Whoa- how did I here. This is Liz, not aka Krista. This won't be pretty. This won't be fancy. It will be the notes for the upcoming Ethics class. I have to ran a kid to a friend's and then I will post em. This is really a test to see this text. Fingers crossed. BBL!

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Monday, January 28th Ethics Notes

• Ethics comes from the Greek word ethikos or ethos (customary moral behavior). It is also said to be the study of good and evil. Western philosophy began in Greece, and there it is divided between pre-Socrates and what happened with Socrates and after. Ethics is simply applied philosophy.
  
• Ethics uses metaphysics, which is finding reality and figuring out what it is.
  
• Epistomology is finding, through philosophy, truth and knowledge and then asking "what is its source?" and secondly "how can I know with certainty that it is true?".
  
• Ethics equals applied philosophy.
• Most philosphers believe you can use reason to solve moral problems. Many believe that parents, religion, society, and governments create the basis of solving moral problems. Reason creates criteria used to solve moral dilemmas. It is thought that we get a "bunch" of criteria- not just one. Not all philosphers believe this.
• Some philosphers believe the following:
  

• We should know the difference between right and wrong
  
• (However, some philosophers, like Bentham, believe it is purely emotional and didn't believe in reason.)

• Human beings have free will
• Many believe you cannot hold a person accountable when they have no control over what they do
• There needs to be some reason to be moral
• Example: Why shouldn't we do it if it makes us feel good? (this example is the reverse of reason)
• Ethical decisions can be justified or defended
  
• Boiled down...
• Tell us what to do
• Why we should do it

From the book, page 15, John Arthur:

The question here that is addressed by Arthur is

1. Do you need religion to be moral?
2. Does religion motivate people to be moral?
• An example of those who believe that religion is an important part of a moral decision hold the Divine Command Theory or "We need God!".
• God commands us or wants us to do something and then we do it.

Comments on the readings from the book and the pages noted by Larson will be added later.



SOCRATES

• 469 to 399
• He has been called the father of philosophy
• He appears to have written nothing for us to read and many believe he was illiterate
• He believed in public debate, especially with politicians, and we know much of what he said because of his disciples, particularly Plato
• He lived off of a small pension for fighting in a war and was usually badly dressed and was notoriously ugly
• He had a special technique of embarrassing powerful politicians that made him very popular
  
• He used questions as his weapon of choice
• He believed in virtue and that those who governed Athens were ignorant of virtue
• When virtue is not practiced, Socrates said this would lead to evil

In 399 BC, Socrates was sentenced to death by Athenian judges. He was indicted on charges of treason, blasphemy, and corrupting the youth. His prosecutor said "Socrates is an evil-doer and a curious person, searching into things under the earth and above the heaven and making the worse appear the better and teaching all this to others".

The specific charge was that he refused to acknowledge the gods of Athens. But, his real crime is that he was a pain in the ass. He was asked to publicly change his beliefs or die. So, he suffered for his work by drinking hemlock (poison).



PLATO

• 427-347 BC
• He was born to one of Athens' wealthiest and politically influential families
• One would guess that he would find a good position in the political service in the city. However, he became one of Socrates' most passionate followers, and after Socrates' death he developed a distrust and dislike for politicians.
  
• He decided to establish a school of philosophy in 387 and called it The Academy, a name that came from one of the hills found in Athens. The school lived well beyond him for some 800 years, closing in 529 AD.

• Some of Plato's beliefs and statements are found in the following:
• When personal pleasure replaces your willingness to do good to your fellow man, you have lost your moral way.
  
• (He used the destruction of the mythological city of Atlantis by Zeus as an example of this.)
  
• He believed that the existence of perfection is in the mind.
  
• (Larson's example: You can find the most perfect orange- shape, color, texture, etc. and behold it. Then, stick it away and forget it and it turns nasty. But, when you behold it you still see it in its perfect state by using the picture of it in your mind.)
• A priori : refers to principles and judgements that are valid without using sense impressions; going from cause of effect; deductive.
• You must know it in your mind first before it is acted upon.
  
• One of Plato's ultimate beliefs was in ideal justice. You need knowledge of what is perfect and one's experience draws it out of us.
  
• How do we know perfect morality? Your duty is to a principle rather than a specific thing or person. In other words, your chief obligation is to the principle of helping someone who is hurt, rather than to the actual person themselves.
  
• How do we know the principles of justice? We do by use of reason. Reason is the key to knowing morality and truth.
  
• The soul is:
1. Desire, pleasure
2. Emotion
3. Reason... which make us different than animals
• JUSTICE IS THE SUPREME VIRTUE
• MORALITY IS FIXED AND UNCHANGING

ARISTOTLE

• 384 TO 322 BC
• Born in Athens
• Unlike Socrates and Plato, Aristotle was not driven by a passion to search for justice in the absolute wisdom of philosophy... For Plato knowledge and justice were inseperable; Aristotle said that they simply lived together or were intertwined.
  
• He was the student of Plato and when he was not given Plato's school (because everyone thought he was heir-apparent) he went off and founded his own and called it "The Lyceum". But, before he spent time at the school he became the tutor for Alexander the Great, the son of Phillip of Macedon. It may be difficult to think of just what Aristotle made permanent in Alexander's mind, but there certainly was a connection.
  

• Aristotle refuted Plato's deductive reasoning and used the opposite, inductive.
  
• Deductive: a subtracting or taking away, reasoning from the general (the biggest chunk) to the particular (the smaller pieces).
  
• Inductive: the drawing of a general conclusion from a number of known facts, then saying: if it is true for one value that is known, then it must follow that another value would be equally true if it were the same.
  
• Aristotle believed that the state is the guardian of virtue.
  
• You must form your own character, yet act in conformity with virtue.
  
• Everything has a purpose, a destiny. You are happy when you are fulfilling your destiny, therefore you must act in harmony with your destiny. (Example: a clumsy person may find it difficult to be a craftsman of fine glass.)
• When you act with virtue you act morally.
• Aristotle called pure virtue "The Golden Mean". (Different from the Golden Rule (treat others as you want yourself to be treated)).

• "The Golden Mean"
• Courage
• Brings honor to you to be brave, and then vice brings shame
• Charity
• Helping others in need. Too little would be stingy, too much- wastful
• Pride
• To have a good image of yourself. Too much would be vanity; too little- false humanity.
• Good Temper
• Friendliness
• Too little- coldness, too much- patronizing
• Truth* (most important)
  
• Too little is a lie- too much can hurt people
• Justice* (most important)
  
• Too little is unjust- too much is injurious

• Aristotle's logic, a system for finding the truth to a problem or argument, is used to this day. His metaphysics can still be found in Catholic theology.
• After working with Alexander, Aristotle went back to Athens to teach in his Lyceum. Later he, too, was indicted for treason. Unlike Socrates, he took his family and fled north.
  

EPICURUS

• 341-270 BC
  
• He believed pleasure is the only thing worth following. It is a good in itself.
  

• Women and slaves were welcome in his school
• One of his followers believed that atoms made up all things
• His followers generally believed that there was no life after death
• However, too much of a good thing is not good. Reach a state of repose: not too much or not too little; live simply without excess
• Gods are not to be feared... keep saying it over and over and over until you believe it
• Good is easy... say it over and over and over until you believe it
• Pleasure is the source of goodness, but in moderation
• For Epicurus, the purpose of philosophy was to attain the happy, tranquil life, characterized by the absence of pain and fear, and by living a self-sufficient life surrounded by friends. He taught that pleasure and pain are the measures of what is good and bad, that death is the end of the body and the soul and should therefore not be feared.

ZENO

• Zeno of Elea (ˈzɛnɔ ɔf ˈelea, Greek: Ζήνων ὁ Ἐλεάτης) (ca. 490 BC? – ca. 430 BC?) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher of southern Italy and a member of the Eleatic School founded by Parmenides. Aristotle called him the inventor of the dialectic, and Bertrand Russell credited him with having laid the foundations of modern logic. He is best known for his paradoxes.

• You don't control what happens to you.
  
• You are at the mercy of the world
• You do the best you can
• Life is tragic

Great reading, isn't it? These notes are posted on January 31st. They were taken from Jon Larson's class last Monday, January 28th. Khatra, Brandon, Peri, Carl, and Katy participated and wrote until their arms fell off- but we retrieved them. Peri cheated, she is a whiz on the computer and you could hear the click, click, click of her keys around the room. I am taking the class also to show how much an old man forgets. I challenge them that if any one of them got a higher grade than me I would give them $100.00 dollars. I am starting to put money in my piggy bank because some of our students are really bright.

These are my notes, taken in class. I threw in a few facts that I remember from when I took this course in 1959. You can see all the cobwebs and dust, can't you? The idea now is to share each other's notes so that we can find "the truth" just like the Greek philosophers.

This blog will also be used by our Community students who have been sentenced to take our Ethics class. It is not really that bad- I could make you read the whole book!

The readings section of the notes will come later, because I want to get the book and scan the necessary pages. So, there it is- you've got to love those Greeks!

Terry

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Literature, 1.08.08

The stories and poems (see below) entered today, January 7th, are divided into two parts. All the stories and poems but The Lottery and The Gospel of Saint John are to be done in the traditional manner: you read them and then write approximately one handwritten page on what you thought of the writing, what was the author trying to tell you, and maybe how you interpreted it. As you know, the reader sometimes thinks about a story differently than what an author originally wanted his/her audience to capture. The Lottery and The Gospel of Saint John take a special set of questions which will be given by me.

I hope to see as many of my day class (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) as I can, but knowing that it is the first day after a two-week vacation I may be dissapointed by the show. The Tuesday and Saturday groups will be there in a goodly number because you always are.

The day class people will be seeing a movie at the AMC Theater in Rosedale Mall at 12:10 on Thursday. Those who drive can meet us there; the rest will board the white van and my car for an uneventful drive (I hope) to Roseville. Meet at school no later than 11:30 if you need a ride to theater.


Siegfried Sassoon, The Rear Guard
Czeslaw Milosz, A Song on the End of the World
William Shakespeare, To be, or not to be (from Macbeth)
Robert Frost, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
The Gospel of Saint John (from the Bible), Chapter One, Verses 1-16
William Wordsworth, My Heart Leaps Up
Shirley Jackson, The Lottery

January Calendar

Click here to view this month's calendar of events!

Dying to know which credits will be taught this semester?

• English
• American History
• Math
• Film Studies
• Health
• Ethics
  

More Literature: Hell & Dante's Divine Comedy

Dante Alighieri was born in 1265 and died in 1321. He wrote the Divine Comedy, a poem that is one of the most famous ever written. It is difficult to go through high school and college without hearing about it.

Dante lived in Florence, Italy, a city that was one of the most powerful in the World. It was powerful in terms of money, political power, and wealthy families. Dante found himself in trouble with the powerful people of Florence and found himself driven out of the city that he loved. He wrote a poem about his feelings toward those responsible for making his life very difficult. He followed an idea first written by a Roman poet by the name of Virgil.

The setting takes place in the afterlife. He, as a mortal, is allowed to view what the afterlife is about. The most intriguing trip takes him to Hell, where he places many of the villains of history suffering outrageous punishments for all eternity. He also puts people who lived in Florence during his own time as sufferers in the Hell that he created.

Dante's Hell was shaped like a cone or a triangle. The highest part of Hell (and also the widest), is inhabited by the people whose sins are the least serious but still bad enough to put them into Hell. The bottom (or the narrowest point of the cone) is the closest to the Devil himself. Very few people inhabit this area. Their sins were the worst and they suffer the greatest torments. I have supplied you with the ninth circle, where the worst of the worst live out their torments closest to the Devil himself. I also included those who sinned against gluttony- those who eat too much and take too much from the world without giving anything back.

I want you, in three to four pages, to describe the suffering that takes place in each level and then tell why you think the ninth level is definitely the worst. I hope you enjoy Hell, and it may even keep you warm during these very cold days of MN winter.

Dante's Divine Comedy
Canto XI
Canto XXXIV



T.S. Eliot, The Wasteland

Passing of a most unique mother

Mrs. M.P. (Lorraine) Rinde

Lorraine M. Rinde, age 86, of Faribault, was born April 9, 1921 as a defiant three-pound preemie and continued her non-conformist life until she died Thursday, December 20, 2007 at the Infinia at Faribault Care Center following a brief illness. She was a diligent worker, politically incorrect, lover of books, purveyor of music, good mommy, spectator of all sports, Czech-heritage promoter, political activist, church worshipper, independent thinker, poor joke re-teller, obliging helpmate, wearer of color, avid stroller, freethinker, brimstone retorter, compassionate heart, contradictory responder, early riser, homespun philosopher, school savior, green-thumbed resuscitator, depression-raised saver, match maker, defiant general, friend maker, and an eccentric granny to many.
Lorraine Marie Vosejpka, the daughter of Benjamin and Frances (Novak) Vosejpka, was born on April 9, 1921 in Lonsdale, MN. She attended Catholic school in Lonsdale and graduated from Montgomery High School. She was married to Avery Fenne on November 20, 1941. They had a son, Terry. They were later divorced. On December 29, 1960, she was married to Martin P. Rinde on December 29, 1960 in Sioux Falls, SD. He preceded her in death on January 14, 1973. Lorraine worked for North American Life Insurance in Minneapolis, for Dr. L. B. Kucera in Lonsdale, as a bookkeeper at Webster Co-Op Dairy, for 15 years as operations clerk at Northern States Power in Faribault, and most currently a paper “girl” for the Faribault Daily News. She was a member of St. Lawrence CCW, was past Vice-President of the District One Hospital Auxiliary, 4-H leader, and was a very active member of the Faribault Area Senior Center. At the Senior Center she was the director of the SEMCAC Kitchen Band and leader of the senior exercise classes for many years.
She is survived by her son, Terry Fenne (and Elizabeth Lonetti) of Minneapolis; two step-daughters, Toni (and Harold) Amundson of Florida, and Karen (and Gerald) Flom of Prior Lake, MN; brother, Richard B. (and Lois) Vosejpka of Excelsior, MN; six grandchildren (Christine, Terry Jr., Gina, Aimee, Kendra, and Patrick); five great grandchildren; five step grandchildren; several step great grandchildren; and other relatives and friends.
She was preceded in death by her parents, husband, and former husband.
Funeral services will be held on Wednesday, December 26, 2007 at 7:00 p.m. at the Parker Kohl Funeral Home in Faribault. Interment will be at the Meadow Ridge Memorial Park in Faribault.
Visitation will be held on Wednesday from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the funeral home. Bring a good story and a kazoo.

Literature Requirements

I apologise for not writing for a week on this blog. Events have robbed me of the time that is needed to properly keep giving you what is needed.

The following is what will be needed to complete this semester in the area of literature. Read each piece and tell me what you think the author intended to deliver to the reader when it was written. A paragraph or two (at least eight sentences) should be devoted to the task. You can also point out some of the things that you found interesting or not when you read the poem. Talk about its rhyme (if there is) and the rhythym. Have this completed by the end of the first week that you come back from school. I would suggest that you start it now.

Dylan Thomas, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
Robert Frost, Design
Gary Soto, Oranges
Edgar Allen Poe, The Raven
Joy Harjo, The Woman Hanging From the Thirteenth Floor Window
Gwendolyn Brooks, We Real Cool
Langston Hughes, Dream Boogie
Sharon Olds, The Death of Marilyn Monroe
John Updike, Dog's Death
James Thurber, The Girl and the Wolf