WHY PHILOSOPHY?

I am in a place where people think that philosophy can't be used in many ways. Friends of mine told me that they believe that philosophy is good for people that have nothing to do in the day or that have no occupations or jobs. First I thought like them because I also believed that nthing could be done with philosophy. But then I read the introduction to philosophy of Fernando Savater and I changed my opinion.
I go by the world living all my days thinking tat everything has been the same and will be the same and I say things that now I ask myself what they mean. Because you do things and say things but don't complain about the meaning or anything because we are satisfied with our knowledge about the thing.
All that knowledge we have came from a source and I reconsidered and now I think philosophy is good because it makes us think, go deeper into the real meanings of everything and no one is going to philosophize but yourself, it is not like a lesson you learn from a teacher but that you discover yourself.
I think many of the things we see now, like a television or ipod or iphone or internet, all of them are the result of people who asked themselves how things worked and found or create a new use or something that could use what they discovered. I now think you can understand more the world if you open your mind to philosophy.

What is time?

As we read in chapter 10, time is difficult to define, and even though it is an important factor in our everyday life, I think almost everyone would like to have control of this symbolic, but independent measurement.

When I establish a conversation about time, many people usually say: “ It flows like water”, which means that it leaves your hands with ease, making you want more and more. But, have you ever thought about why was time invented?

Savater tried to explain that time was established, so that humans could have a point of reference, to meet, and/or make different activities in a day, which really makes sense. It also explains that it is just a measurement, for knowing in which stage of the day we are at.

Time is independent from anything, which means that it is in constant movement, and he tries to explain that living and non-living things depend on it, for suffering transformations, such as age transformations.

Savater also showed Hegel’s opinion about showing a specific moment in time, such as “now”. When we call something “this”, it is subjective if we do not see it, but if we show “this” (ex. a lamp), it is not subjective anymore. But, when we say “now”, it will always be subjective, because the moment we just called “now” is gone, and I cannot pick it up again.

Time will always be a part of our daily life, but we know that it will be always impossible to hold it, that’s why we need to take advantage of it, before it is to late.

Time and Movement?

What is time? That is a pretty tough question. It sounds so simple and the answer can't stand every argument that people have about it. We live every day of our lives with notion of time, we classify our movements with time, we plan our activities with time and we say we are living in the "present". Somebody once said past is history, future is a mystery but present is a gift, that is why it is called present. Well I think this sentence is talking metaphorically as if we couldn't go back or forward in time, assuming that the only thing we can control completely is what we do every new second that passes. I don't agree with is completely. Though I understand that what I am in the present is the product of what I was, what I have experienced and what I have or haven't learned from it, I still doubt whether I change because time passes or time passes because I change? For this question I took a look to Albert Einstein's Relativity Theory. He states that each object has its own time, we use a time that is connected to other's and so on and so forth, yet when the speed of a movement gets closer to the speed of light, time seems to be wrong or doesn't match with ours as it can move between our time at a speed we can't even imagine. That makes me think if I am really seeing what is in reality or whatever IS. My whole view of reality is being modified completely as I don't believe in impossibilities anymore, I just wanted to figure out the How? I believe now that the light that passes in front of our eyes is the same that was since the beginning of the human race and before and is the same that is existing in this moment(IRONIC) whether we stopped existing in a future or we transformed or we went to live to another planet! I am trying to figure out why, but everything looks like is losing the perspective, like we live with such paradigms that punish these thoughts and the world is just not the world and everything is not what it was explained to be omg. Now there are many things we need to consider before making conclusions and the fact is that we would need some extra-special glasses to see bodies with a high speed that are passing through us, or something similar. I don't think that what seems to be death or inanimate is what people describe, but bodies moving at a very slow speed or at a very high speed, now it looks like movement in relation with time creates realities and we are sensing what moves at a speed similar to ours.

Last!!! Chpt 10

As soon as I started reading this chapter I realized it was going to be interesting. It is very interesting because it talks about the time and how does it happens. It is very weird that in our class with twenty something students, we couldn’t come up with a definition for time. The nearest we got to the definition is that time means a measure of moments. It is true but at the same time is not a complete definition for this easy and very common word. The book gives us an example of the turtle and Achilles. I don’t know where did Zeno got this idea from but it is true. It explains that if the turtle starts first Achilles would never be able to catch up with the turtle. For example, I am Alejandro and I born in May 20th, 1991, Mario who was born in May 22nd 1991 will never be able to catch up those two days. As long as we both live, I will be older than him two days. Even though he is better or he is faster or whatever there is no way that he can reach me. There is also a very important statement that it was very weird for me. The book tells us that there is no past or future there is only one tense and it is the present. It might be three tenses but instead of being past present future they would be present of the past things, present of the present things, and present of the future things. This is very weird but if you think a little bit about it, it can be considered to be true. These are just because we can only live in the present and have memories and see what’s coming but we can only habit in the present.

Lost in Time

I think this chapter was interesting; it brought up the theme of time, something that we all know and are aware of, but we cannot explain it exactly. The book mention that Aristotle linked the time with movement, meaning also for the change of state; time passes because things happen. I think I can agree in a way with this statement because every second that passes, there is something in the world that happens.
As an example, even before we had the mechanical devices that measured the time, the people had other ways to measure the time, and it relates to things that happen. When the flowers appeared on the field, or when the migrant birds came back, and even say to express winter, when it is cold; all these that people used to measure the time were represented by something happening. So, this means that the world is in constant movement, or change, because the time keeps going.
In class it was told that when one sleeps, time seems to stop, but then it was said what about the dreams? There is something happening. And also, by a friend, what about inside the body? Everything keeps changing. I think that this theme can be confusing, like the question which one came first? I would be on the side of time come first, because in order for something to happen, there has to be a change in time, or a change of moment, which is basically the same.

Is it beautiful, or you just like it?

Something is not beautiful, just because you like it. That’s weird, don’t you think so?

In chapter 9, Savater gave us the example of the Egyptian pyramids, which maybe I like them and we can say that they are impressive. Later he said, how could you consider them beautiful, if many people suffered for its creation? Now, I was more confused and if he says so, how am I going to be sure of what is beautiful then?

Well, it may seem difficult to understand, but after time reasoning, I got the point. Once I went to Guanajuato, I went to see one of the many churches of the “Época de la Conquista” in Mexico, which are impressive and they are said to be beautiful, because they show the mix of the Spanish and Mexican architectures. When I was in there, I got amazed and yes, they are very beautiful, but many people said the church had quite exaggerated details, which made it not to like them so much, and I totally agree with them. So, I noticed that for something to be beautiful it needs to follow certain patterns, meanwhile what you like could be whatever, even though it is the worst thing on Earth. And finally, I’ve got to the conclusion that I shouldn’t call something beautiful, just because I like it.

Beautiful

Beauty, what a word that encompasses so many concepts, sensations, symbols, ideals, giving the pleasure to perceive it or pulling away whatever it takes to try to make it real. Beauty... millions of people desire it, unable to see how beautiful they really are, how beautiful is everything around them, how misunderstood is beauty. But how to say if something is beautiful or not? Is it a sensation, is it an emotion, is it a purpose, what human law can tell if something is beautiful or not? Philosophers, theologians, humanity in general can't agree in a single definition... because it may be that there isn't. Why we try to give everything a meaning if we haven't even identified the essence of what we have, or think we have... Beauty, represented and perceived in countless expressions or projections. Purpose or without a purpose, beauty is true, is that which comes without being planned, is that which grows out of nothing and becomes more valuable, is that which pleases us without having to please us, is that which exists and waits to be sensed, perceived and maybe appreciated, is that which drugs us with its unexplainable sources, is that which stimulates what had to be stimulated, is that which converts us in a touched human being, touched with the grace of life, with something bigger than humanity, something inconsistently abstract that has the ability to traspass barriers of realities and cause an unpredictable reaction in every person, in every animal that has the capacity to appreciate, perceive, accept and live that misterious abstraction called beauty.