Plato and Aristotle (Philosophy)

As I have been lax in my journaling duties (bad Bonnie bad!!) I'm going to cover several points in this entry.

Can Virtue Be Taught?

As a parent, I think so. I like to think that teaching virtue is a main component of my job. If you take the Socratic view of having to define virtue first, I might just be a failure at that job. I honestly have no earth shattering ideas about what virtue is. The off the cuff response would be virtue is the act of being a good person. Being kind, caring, honest. The obvious flaw in this definition is that these are all aspects of virtue, yet none of them define virtue as a whole. This leads into the next topic:

What is Piety?

Again, no earth shattering ideas here. I run into the same problem as with virtue. I can explain aspects of piety (or at least what *my* conceptualization of piety, which may be entirely different from the Greeks) I think the true tragedy of the Euthypro (the source of the piety discussion) is that it is my belief that Socrates couldn't use the discussion of piety to save himself. Even if he had come up with an answer, as we read in the Apology the combination of Socrates' own arrogance and the various levels of prosecution made it a foregone conclusion that he would be convicted. The main thing that I got out of Plato was that there are true forms of every concept surronding us. Love, hate, justice, piety etc all have a 'form' we percieve and a true form. The pursuit of knowledge, is the pursuit of the true form. It seemed that our discussions in class got caught up in the 'earthly' forms (our limited perception of the true forms) The question that I came up with is, is it possible to assertain the true nature of something by using pure logic? As a human being, is it possible to completely disregard our sensory input to gain the knowledge of the true form. I think as human beings, we are sensory creatures. Therefore to try and figure something out using pure logic, seems to be highly unlikely.

Is Philosophy Dangerous

In a word, yes. In Socrates' case, it was fatal. From my understanding, Philosophy is the art of learning to think in different ways. In and of itself this doesn't sound threatening. If you look at it from a purely practical standpoint, the study of Philosophy could get you so caught up in the what and whys behind everything that you cease to function as a productive member of society. In a class I took last semester (Great Books II) our teacher said the problem with introspection is that too much could lead to madness. Now in this case he was referring to self examination. For example, if you spend all your time focusing on yourself, and the different aspects of your personality, you can drive yourself mad. Humans as a whole are contradictory creatures. We love and we hate, we are nice and mean, we are tender and we hurt. Whether one admits it or not, we are all multiple personalities. The personality we show depends on who we are surrounded by. And if thinking about the contradictions inherent in being a human being can drive one mad, imagine contemplating the contradictions inherent in the universe!! Nature can be beautiful and ugly, peaceful and terrifying. Another reason that Philosophy strikes me as dangerous, is that it makes you question the status quo. Again I don't neccesarily think this is bad in and of itself. Yet as I pointed out in class, enough people think differently than the norm, the norm changes. This is very threatening to the people in 'power', and ultimately I believe this is why Socrates was put to death. The charge of corrupting the young was more the Athenian government's way of protecting the status quo of their society. (Kind of ironic when you realize that Aristotle's 'student' Alexander the Great was the one to destroy the Athenian democracy)

Aristotle

Honestly, I didn't understand one bit of the dialog until after class tonight. After the discussion, it made sense (mostly). The only thing that has 'popped' for me so far (hopefully the next readings wont be so hard to get through) is that it's interesting to see the beginnings of hypothesis testing. The fact that I'm currently taking a Quantitative Methods course, and just last night we went over how we set up our testing procedures, then tonight while discussing Aristotle's typical procedure for his treaties, the similarities are striking. To know that the beginnings of the scientific method were from Aristotle just amazes me!

Bored....

I am so bored. No particular reason, as I have plenty to do, I just don't wanna. (How's that for an example of maturity) I don't have anyting new to read for Philosophy, I'm avoiding my Quantitative Methods homework (even though the teacher is awesome, I don't think anyone can make math exciting) My husband thinks math's exciting, but he's a geek :) In fact he was bored this morning so he made me my very own message board (even though I told him I'd be using this blog for my class) Geek is really a broad term though. I consider myself a geek, it's just with books and reading and the internet in general. DH is a math and computer geek. My quantitative methods teacher is a self professed stats geek. I never really thought of it before but there are subdivisions of geek :) I wonder if there's an ultimate geek somewhere? The supreme geek to whom all must bow down to...

My baby turns three on Monday :( It seems like just yesterday I brought him home from the hospital. I miss my little baby boy! He's turning into a 'big boy' now. Doesn't want cuddles, always playing with his trucks. This boy sleeps with a metal truck. He still has little boy moments, they are just getting fewer and fewer. <> It was bound to happen :)

Short note...

I've changed my template, this one seems to be a little easier to read. My Philosophy teacher o.k'd the use of this blog for my project, so what I will do is start seperating my posts in the title, by putting philosophy in parenthesis. Hopefully this will make it easier for both my teacher (who I doubt wants to wade through my facinating pregnancy tales) and anyone else who happens to pop by :) Thanks for your patience in this experiment 'o mine!

Socrates.

While searching on line I found this site: http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/socr.htm (sorry it's not clickable) I was actually trying to see if Socrates was the one who died by drinking hemlock, but this site looks like it has tons of useful information on Philosophy in general...

Meno by Plato

What is virtue? Honestly, I don't know. Much like Meno, I can come up with *examples* of a virtue, but I am unable to define it as a whole. It pisses me off :) On my way home from class tonight, I was thinking (dangerous, I know) that I think one of the points that Socrates is trying to make in this dialog is that the answer is not as important as the journey to the answer. It was pointed out that this dialog illustrates the Socratic method of teaching. What I was thinking is that Socrates (or more technically, Plato as he is the one who wrote this) places immense value on the *process* with which one comes up with an answer. This may in part be due to the fact that he believed that we don't learn things, we remember them. If that's true then none of my past selves ever took a math class. Overall, I did come to like the story. Specifically, Anytus was an interesting character. I think what made it truely interesting was his interaction with Socrates, knowing that Anytus would be the one to prosecute him.

U/S

baby looks good :) we have to go back in three weeks because the baby would only show us one side, and they want a good look at both sides of the spine, but she said that was just a precaution. Babe was very stubborn, crossed legs, even tried using a hand to cover the goods. With the help of a very patient U/S technician we were able to see that it's a BOY!!!!! I'm so thrilled!!

One last post!

Ok, last you'll hear from me today, I promise!! My big ultrasound is tomorrow, hopefully we will find out if the bean is a little boy or girl!! I had my first phone conversation with a TWBBer :) Awesome girl, we seem to have tons in common and we're both babblers!!

I had my first night of stats class tonight. It got off to a kind of rocky start. It said it was in Kent Hall, so I go there and the building is closed for construction!! So I go to the building next door, find nothing. In a last ditch effort, I have Will drive me around to the other side and find out they finally opened a new part. So after being late (I hope it didn't piss the teacher off), I got in on the lecture, and it was all pretty comprehensible. Luckily this teacher also seemed excited about his subject. I'll take an excited animated teacher any day! I think that's about it, I'll post an update on the ultrasound tomorrow if we find out anything.

Princess Bride

Courtesy of Prinn's blog (perle moon see side bar as I seem to be inept at inserting links into the text) I love this movie!!!!!!



Which Princess Bride Character are You?
this quiz was made by mysti

adding some more time wasters courtesy of Prinn :D

B	Brilliant
O	Old
N	Nerdy
N	Nice
I	Insane
E	Emotional

Name / Username:

Name Acronym Generator
From Go-Quiz.com
**excuse me, but old?!?! Insane maybe, but definitely not old...

Random thoughts part two...

OK....It's kind of sad when you can tie yourself into mental knots... Anyway I was continuing to thing about perception vs. reality (can you tell this is bugging me). On a completely hypothetical tangent, how do we know we are real? I think therefore I am. Is that enough of a qualifier? How do I know I'm not a dream of a God figure sitting on some mountain top (think Zues) who is having a great 'ole belly laugh at this dream of his pondering reality.

I started reading Meno by Plato last night. I'm not too far into it, but from what I've gotten they are looking to define virtue. Is virtue simply one thing that can be a blanket term applied to everything? Is there one virtue that is more virtuous then any of the others? We were told to focus on the characters first. Honestly I don't think Meno isn't intelligent, probably because I can identify with with all of his points. I also get frustrated with circular arguements, which is what they seem to be having up until this point. Socrates...Maybe he was operating on a different plane of understanding than the rest of us mere mortals. I can understand how his arguements when broken down into shape and color, but when he jumps back to virtue, I'm right there with Meno. Hopefully this will clear up as I finish the story.

Random Thoughts.

I have figured out the problem with taking night classes. I go to class, come home, and my mind is buzzing so hard I can't shut it off!! So forgive me if this is rambling and disjointed folks, I'm a little tired here.

I had my first Philosophy class last night. Surprisingly, I think I'm going to like it! The teacher is *very* animated. I'm so glad, because it is always much more fun to sit through a 2 1/2 hour class with a teacher who is excited about his material. Now if I can manage to wrap my pregnant, hormone ridden brain around what he is saying I should enjoy it. I almost wish I had waited until I came back in the spring to take this class. As I have told both my husband and mother many times, pregnancy makes me dumb. This blog also might be changing it's face relatively soon. We are able to choose one of two options for grading in this class. The first is more traditional. You have a couple of papers, midterm, final. The second is by journaling. We can choose to do this by various means, one of which is blogging. The only drawback I can see to the second option is that it would constitute 75% of my grade. It makes me nervous to put 'all my eggs in one basket.' On the other hand, I would have plenty opportunity for feedback (blog being submitted weekly, many more chances for the teacher to tell me I'm screwing up!) Both my DH and my mom think I should choose the second option. I think it's because they both think I'm this tremendous writer waiting to burst out. I think they both are predispositioned to unwarrented flattery seeing as how one gave birth to me, and the other married me. I think I'm going to try it, just because I like my thoughts to be more free flowing, and I think this option will provide that. (let's hope the teacher doesn't have a problem with babbling :) ) If you don't want to read my thoughts on Philosophy, the class ends at the beginning of August. We'll be back to my regularly scheduled whining then! Then again this all might be hypothetical seeing as how I don't know if he will let me use an existing blog, or if he would like me to start a new one :) In any case I think I will muse for a little bit on something he wrote in his blog...

"There is a difference between appearence and reality." This statement is deceptively simple. Unfortunately for me I have the suspicion that a majority of Philosophy is deceptively simple. The teacher brought up an interesting point in class. If you stick something in water (he used the example of a spear) it looks bent. Obviously, it is not. When you stick your arm in water it does not bend. So there, appearance and reality are two totally different things. That could also be said about the internet. Many of us have blogged or discussed how much of the internet is real. For all you know, I could be a 400 lb trucker named Bubba who gets kicks out of pretending to be a 25 year old pregnant woman. I guess the point that gets me is how do I know what is reality and what is just appearance? Is reality subjective? For instance, the September 11th attacks. I was living in Michigan at the time, no where near them. I have only seen what happened on T.V. I didn't lose anyone I knew personally. I had family in the military that I feared for, but they are both fine. So are the attacks less 'real' for me, than someone that experienced them directly? Or for that matter, how do I know that they ever happened? Television is as bad as the internet in that it is so easy to just fall into believing everything you see without actually having proof (Don't get your shorts in a knot people, I do believe they happened, I do believe they were horrible. This is hypothetical.) Think about the movie Wag The Dog info here It would be completely possible to do this in the television age! Not saying it would be easy, but possible. So where is the line between appearance and reality, and who is to say that your reality is any more valid than mine. I don't think I have any of the answers yet. Of course I've only had one night of class :)

Hot...

I'm so hot....and not in a 'woo hoo look at that hot momma' way, more like 'ick look at that sweaty frumpy mess' way :) I never understood referring to pregnancy as having a bun in the oven until I was pregnant during the summer. After that I swore, the next baby I had, I would be pregnant in the winter. See how well that worked out? =) So my next 'absolute vow' is the next home we live in will have central air, it will also be kept at 65. If the others don't like it, they can wear sweaters!!! Not that I'm being overly dramatic or anything (no not me!!!)

Books

I meant to add yesterday (got sidetracked :) ) that my online book club started again!! Technically, not mine, but I belong to it. It got sidetracked for a while, lots of new babies being born. Guess that's a hazard of belonging to a bookclub centered on Mommies. We're reading Bouidica: Drawing Down The Eagle by Manda Scott. So far, I love it. Of course I love the history of that particular region, as well of stories of strong women. From what I've been able to find out, this is the first in a quartet of books. Only two have been released so far. Now if I can get DH to move the couch out so I can get to reading again, I'll find out if I want to read the others :) I have a bad habit of setting whatever I'm reading on the back of the couch, especially bad now as I'm not allowed to *move* the couch :P

In other book news, I'm sooooo excited. I found a book that I vaguely remembered reading when I was young (7 or 8) I loved the book then, and have no clue where it had gone to . I wasn't sure of the title or anything and I found it again!! It's called The Ordinary Princess. Very cute story, and I figure something that has managed to stick in my addled brain for this long, is something I should have around :)

Life or something like it....

DH is home! He's been home since last week, I just haven't been in a blogging mood. He was in a lot of pain for the first few days. Now he seems to be doing great! I haven't seen him take one of the mega pain pills he was perscribed and he's finally been able to eat something besides bread and broth! In baby news, 1 week 6 days till the big U/S. The appointment is at 7 in the morning, so I have to get up by five so I can drink a gallon of liquid of my choice and have it finished by an hour before the appointment. I think they do this as some kind of pregnant woman torture :) In super good news the AFP test came back 'completely negative' in the words of my nurse!! For those who aren't familiar with the test, it is the Alpha Fetal Protien test, used to find the odds of your baby having either downs syndrom or spina bifida (and possibly other things). With DS, the test came back with a high rate for Spina Bifida (where basically a section of the spine is not enclosed). It led to tons of stress, genetic counseling and an in depth U/S. And it was wrong :) DS is now a perfectly healthy (albeit honrey) almost three year old. My mom had her 50th birthday yesterday :) A part of me is kind of sad. The older she gets, the closer I am to loosing her. I know 50 isn't *old*, but she's not exactly healthy either... Smoking, drinking etc. I've tried to talk to her, but I'm in a somewhat akward position in that she is my mom. I've made it very clear I want my babies to know her, a chance I didn't get with my grandma. I for once am going to try and think positive!

DH

As some of you know DH is in the hospital. He has been diagnosed with Pancreatitus, I am so very thankful that we caught it early and he should have a quick full recovery. DH has had high cholesterol since he was about 9. Like the medical mystery that he is, nothing has put a dent in it! Apparently this is what caused the Pancreatitus and hopefully with the help of meds and time he should come home in a couple of days :)

Reading

With finally being on vacation (for a month at least :) ) I've been able to return to my first love, reading. I actually read two books this weekend! The first was Firebrand by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Much like Mists of Avalon, I found it hard to be absorbed in the beginning, but after a while I couldn't put it down! I love Greek Mythology, so this fit right in. The second book was Quilters Legacy (don't remember the author off hand). I also loved this book. I found the flashbacks to what had actually gone on during the making of the Eleanor's quilts just facinating. It gives me an additional sense of purpose with my stitching. In addition to doing something I enjoy, I am leaving a piece of my life behind. Very neat. Now off to go through my book stash to find something new to read :)

May Prenatal Appointment

I had my May prenatal today with the new Dr. From first impressions, I love love love this Dr.!! She explained everything to me, confirmed my risk for VBAC (I have a 1% chance of my scar rupturing, I think I can deal with that), and she spent plenty of time with me to make sure I had no questions. That and they offer very early morning appointments so DH can come too. I got to hear the heartbeat (154) and my next appt is June 16th for my 'big' ultrasound. I really hope this baby is more cooperative than Boo was :)

I just realized that it's been a while since I've done an update on life in general (and I'm avoiding a paper **gasp** isn't that a shocker???) so here goes. School is well.....school. Like I've said before, ever since finding out about this pregnancy I just haven't been able to concentrate on it. Let's just say I won't be making the dean's list this semester :/. B. is doing great. He is the typical two year old terror. Ever since the finger cutting incident, he has turned into the biggest hypocondriac. :) Anyone who will sit still for two minutes has to hear about his 'owie' It's cute, but boy is he milking it for all it's worth! DH and I are doing well (thanks to those who were asking about it.) I think a majority of the arguements were do to him freaking out about the idea of a new baby. Luckily he has come around and is very excited (still hoping for daddy's little girl) We are hoping to do a mini vacation in the beginning of June. We are thinking of going to either Gettysburg or back to Chicago so I can show him were I grew up (and I can get some of that great food I've been craving!) In baby news, everything seems to be going fine. My next appointment is May 11, with the new OB's and I think I've felt the bub moving!! I say I think because it seems insanely early, but then again I've heard that you recognize it earlier with your second child. I've also 'popped' I feel huge (and it doesn't make it any better that I know I'm going to keep growing!) I told DH that I remembered being this big when I had B! oh well, par for the course as they say. The kitties are doing good, although mr. Vlad is working his way to an early death. There must be something in the air because the little poop takes every chance he gets to shoot out the door like a bolt of lightening. It doesn't help that we have a very independant (and inattentive!) two year old who doesn't pay attention to the kitties when he opens the door. I think that's about everything, so back to the paper I go!

Since the archives are down at Friday Five (and WG used the one I used last week so I can't copy hers :) ) I'll do the stitchers five for the week!
1. Which do you prefer, Kits or Charts?
Charts!

2. Why?
I hate, hate, hate sorting the thread. It is almost never in any dicernable order. I would much rather get to stitching than try and figure out the difference between forty different types of blue.

3. How do you organise your materials before you stitch
Not very well :) I have the floss boxes and bobbined floss, but I'm trying to get into the DMC stitchbow system, with one project at a time kitted up and stitching it.

4. Do you do anything to the sides of your fabric before starting?
I don't do anything, my LNS serges the edges for me, and I've fallen in love with Silkweaver (got my first piece this week!!!)

5. What do you do with the leftovers when your done?
put in back in my ever growing pile of stash (bad TWBB enablers, Bad!!!!!)

Well in an effort to get away from the constantly baby oriented blog, I have decided to look up something interesting I have seen on other blogs: The Friday Five....As there isn't a new one posted, I will start with an archive from April 12, 2002...

1. What is your favorite restaurant and why?
Leona's (a Chicago based pseudo Italian restaurant) They have the best triple cheese garlic bread, and a wicked garlic chicken. If you love garlic, and don't mind the ability to kill vampires by simply breathing on them, I highly recommend it!

2. What fast food restaurant are you partial to?
Arby's, it's not your typical rubberized burger. That and I'm a sucker for curly fries.

3. What are your standards and rules for tipping?
I usually start at $2, even for crappy service. I will go upwards of 20% or higher for good service. As a former waitress, I have a guilt complex for not leaving anything, even if service is horrible. I also had a waitress chase after me demanding why I didn't leave a tip (the one time the service sucked so bad I couldn't see tipping at all) and the confrontationally challenged person that I am is terrified of that happening again.

4. Do you usually order an appetizer and/or dessert?
appetizer - yes, dessert - very rarely

5. What do you usually order to drink at a restaurant?
soda (coke if they have it...)

Yay!!! I got a lot of financial aid money for the summer. That combined with the fact that I had to drop 2 of my 3 classes (daycare fell through) means we can get everything that I wanted for the baby!! We didn't need a whole lot because I hoarded everything from DS. We do need some big ticket items though, mainly the crib. DS shook his until it fell apart, hence him being in a toddler bed at 18 months. This also means if it's a girl, I can get all the little frilly pink clothes my heart desires. I'm thrilled! In other news, I'm dumping my Dr. The last appointment was both disappointing and frightening. First off, they were totally not supportive of my choice of a VBAC. Now I'm all for having a c-section if it is *medically* necessary. If it will save my baby I will do it in a heartbeat. I will not have major surgery (and don't kid yourself, that is exactly what it is.) for the sake of convenience, be it mine or the Dr.s. I have no delusions about a vaginal birth being painless, but I've been through a c-section and the recovery blows. Now that I have a two year old to care for, and that DH is a contractor (meaning no paid leave when baby arrives) I have no clue how I would swing watching a newborn and a toddler. The second thing was that the nurse tried to find the heartbeat, gave up after about ten seconds and was looking way too low. They found DS's HB much higher, at the same time. It's scary not to hear it, and to know I won't have another chance for a month all because the nurse was either too rushed or too incompetent to do it correctly. The final straw, and the one that frightened me the most, was that they gave me a hepatitis B vaccination, telling me it was perfectly safe. #1, I don't have hepatitis b, I was tested and it was negative. #2, I don't have *any* of the risk factors for getting it, and finally I did the research when I got home, and while there is no evidence yet that it is harmful to the fetus it is still in the testing stages!! How dare you tell me something is perfectly safe, when in fact it is in the middle of the testing stages and for all I know my kid could pop out with 3 arms and a mouth on it's rear!!! Granted some of this (maybe most) is pregnancy induced hysteria. Yet under the best of conditions I don't appreciate being lied to or patronized. So I've made an appointment with another group and am hoping they are both more supportive of my choices, and more interactive with their patients. It looks promising so far, they have the only nice medical receptionist I have ever met.