philosophy this morning. We're reading Descartes, and O'Hara posed the question: Is there any notion in your head that you can be absolutely certain wasn't placed there by something else? Do we have any purely original, foundational thoughts? We can't trust our senses, because they're subjective to our environments and conditions. How much of what we think, then, based on our senses, is unreliable? And Descartes would say that there is a devil, and that he is so powerful that he can overwhelm everything we think, to the point that he controls what we think, blinding us to the reality and the truth that belongs to God. So that when we think that we've finally got our faith figured out, it is really just the devil blinding us from the fact that we are not even close. We think we can control ourselves, but that's just what we've been tricked into thinking?
So that's my assignment for the weekend: think of a thought that I can prove I am thinking. I love this.
We hit on an interesting puzzle in philosophy this morning. We're reading Descartes, and O'Hara posed the question: Is there any notion in your head that you can be absolutely certain wasn't placed there by something else? Do we have any purely original, foundational thoughts? We can't trust our senses, because they're subjective to our environments and conditions. How much of what we think, then, based on our senses, is unreliable? And Descartes would say that there is a devil, and that he is so powerful that he can overwhelm everything we think, to the point that he controls what we think, blinding us to the reality and the truth that belongs to God. So that when we think that we've finally got our faith figured out, it is really just the devil blinding us from the fact that we are not even close. We think we can control ourselves, but that's just what we've been tricked into thinking?
So that's my assignment for the weekend: think of a thought that I can prove I am thinking. I love this.
1 comment:
What'd you come up with? You, the great cooter philosopher...
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