Readings?

What do you guys think of having some sort of short weekly or bi-weekly philosophical reading we do? That way, we can actually have a basis for our arguments instead of just random loud and obnoxious debating.

I was thinking one of the following:
Book I of Plato's Republic (deals with the question "What is justice?")
St. Thomas Aquinas's Book II of Summa Theologica:states of life (a look at man's duty by one of the greatest theologians of all time).

I'm sure I can think of a bunch of other good ones if I go through my old schoolbooks (I had a teacher who's schtick was philosophy). We obviously don't have to do one I suggested, or even do one at all, but I just thought it might be interesting.

College Stress

I know that this may not exactly fall under the genre of philosophy, but I thought it might be a good way to get a dialogue going about a topic that concerns us all. thats right folks.... College! I know that I for one have been majorly stressed out about acceptances and financial aid and scholarships and I think that blogging about it might be a good way to get stress relief. Plus, I'm sure that the more philosophical members of our little conglomerate will find a way to link college woes to philosophy, so no worries. Well, comment if you want to, and if you don't want to, then don't comment. Either way, this is The Phisherman, signing off.

A T-Hawk Philosopy Mission Statement

would it behove us to create a mission statement of some kind, take a few things that we see as important characteristics for the group to have and distill that into a something. 

The two that I would like to  see are:

1) To quest for truth in a non-judgemental setting through Socratic Dialogue

and

2) To provide a knowledgeable forum in which to argue about anything and everything. 

 I like the idea of the group having some duality, both able to be serious, and having the ability to argue passionately about trivial things, I don't think we should really take ourselves too seriously. Mabye mission statement is the wrong term, mabye what I mean is, what exactly do we hope to get out of this? I think that can do a lot to answer questions later on, help focus conversations. I could be wrong though.

Pathway Analogy

I have a very cliche analogy about life, but it works if you think about it.

Everyone has their own individual pathway. While walking, you pass a lot of scenery, some you like, some you don't. Friends are those who's pathways converge with yours for a while. Although the pathways may converge, some friends may walk in front of you, while some may walk behind. Wisdom is the effort of calling on those friends to walk with you in your direction, while truth only arises when they catch your pace for a second.

I've heard before that love is another person walking with you in the same direction, and I believe that analogy is correct. However, you need to be walking in the same direction at the same time in order to find true love.

When friends stray, they have taken interest in different scenery than you, thus choosing to branch their path from yours.

Mmm I could go farther but I think you have the basic principle.

The Ultimate Goal

What do you think the human race is striving to attain?

Laws

What are laws--are they purely legal?

Is it right (however you may define "right") for individuals to decide laws for a whole?

And then the big'un: ARE LAWS NECESSARY?

Space Limit

Hey everybody,

Jen told me that there is only space for one hundred people to post on the blog, and I thought that one hundred people wouldn't be a problem since this is only one of a wide variety of clubs forming at the Gonk. But Jen thinks that we might be able to get one hundred different people to join the club and post on the blog. So what do you guys think? Opinions, Comments, Concerns, or suggestions on increasing membership, please post your ideas!

Morals vs. Ethics

Is there a difference between "morals" and "ethics"?

I heard somewhere recently that "morals" comprise a sense of right and wrong and the employment of that sense; "ethics" concern only the knowledge of right and wrong. What do you think of this?

Personal Gain

Is it possible for someone to be truly selfless? That is, to do something completely for someone else and not at all for themselves?

Sexuality

This is somthing of a hot button issue, what is the meaning of sexuality?

Kinsey theorised that people can be rated in terms of their sexuality on a scale from one to seven with only a very small minority faling tin the completley heterosexual (1) group, and an equal minority falling in the (7) group. Do Homosexual couples have the same implicit rights as straight couples? Is Seperate but Equal O.K. here?

Religion

I think this is one of the most basic and yet far spanning discussions that one can hope to embark upon, what is religion to you? How do you relate to religion? Do you believe that If you truly hold to your beliefs you should try to swing others to those beliefs? This is a post to say anything and everything you think about the topic or religion, spirituality, or even things barely related to it. 

Jen's Rant Inspired by Walden

So, recently I lost this hat I've been wearing around. The rainbow one I wore in my self portrait, to be exact. I was surprised with the feeling I got when I came back and realized I forgot it. It was kinda an ache in my heart. Why was I feeling this? I have no idea.

I got to thinking and I really hated that feeling.

For the past few days this feeling has been excentuated because I've been reading Thoreau's Walden. I agree with him on a lot of points, mostly with his ideas of living simply. I won't go into detail about the book, but it's made me take a second look on my environment.

All these things! I hate them! I want them to go away! Why? Because every thing I have creates a little responsibility. Some people like that responsibility because it makes them feel powerful, but is one powerful when all one dictates is objects?

I don't completely agree with Thoreau, simply because I am an artist and he is not. He thinks art is unneccessary. Which is a good point to bring up for future discussion. I obviously think it serves a purpose, even if it is a juvenile one.

Anywho, we deffinetely need things that make us comfortable enough so that we can think freely (not about getting essential needs to make us comfortable). I suppose it varies from person to person.

It does not take much food, warmth or sleep to merely function, but to function well enough to develop as a human is different. Think of starving africans who will never reach a certain intelligence level because of what they have to think about every day.

We don't need much, but we do need things to be comfortable. In my opinion, I would like to have a small amount of things I find completely necessary. I was just looking through my drawers and noticed the ungodly amount of t-shirts I have, thinking I only really need one or two, maybe three if I don't feel like washing them so often. Then I saw some stuff that I had recently bought (and not worn) and wondered, why the hell did I buy that?

I used to think there was something wrong with people if they didn't enjoy making themselves look "good." It's really incredible to think how silly I was back then, and it's a little sad thinking that a lot of people, much older than me still think that way. What is so great about lookin good anyways? I've been through the extremes only to find that looking good keeps one feeling empty. So how does one not feel empty?

It really depends on the individual.

One common theme I've found revolves around love. Getting it, not getting it, feeling like one will never get it. Most people don't even know what their definition of love really is. It's the reason why people seek so much attention. It's natural to want attention and completely healthy, but some people seek it in the wrong areas, proving unhealthy.

Ok, I should stop.

Feel free to post a rant btw.

Life Matters

This is an important theme everyone will need to think about at some point in their lives.

What do you want out of life? What is your purpose on earth?

Think hard and please explain. Even if you don't post, it might be a good idea to give it a think.

A Post About Posting

The idea here is dialogue, right now we just have lists, instead of giving all of your points in a rambling list, can we try to really dig in on individual ideas? To a large extent what a lot of the posts look like is fact without inspiration, it sounds sort of like we are taking a vote instead of having a discussion 

Drugs

Why do people use drugs? Medical and umm... not medical... Are they necessary?

Media and Idealism

How does the media select it's models and concepts?

Shouldn't the media base them off of real life?

Why are the people and concepts they choose so unrealistic?

What is that telling us about our society?

The First Post (As We Know It)

So, unsure of how best to get a conversation started, I want first to present a hypothetical case. 

This Hypothetical case concerns a hypothetical Jeremy. Jeremy was brought up in such an environment that some form of discrimination became an inherent part of his psyche, in short he is a product of his environment.

The question to go along with this hypothetical case is: Can we blame Jeremy for his bias/prejudice? Does Jeremy have a moral obligation to try to correct his bias? 

I think that we should make responses 4 sentences or less at a time, cut to your points, and remember, just because one argues for/ against a point does not mean that that is what they believe, oftentimes the best way to jump start a discusion is to argue exactly the opposite of what you believe. I'm excited to see how this goes. :-)