To be or not to be

In English, we're reading Hamlet, who often sees the ghost of his father like in Act 3 Scene 4 when Hamlet is yelling at his mom for sleeping with his uncle, Claudius (Hamlet's dad's brother). Is it really Old Hamlet's ghost? Is it Hamlet's conscience?

some food for thought

Here are some food for thought...

1. Why do they call it "head over heels in love" if our head is always over our heels?
2. Why is the name if the phobia for the fear of long words Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia?
3. If someone can't see they're blind and if someone can't hear they're deaf, so what do you call people who can't smell?
4. Why is it called a TV set when there's only one?
5. Why do they call it an escalator if it takes you down?
6. If a person owns a piece of land do they own it all the way down to the core of the earth?
7. Since we see little birdies when we just get knocked out, what do little birdies see when they just get knocked out?
8. Why is a male ladybug called?
9. Why is an alarm clock going "off" when it actually turns on?
10. How fast do hotcakes sell?
11. If you mated a bull dog and a shitsu would it be called a bulls--t?
12. Why are they called stairs inside but steps outside?
13. Does the President have to pay taxes?
14. If Dracula has no reflection how come he always has such a straight parting in his hair?
15. If an ambulance is on its way to save someone and it runs someone over in the street does it stop to help them?
16. Why is Grape Nuts cereal called that when it contains neither grapes, nor nuts?
17. Why do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front?
18. What ever happened to an E grade? We have A,B,C,D,F but no E.
19. Why is there a light in the fridge and not in the freezer?

Nightmares

Twilight Zone pretty much applies to everything in humanities so far, so I have clip of one of my favorite episode: "Nightmare at 20,000 feet." I really wanted to find one episode called "Stopover in a Quiet Town," but unfortunately it is not loaded on any video site, so I cannot post it. The reason I wanted it was because someone in my class mentioned, during our discussion of reality, "what if we really are just like dolls to other people?" This episode explores that idea and a these people roam around deserted towns, etc. with the background noises of a child's laughter.

But this episode also challenges reality. Sorry about the quality. It's not that good, but it was the best and shortest video clip I could find that got the point across. Of course, if you're really interested, it's posted in three parts (in its entirety) on youtube.



So who dictates the reality in the video? Does the man actually see what he sees or is it a hallucination? How could he possibly prove that what he sees is real?

Zeno's Paradox

i just finished an excellent book - the emperor's children - and in the book is the mention of something called Zeno's Paradox - so i looked into exactly what it was.
Basically - it means we will never reach our goal - the finish line - the end - we will always be halfway there.
it claims if you throw, say a ball - towards a wall (i chose a ball because it rhymes. with wall) - the closest it will ever get is halfway there. so if it is ten feet it will turn into 5 then 2.5 then 1.25 then .625 then .3125 and it will continue to only be half way there - forever.

it says we will never meet our destination.

what do you think of this claim of Zeno's Paradox? do you think this is true? will we ever get there? and then what is our destination? what is there?

the tree does sound

ok so the whole question of does a tree make a sound if it falls and no one can hear it thing, well it kind of pisses me off. because it most certainly makes a sound. why, you ask? well think about it scientifically. now im not the most scientific person but i do know that air is a medium, and therefor sound travels through it in waves, and hits other surfaces and travels etc. so if a tree were to fall in space, no one would hear it because there is nothing sound can travel through in space. but-here, on earth, if a tree were to fall, it would make a sound because sound will travel through air. its like asking the question "if a cell phone is on silent mode, does it really recieve calls and messages?" well, yea, if a cell phone is on silent, it will most certainly still recieve messages.

Dennett

Yet another philosophical entry which people will probably not want to hurt their brains thinking about, but I'm going to post it anyway!

In Philosophy we read this article written by a guy named Dennett. It was totally hypothetical, which I want to establish first because then some people will think this is cool and real, etc. and even if it's cool, it is completely unrealistic. But interesting to think about none the less.

So Dennett undergoes this process to remove his brain and put it in a holding container. Then, they use his body to go to a nuclear active site (which would harm brain material) to do some stuff. His brain can feel the body and see everything it sees, but is miles away and totally unconnected. His body dies of exposure. Then, only his brain exists. But after a while, they are able to create him a new body for the brain. After this new body they create another body for the same brain, so it now controls two bodies. The question is, which is the real Dennett? The brain, the original body, the 1st new body, or the 2nd new body? Or does Dennett not exist at all?

This is not a riddle in any way, shape, or form! Philosophers have been arguing about self, the mind, and basic human existence since Socrates (who lived way, way back in ancient Greece). But feel free to comment on your views.

Classic Existence

So, since there really aren't any food for thought questions (or are there?), I decided to write my own inspired by one of the questions. One of my favorite arguments is the one about the tree. Come on, you've all heard it before, so some variation thereof.

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear it fall, does it still make a sound?

My dad actually has a shirt that says: If a man speaks at sea with no woman to hear him, is he still wrong? Which is just a clever way of repeating the same thing.

But anyway, does it? And can we really ever answer this question or is it, as one kid in my English class likes to say, "completely pointless because philosophy has no answers."