Our thinker's blog

My Philosophy assignment -_-

2010-02-08T15:38:00.003+08:00

I highly doubt anyone will be in time to help me with this assignment (which is due on Thursday), so this blog post is merely for the purpose of sharing, and not looking for help (even though help will very much be appreciated). Anyway, I have been spending the whole morning plus afternoon analysing the following passage, and since it requires thinking, I shall share it here... :

“Either I will be killed in this raid or I will not be killed. Suppose that I will. Then even if I take precautions I will be killed, so any precautions I take will be ineffective. But suppose I am not going to be killed. Then I won’t be killed even if I neglect all precautions; so, on this assumption, no precautions are necessary to avoid being killed. Either way, any precautions I take will be either ineffective or unnecessary, and so pointless.”

From my analysis and some lazy research, I learnt that this argument is taking a fatalistic point of view. Fatalism refers to leaving everything to "inevitable predetermination " or "Fate". Ok.. the rest I shall leave to you all to analyse ba. =P

Finally back in action!

2010-02-08T00:19:00.002+08:00

Yay! So exciting! This blog is finally revived after 1year -_- Finally changed the template so that it appear properly to the general public -_-"

Ok.. now that this blog is back up, be prepared for more posts~

The Rich Educated, or the Educated Rich?

2009-05-29T20:03:00.002+08:00

My professor and I were having tea and discussing about research stuffs a few days ago. Somehow, we started discussing about the education system in various countries.

She had taught in various universities in the States, and she shared with me her teaching stint in Stamford University. She said that academic caliber of those students was very appalling. Smart, clear of their future, and very enthusiastic about their studies, she said. But one disturbing statement that she added was: These students are rich.

Mirroring this in the local context, I wouldn't say that the undergraduates here are rich. Our education system has done much (I believe) to reach out to those underprivileged, providing bursaries, scholarships and other financial aids, such that these students can concentrate on their studies instead of worrying over school fees and stuff. Basic education, for one, shouldn't be a problem at all.

But… what about getting to the tip of the academic pyramid?

It is a well-known fact that Singaporean students go through several "extra-curricular" activities to gain their places in top schools. Tuitions, supplementary courses, holiday crash-courses – the list goes on and on. These are luxuries that the underprivileged can't afford, yet these are also the ones that get the rich to the top (assuming that tuitions really help).

I can't say that I'm rich. I don't own five Ferraris, neither do I own a huge villa. But I really can't imagine how I would have made it thus far, if not for the amount of money spend on tuitions when I was still in primary school.

We talk about dreams. We aspire to become a lawyer, a doctor, an academic; we aspire to go to the top university; we aspire to scale new heights in our lives. What about the others?

I remember reading this article several years ago, about an underprivileged kid. He said something like, "I don't have enough money for university. I'll go out and work after I finish Secondary 4 to earn more money for my family." He's one of the top students in his school, mind you. Then again, the road to his aspiration is marred by the big M – money. So… Are aspirations a plaything of only the rich?

On a macro perspective, when we talk about ideal societies and ideal lifestyles, are these only for the financially-capable? In the cruel hands of the society, are virtues such as honesty and integrity only limited to the world of the rich?

I apologise for the scattered remnants of my thoughts. And I think I created more questions without any attempt to answer the first and foremost one. Oops. O.o

Rain

2009-03-04T21:01:00.001+08:00

It has been raining these few days, and I really hope to walk in the rain together with my fellow philosopher. Anyone else wanna join us?

Think

2009-02-27T10:52:00.002+08:00

Think about the past, think about the present, think about the future.

Are we still thinking, like how we thought before.

Most likely not. Things have changed, and our way of thinking changed too.

Now, I am thinking of making this blog alive again.

What do you think?

-CK

Bending the rules

2008-02-24T20:50:00.003+08:00

Haha... indeed in the earlier post, I mentioned that the next topic will be about rules. Haha, but due to some unexpected things, I have to bend the rules, and therefore, this entry will not be about the actual rules that we are all waiting for.

Here I am, blogging, just to show that this blog is not inactive yet. Hey guys, time to follow the rules. =)

Preview of next topic

2007-05-30T18:05:00.000+08:00

This blog is not dead yet! The next topic will be: Rules.

School Days -tingzi

2007-03-12T21:46:00.000+08:00

Hi, sorry for the long long wait, people. Have I wasted too much of your Time waiting and waiting for this new entry to appear?

In life, we go through countless ups and downs, but you would remember the days spent in school as the happiest (or maybe one of the happiest) memory ever. Why are school days especially memorable?

I'm not sure about you guys out there, but as for me, I was quite protected from the outside society during my past school days. When I was in school, everything was so clear-cut. Whether it's celebrating completion for Music exams (it used to drag over about.. a month) or crying over our defeat in inter-class games, we express the emotions that we feel, there and then. There was no need to hide our tears and smiles from anyone. Not even teachers.

I have always wondered, that the life in every school is very different, like how life's different in every country. Schools are like very minute versions of different parts of the world, different cultures that nurture different types of people. There is law enforcement, punishment, commendation, group activity, and people from all walks of life. Yet, although they can all be fount in every-day life, we still prefer our school lives than to face the adult society beyond the walls of our schools.

I used to wonder, probably it's because in schools, we take in disciplines from the outside society, but in smaller bites. Or maybe it's because of the people inside which we always feel very comfortable talking to them about everything under the sky. Or maybe, it's just because our brains weren't that developed to fish out all the ugly sides that adult don't usually tell us.

My General Paper tutor used to tell us (randomly), that she regretted not telling her kids about how boring working life is and how ugly the society is. Stepping into the society for the second time after I graduate from college, what I would say, is that in the society, among working adults, everyone is expected to be responsible for what he/she has to do. Too responsible, I would say, till the extent that they will tend to put the blame on other adults if any glitch appears in their field of responsibility. However in school, our responsibilities stretch out to other people's fields, and all our responsibilities overlap one another. I feel that in school, no matter what I do, my friends and my classmates will support me.

It's all the values that got diluted in the adult society, or is it just that we stuck to the values too much during school life, that made school days so memorable?

We learn, and we are going to learn more, when we meet the different phases of life. However, in the society, we will usually find that what we're learning will contradict what we've learnt during school days. And therefore like what I've mentioned, we're all thrown to decide for ourselves, to measure the priorities. There's nobody to direct you the right track, nor there is anyone to teach you how to deal with it (without themselves gaining anything from the process).

I wouldn't dare to strongly advise anyone to stay in school forever per se. The Society School, as pannie put it, has brought me to realise that I must stand firm to my own beliefs and principles, and not to let other people mould me to another stranger, someone totally different from what I was. The Society School does not teach you moral values blatantly, but it teaches you still, by allowing you to go through a series of life hurdles, and more decision-making chances, more forked roads to get stuck at. Those who can graduate from the Society School, would be those who stay true to themselves, and to other people. There aren't many, but there are still people out there, who have already passed most of the exams conducted in Society School.

But ultimately, like most of the other things I think about, there's no conclusion. I'll be facing school life again soon, and I think it would probably be another phase of life that might (or might not) change my perspective on the difference between school life and life among adults.

I'll again let Time sculpture my thoughts, and probably when I graduate again, there'll be another entry on "School Life" which will prove to be more insightful, or maybe just... different.

Ck's approach to school life

2007-02-06T08:45:00.000+08:00

Having graduated from school, finally and also sadly, I am now part of the work force, contributing to the society. I can't say that I hate working now, but somehow, there is still a feeling of sadness whenever I wake up and start preparing to go to work.

Some have asked why I enjoy going to school so much, and my answer is simple, "Because going to school allows me to see my friends regularly." This reason might be totally wrong, but it is still my main reason why I like school life. There aren't many opportunities for us to meet up; and being an employee who works for 8hours a day, I am more convinced that school life is the only period which I can see my friends regularly. Therefore, I treasured school life, because I believe that it forms a very significant part of our memories, but still, changes need to occur; no matter how unwilling I am, I still "forced" out of the education system.

Besides that, school life also proves to be a more relaxed life, which also means more time for leisure. Amazingly, basketball, philosophy and writing are things that I could do more regularly during school life, which is supposed to be filled with school work. We also get to learn a lot of things such as friendship and also have to chance to catch a glimpse of the world outside, as we start to encounter the dark side of human relations.

School life is no doubt a miniature version of the adult life, but yet it shows innocence and naiveness, which is almost non-existent in the adult world. Also, it seems to be a better period of life, and I shall use my personal experience to explain this point.

(Quote from my blog) (I will highlight the main point)

The head of marketing division speaking to the people. And I can't help but got reminded of school life again. He reminded me of someone of autority (maybe the principal) while the people are the students. Somewhere in between, people started talking while he is still talking. And here is the difference. ( I think thinkers must read the following paragraph)

In schools, students are not supposed to talk, and when there are such cases of noise, you will hear "Shhhh" from the crowd or "Keep quiet" by the teachers or even from the speaker himself! This is what they taught us as RESPECT. But just now, no such sounds were heard. No "Shhh", nor any "Keep quiet" were heard. Hahahaha... And that sets me thinking again. Hmmmm... well, this is not a school.. This is adult world! So adults are supposed to know how to behave, right? But what I saw are a few rude adults. Maybe they don't like the speaker, that I don't know. So I cannot give any comments on that. But still, I think this is a point to take note. And to think further, more towards the extreme, what if such things happen at... a PM talk? I supposed that people who talked just now while the speaker was talking are people who don't like him. And being the Prime Minister for a country ( notice I didn't mention which country, so I doubt government can arrest me or anything like that... ) , in a country with opposition parties, there are bound to be people who don't respect the PM right? So what can they do if during a PM talk, these people who dun like and dun respect the PM talk at the same time? Will they "Shhhhh" these people?

And basically, I am trying to say that in schools, there is always someone of a higher autority to correct us when we are wrong, or when we are behaving in an inapporiate manner. But who has the autority in the adult world? "Police" might be the answer that popped into our mind when we start to think, but is that really the answer? As adults, we are supposed to be responsible, sensible and also respectful. But is that really the fact of our society?

I miss school life. Do you?

-Ck

2007-02-04T00:33:00.001+08:00

Everyone goes through the School of Life trying to figure out one best way to get the Diploma to Success/Happiness (some view this as a double major while some doesn't separate it and simply treat it as a single)

Today Teacher Thinker wants to ask some socratic questions to get this entry to make a smooth transition from memories and be a neat linkage to the topic of time and society.

What are you attending schooling for, honestly?

(You go to school to prepare yourself for the future)

But most of the times, you don't even know what you're looking for in the future when you set foot in your school.

(You go to learn about what futures exist out there, so you know how you can prepare yourself for your specific future)

So tell me what you've been learning from Day 1 till now.

(Languages, Maths, Advanced Maths, Sciences which gradually branch out in Physics Chemistry Biology, Humanities including geography history literature economics..)

Would you agree the curriculum is tailored more to the society's needs for strong threads in its own tapestry, than your own need for your future?

(General knowledge always has its own benefits, and well, the best thing happens when society's needs correspond to mine perfectly so I get to have a stable job where I maximise what I've learnt to get my success)

Who instilled this interest in you and shaped your thoughts to revolve around these "needs"?

(Um..maybe I was able to see the world from the societal binoculars my education afforded me, and decided therehence?)

Did you ever wonder about whether the lenses on your binocular are specially constructed to reflect images in certain ways? (of course, not targetting any country's educational system in specific, just talking about education of human society in general)

Did you ever wonder why an overwhelming no. of students out there want to be doctors, lawyers, economists, engineers, and a significantly less no. of people aspiring to be artists, musicians and poets?

(well, partly...those artistic careers, they bring you spiritual nourishment but not necessarily guarantee bacon home daily)

Is that your "needs"/"vision" speaking or the society's?

Hmm, how many periods of Art/Music lessons has the educational curriculum of society alloted to you since pri.school days, and how many periods of Sciences and Maths? By the way do you believe it's true that love gets cultivated more easily the longer you spend with a subject?

(Hey but I think your point is a subjective one..)

Perfectly fine with that, in philosophy we learn there are never absolute perspectives only relative ones. However, before you raise any further point, I'd prefer you clarify first which voice are you speaking in, the society's or your own?

If both voices happen to coincide, and your vision merges with the society's, does it mean your vision is at least partly shaped by the society's demands and desires?

Then, as for the future you want, is it maybe no more than a take of shaping your heart's wants to the Grand Market of Demand and Supply in our world?

Maybe, that's one possible way it works? I mean, life. Society teaches you in the way it wants and allows you some freedom in the choices you are left with. Hmm never mind, coming back, what else does Society's School teach you?

(Well, making friends, dealing with friendship and cliques and all...)

Hmm..so maybe you can even say school is like a microcosm of society out there, teaching you about interpersonal relationships as well as different classes and chasms among people as mirrored by cliques?

(That one, I don't learn in classrooms.)

(Excerpts of Q & A ends temporarily. Quick comment to officially brief about new topic of this period.)

Perhaps, at the end of it, I guess we all seek to fumble out sets of our own living code, and the school is a training place for people to fly or flex their muscles. Maybe you have memories of picking yourself up and falling down and somehow getting the way through taking bypaths. You make perhaps lifelong mates who will trek different roads with you. You don't notice as Time passes by until the day that training ground closes and shows you out hopefully. Then, it's time to walk into the Four Seasons of Life out there.

Discussion will ensue, coz Time doesn't end, so neither does education...

--pannie

(and pardon this for not being a v.successful writing coz I'm feeling sleepy..)

The first conclusion for "Memories"

2007-01-20T13:31:00.000+08:00

And so I am choosen to blog the first conclusion for this topic: "Memories" , before our thinkers move on to our next topic. I remember that I mentioned something about "fake memories" before in my previous entry, and so now, I shall blog a little more about it, and also how memories work in the eyes of researchers today.

Some false memories are formed through rehearsal, or repetition, of an event that has been confirmed as fantastic: after repeatedly thinking about and visualizing an event, a person may begin to “remember” it as if it had actually occurred. Upon questioning, such a person might confidently recall the event when in fact it is merely previous visualizations that make it seem familiar.-Quote from wikipedia-

Therefore, it is possible for people to have memories of things that weren't facts. Also, some researchers suggested that memories involves more than just recalling, as it invloves reconstructing as well. Using an example from wikipedia:

A child remembers standing beside a fence overlooking an eerie looking valley. As an adult, the real eerieness of the valley may be falsely remembered as containing a dead body, when in fact the child witnessed a homeless man sleeping under the trees.

This represents an inacurrate reconstruction of the memory.

Therefore, what can we say about memory? Can we still trust what we remember? If you are having doubts now, then just take this advice: Remember to forget.

-Ck

2007-01-01T00:41:00.000+08:00

Okay haha I'm the last one to blog. My mates made a good start in 2006 and I'll bring the discussion across the threshold of the year. Going to raise more questions for ponder than detailed discussion as an introduction first, coz unlike my buddies, I'm more an 'idea' person than 'elaboration' sort=p

I have always felt memory is like a pandora's box, from which layers of fear and happiness fly out upon opening. Yet how do we decide which pieces of memory to retain in the clarity of our mind, and which to leave in the more unreachable deep subconsciousness? When we preserve certain memories, is it inevitable that we'll unconsciously modify or refine them, that the good would become better, and the bad an even darker shade? Old folks always talk of the Golden Age, yet if we could go back and live it all through again, how 'golden' would our rationality judge it to be? Is it not possible that their impression of the Golden Age could have been tinged by their own bright, fond, colourful emotions? This raises my first point, does how memories turn out have to do with how our emotions steer and mould them into?

Link to a neat summary of memory in the psychological perspective below. Can refer to it for enrichment if you want.

http://www.sparknotes.com/psychology/psych101/memory/

At this point of time, one of the more eye-catching topics regarding memory will be the six main reasons for forgetting: ineffective encoding, decay, interference, retrieval failure, motivated forgetting, and physical injury or trauma.

Motivated Forgetting & Physical Trauma I find especially interesting, for in a way they all stem from a fear & unwillingness to face the actual happenings, and lead to repression in a nutshell. Yet people may even repress memories without themselves really knowing so, nor being aware of how this process is actually performed. So what stimulates certain parts of the brain to automatically initiate this 'memory quarantine' process without even the owner of the brain giving an explicit command? Is repression a mechanism of the mind that automatically protects/shields us, or does it just suspend us in a more naive world in which the intolerable elements are deleted only leaving the acceptable ones sound?

More importantly, under what situations would you choose to repress certain memories? (This reminds me of what my fellow philosopher and I have talked about: pressing the DELETE button on memories--is this simply a metamorphosised form of memory repression?) And on a deeper level, does memory repression really enable one to 越过界限？

The matter gets more intricate when ethical grounds are trod. Is repression necessarily a cowardly act, because the person can't face the really unackowledgeable horrors or, even worse, shames? Can we argue that memory repression is a way for the repressor to sustain more dignity as a person?

The last point I want to bring to our readers' attention is on Distortion of Memories. Okay so memories become modified not only due to emotions as I've suggested before; it may also happen due to innate systems of beliefs (Schemas) and hindsight bias, apart from other factors such as overconfidence. So it is possible for our own stout perspectives to distort things that actually happened. Personally this reminds me of some conflicts I have witnessed/heard of. Some people may insist on others having done unacceptable things to them, and in their narration may present/remember happenings in certain lights that leave listeners with a firm impression that the ones being spoken of really acted disappointingly. However, (not judging whether this is right or wrong), it is indisputable that people just have particular ways of interpreting and remembering events such that it fits with their beliefs/conscience. And, saddeningly, misunderstandings may arise from it. Personally I'm always inclined to the opinion that Memory is subjective rather than objective, just like Truth. There can be relative Truths & Memories, but no absolute ones. Perhaps unconsciously we have been bound by our own unique beliefs, inclinations and interpretations to ever be really objective (which is perhaps why sometimes even classics like Bible allude to a phenomenon such as our 'eye' being shaded; in this case I feel the 'eye' mentioned directly relates to our mind).

Yup so far I've raised all my instinctual questions. Welcomes to my fellow thinkers and other interested commentors to pick points for further enriching discussion. At this time of the night, this entry is pretty rushed, and begotten from a refined draft of mine, so please pardon any possible mistake/not in-depth thought, and do feel free to generously point out flaws in arguments, coz this is a Thinker's Blog after all=)

Lastly, happy new year to all budding and full-fledged thinkers in the world! Time has just smiled at you again.

--Pannie

Ck's memories

2006-12-31T21:51:00.000+08:00

Erm, I shall not need to do any introduction here, since that will most likely be done under the "profile" section. Why did I choose to blog today? Why did I set up this joint blog between me and the two friends over here? Simply because of the word, "Memories".

Why this title? Because there are two meanings to this title. The first will be obvious, my own personal memories. The second will be my interpretation of the word "Memories". Even though I did blog about memories in my blog before (http://superzhichao.blogspot.com/2006/12/basketball-in-morning-memories.html) , I am still happy to blog about this topic, simply because there are many more things that I would like to comment about this topic.

I shall answer the questions I post earlier first... Why did I choose to blog today? This is because today shall be the day that will always remain in my memory. The day this blog is offically published. And to make it more significant, I choose today, the last day of the year, to show that this memory belongs to the past. Then why did I choose to have this joint blog with my fellow thinkers, Pannie and Tingzi? Because they are people who will always be in my memory.

So, what is memory to me? Memory is something that binds me tightly together with my past, positively and negatively. If I lose my memory, I will lose my contact with my past. But, is this definition of mine accurate? What about fake memories? What do they bind me to? Have you ever realised that there are some memories that were actually fake? Altered? Modified? Sounds pretty scary right? Because somehow, we are who we are sometimes because of our memories, for example:

A rock-climber that is about to climb this particular rock wall is confident because he remembers that he climbed the rock wall before in the past, so to him, the rock wall is an easy obstacle to overcome.

But what if he remembered wrongly? What if he never climbed that wall before? What if, this memory is another person's? Till now, I don't think such cases occur in reality... the idea of transferring memories from one person to another. But, have you all heard of reincarnation? Cases of people still retaining the memory of the past life? Then how does it works?

These are my comments on memories. Yup... If I actually put more questions than answers into your mind, don't worry, maybe my fellow thinkers in this blog will answer them, or maybe there will be answers in my next entry next year. Meanwhile, just let this entry remain as our memories...

- Super_zhichao -

Psychological point of view of "Memories"

2006-12-31T16:30:00.000+08:00

My turn to contribute my two-cents’ worth. =D

I shall start from some facts about memories in a person with split personality. You might have read this before in my own blog… but I shall elaborate more here.

Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is a diagnosis described in the Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition, Revised, as the
existence in an individual of two or more distinct identities or personalities,
each with its own pattern of perceiving and interacting with the environment. At
least two of these personalities are considered to routinely take control of the
individual's behavior, and there is also some associated memory loss, which is
beyond normal forgetfulness. This memory loss is often referred to as "losing
time". These symptoms must occur independently of substance abuse, or a general
medical condition.
Taken from Wikipedia.

In layman's terms, split personality, like what the name itself suggests, causes a person's character to split into two or more. And more often than not, those different personalities, although contained within the same body and mind, do not really intersect. The different personalities are like, totally different people contained in the same body. They possess different characters, different kinds of thoughts and even totally different memories. Of course, everything will eventually merge into one in the sub-conscious mind.

Is it only true that "forget-me-not"s solely apply to the subconscious mind?

It has always been a controversial topic on whether memories can be artificially modified. In a normal person, I believe there are times when we desire to remember what we like and forget what we don't. However, certain events that happen in life might (or might not) trigger a certain part of the memories that we might have wanted to forget once and for all. Remembering by choice then becomes the choice to remember, but not the choice to forget.

Okay, after reading about multiple personalities and the state of memories in these people, you might argue: What these people remember, is a result of their mental disorder, and not just by 'choice'. Well, from what I have gathered all these days, having a split personality is a result from being too bent on forgetting the 'ugly past'. Most patients have histories of childhood abuse and such, and ultimately end up with a second 'desired' character living within the same body. Of course, the conclusion is not absolute, but while we blame fate for their plights, we should not overlook the choices they have made, to immerse themselves in dreams of revenge or desire, and result in this disorder.

As we steer towards the direction of a "Utopia", would it mean that by burying those memories that are deemed unhappy, we would live a more perfect life and construct an overall ideal society?

But.. we live to learn. If we don't remember the respective ugly pasts, then how are we supposed to move towards the utopia?

Alright, shall stop here before I start overwhelming you with endless questions. =P

-tingzi-