What I relate to in Tao Te Ching

i related to the quote, "Die without perishing and your life will endure." What this quote means to me is that there are two "deaths." Death of the spirit and death of the body. I think what the author means here is that if we live a moral life and care for our spiritual life then it doesn't matter if our spirit dies. If we don't care for our spiritual life, then when our body dies, we will have nothing because our spirit will be dead.

Ties between Tao Te Ching and The Trial and Death of Socrates

I don't remember what the quote was, but Socrates told Euthyphro that he couldn't understand him because he knew too much. In poem 47, the author says "the more you travel, the less you know". i think these relate because as you learn more and grow in knowledge, you fail to see the simple and obvious truths.

Meditation

I meditated on the Tao and what emptiness was. To me emptiness cannot really exist. There is always something in a given space. Even the most perfect form of emptiness, outer space, is filled with planets, stars and asteroids. In my opinion nothing can be truly empty.

Being Darwin

When my classes ended Wednesday, I observed the lake in the center of our campus with Darwin's ideas on evolution in mind. I saw the many plants, the people, and the geese. I witnessed how they interacted. I saw that the geese were very defensive of their young. Whenever someone walked by one of the ducks it tilted its beak up at them. This is probably a defense mechanism that evolved over time. The offspring of certain ducks probably only survived if their parents were very defensive of them. The gene for being defensive probably was passed on from generation to generation. People and other animals probably ate the geese in the past. They probably see us as a predator and that is why they tilt their beak up at us to scare us. This is an example of Natural Selection in this ecosystem.

People interact differently. They do not need to worry about their basic survival. People near the lake and at the library rushed to class and worried about their assignments. The people were in competition with one another. Those who get the best grades will get the best job. In turn, those who get the best jobs will have stable incomes; this is very attractive for a mate because it is conducive to having a stable family. This is an example of the law of Competition.

The plants seemed to be very diverse especially around the lake. There were various kinds of trees. Some of these trees may have been brought to the lake by man and others have grown naturally. As I write this, the different kinds of foliage are probably competing with one another in order to be the dominant species.

Man's Place in Tao

In tao, man is insignificant. Chou states, "Heaven and earth are not kind: The ten thousand things are straw dogs to them"(5). By this statement, he means everything on the earth and in the heavens is insignificant because there is so much of it. Later he states, "Sages are not kind, people are straw dogs to them"(5). The reader infers that because man and the ten thousand things are straw dogs, they are insignificant to Tao and its teachers, the sages. Later Chou adds, "Longwinded speech is exhausting. Better to stay centered"(5). Chou means that do not lose focus on the individuals place in the universe. Man is insignificant compared to heaven and the Tao. Man should be humble before the Tao and accept it.

Common Themes of Society Today and Poem 3

There is a theme of avoiding excess in Poem 3 of "Tao Te Ching Lao-Tzu" that relates to how people in American society are hurt by excess. The author states, " By weakening ambitions and strtengthening bones; leads people away from knowing and wanting"(Chou 3). Chou means that if we want less, they will not be dissapointed if they do not recieve things. People in american culture would be happier if the did not desire as much material goods. We would not be disapointed when we would not recieve things because we would not expect them.

More Generalisations About the Sexes

Darwin makes another generalization about the sexes. He says that, "woman seems to differ from man in mental disposition, chiefly in her greater tenderness and less selfishness..." (269). He then makes a comment about men in general, "[man] delights in competition, and this leads to ambiton which passes too easily into selfishness"(269). Darwin assumes that men always fit the Victorian model of a man and a woman. A man can be tender and affectionate and a woman can be very competitive and selfish.

Sexist Ideas from Darwin

Darwin made several sexist presumptions throughout the text, On Evolution. One striking example is when he states that, "Man is more courageous, pugnacious and energetic than woman, and has a more inventive genius"( 266). Darwin seems to hold Victorian ideas of his time that the sexes are distinctly different in that the female is shy, passive, and dainty; the male is strong, courageous and bold. These Victorian ideas may be true in some cases, but darwin cannot assume that all men and women fit this model of masculineness and femineness. There are some women who display masculine qualities and men who display female qualities.

I thought that this quote about morality related to how social creatures like ants profit not on an individual level, but on a societal level. " It must not be forgotton that although a high standard of morality gives but a slight or no advantage to each individual man and his children over the other men of the tribe, yet that an advancement in the standard of morality and an increase in the number of well-endowed men will certainly give an immense advantage to one tribe over the other." Just like ants, humans do not profit on the individual level from what is good for the group, but the group does profit from sacrafices of the individual. As a society we profit from morality, but the individual does not. An example would be if a businessman made a lot of money from cheating his customers, he would be successful, but the community would not benefit as a whole. The community would lose all its money and resources because of the businessman's greed

Another case where I thought Darwin made too many assumptions is when he says," The bravest men, who were always willing to come to the front in war, and who freely risked their lives for others, would on average perish in larger numbers than other men. Therefore, it seems scarcely possible, that the number of men gifted with such virtues, or that the standard of their excellence, could be increased throught natural selection, that is, by the survival of the fittest." Darwin has proved some physical traits are passed on through reproduction to offspring, but he has not proved that personality or emotions can be passed on to offspring. These qualities such as bravery and courage could be things that result from the environment they were raised in.

I agreed a lot with Darwin's ideas throughout our readings, but I found the following exerpt a little rediculous: " A positive example was the self-selection whereby the "best people" in Europe, as defined by such qualities as energy and courage, had formed an exceptionally talented population in emigrating to the United States." I think a lot of people are very energetic and courageous, but the people here are not necessarily more courageous than the people in Europe. For all Darwin knew, the worst people who were the least successful in Europe came to the United States so they would not have to deal with the strong competition of the more successful Europeans. I feel that Darwin is making too big of an assumption in this exerpt from his writings.

Irony in On Evolution

I thought it was ironic when Darwin admitted " This Abstract, which I now publish, must necessarily be imperfect. I cannot give references and authorities for my several statements; and I must trust to the reader reposing some confidence in my accuracy." His theory is claimed by many to disprove the existence of a god or divine being that people have no proof of but have faith in. Ironically, He is asking the reader to have faith that his calculations and theories are true. Science is supposed to be absolute and be precise. We don't have faith in laws and theories; they are proven by trial and error to be true.

more on Phaedo

" Well then that being so, is it not natural for the body to dissolve easily, and for the soul to be altogether indossoluble, or nearly so?"

I thought throughout Socrates argument for the existence of the soul he assumed way too much. He kept on assuming that since the body could be seen it could be destroyed and since the soul was something that you could not see, you could not destroy it and it lasted forever. I believe everyone has a soul also but I just don't believe it for this reason. There are things that you can necessarily see like happiness etc... like saocrates talked about, but these are two different things. Things like happiness were ideas and a soul is not an idea. I would believe Socrates more if he talked about how humans have another part of them that acounts for their personality.

Phaedo

I disagreed with Socrates in his dialogue when he said, " Therefore, if we had this knowledge, we knew before birth and immediately after not only the equal, but the Greater and the Smaller and all such things, for our present argument is no more about the Equal than about the Beautiful itself, the Good itself, the just, the Pious and, as I say, about all those things to which we can attache the word "itself' both when we are putting questions and answering them." A large part of what we think is beautiful, or good or bad, comes from the culture we are raised in. What is physically beautiful, morally acceptible differs from place to place. We are not all born with a standard of beauty or right and wrong.

Parallel between White Castle and Phaedo

I thought this quote was similar to an idea in the White Castle. "Whenever someone, on seeing something, realizes that that which he now sees wants to be like some other reality, but falls short and cannot be like that other since it is inferior, do we agree that the one who thinks this must have prior knowledge of that to which he says it is like, but deficiently so? I thought this quote related to how Hoja saw that the narrator was like a better model of him. He looked just like Hoja. However, if you compared Hoja and the narrator you would see that the narrator is not only better educated but also had a natural talent for learning. Hoja envied this throughout the story.

How I relate to the reading

In The Trial and Death of Socrates, I related to the line, "... he begged and implored the jureymen with many tears, that he brought his children and many of his friends and family into court to arouse as much pity as he could, ..." Whenever I am in trouble with my parents, I often use sympaty as a way to get away with things. I try to make them feel guilty for grounding me and I use the lline "You used to be a teenager once too!" frequently.

How I relate

I related to the following from The White Castle. " I had spoken of a childhood friend of mine with whom I'd developed the habit of thinking the same thing at the same time." I was and am still very good friends with my cousin Steve and we used to play pick up baseball, football games running bases. Whenever we did this it always seemed like I knew where to run to when I was catching a pass or who he wanted to throw out without him telling me. I felt like I knew him so well that I could just predict what he would do. Now that we are older I can still do that when we talk. I know how he thinks and how he will react to a person or situation. It's cool to know someone that well.

What I related to in the reading

I related to the line, "I tried to convince myself that sooner or later I would be able to escape to my own country." I like college a lot, but sometimes I miss my home. Sometimes I wish I could go back and hang out with my friends back home for the day.