My dad encouraged me a little while back to post the essays I had to write in philosophy this semester. That said, I am going to type up a few and put them on here. Feel free to tell me what you think!

On the Differences between the Mind and Body:

The body is a set of organs that work based on physiological and chemical mechanics. Although, (in our experience) one must have a body to experience having a mind, mind is very distinct from the body because it is non-material. It is not physically explainable like the body - it is just something most of us agree that we experience. Mind entails being aware of what’s going on around oneself, and having perceptions that one observes and about which one thinks. The body is something that the mind is stuck inside which is why we cannot just decide to have other peoples’ bodies instead of our own. Thus, the distinction between mind and body should now be evident.

Is Identity Relative or Universal?

Personal identity is a relative thing in some sense, but can be taken as a universal thing that each person in one’s life has. Although people identify one by one’s body, there is a quality that people are aware of within each other person that can be called identity. Ask the question, “Why am I not someone else?” It quickly follows that there is a less physical, but definite way to identify yourself because you have this closed property that you aren’t anyone else but you. I say this, though it is true that there are mental disorders that some people have with which sometimes they are not aware of whom they are, and maybe even think they are “someone else”. This unsureness should not take away from the concept of that person’s identity though; only their perception of whom they are is flawed.

How do the Mind and Body Influence Each Other?

The mind and body influence each other in several ways. The mind is what takes into account how the body perceives the world in which it lives. In this respect, the mind is limited in what it experiences because it looks at everything through a sometimes (and arguably most times) flawed perception. The body is also the tool through which we exert the mind’s decisions. Since the body is limited in the physic sense, the mind is affected. The body must obey physical laws regardless of whether the mind wants to or not.

Thus, it should be clear that the mind and body affect each other intimately.

Does One’s Identity Persist Beyond Bodily Death?

Identity does! When a person dies, we are still able to talk about that person and identify who they were, so their identity must remain in tact. How could it be said that identity goes away? Just because a person’s body stops working does not mean they from then on cannot be said to be who they were, even if we are unsure of whom that person was. The number 1 will always be identified by the fact that a*1 = a, but in the equation a^2 = a*a, the identity of 1 still holds even though it is not seen in the latter.

This example should clarify the persistence of a person’s identity in the realm in which our minds believe to live. (…whether or not they agree which realm that is…) =)

That is the last one I’ll post. I’ll post more on other topics in the future.

A new friend of mine at school talks with me a lot about politics and science, and we have very similar views. He is very much more interested in economics than I, so he knows of many interesting people. One of which he told me about tonight named Eric Hoffer. I found an Eric Hoffer quote with which I cannot agree more…

“A ruling intelligentsia, whether in Europe, Asia or Africa, treats the masses as raw material to be experimented on, processed, and wasted at will.”

I contradict myself in the feelings I get when I think about things like this. Part of me wants to get into a leadership position and tell people about this horrible truth that is happening the the academic world, but to do so would be, in a way, becoming what I attempt to warn against.

My experience in the academic world has revealed me to many things. I am around so many people who are incredibly intelligent, but at the same time, so crushed and manipulated by the lead feet of academia.

The kind of people I encounter are passionate, able to adapt quickly to change, and have a lot of will to cooperate in a drive to right the situations in the world that have gone wrong. The danger in this is that too many of us in this fantasy world get caught up in what we can do. Why has the idea of letting people decide for themselves left this school of thought?

Tonight was Speech Night at IUPUI, where 7 chosen speakers got to deliver a persuasive speech to all the introductory speech students, and I could not help but do cringe at how power hungry most of these people are. This tone of voice is dangerous. Luckily, the girl who ended up winning was an exception to this group I talk about. She was the only one who gave a speech directed at taking individual action, not applying yourself to group mentality and calling on the government to resolve the issue. For this, I congratulate her. It shows that when you speak at the individual level, it can be more powerful then any flock-of-birds mentality, no matter how shiny the results of the latter may appear.

This said, I ask for anyone who is in college right now to be careful in the progressive stream of thought you’ve been placed in, for if we continue without questioning it, we will become blinded by the control academia tries to persuade us that we deserve. Why should we think we know what’s best for the rest of society if we have repeatedly shown to be self-serving when we take reign?

That said, I dissent! And I hope you do, too!

I feel that a big congratulations is owed to Barack Obama for his achievement and his passion for helping people. The historical context of this election makes me proud to be an American, right now.

On another note, Barack said in his celebratory speech that those who doubt that anything is possible have seen otherwise tonight. In my not-so-humble opinion, I beg to differ. As a child growing up in a middle class home, I have for 18 years been preached to by teachers, family members, and the like about American Democracy and the power that the people hold in this country.

If you’re a believer in this idea, I will tell you right now that my opinions made absolutely no difference in this election and I don’t feel like anything I want done in our government is possible. As a constitutionalist, classical liberal, and pure democratic-republican, I feel more walked on today than I have before as far as politics go. I was not very excited last night or this morning when I voted. After hearing and seeing the celebration, I am feeling completely ignored. I really hope I never feel like this in an election again. I feel like I’ve definitely lost a chunk of my passion for politics tonight and it’s really sad. (NOTE: this doesn’t have to do with Barack necessarily, but election day in general.)

The next few months will probably be annoying from hearing the press, hearing people that are mad about the win, and others that believe their savior is now in office, but the last stomp on my dignity will be to see the president be inaugurated on January 20, 2008. Barack is going to say to the world, “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Based on what he has been campaigning on and why people follow him so passionately, it follows closely that he has not said ANYTHING about any of this during whole campaign. (Not that John McCain was any different in that respect!)

The last thing that is a little bit scary to me is the fact that our whole Federal Government is (as of next year) going to be dominated by a pretty angry group of Democrats. I guess we’ll see how much they’ll get done together, and whether it will be for better or for worse. I also feel that although I like Barack Obama as a person, I don’t think I can trust the kind of choices he would make in picking Supreme court justices.

Overall, I still feel like government is going to be in my way, and that it is going to continue to discourage individuality, continue to waste billions of dollars on lazy bureaucracy, and continue to take my rights as a joke.

Also, I hope is was worth the hundreds of millions of dollars put into these presidential campaigns.