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Week 12 - pk

The thing that probably was most interesting to me from this class was the idea of religion as a mass delusion, especially now thinking of it as a nihilistic take on the physical world. I think this aligns with my views on religion and helps me be able to justify my beliefs while understanding other peoples beliefs and why they might believe them.

This course was a very good introduction to prominent philosophical and religious thinkers and opened a door into further research and knowledge of the topic.

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Week 12 - Ian M.

One reading which I enjoyed and stood out to me was week 10’s reading of “Marx: Early Political Writings.” I found his statement that “religion is the opium of the people” very interesting because I have never considered thinking of religion in this way. I thought his discussion and thoughts on the idea of the emancipation of “wretchedness” was interesting as well. After reading his ideas and thoughts, I could understand why he would believe such things even if I were to agree/disagree with them.

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Week 12 - Maryvette

The most fascinating topic I learned in this course was definitely the scapegoat (pharmakos) concept. I've thought about it thoroughly and found it almost all-encompassing that I could analyze any video game plot or movie plot and find a scapegoat. I am in love with media and I think that I was able to engage with the concept playfully and creatively while still making it logical and thorough. I also found the concept of transgression enigmatically beautiful. I don't know how to make it sound un-pretentious, but that's the best I could put it. I would love to learn more about transgression in the future. Least favorite = Freud. He is weird.

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Milo Jensen - Week 12

I would have to say that my favourite part of this courses readings and lectures was seeing what wacky thing Freud would say next that has since been proven false. He just has a whole lot of wild thoughts and opinions on the human brain that just so often seemed like him projecting his own personal thoughts onto others. Overall, reading Freud's work simultaneously filled me with rage and made me laugh quite a bit, especially when we would discuss the readings in tutorial.

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Week 12 - Melric

A lecture from the course that I found the most interesting was the one from week 9 about writing and the metaphysics of presence. I was shocked to learn that others find writing to increase forgetting when I have always viewed it as a way to improve memory. There is even a growing movement online about how the compilation of notes and finding connections between them can act as a second brain of sorts.

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Artemis- blog 12

I loved reading Freud and Focoult's work about repressive and normalizing power as well as sexual discourse.

I found it fascinating that these two scholars both believed in the existence of a power that controls human sexual desires and thoughts. Still, at the same time, one of them believed this power allows society to have rules and normalize sexual discourse. In contrast, the other one believed this power just represses people and doesn't allow them to understand why they have the desires they have.

I would love to learn more about their work because it gives us an insight into how our society has gotten here and what forces shape how we think and act.

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Artemis- week 11

An example of a father-like figure that comes to my mind is in Christianity. We often call the Priest as "Father". The reason behind this word choice is the fact that the role of a father in a child's life is to protect, provide and create a welcoming/safe space. Being able to do all the things mentioned above allows fathers to have a unique ability to make their children feel safe no matter what which also leads us to always want such a figure in our life.

A Priest is presented as a person who can do all of this. You can go to a Priest to confess your sins without being judged, you can go to a priest to get advice and etc.

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This very image. I would love to learn more about Copernicus and his involvement in astronomy since I am studying astrophysics. This piece is particularly intriguing since it holds significant importance in my life. I want to learn how astronomy was initially rejected as science but later widely accepted and now trillions are being spent on space discoveries and research. These little stepping stones lead to where we are now, and hopefully, we achieve interstellar travel, becoming an interplanetary species. Thank you for this amazing course, I learned so much outside my areas of knowledge.

Harsh :)

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Week 11- pk

An example of a father-like figure in history that I want to highlight is Jim Jones, the leader of the people’s temple best known for the Jonestown massacre.

Jim Jones promised protection and utopia to those who followed him and his teachings. He purchased property in Guyana and created a sort of colony for his followers. After a series of events and delusion by himself and many of his followers there was a mass suicide which resulted in the death of most of the followers of the peoples temple. (Those who refused to commit suicide were murdered, though for the point of answering this blogging question I am focusing on the willing participants)

While in power though Jim Jones acted as a sort of deity and father figure. He promised people a better life than the society that they currently lived in. From my understanding his followers did feel ambivalence towards him as he took away a lot of their power but also promised them safety. They had to give up freedoms to transgress society,

He also acts as a sort of pharmakon promising them safety but also being their poison… he killed them by telling them to drink red punch with cyanide in it stating that it would let them transgress the inhumane world we live in.

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Week 11 - Junwoo P

In my opinion, the stories in the bible fits perfectly as a father-like or God-like figure. The stories give us how to handle different situations wisely. Also, it gives a lesson when things are not directed right, how it impacts their life either good or bad. We often get impulses to follow our instinct that we do not want to follow. We can use the stories in the bible to compare ourselves to similar situations and how my behavior will affect in long-term. This way, we learn from the bible just like how we learned from our parents instinctly in our childhood.

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Week 11 - Ian M.

In our discussions of Freud, we mentioned the fact that Freud is very focused on encouraging the use of scientific education rather than religious education. Although Freud expresses his preference of scientific methods over religious ones, Freud acknowledges the reasons why religion must exist, mentioning that religion can help us act against our instincts. My question regarding this is: What does Freud believe are the drawbacks of scientific education and views? And are there solutions which can deal with these drawbacks?

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Week 10 - Milo Jensen

My example for 'ought' vs. 'is' is the police and general justice system in the U.S. and Canada. The police are said to be protecting the entirety of the population and yet deeply rooted racism leads to people of colour, particularly Black and Indigenous communities, being policed heavier than White people. This racial bias leads to prison populations being disproportionately made up of Black and Indigenous people in comparison to the national percentage of those communities. Overall, a group that is said to be protecting the Canadian and American people is acting violently towards minority groups in reality, ensuring that the oppressive system remains intact.

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Week 10 - Ian M.

In lecture and tutorial, there were discussions around the idea of wretchedness, and how it must be emancipated from society. As a result, the Proletarian revolution was a solution which arose from this which would emancipate the wretched people of society, meaning that religion would not be needed. My question regarding these ideas is if the Proletarian revolution was truly successful and religion was no longer needed, what would be some possible changes that would consequently occur from this in society?

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Week 10 - PK

An example of the contradiction of “ought” and “is” (or is doing, is reality) is the educational system and the pressure on understanding concepts. There is a general understanding that success is based on understanding teachings in a set time frame. One ought to/must keep up with societies educational growth timeline, but in reality each individual is going to learn at a different rate. The idea of ought vs is demonstrates how arbitrary rules have been set upon humanity with the understanding that we are all the same, but this ignores the hard fact that there’s is no way that each human is going to be the same. There is a contradiction in rules saying one must do something, one ought to do something, and the actual ability or choice of a person to follow said rule. It also highlights the difference between equality and equity.

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Weel 10- Sudipta

"Ought" vs "Is" is an interesting topic. An example of this is love. We’re taught that love is ought to be all romantic and all things sweet. However, after being in a relationship one realizes it truly is not but it is making it through the tough stuff and arguments and fights. It is also enjoying the negatives that we do not see initially. Thus, love can be shown to be an example of "ought" vs "is"

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Week 9 Tutorial Post - Mila F.

“As Seen on TV” products exemplify the idea that just because something “ought” to work a certain way, that does not mean that it does. I grew up seeing these commercials, and 8-year-old me was enthralled by the glide-on hair chalk. I ended up receiving them as a Hanukkah present, but they did not color my hair the way I saw on the commercial (how they ought to). Rather, after two or three uses, the chalks broke and crumbled (how they really were).

(Yes, I did have to look up "hair chalk early 2000s" to find this image.)

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week 10-Artemis

A good example would be killing animals and eating meet.

We all are aware that killing animals is wrong however, somehow we have normalized eating meat.

So despite the fact that we all know killing animals is wrong, most people don't even think twice when ordering wings, or a beef burger..

There are many other examples of things that are morally wrong and everyone knows about but yet don't stop the majority from doing it.