Hello Philosophy Society!
Discussion 1: Academic Guidance
This week we began our discussion with a problem many young people face. What to study in school? How does one determine their goal if they are unsure of the means to get there?
We discussed how it is important to begin your university education just for the sake of education in itself. If you feel a sense of many subjects resonating with you, take courses in these areas. As you progress through your academic career, you will integrate this knowledge in a way that is practically useful and not limited by the subject category itself. If you focus on one discipline alone, there may be other areas of knowledge that would incorporate into how you can help yourself and the world with your career.
The upcoming student was interested in studying physics and computer science. Both of these fields can be useful together in quantum computing and the more he can integrate these subjects together, the better he will be able to work with a team on a quantum computing project.
The university is a facility to offer you guidance in accumulating knowledge, but you ultimately have to rely on your own self-awareness to determine where your gaps of knowledge are. If you fill in those gaps of knowledge, via taking courses, you will develop a comprehensive grounding in the things you know. You will have an interconnected understanding of that which interests you. This will lead you to having more utility in the workplace and as an entrepreneur.
We then touched on the value of traveling and experiencing different cultures, what it means to live in a small town and move to the big city, and into our next discussion of living well.
Discussion 2: Well-Being
Living well is part of the fundamental purpose of the Philosophy Society. As a group, we can learn more from each other through talking about what the Good Life is and how we can better cultivate certain habits and mindsets into our lives for this way of being.
We talked about health in general and the healing role of sleep. Accurately sensing your body and knowing when you need to rest is vitally important for rejuvenation. Your body heals itself mostly while you are resting. Your mind also sorts through the mental health issues and stressors of the day while you sleep. Making sure that you rest well as much as you can is very important.
Sometimes we may have to push back our sleep schedule because there is some mission at hand we must complete, like finishing an assignment or studying for an exam. In those moments, you can push yourself to complete whatever goal you have set in mind. But be aware, do not use your body as a means to an end. If your body dies, so does the goal you have in mind. If you over extend yourself by sleep deprivation, it is very important that you catch up on your rest. Allow your body to heal and learn to read it accurately. This is a skill you will and can develop through experience.
We then talked about the value of meditation and breathing exercises. Attending to how we are breathing can engage the parasympathetic nervous system and calm our heart rate down. We can mediate our emotions through slow deep breathing. How we focus our attention will determine the extent to which these breathing techniques range from reflection to meditation. Both reflection and meditation are important for our mental health for if we do not reflect on our past, we will not learn from it and if we are not mindful of the present, we will not be fully engaged in our experiences.
It is important to spend time every day meditating, meaning we let the thoughts that emerge in mind pass on by. We can use some attentional device as a reference point for concentration like staring at a candle flame or attending to our breath. When we learn to inhibit our thoughts and create a meta sense of awareness of our emotions and states we create more self-control over ourselves. We can decide how to respond to the sensations, emotions and thoughts we have rather than being reactive.
There is a lot of evidence that mindfulness meditation increases the gray matter in our prefrontal cortex, which is where our executive function is contained. This is the part of our mind that controls everything and is necessary for us to be in touch with so that we can be in control of our lives.
Here is some interesting videos on Breathing Techniques, meditation and mindfulness:
Discussion 3: Economy
We broke out into smaller groups. One group was discussing the role of healthy relationships and caring about the emotions of our partner. The other group was discussing the history and economy of Germany. We then came back to a larger group and shared our new understandings with each other.
The role of currency in Germany in the 1920s where little villages made their own currency to correct the issues of hyperinflation. We discussed the difference in the German economy in contrast to Canada having only 5 banks, where in Germany there are many community or credit union banks. This changes the role of investment within the German economy.
There is a difference in the relationship between employer and employee in Germany. The relationship structure is different from employee unions. There is more of a symbiotic relationship with capitol maintaining employee relations. In contrast to England having a more centralized banking system, the banking system is decentralized which changes the economic state in Germany.
The approach to capital that is not based on scarcity and people have a choice to have private or public banking. 150 years ago small villages realized that the banks were exploiting them and taking their money. With an approach to capital that is not based on scarcity, you can prioritize human values, childcare, the environment, housing, transportation etc. The purpose is not about competition but human values. The employer/employee relationship is focused on human values instead of exploitation.
The capitalist culture is very competitive for what you buy and spend money on. Compared to debt, people's word has worth: which includes the human value. Before one makes promises you discuss, when you come to an agreement you can rely on the person’s word. When you know more about another person, it is easier to get a successful agreement that is promised.
Discussion 4: Truth
To end our meeting, we touched on the notion of truth. We distinguished between the difference between opinion and matters of taste, and facts and what is the case in the world. Facts are objective truths where language accurately maps on to how reality appears to us. Opinion and one’s taste is a subjective, relative truth, to that individual. It may be true that they believe or feel in a specific way, but that is not true for everyone else. This is different from the truth that we all agree on. Appeals to relativistic truth is usually a misconception or misunderstanding of what truth means by confusing matters of fact or what is the case. It is important that we understand what is true.
Justification is used in determining the truth of matters of fact. If we say a certain statement about the world is true, we would have to justify that claim. This justification is where our logic and reasoning skills come into play. If we develop a sound argument, we can arrive at the truth of a conclusion.
The scientific method as an institution that measures and objectively evaluates factual matters and evidence. The scientific method is an instrument to determine the validity of certain truths. We can utilize objective measures, something that any sound minded person can observe and confirm. This is why replicability is so important in scientific research; we want to make sure that the results are not contingent on one specific research team. If the claims they are making are true, then anyone who follows the same procedure will be able to find the same results. So, as a scientific community, we have been refining our procedures so that they are replicable.
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