02/04/2011 Synopsis

02/04/2011 class summary

The class started off with a review of what we had talked about in class previously. We started to talk about universality and how we can conceive of it but this doesn’t mean that it exits. In other words, the universal is not real but the reference is real. Another thing we reviewed was the process of sensation to perception to concept. What we mainly reviewed was the passage from evident things, or inference. Dr. Layne explained that all things have a mediated notion from immediate evident; the example given was that of a child eating an ice cream cone and their first perception of sweetness. In the example with the ice cream a child is first presented the ice cream, then they taste it, then they form an experience; the steps in this process are presentation, intellection, and experience. These three steps can be incorporated into three different ways of inference, or more specifically, of determining what something is through your perception of the sensations. The three methods of inference are resemblance, composition, and analogy. Resemblance occurs when an object mimics what the true form is; the image of Socrates to Socrates himself. Composition is when you see two or more object in combination and form a conception of what the combined objects now form; more simply looking at the whole instead of the pieces. An example of composition would be combining the image of a woman and a fish to get a mermaid. The last of the three was analogy which is defined as an inference that if things agree in some respects they probably agree in others or more simply drawing a comparison in order to show a similarity in some respect. An example of this would be to say that a flower has leaves and trees have leaves so they must be in some way related. After going over the old material we charged into the new material by going over pantheistic monism, God and phusis, Fate, Ethics, and taking a quiz. Pantheistic monism is a term used to describe how God is in all and God is all. This idea comes from the explanation that all that is matter or form is a body and all bodies mingle totally. This goes completely against the beliefs of Epicureans who say that everything is composed of atoms and void and that the random combinations of both are what form the universe; in this theory all atoms are separate. Our conversation then continued talking about God and Phusis. We had mentioned this before in the previous class saying that God, who is Phusis, or nature, is also logos, or logic (the principle of intelligence). But we went further in the explanation by saying that God is Pneuma, or spirit, that extends through the universe with different intensities and hierarchies, and gradations all while remaining one; which goes back to the theory of pantheistic monism. We then summarized Pronia or Providence which stated that all things were produced by divine principle and that they are meant to be exactly as they are –this concept goes against the mechanism of the Epicureans and once again show this connection to God, Pneuma, Logos, and Phusis. We then transitioned into a talk about Fate or Heimanmene, which once again backs up the idea that all things have a purpose, all things were created by principle, and that all things are in one. One of the most important things, which we went over this day— which later showed up on our quiz as a clip from the Jungle Book and Star Trek— were the ideas of necessity, freedom, and ethics. The Stoics believed that the only thing up to us was our will and that we have the freedom of the assenting of faith. This, we all agreed, was a theory based on the times; there was nothing that anyone could do about the changes taking place but they had to make the best of it by going with the flow. Your will was the only thing which you were responsible for and nothing else. Freedom was allotted only to things, which had to do with the will. Not only this, but also everything and everyone had a proper function and a proper way of life. It was necessary and great to follow ones set path and not deviate from the order. We then transitioned into speaking about the ethics of Stoicism, that which our reading was on. These ethics defined happiness as being the demand of the good or reason, which transcended the individual. Also, Stoics demanded that all human being realize that they are conditioned by fate to be in their place, going back to the idea of the necessity to live accordingly to ones lifestyle. The Stoic ethics focused a lot on the human being (as opposed to the Epicurean ethics). As you might remember the Stoics believed almost the opposite of what the Epicureans did. One of the things that they stressed was that the Epicureans had missed a step on the road towards happiness and that was preservation of the self. The Primary Instinct, or Oikeiosis, of all things is to see to preserve themselves. For, all things are attached to themselves and things feel an attachment of being at home in the world. This Instinct is the first step on the road to happiness. After we went over this bit we finished up our quiz and went off to break.