What I’ve learned from IB Philosophy this year

Herclitus -

• “No man ever steps in the same river twice”
• Flux and constant change are the thread of life.

Parmenides -

• Change is impossible and existence is both timeless and unchanging.

Hume -

• You can only assume that the sun is going to rise tomorrow, you don’t KNOW it is.
• Reason always is rooted in our passions, first and foremost.
• You have to trust your sensory perceptions, because you need to be aware of your surroundings in order to get anywhere.
• If you ignore the context under which you are operating, then you are lost.

Descartes -

• To “know” anything, you must first doubt everything.
• Only by looking at the limitations of your knowledge can you realize any truths about the world.
• There is so much to be gained from thinking rationally about a subject, trying to anlzye it without bias and without subjectivity.

Nietzsche -

• By existing, you have the will to exist, you want to exist, and nobody can take that away from you.
• The Church, or any other powerful institution like it, will always look to control people. Life is about going through a process of self-affirmation and realizing your own value and worth.

Kierkegaard -

• How to look at events from a teleological perspective, and how to recognize the limitations of that sort of thinking.
• How to live in the moment.
• Your existence in this very moment, the fact that you are alive, conscious, and can make decisions is something that is absolutely incredible.

Plato -

• The importance of justice.
• Why do people act well?
• Because they need to be just.
• But WHY?
• How important it is to look at all sides of an issue to reach a consensus, because if you only approach something from a single viewpoint, you lose the valuable aspect of preventing a completely insular view.

Marx -

• You only get out of something what you put into it.
• Your identity is based off of your job because how else can you identiy yourself, if not by that which you contribute to this world?

Hegel -

• You cannot live as a hermit, you must integrate yourself to others.
• You are not dependent on others to form your identity, but you only realize yourself by connecting and talking with others.

Buddhism -

• You do not exist in a bubble - everything is a part of something else.
• We do not exist as seperate beings; we need to rid ourselves of the notion of the Western Ego.
• “If we look closely at both the concepts of defiled and immaculate, we return to the notion of inter-being.”

Kant -

• Treat others how you want to be treated.
• Respect other people’s autonomy.
• Look at other people not as a means to an end, but as end-in-themselves.

Wittgenstein -

• Never generalize anything - everything exists as a unique instance.
• There are certain things that cannot be expressed through words.
• The best kind of learning is experiential learning.

In conclusion, in philosophy, you can have both the essence and existence. Both the Dao and the self. Both oneness and a soul. In philosophy, it’s all about what you want to do with your life, and the choices you make. It’s about realizing what surrounds you, and realizing that you are a part of it. Philosophy, like life, is all about inspiration.

I Ching results

30. Li / The Clinging, Fire
Li Li
Li - The Clinging, Fire


Transformed into =

 

34. Ta Chuang / The Power of the Great
Chên Ch’ien
Chên - The Arousing, Thunder
Ch’ien - The Creative, Heaven

Tao Te Ching - passage analysis, line-by-line

VI

The spirit of the valley never dies.            17
This is called the mysterious female.
The gateway of the mysterious female
Is called the root of heaven and earth.
Dimly visible, it seems as if it were there,
Yet use will never drain it.

(found on p.10 of our versions)

"The spirit of the valley never dies."
I interpret this line to mean that the "valley" is the portal between heaven and earth - the gateway, of sorts, to both all beginnings and ends. And it never dies because it doesn't exist in the sense that we thinking of it as existing, that is, with a definitive time line. It both is and isn't, it exists and it doesn't. It is the yin and the yang and it shall never "die" because it will never live in the same way a human is said to "live."


"This is called the mysterious female."
The two key words here are "mysterious" and "female," each of them having important meanings. Firstly, mysterious. It is" mysterious" because it is beyond human comprehension. It doesn't exist in this "middle kingdom," instead, it exists more of a in-between, a transport to the there and the not there. "Female" is important because it is the source of life and birth. Thus, by having a "mysterious female" we have this portal which gives us "birth" into our next stage, but we don't understand the process nor the portal itself.

"The gateway of the mysterious female
Is called the root of heaven and earth."
As I alluded to earlier, this is a gateway or portal of some kind, and it exists between heaven and earth. It is the called the "root" because of a few things. One, "root" has a distinct relationship to nature, which is very important in the Tao Te Ching because nature is the best manifestation of the Tao in this world. Also, root is the source of something, and thus this gateway being the source to both heaven and earth means that it is the method to which to can travel and experience both, achieving a little bit more comprehension in adherence to the way.

"Dimly visible, it seems as if it were there,
Yet use will never drain it."
This line was the most difficult for me to interpret. "Use will never drain it" refers to the fact that even though you may pass through this portal, you cannot ever deplete it, or stop it from doing its job. The use of the word "drain" also implies that it cannot be used up in any sense of the word. Literally, it cannot be diminished at all, because it cannot be taken from. It is "dimly visible" because it is hard for us to understand, impossible actually, the ways of the Tao. It is "visible" but not truly knowable, or clear, because we do not truly understand the Tao either. It only "seems" as if it were there, but we can never be sure because we can never really understand exactly what the Tao is or it;s purpose. It's beyond human comprehension.

Poems!

My favorite poem that anyone read was Emma's. The poem is as follows:

Rhyme 21
Gustavo Adolfo Becquer

"What's poetry?" You ask me as you lock
Your pupil in my pupil with pure blue.
"What's poetry?" You're really asking me?
Poetry's simply you.


The original:

Rima 21

¿Qué es poesía?, dices mientras clavas
en mi pupila tu pupila azul.
¡Qué es poesía! ¿Y tú me lo preguntas?
Poesía eres tú.


I just really quite love the simplicity and the meaning this poem conveys with utter ease.

Meditation

So today we tried meditating. I lasted for about 12-15 minutes, I think. I was trying to go longer but my back hurt to an unbelievable degree. I was actually quite shocked as to how much it hurt. But the time I did spend was really fun and interesting.
The two most incredible parts for me were the description of the "pores" and the line of light. For the pores, I really felt like I could feel them opening and closing on my skin when I was breathing. As for the light, it was really cool to imagine the light flowing from the top of my head to the spot between my eyebrows, down my nose, through my hands and entering in my navel to my "lotus flower". I had never considered this flow of energy before but when it was said, it made perfect sense.
I was a pretty cool experience that I would like to try again. :)

Ode by Arthur O'Shaughnessy

We are the music makers,
 And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
 And sitting by desolate streams;—
World-losers and world-forsakers,     
 On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
 Of the world for ever, it seems.

With wonderful deathless ditties
We build up the world's great cities,
And out of a fabulous story
We fashion an empire's glory:
One man with a dream, at pleasure,
 Shall go forth and conquer a crown;
And three with a new song's measure
 Can trample a kingdom down.

We, in the ages lying
 In the buried past of the earth,
Built Nineveh with our sighing,
 And Babel itself in our mirth;
And o'erthrew them with prophesying
 To the old of the new world's worth;
For each age is a dream that is dying,
 Or one that is coming to birth.

A breath of our inspiration
Is the life of each generation;
A wondrous thing of our dreaming
Unearthly, impossible seeming—
The soldier, the king, and the peasant
 Are working together in one,
Till our dream shall become their present,
 And their work in the world be done.

They had no vision amazing
Of the goodly house they are raising;
They had no divine foreshowing
Of the land to which they are going:
But on one man's soul it hath broken,
 A light that doth not depart;
And his look, or a word he hath spoken,
 Wrought flame in another man's heart.

And therefore to-day is thrilling
With a past day's late fulfilling;
And the multitudes are enlisted
In the faith that their fathers resisted,
And, scorning the dream of to-morrow,
 Are bringing to pass, as they may,
In the world, for its joy or its sorrow,
 The dream that was scorned yesterday.

But we, with our dreaming and singing,
 Ceaseless and sorrowless we!
The glory about us clinging
 Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing:
 O men! it must ever be
That we dwell, in our dreaming and singing,
 A little apart from ye.

For we are afar with the dawning
 And the suns that are not yet high,
And out of the infinite morning
 Intrepid you hear us cry—
How, spite of your human scorning,
 Once more God's future draws nigh,
And already goes forth the warning
 That ye of the past must die.

Great hail! we cry to the comers
 From the dazzling unknown shore;
Bring us hither your sun and your summers;
 And renew our world as of yore;
You shall teach us your song's new numbers,
 And things that we dreamed not before:
Yea, in spite of a dreamer who slumbers,
 And a singer who sings no more.

Pick two songs

Well, I picked three, and they are:

• Still Around - 3OH!3
• Your Hands Are Cold - Jean-Yves Thibaudet
• I'm With You - Avril Lavigne

1. Hows does each song reflect a different point in your life?

• Avril Lavigne’s I’m With You is from Let Go, the very first CD I remember getting, in third grade.
• All the other songs are from some point in High School, especially after I took IB Music and could appreciate the beauty in music even more so than before.

2. How did it/does it speak to you, and why?

• I know every single word to every single track on Let Go, and each one speaks to me like a familiar friend. It’s a very comforting song, but it also has underlying tendrils of sadness. One of my best friends, Mark, moved away in 4th grade, and I distinctly remember listening to this song on the radio with him, riding in the car, and the word “damn” was used. Mark’s foster mom said that she just meant a dam, like the kind which beavers used, but Mark and I knew better, and we smiled furtively at each other, feeling so smart with our insider knowledge on expletives. I still remember exactly which intersection we were at in the car when we shared that look.

• All the rest of them (from High School) had the same type of effect on me. At some point, when I was listening to them for the first time, I was stunned by their sheer brilliance and beauty. They had a point in them where I just closed my eyes and listened, for there was nothing, I felt, in that moment that had ever been as elegant, moving, astounding, or simply beautiful as the music which was being played. They are the few songs which I have actually been shocked into silence and wonder at their playing.

3. What does it reveal about your personal aesthetics?

• I really like things that sound really pretty/awe-inspiring to me. I’ve noticed that I’ve never paid as much attention to the words in a song as the musical notes and rhythms themselves. Which is strange, because I give so much credence to the written word. I guess I just love how music stirs your soul, and creates something that words can simply not convey.

There are also three others which I really like, but didn't play for class. They are:

• The Piano - Michael Nyman
• La Valse d'Amélie (Piano Version) - Yann Tiersen
• Life In Technicolor II - Coldplay