Revival of blog posts from Philosphy Class

I managed to retrieve my documents containing articles of my extinct blog account, a requirement I had to fulfill for undergraduate philosophy class. Here are a few of my thoughts which constantly remind me of how occasionally we were much wiser in the past than now. Or at least I feel so.



Date: July 13, 2006
Title: (Unknown)

A person’s environment influences much of what he is. Growth is generally depicted on how he is brought up and how he sees his surrounding (nurture vs. nature). A person’s dreams and desires too are distinguished by his environment. In a bigger scope, cultures vary first from the people. Then, races differ because of their location. People change also due to their surroundings.

I believe the world is changing itself. Our earth moves, so does our environment (in millions or if not billions of years). In 1/(4.5billion years), probably, man lives and changes.

The whole universe was once a single, small and circular sphere, about the size of a dust particle. Then, because the minute universe was actually a compression of trillions or more of masses of matter, it exploded into billions of different pieces. Imagine a balloon filled with water. When you compress the balloon, imagine the effect to the balloon. After the big explosion, the parts of the universe continually expand, farther apart. Once it reaches its final expansion, it will then begin to contract and form into the small sphere again. And this cycle goes on-and-on without a beginning, and its ending unknown.

Pause for insight:

While typing this, I realized why some philosophers would consider God to be the universe itself. If the universe was once a single coin and then a vast space we imagine today without a beginning and repeating in cycles, then, there is no doubt the universe was the first cause to everything (from something’s beginning and end). We all know from Acquinas and from Aristotle, that God was believed to be the first cause of things. Therefore, since no two (2) can be first causes at the same time, God was equated to be the universe.

Christians and other deists believe God’s omni-presence, this could be explained by stating that God is the universe, and we see God everywhere having everywhere a part of the universe.

Date: August 24, 2006

Title: Hell cannot be the Other

(Reaction based only from our textbook, PL Ch.19)

C.G. Jung was right in indirectly stating that it is the unconscious which triggered Sartre’s conclusion of stating that, “Hell is the Other”. Though in our day-to-day scenarios we may be faced with pressures from others, we cannot just generalize that all actions from the other cause us harm. Sartre could not have believed or practiced the method of induction in the possibility that he could’ve once seen the pervasiveness of conflict in his own scope of view.

Sartre could’ve gone too far in his observations which in turn caused him to eventually contradict the existentialist notion, that “Truth is Subjectivity”. For if we are to make our own values and our own views, it would’ve been better for Sartre to keep the assertion to himself.

I have my personal reason why I can no longer accept Sartre’s statement, though during the first time I read the text (The Philosophical Landscape, Ch. 19), it was very convincing. No man is an island, as the saying goes.

In one way or another, we live in a world where no one can live alone. In the movie Castaway, the isolated man’s (whose role acted by Tom Hanks) means of surviving and being sane, surprisingly, was his ingenious idea of creating an imaginary friend, Wilson, which to us people would be just a brand of or a soccer ball. Hell was used by Sartre to symbolize that which causes us harm. To the castaway, Wilson was the other which he believed to be his only companion and friend amidst the abandonment in his world, symbolized by the gloomy island. In other words, Wilson could be the castaway’s savior.

According to Sartre and other existentialists such as Max Stirner and Albert Camus, seeking answers through others or committing the so called “philosophical suicide”, is a sign of submissiveness to the problems or angst one has to face.

A question by Art (one of my best friends) gave rise to the problem that whether the other makes the self less real or less brave. He was arguing with his ex-girlfriend (itatago na lang natin sa pangalang…). Art has the habit of sharing his problems with his friends (myself included). His ex-girlfriend thought of Art as an indiscreet person. He was despised for the reason that he didn’t keep his problems to himself.

In searching for the solution to the problem on who did the right thing, I brought my thoughts back to Dr. Leslie’s talk about the shadow. Keeping the problems to one’s self, in my interpretation, could be the failure of shadow integration, while on the contrary, sharing it with friends could be a means of facing the shadow. Jung didn’t mention specific ways in confronting our repressed emotions (pardon, I’m not sure or may be I wasn’t listening). This brings me to the conclusion (a result of bias, probably) that Kat misjudged Art’s behavior.

The other could therefore be an instrument, depending on how we perceive (like a microscope or telescope) it,  for the pour-soi’s own benefit or pour-soi’s  conversion to a  being in itself.

Life may be filled with mysteries, it would be better to…

Date: August 24, 2006

Title: Not an Ordinary Day

I woke up at 2:30 A.M. this morning after what seemed as an endless dream which I thought was my last. I tried not to sleep for fear of not being able to wake up for good. While being reminded of Preludes and Nocturnes of The Sandman Series, I pushed myself unconsciously straight to the kitchen for a drink of water. Having regained full consciousness, I realized that today was my geology final exams. Despite the newly discovered phobia for sleep, my fatigue still failed to keep me up (I just felt lazy to study again and I am using this statement as an excuse). I drifted away for three (3) hours more… The alarm clock beeped, uh-oh, 6:00 A.M. Three (3) hours more and it was my geology exam. I still had insufficient knowledge for the exam. Quickly, skipping almost breakfast, I scanned through my notes. Luckily, cramming with a cup of nervousness was my habit ever since. But for the first time, I was confident that I am going to pull through. My unconscious was trying to tell me something since I was behaving rather different today. The unconscious thought finally revealed itself when Allen woke up and greeted me happy birthday. Of course, I greeted him back and felt happy for his successes in life.

For the past two (2) years, since my college life, I thought celebrating birthdays was a thing of the past since it kept on falling in between final exams. Then for a change, rather than skipping my birthday I thought of celebrating it with friends since my mom was coming in the afternoon with food supplies (minimize cost). After the geo exam, I told those who were still there of my ‘treat’ in the afternoon at 4:30 PM. There are more people whom I wanted to invite but I wasn’t sure if I together with my twin Allen could accommodate a lot of people. So we decided to invite those whom we’ll be meeting along the way back to EGI.

We had no exam in the afternoon, so we had to wait till 4:30 PM. Together with my friends, to fill the time between, decided to chill at Mall of Asia. Allen, Art, and I had to accomplish the blog to meet tomorrow’s deadline (so much for being ‘deadliners’, huh?) Despite the limited time, as usual, the craziest unpredictable super crammer person, myself, dragged Art along convincing him to finish it after eating later. Too bad Allen had to stay to catch some sleep (he needs more than eight (8) hrs of sleep regularly for strict health reasons). To make sure I won’t regret having gone to the mall, I brought with me a small green handy notes notebook and pen. From school to the theaters in mall of Asia, I was scribbling down specific details of what we did. My friends didn’t really find what I was doing useless.

In the mall we reserved tickets for the movie Click, starring Adam Sandler as Michael Newman. Its story was about a man, Michael Newman, who skipped all his tensions and problems in life using a universal controller given by the Angel of Death. Apart from the usual all-comedy movies, Click was more serious balanced by Adam Sandler’s hilarious lines.

The movie was filled with hidden meanings and lessons.

1.      To others, it would mean that people do change.

2.      At some point after the movie, I thought the movie was similar to “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens where Scrooge (main character) assessed his passed and viewed his future. The main theme about Charles Dicken’s work and Click were that both were emphasizing the evilness of greed just like the leprechaun who was searching a pot of gold and in the end found cereal. In Click, Michael Newman (Sandler) wanted to be in the top spot of his company, and once he achieved it, he found no happiness in his situation. His success was reduced to utter failure in life when he missed the death of his father, his children’s growth, his divorce from his wife. In A Christmas Carol, clearly, Scrooge ended alone after being very greedy.

3.      Another would be about the existentialist theme, living life to the fullest. If possible in life, experience what is to be experienced. I have done by celebrating my birthday and not letting it pass as another usual day (whew).

4.      Making decisions without practicing bad faith. In the movie, Newman wanted to avoid all his arguments, his choosing for priorities, summing all up to bad faith.

5.      Don’t take for granted one’s bad experience (e.g. failure of plans); convert it into an insightful experience in stead. It’s about NOT feeling bad about it and wishing it not to have occurred. For in this life, bad experiences are as equally important as good ones.

After the movie, we ate at our place and celebrated my birthday.