Problem Solved

Well I crossed the river
Fell into the sea
Where the non-believers
Go beyond belief
Then I scratched the surface
In the mouth of hell
Running out of service
In the blood I fell

-See The Light, Green Day 

Once again I have an exam that I really can't be bothered studying for, so I decided to write a blog about the things I'm supposed to be studying. Luckily for my readers, this time it's Philosophy: The Big Questions and not Latin again.

Personal Identity: What makes us 'us'? What makes us the same person through time? There are a few main theories. The Animal Theory, we're the same animal; the brain theory, we have the same brain; CESINS (Continued Existence of Souls Is Necessary for Survival), we have the same soul; and stream theory, we have psychological continuity (memories, personality, and stuff) with ourselves. The usual problems include things about brain transplants, cyborgs, amnesia, not having a good definition of a soul, and copies of people. I like stream theory, with the revision that any form of copy doesn't count as you. Oh, and there's bundle theory, which states that we have no personal identity, we're just bundles of experiences. It's stupid.

The Good Life: What is the best life for the person living it? Main theories include hedonism, the best life is a happy one (quantitative hedonism = lots of pleasure and not much pain; qualitative hedonism = lots of higher pleasures); objective-list theories, the best life includes having a bunch of stuff on a list (such as mutual love, comfort, health, blah blah blah); desire-fulfillment theory, the best life is getting all your desires fulfilled; and success theory, the best life is getting all your desires about yourself fulfilled. I like hedonism, specifically preference hedonism, which states that the best life is one in which you're happy because you get lots of the types of pleasures you prefer and little pain.

The Meaning of Life: This one's obvious. There can be no objective meaning of life, nothing means anything in the long run because nothing lasts. Lots of people try to argue for subjective meaning, but that means nothing to anyone else. So, do whatever the hell you want with your life. It won't matter when you're gone, but you won't care once you're dead anyway. Take life as seriously as you want, and make up your own meaning if you feel the need to.

The Philosophy of Religion: Does God exist? The most important argument here is the ontological argument: We can conceive of something greater than anything else we can conceive of; therefore this thing exists at least in understanding; things that exist in reality are greater than things that only exist in understanding; if this thing didn't exist in reality we could conceive of something greater than it (that thing in reality); therefore this thing exists and is God. Just, no. You can't prove that something exists by playing with words (try replacing thing with island). There are other arguments based on the fact that something had to be the first cause of changes, something has to be the 'best' thing ever, and something has to direct all the non-sentient things (such as plants) towards their goals. I don't see why something has to be the 'best' of anything or how it leads to God. I also don't see how evolution can't explain everything else. Why can't the universe have evolved like everything else? Maybe it failed thousands of times before our universe came into existence.

Free Will: Do we have free will, or are all our actions directed by external factors? The general argument for no free will is that society and our environments shape our experiences and therefore our brains, therefore controlling all our actions. The argument for free will is that we can choose what we do or don't do at many points, and could have always chosen a different path. A sort of combination of these is called soft determinism and states that we have free will because we could have chosen a different path if we had wanted to. I think it's probably true that we are slaves of our brains, but that doesn't mean anything since are brains pretty much are us. We can't stop holding people responsible for their actions without the world turning to shit anyway.

Metaethics: Are there moral facts? Basically, are our morals based on anything objective? Some say they can't be because morals are so different in different societies; plus, what exactly could a moral truth be and how would we know what it was? Others say that there are moral facts, that are set by God. I think morality is hugely influenced by society, based in human empathy. We think causing pointless suffering is morally wrong because we know what it's like to suffer (except psychopaths who don't really have morals).

There we go, six big problems in life solved in one blog (obviously my opinion is right /sarcasm). And I deem myself sufficiently prepared for tomorrow's exam.

Stay tuned for more Pathetic Tales From A Broken Doll.

xx

The Bizarre, The Latin Lectures, and Runescape

I know who I am, but who are you?
You're not looking like you used to
You're on the other side of the mirror
So nothing's looking quite as clear
Thank you for turning on the lights
Thank you, now you're the parasite
I didn't think you had it in you
And now you're looking like I used to
-Sunday Morning, No Doubt

Okay, so I had a somewhat interesting topic to rant about. But now I can't remember it. So instead I'll babble on about nothing because I've decided I should probably say something at least.

So anyway, Uni is okay. Can't be bothered with the actual work part... But the lectures are generally interesting. And on the odd occasion when Devon crashes my lectures the whole day is pretty interesting. So how do you feel about fitting approximately 600 million animals on a boat? With enough stuff to feed them all aswell? Plus all of the plants.

On another note, who the hell writes 800 word introductions?

What I really need to do is write down some of the bizarre things that people write on the desks and toilet doors. And maybe some of the less bizarre ones too. Bizarre is a bizarre word. It amazes me how many people still go on about Twilight at Uni, n00bs.

Oh, I know what to write about. My Latin lecturer is completely nuts. At least in my opinion anyway. I swear, every lecture he goes completely off topic and goes on and on about something completely irrelevant until I forget what we were meant to be doing in the first place. I may have to write down some of the stuff he says too. For now though, here are some of his favourite topics:
1. Germans/Germany- This actually scares me. So far I have learned that it is impossible to speak German and be an idiot, German trains are always on time, and the Germans do everything right.
2. Children- Apparently he hates them, enough to tell us pretty much every day. So far I have learned that they shouldn't be considered as people, and maybe used as slaves.
3. The word 'puer'- Simply, it means 'boy' in Latin. But we got a lesson on how the plural 'pueri' can be used for males and females, it's an insult and what slaves are called, and then we learnt what people were called at each stage of life and how a baby wasn't a person until the father acknowledged it (if he didn't then the baby would be left somewhere for Jupiter to take care of).
4. Differences between Britain and America- As in, what you read first when learning Latin, and such. He knows we're in New Zealand right? And that ain't isn't a word? And we don't roll our rs, we're not all Southlanders you know!

I'm bored now. Go away so I can play RuneScape (mem again! Yay :D) By the way, if you haven't seen Alice in Wonderland go see it right now. It's like awesomeness in a box, but without the box.

Stay tuned for more Pathetic Tales From A Broken Doll.

xx

Stress, Debates, and "Christopher" the n00b

Well let's go back to the middle of the day that starts it all
I can't begin to let you know just what I'm feeling
And now the red ones make me fly
And the blue ones help me fall
Well I think I'll blow my brains against the ceiling
-Headfirst For Halos, My Chemical Romance

Arrrgh I'm so stressed right now. Sleep deprivation and school do not help either. No matter how many times I'm told not to worry... Next year is going to cost so much, and to be honest the thought of Uni terrifies me. In fact, according to my mother, I have been stressed about Uni since I was at kindy. Of course I'm always stressed about something anyway, so this is nothing new.

Something else that is not at all new is "debates" with "Christopher" (as he now insists on being called *coughsimoncough*). Today it just so happened to be on the subject of evolution versus creationism. Again, this is not particularly new, however the participators in this debate were somewhat new. Namely; me, "Christopher" and Carl (with odd comments from Arek). Debates with "Christopher" always have a few things in common:

1. He takes the side of Christianity, as he sees it
2. He refuses to be wrong
3. He reverts to completely irrelevant points continuously
4. He doesn't listen to what you're trying to say

So it was no suprise to me today to find that even when people were arguing the same side, they were too busy disagreeing to notice. "Christopher" of course took the side of creationism, constantly referring to the Flood. Carl took the side of evolution, constantly referring to finches. And me (being me) asked why they couldn't both be right. For some reason "Christopher could not understand nor accept that the bible could at all be wrong because of all the evidence (that I can't recall any of) that the Flood happened. Why it had to happen exactly the way the bible says, I have no idea. Stupid stubborn Simon, oops I mean "Christopher". Carl made a very good point, how the hell could anyone collect two of every animal? And then I made the excellent point (that even "Christopher" had to fabricate an argument for) that all the animals would have killed eachother anyway.

In the end we just got told to shut up by Miss, but the point is that it is hopeless to try to get "Christopher" to listen to anything you say. Especially if you're talking about anything to do with Christinaty. Because according to him, Christianity isn't a religion, it's a knowledge.

Stay tuned for more Pathetic Tales From A Broken Doll.

xx