Voltaire

6.

In my next few blogs, I'll talk about philosophers or philosophical topics that we didn't talk about in class because I've run out of things to blog about (or I'm just bored with Pojman).

On a side note, I used one of Voltaire's quotes/aphorisms for my senior quote: "No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible." Meaning that (at least what I think it means) individually, people do not feel responsible when something on a larger scale happens that they have inadvertently effected.

Voltaire also had an interesting view on religion. He believed that, "If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him." However, because of this, many people thought of him as an atheist. Reading this line makes me think that people invent "God" for the simple reason why we invent anything else. We "invent" God so we can feel better about our lives. We "invent" technology so we can live more comfortably. Etc.

Voltaire also said, "What is faith? Is it to believe that which is evident? No. It is perfectly evident to my mind that there exists a necessary, eternal, supreme, and intelligent being. This is no matter of faith, but of reason." This, again, is interesting because he insisting that faith is reason-- that to believe is to reason.

The Paradox of Human Nature:

Are We Free?

Determinism versus free will is an issue which is always at combat. Determinism has a causal thesis meaning that every act and event in the universe is caused by antecedent events. The libertarian view is that of free will.

The question one often asks is, "How do I pick one side/or believe in one when both are absolute and cannot be proven?"

I believe that we have both free will and causal thesis because of what I talked about in my last blog post. Determinism and free will are too extreme and therefore it is makes more sense that we as humans lie somewhere between the middle of the two.

Darwin's Dangerous Idea

Darwin's view on human nature was that of the nature of animality, that humans are not different or unique from other animals. However, because humans have a relatively larger brain than the rest of the animals, we are able to control our destiny and evolution and therefore are different than other animals.



I had this written down in my notes (I'm not sure if it related to Darwin though): "God of the Gap", meaning that when people didn't know what caused the thunder, rain, etc. they invented a "God" for it, "God of Thunder." Then, when they realized what actually caused the thunder, rain etc., there was not longer a "God" for it. Now they claim there is only "God the creator." I think it is safe to say that if all the other "Gods" got cancelled out, so can the last one.


I thought it was interesting how Darwin never used "the survival of the fittest" in his writings. I think that just goes to show how loosely based theories and facts are and cannot be depended. What if whoever came up with "the survival of the fittest" was talking about bowl movements?

"A popular misnomer, the 'food chain' is not actually a linear chain but a complex web. Energy is passed from one organism to another in a complex network like a spider's web." I agree with this statement more than the one we talked about in class that it is like a pyramid.


Why do things die?
Because they live.

The Absurdity of Existence

The three theses of existentialism are:

1) Existence precedes essence

2) The absurdity of existence

3) Radical freedom

As I catch up on my blogs (with this new week I have 6 more to go), I will be discussing the second thesis, the absurdity of existence.

In chapter 12, the one on existentialism, Pojman talks about the existentialist Albert Camus who believed the only philosophical question worth pondering is that of suicide. A quote from this section that popped out at me was, "An act like this [suicide] is prepared within the silence of the heart, as is a great work of art. The man himself is ignorant of it." (192)

I thought it odd of him to choose to compare suicide to art-- although that is not exactly what he is doing. Let me explain what I think he means: when one makes a great work of art- be it visual, musical, theatrical, etc.- it comes from a deep place inside a person, usually from sorrow or another negative emotion. Since he used the word 'silence' of the heart I think it would mean that the person would have to produce the artwork alone, as a person would have to commit suicide alone.

In this chapter Camus compares our existence to Greek mythology: Sisyphus having to keep rolling a bolder up a mountain his whole life and the average person's tedious everyday life. However, I think that if we did not have our 'absurd' everyday habitual patterns, we would go crazy with no routine, and eventually go back to a pattern.