Harvard Lecture on Justice

Click on this link to see view a lecture to Harvard Students on Justice. The professor references the Georgias.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBdfcR-8hEY&feature=related

New Dog

About a month ago I was walking my dog Holly Golighlty and we bumped in to a stray. He followed us home! I named him Harlen and although he and Holly may not be the best of friends they still manage to get along and double team against the neighborhood cats.

The Egyptian People Make History

Remarks by the President on Egypt

Grand Foyer

3:06 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon, everybody. There are very few moments in our lives where we have the privilege to witness history taking place. This is one of those moments. This is one of those times. The people of Egypt have spoken, their voices have been heard, and Egypt will never be the same.

By stepping down, President Mubarak responded to the Egyptian people’s hunger for change. But this is not the end of Egypt’s transition. It’s a beginning. I’m sure there will be difficult days ahead, and many questions remain unanswered. But I am confident that the people of Egypt can find the answers, and do so peacefully, constructively, and in the spirit of unity that has defined these last few weeks. For Egyptians have made it clear that nothing less than genuine democracy will carry the day.

The military has served patriotically and responsibly as a caretaker to the state, and will now have to ensure a transition that is credible in the eyes of the Egyptian people. That means protecting the rights of Egypt’s citizens, lifting the emergency law, revising the constitution and other laws to make this change irreversible, and laying out a clear path to elections that are fair and free. Above all, this transition must bring all of Egypt’s voices to the table. For the spirit of peaceful protest and perseverance that the Egyptian people have shown can serve as a powerful wind at the back of this change.

The United States will continue to be a friend and partner to Egypt. We stand ready to provide whatever assistance is necessary -- and asked for -- to pursue a credible transition to a democracy. I’m also confident that the same ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit that the young people of Egypt have shown in recent days can be harnessed to create new opportunity -- jobs and businesses that allow the extraordinary potential of this generation to take flight. And I know that a democratic Egypt can advance its role of responsible leadership not only in the region but around the world.

Egypt has played a pivotal role in human history for over 6,000 years. But over the last few weeks, the wheel of history turned at a blinding pace as the Egyptian people demanded their universal rights.

We saw mothers and fathers carrying their children on their shoulders to show them what true freedom might look like.

We saw a young Egyptian say, “For the first time in my life, I really count. My voice is heard. Even though I’m only one person, this is the way real democracy works.”

We saw protesters chant “Selmiyya, selmiyya” -- “We are peaceful” -- again and again.

We saw a military that would not fire bullets at the people they were sworn to protect.

And we saw doctors and nurses rushing into the streets to care for those who were wounded, volunteers checking protesters to ensure that they were unarmed.

We saw people of faith praying together and chanting – “Muslims, Christians, We are one.” And though we know that the strains between faiths still divide too many in this world and no single event will close that chasm immediately, these scenes remind us that we need not be defined by our differences. We can be defined by the common humanity that we share.

And above all, we saw a new generation emerge -- a generation that uses their own creativity and talent and technology to call for a government that represented their hopes and not their fears; a government that is responsive to their boundless aspirations. One Egyptian put it simply: Most people have discovered in the last few days…that they are worth something, and this cannot be taken away from them anymore, ever.

This is the power of human dignity, and it can never be denied. Egyptians have inspired us, and they’ve done so by putting the lie to the idea that justice is best gained through violence. For in Egypt, it was the moral force of nonviolence -- not terrorism, not mindless killing -- but nonviolence, moral force that bent the arc of history toward justice once more.

And while the sights and sounds that we heard were entirely Egyptian, we can’t help but hear the echoes of history -- echoes from Germans tearing down a wall, Indonesian students taking to the streets, Gandhi leading his people down the path of justice.

As Martin Luther King said in celebrating the birth of a new nation in Ghana while trying to perfect his own, “There is something in the soul that cries out for freedom.” Those were the cries that came from Tahrir Square, and the entire world has taken note.

Today belongs to the people of Egypt, and the American people are moved by these scenes in Cairo and across Egypt because of who we are as a people and the kind of world that we want our children to grow up in.

The word Tahrir means liberation. It is a word that speaks to that something in our souls that cries out for freedom. And forevermore it will remind us of the Egyptian people -- of what they did, of the things that they stood for, and how they changed their country, and in doing so changed the world.

Thank you.

END 3:13 P.M. EST

Movie Quote/Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

J. S. Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565" play during the opening credits of the 1931 version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In the opening scene Dr. Jekyll plays it on the organ only to be interrupted by his servant "Poole" who informs him that he is running late to a lecture. (A very quotable lecture at that).

Here is Dr. Jekyll's response to Poole's interruption:

"You know Pool, you're a nuisance. But I don't know what I should do without you. Your sense of duty is as impregnable as Gibraltar, even Bach can't move it."

I love this quote. It says so much with so few words. Not only in the context of the movie itself but it also stands alone.

Make peace with your own ignorance.

I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.

~Socrates

When I first began reading Plato about 11 years ago, I was frustrated beyond belief. I thought I would never grasp any of his ideas. However, the people I knew who did grasp his ideas took so much delight in it that I continued reading, looking for some type of deeper connection with that ancient text. As the years went by, slowly I began to understand, and the more his words made sense the paradoxes and mysteries only multiplied.

The old adage "So close yet so far"comes to mind.

It seems so simple, most humbling things often do.

Mission Accomplished!!!

I got the sweetest little dog at the shelter with the help of a friend :) My sister Ofelia and the pooch are already the best of friends. Her first walk did not go so well she ran away and we had to chase her she was quick! I was so scared but we went to Petco right after that incident and got her all the essentials. I gave her a little bath with black cherry shampoo and she was like a brand new dog! Smelled yummy too ; ) The little one still does not have a name but Ofelia is working on it. I'm calling her Holly Golightly for now.

Gwen Stefani/V Magazine/Kissy Sell Out/Wind It Up

Hey everyone,
It has been a well over a month since I have posted anything and I am about to go to sleep so I will keep it light. Some people may think it is silly that I am saying this, but I think Gwen is quite artistic in a non superficial non-commercial way. I cannot pinpoint why I feel this way! Not entirely of course, I mean check out her 1st solo album..............but something about her style of dress, poetic song lyrics and even the commercial for her "L" fragrance directed by Sophie Muller evoke a certain type of haunting beauty that I like many others cannot get enough of. Right after the 2nd picture of Gwen is a link to the "L" fragrance commercial as well as a link to the Kissy Sell Out remix of Wind it up, enjoy and please share your thoughts.

Wow! I referred to Gwen's artistry as non-commercial and used a commercial as proof! An unintentional irony I assure you!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nW54YPfF7k <----- "L" Fragrance Commercial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DPxg1NoRDM <--------Wind it up(Kissy Sell Out Remix)

Aristophanes's speech on love from Plato's symposium.

One of the most fascinating of the Platonic Dialogues that I have read is the Symposium. Most specifically the speech of Aristophanes. (It is later trumped in intensity by the speech of Alcibiades.............somewhat.)

So many engaging metaphors in one place. Reading it will keep you on the edge of your seat wondering what comes next! I have always thought, since I first read it years ago that Aristophanes is making the point that the sexual orientation is predetermined, making it a part of human nature. He also seems to be saying that 2 heads are better than one and that when you look for a mate it should be one that compliments your natural assets the most and vice versa because that is the one who was meant for you and together you will be at your fullest potential.

Funny, that is the type of dating advice that can be found on copious websites all over the web :)

But, naturally, no one expresses those sentiments quite like Plato does.

I love the part about each of the three genders of the original humans each being modeled after their "ancestors". The all female form a descendant from the Earth, the all-male form of the Sun and the hermaphrodite form of the Moon. The third, because as Plato puts it, partook in the other two.

There are so many other things that could be said of the Symposium but I'll leave it up to you to discover for yourself. Below are two links; the first is the Jowett translation of the Symposium.

http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/symposium.html

The second a link to a video of a recitation done in French with English subtitles of Aristophanes's speech.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4paSMqKYXtY

Aristophanes will make you laugh and Alcibiades will make you cry.

Enjoy

*Special thanks to Darren Takayesu for discovering & e-mailing that second link.

Predicate/propositional logic final.

Wow! What an amazing month! On Monday after much sacrificing and dedication I took my logic final. 80% was mostly in regards to predicate logic, example:

Socrates is mortal. Symbolic translation: Ms

Another example:

Some men are not gentlemen. Symbolic translation: (∃x) (Mx & ~Gx).

The remaining 20% dealt with propositional logic, example:

If L.A.C.C. cancels winter session, then so does Valley College. L ⊃ V

It was a challenging class and at times I felt quite discouraged by the slow pace at which I was comprehending the material. But I understood it nonetheless and on Friday I received an e-mail from my instructor, Professor Torres informing me that I earned an A!!! He also said he would be willing to provide me with a letter of recommendation which will come in handy when I begin my transfer from community college to a UC.

Another amazing thing which occurred this month is that I restarted a project which I abandoned 10 years ago which was to create and publish a comic book about a central american female vigilante who I loosely modeled after the goddess Artemis of greek mythology. I have been bouncing ideas for her story off of colleagues, classmates, friends and the like which led me to inadvertently find someone who volunteered to do the artwork!!

Amazing!!!

Lastly, now that I am on break from school I have more time to focus on the more abstract side of philosophy as opposed to the more rigorous study of logic which has consumed much of my time for the last 4 months or so. Expect a post on my interpretation of Aristophanes's speech on love from Plato's Symposium sometime in the next few days!!

Below are two of countless depictions of Artemis.

Amazing!!!!!!!

Do logic and emotion go hand in hand?

It has been over a month since my last post and this contribution I must admit is pretty lazy since I am only copy and pasting an article I just read. However it is too fascinating not too share:

Vulcans Nixed: You Can’t Have Logic Without Emotion

Fifty years ago some young MIT scholars delivered a radical notion to the world. They proposed that it is possible to scientifically study precise mechanisms and processes of human thought. The movement was the catalyst for many fields of study. Earlier this week, Harvard University celebrated this intellectual achievement with a symposium featuring some of the original MIT scholars.

Now after a generation of productive research, a newer paradigm shift is taking place. Science is discovering that it is our emotions that make thought possible, not the other way around. We simply cannot understand thought without understanding emotion. This is a radical departure from the traditional perspective, which used to regard emotion as the antagonist of reason.

"Because we subscribed to this false ideal of rational, logical thought, we diminished the importance of everything else," said Marvin Minsky, a professor at MIT and pioneer of artificial intelligence. "Seeing our emotions as distinct from thinking was really quite disastrous."

Cognitive psychologists have traditionally downplayed the importance of emotions to the thought process. "They regarded emotions as an artifact of subjective experience, and thus not worthy of investigation," said Joseph LeDoux, a neuroscientist at NYU.

In all fairness to cognitive psychologists, the field of cognitive psychology has always been criticized for being too “soft” of a science. The effect is that cognitive scientists have always felt compelled to “harden” the science up with logical facts, and less study of emotion and behavior. Ironically, “feelings” ARE the new “fact”, and the main determination of the choices we make- not logic.

In fact, the entire “science of thinking” was approached somewhat backwards right from the start. Perhaps, this was partly due to the field being largely dominated by men who suspected (in true Vulcan fashion) that “feeling” is inferior to logic. In fact, as I was summarizing these findings for this post, my husband called to tell me about a problem he is having with a coworker. I asked him if he had talked to the individual to find out how he was feeling. My husband replied, “Men don’t talk about feelings. We talk about facts.”

Of course, that doesn’t apply to all men. Antonio Damasio, a neuroscientist at USC has played an important role in establishing the importance of studying emotion. Before Damasio came onto the scene, most cognitive scientists assumed that emotions only interfered with rational thought. It was assumed that a person without any emotions would be a better thinker, since their “cortical computer” could process information without the hindrance of emotion. Damasio’s research challenged the assumption by showing that people who have suffered brain injuries which prevent them from perceiving their own feelings, are ineffective decision-makers. Most would spend hours deliberating over irrelevant details, such as where to eat lunch. Damasio’s research, among many other studies, is revealing that emotion is what enables us to make up our minds. It is pure reason- not feeling- that is the true hindrance to decision making. So take that, Mr. Spock!

~Rebecca Sato

I found this article on www.thedailygalaxy.com

POMPEII AND THE ROMAN VILLA: ART AND CULURE AROUND THE BAY OF NAPLES

On September 26th I went to the  Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and culture around the bay of Naples exhibit at the LACMA with my friend Ebony. It was AMAZING, but as Ebony pointed out it was not as big of a collection of pieces as we had hoped. Either way it was a refreshing bath of some much needed culture and it is always a pleasure to see the way greek culture influences others and this exhibit was dripping with greek influence, it was impossible to get away from it. Everywhere you turned there was yet another depiction of an Apollo or an Athena. Some were so beautiful I wanted to move into the museum as my permanent residence. Some of my favorite pieces were

 1) A roman gladiator helmet with reliefs telling Homer's tales of Troy. (I think)

2) This painting of the 3 Graces

Why Obama's Health Care Reform DOES NOT Mean "Pulling the Plug on Grandma"

Copy and paste the link below into your URL thingy majingy to hear Melody Barnes, the President's Director of the Domestic Policy Council, debunking the malicious myth that reform would encourage or even require euthanasia for seniors.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/7  

Don't blame Obama if G.O.P. wins the health care reform wrestling match

Here is another N.Y. Times op-ed, this one by Ross Douthat on the health care reform fight called "Don't Blame Obama".

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/opinion/24douthat-1.html?ref=opinion

President Obama: Why we need health care reform.

Please click on the link below to read a very informative a New York Times op-ed written by the commander-in-chief concerning our nation's need for health care reform.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/16/opinion/16obama.html?_r=1

"I am an Athenian citizen! I am an Athenian citizen! This is the proudest moment in all my life." ~Edith Hamlton

This is a photograph of Edith Hamilton in the amphitheatre of Herodes Atticus at the foot of the Athenian Acropolis on the occasion of her being made an honorary citizen of Athens.

Hamilton vs Kitto

I began reading The Greeks by H.D.F. Kitto the other day and my mind could not help but draw comparisons between it and E.H.'s The Greek Way to Western Civilization. Both of these books are obviously designed to give the reader insight into classical Greek culture and both were written by renowned classicists. But what I found most fascinating were not the similarities between them but the differences. I have only read the chapter on Homer in Kitto's book but that was enough for me to see how his writing style pales in comparison to E.H's. Don't get me wrong, from what I read on Homer there is valuable information in Kitto's text......but E.H. writes with the authority and passion of one who fought side by side with Achilles or as if she herself was a student at Plato's Academy. Her writing pulls you in and leaves you begging for more. At times she is more poet than scholar. I leave you with the first paragraph of The Greek Way so that you may judge for yourself:

Five hundred years before Christ in a little town on the far western border of the settled and civilized world, a strange new power was at work. Something had awakened in the minds and spirits of the men there which was so to influence the world that the slow passage of long time, of century upon century and the shattering changes they brought, would be powerless to wear away that deep impress.

Quote Of The Week

"The fundamental fact about the Greek was that he had to use his mind. The ancient priests had said, Thus far and no farther. We set the limits of thought. The Greek said, All things are to be examined and called into question. There are no limits set on thought." ~Edith Hamilton

The first thing that came to mind when I read this quote was an anecdote regarding E.H. herself that I read online. The story begins in Leipzig, Germany. E.H. and her sister were studying at the university, E.H. grew tired of her professors' inability to grasp the full scope and meaning of what the ancient greek thinkers were attempting to convey. So she decided to attend the University of Munich where she became the sole female member of the student body. Obviously this notoriety brought an entirely different set of challenges as compared to those in Leipzig. The faculty wanted to segrgate her from her classmates, so she was instructed to sit in a chair next to the lecturer's podium facing her classmates. It is also been reported that the head of the university would shake his head sadly whenever he ran into her and made dissaproving comments regarding a woman's place in the public sphere. Ironically enough, several reports I have read online state that E.H. in fact, enjoyed this notoriety!

The moral of the story is that those who wish to set limits on human thought are also setting limits on human progress. The world is lucky to have had a woman like Edith Hamilton to joyfully break down the barriers which ignorance has built.

Popped my blogging cherry!

Wow! I never thought that I would write a blog! This is amazing and easier than I imagined. The purpose of this blog is to share my  experiences on my way to becoming a philosophy professor, to plug charities, and to possibly get in touch with other people that have humanitarian aspirations and a passion for greek antiquity. Another reason for starting this blog is that I want to become a skilled writer and would like to express ideas in a coherent and eloquent way. In other words, practice makes perfect.