Month: September 2015

09/25/15

Notes on Friday 9/25’s Class

Key Terms

causality, mind/body, satire, mystification

The Age of Enlightenment (17th-18th century in Europe & America)

  • beginning of the scientific age
  • moved away from religion
  • started admiring their surroundings
  • reaction to the superstition of earlier generation

Think of your journey vs. Candide’s journey

“Cogito Ergo Sum” – I think, therefore I am

Why is this a radical statement?

  • emphasizing you have a mind of your own
  • you can go about things in your own way
  • there is nobody above you dictating how you should think

Thinking means…..

  • imagining
  • point of view
  • questioning
  • what makes us human
  • REASONING (we are equipped with mental capacity that allows us to figure thins out

“On life’s vast ocean diversity we sail, Reason the card, but Passion is the gale” Alexander Pope Essay on Man 1733

gale– wind, storm                 card– the cloth on the sail of a ship

How is this quote connected to Candide?

  • everyone takes their own journey through life ( there are multiple way through this path )
  • your social, economic, cultural, and personal ways help you choose this path
  • Reason is the physical structure of how to get through life, but passion is the face behind it
  • you need both reason and passion on your journey through life

Vestiges

  1. Deism-accept a universal creator who created the world like a watch, where he could walk away and it would still function.  Agnosticism, atheism, and secular humanism (thinking that we as humans are most important and that religion was created to fill our desire for explanation) were emerged from deism.
  2. Universal Human Rights- inalienable rights of all humans.
  3. Nature as Pattern- thinking as the world fitting in, interconnected, cause and effect.
  4. Scientific Method- understanding through experimentation, procedure, and evidence.

Critical thinking is an Enlightenment belief still used today

What did you think about Candide?

  • dramatic
  • soap opera like
  • satirical
  • he seems innocent and naive
  • challenges our expectations of reality

Pangloss’ theory is dedicated to optimism

  • Page 1- “It is demonstratable……..for the best” Pangloss’ logic if faulty our reason for having a nose is to breathe not to wear glasses.  This shows him convoluting casualty by putting the effect before the cause.
  • Page 8- Pangloss got syphilis and his response is “it was a thing unavoidable a necessary ingredient in the best of worlds”  Syphilis is just a part of human process according to Pangloss (this shows his optimism)

“It is what it is” is a mystified quote it causes us to not question things and just accept what things concretely are.

Mystification– dominant power convinces us that something is a truth because it benefits them.

  • we dont’t learn what not to believe
  • sugar coating

“sufficient reasoning” – Voltaire’s way of making fun of philosophers by making this a euphemism for sex.  (deep down the reason humans do everything is because of sex)

This sufficient reasoning for Cunegonde drove Candide all around the world.

Page 40- “They rowed a few leagues…….the rubies and the emeralds”

  • Where is Candide?    El Dorado
  • What is it like there?  paradise with plentiful jewels, people are happy with no fights, there is no poor and there is enough to eat.
  • Utopia is the Greek word for nowhere, El Dorado seems like a utopia.  The people of El Dorado have to give up their opinions to live in this paradise.
  • Utopia isnt for everyone, because of this they don’t exist.  El Dorada wasn’t a utopia for Candide, because Cunegonde wasn’t there.

What happened to Candide after he experienced El Dorado?

Now Candide sees all the problems in the world and becomes skeptical of Pangloss’ optimism.

Where does this journey take Candide?

The journey ends in Turkey with Candide and all the characters in the book (even the ones who died) in a garden.  They are almost in utopia living.  When Pangloss tries to philosophize, Candide says “lets cultivate our own garden”.  Which is the theme of trying to get at making your own path by thinking on your own.

Garden is a metaphor for our mind, soul, and reason because like a garden our mind has to be tended to constantly it is an ongoing process.  Gardening gives power over his circumstance, because throughout the book Candide was a victim of circumstance.

 

For next class (Tuesday 9/29) Read the 1st half of Frankenstein (preface, introduction, volume 1, and as much as you can into volume 2)

 

 

 

09/25/15

ENG 2850 – Class Notes 9/25 – Matthew Edelson

For Tuesday 9/29: Read First Half of Frankenstein (Including the preface)

Terms to know:
– Causality/Reason
– Mind/Body Dualism
– Satire
– Mystification

The Age of Enlightenment:
17th-18th Centuries in Europe and America
– Enlightenment was a result of the reaction to superstition of early tradition
– It’s goal was to find ones place in the world through rational, reasonable, and quantifiable experience rather than assuming that things just happen through the works of God
– It was the beginning of a scientific age (Movement away from religion)

“Cogito Ergo Sum” or “I think therefore I am”
– This embraced the fact that you have a mind of your own
– Thinking –> imagining, point of view, questioning, what makes us human, the capacity to reason is what makes us human, dismantles hierarchy (you think therefore you are)
– Enlightenment places the thinking human at the center of life

“On life’s vast ocean diversely we sail, Reason the card (sail of ship), but passion is the gale (wind/guiding force)” – Alexander Pope, Essay on man 1733
– Everyone moves diversely through the ocean of life (meaning there are multiple journeys to take)
– Reason acts as the function piece (the card) but passion is the force behind it
– Reason and passion ultimately work in conjunction with one another.

Terms Commonly Associated with Enlightenment:
1) Deism: Accept there is a universal creator. Common belief is that this creator made the world a watch – it keeps going on its own accord with no daily manipulation. Deism lead to secular humanism (the belief that humans are number one).
2) Universal Human Rights: There are certain inalienable rights – we are free, allowed to live life with integrity and respect, etc.
3) Nature as Pattern: Thinking about world/nature as a cause and effect relationship (Ex: No rain means a lake will dry up).
4) Scientific Method: Understanding trough experimentation and quantifiable evidence.

World of Candide:
– That of a “Soap Opera” – Everything is the most drastic result
– Satirical quality
– Challenges expectation of realism
– World seems conflicted as a result of greed, religion, and philosophies

Candide is innocent, susceptible to influence, and naive

Pangloss’s theory is dedicated to optimism.
Page 1: “It is demonstrable,” said he, “that things cannot be otherness than as they are; for all being created for an end, all is necessary for the best end”
– This is ultimately a faulty theory because he uses a sort of inverted, crazy, mixed up logic (effect by cause rather then cause and effect (causality))
– Ex; we have a nose to breathe, legs to walk
– However the biggest critique can be seen when he says “All things cannot be otherwise…”
– This is demonstrative of a rampant optimism. It ultimately takes away from what things are.
– This includes no questioning -> a troubling view of the world.

His theory is the result of mystification.
– Mystification: Process by which dominant power convinced us of a truth only because it benefits them.
– Page 8 – We find our Pangloss has syphilis. He justifies this with human progress (an overall mystification of the order of things)

How is Candide a satire?
– Making fun of philosophies
– “Sufficient Reason” is a running joke throughout the book and is a euphemism for sex
– Ultimately claims the reason we do everything is love and sex (Candide’s love for Cunegonde)

Page 40 – Candide in the new world (El Dorado)
– Paradise – Jewels so plentiful used as stone, everyone is happy, no fighting, no hunger, no poverty
– This is an example of utopia (Greek for nowhere)
– The people of El Dorado give up thinking in order to maintain their utopia (“here we are all of one opinion”)
– Despite their seemingly perfect living, Candide still wants Cunegonde

After his experience in the utopia of El Dorado Candide is able to see all of the problems of hi own world. He is now demystified of Pangloss’s optimism.

Candide ends up in a garden in turkey with all of his people (Cunegonde, Cacambo, Pangloss, etc).
– They all happily resolve together
– Candide starts to take things as are (“Let’s cultivate our own garden”)
– New truth: To take your own path… You go one way and I’ll go my own… Not forgetting to be active in the world.

The garden is a metaphor for our minds. Our minds need to be cultivated which is not justified by Pangloss’s philosophy. Cultivating is active and subjective.
– This gives Candide agency (ability of one to have power and mobility over his or her circumstance)

09/17/15

Journey Through New York City

QQ图片20150914212751

  1. Central Park

“I loafe and invite my soul,

I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.” (Walt Whitman, Song of Myself)

My heart was into peace when I went to the park. I listen to the world around me. The birds singed on the trees. The cicadas were in ‘creak’ to call. People rowed on the glistening water, and the shadow of thick trees made water to dark green. People stopped their hasty footstep to relax themselves. I lie down myself under the shadow of trees with everyone to look every piece leaves and the clear blue sky, my soul fly between the blue sky and the trees for freely.

Parents brought their children to enjoy beautiful sun shine. The basket filled food for their picnic plan in the park. The families and friends sat together chatting, and they share their foods and experience. Some people just took off their shoes to walk around on the lawn and to close the nature and summer grass. People’s soul were invite to visit the nature and to feel that the nature give with our wonderful view.

  1. Time Square

“…I hear all sounds running together, combined, fused or following,

Sounds of the city and sounds out of the city, sounds of the day and night…” (Walt Whitman, Song of Myself)

Walking on the Times Square, you can discover that people always are hurrying to fro in the street. Some of them take picture with cartoon characters or others. The taxis and sightseeing bus work through the Times Square and the city streets every day. In the night of the Times Square, the street brightly light and humming with traffic, and New Yorker talked their experiences of this day and moon after school and work. The thousand and hundreds of tourists amazed about how this city is so prosperous. The cartoon character and topless women solicit their business on the Times Square. The policemen on the street maintain security for New Yorker and every visitor. The performers play their music to looking the passing vehicles and people. Every kind of sounds revolves around in the Times Square: the sound of the cars horns; the sound of crowds; the sound of advertising on liquid crystal display; the sound of yo-heave-ho; the sound of music. From day and night in the Times Square, the place is always crowded and every kind of sound surround with people and city.

  1. Rockaway Beach

“Here, O Sariputra, form is emptiness and the very emptiness is form; emptiness does not differ from form, form does not differ from emptiness, whatever is emptiness, that is form, the same is true of feelings, perceptions, impulses, and consciousness.” (The Heart Sutra)

Watching boundless ocean, human just a small animals in the world. Our thinking and emotions are so tiny and insignificant to this endless ocean. The ocean can easily swallow everything from us even our life. We are nothing to the ocean, and big sea wave can clean anything that we left on the beach. Nothing leaves on the beach when the ocean calm down. The ocean can be fearful, but also ocean can be peaceable to try to calm your restless heart. People sat down on the beach to look sunset and sunrise, and the beginning of a day and the end of the day. The ocean provides foods and resources for human, as a mother fosters her children. People enjoy her embrace and to play with her, but also people never forget that they can be nothing to her.

09/16/15

Journey to Uber Office

http://goo.gl/maps/HabyP
It all started at my house on Ferndale Ave, Jamaica, Queens,New York. When you read the poem song of myself, it talks about self-fulfillment and self-actullization through our interconnection with the world. This reminds of my journey yesterday from my house to Uber office and to LIRR Taxi stand in Queens.
I woke up yesterday to the sound of my two weeks son’s crying. Thank God that babies in thier first one month always cry early in the morning to set their parents off to their daily routine. Yesterday at home wasn’t just a typical day. The celebration of the world through Whitman eyes in Song of Myself set thing up for me at home. I normally leave the house to go to work or school and my wife takes over after me but yesterday was diffferent. She wasn’t well due to her c-section with our son. So, I had to organized everything and prepared the baby food before leaving to Uber office to fulfill that need of self actuallization.

http://goo.gl/maps/havDO
When I got to Uber office, things were different. As mention in the Heart Sutra that “form is emptiness and emptiness is form.” This actually became a reality, when I visited Uber office. Their use of emptiness through form in their customer service office where every desk is far apart but interconnection through the work they all share. Their customer service office is rectangular: on both sides of the wall there is a long line of customers service representatives and in the middle of this rectangular form–the customers form line to await their names to be call. I was called to interact with this emptiness that connected all of us as mention the Heart Sutra. I was able to signup for Uber as one of their professional vehicle owner. Eventhough needs are endless, but I was able to fulfill that need of self actualization that I now owned an SUV that is with Uber.

http://goo.gl/maps/xIMXL
At the LIRR Taxi stand in Queens. After leaving Uber office where form was emptiness and emptiness was form, I was set to face the celebration of the world through Whitman. I was excited of my new fulfillment and actuallization that I am now ready to interact with the world. At the Station, my Uber apps on the Iphone flash for pickup and I 0kay it. This customer approach my car and asked” what is your initial” and she said it. But this connection through Uber app and the customer is manificent that this world is actually interconnected as rightfully said by Whitman in Song of Myself that people see the world through him.