#lialifelounge

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A Philosopher's Lexicon: Vocab that'll make you sound like an academic

Although curated by a philosophy major for philosophy, the following list of vocabulary is a great addition to any intellectual's written or spoken lexicon!

Verbs to Replace "Says" or "Thinks"

Asserts

Affirms

Argues

Contends

Expounds

Posits

Postulates

Delineates

Reiterates

Conjectures

Refutes

Disputes

Verbs to Replace "Shows" or "Explains"

Elucidates

Demonstrates

Validates

Substantiates

Corroborates

Vindicates

Exemplifies

Enumerates

(There's a bit of room for overlap between the "Says" or "Thinks" list and the "Shows" or "Explains" list).

Words to Describe Perspectives or Approaches

Holistic

Myopic

Dogmatic

Pragmatic

Empirical

Normative

Prescriptive

Descriptive

Reductionist

Relativistic

Utilitarian

Absolutist

Subjectivist

Objectivist

Positivist

Words to Describe Statements

Incontrovertible

Pertinent

Cogent

Nuanced

Dialectical

Syllogistic

Empirical

Normative

Didactic

Esoteric

Transitional Phrases

Moreover

Consequently

In contrast

Furthermore

As such

Henceforth

Therefore

In light of this

By the same token

To that end

Words for Critique, Analysis, or Inquiry

Scrutinizes

Deconstructs

Mitigates

Substantiates

Vindicates

Invoke

Inquiry

Interrogate

Delineate

Explicate

Reconcile

Synthesize

Undermine

Engage

Evoke

Scrutiny

Descriptive Words for Ideas or Concepts

Paradigm

Construct

Framework

Epistemology

Ontology

Teleology

Dialectic

Axiom

Maxim

Tenet

Doctrine

Dogma

Words for Nuanced Argumentation

Corollary

Inference

Premise

Deduction

Induction

Syllogism

Refutation

Rebuttal

Concession

Adjudication

Exposition

Elucidation

Conjecture

Remember, the key is not just to use these words, but to understand them fully so you can wield them effectively. Context is king; make sure the word or phrase fits seamlessly into your argument.

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Imagine trying to cram all those words into just a couple of paragraphs... not saying you should do it, but it might be a fun challenge, no?

If you're interested in more academic writing tips, feel free to explore the #AcademicWriting and #WritingTips tags on my blog. To distinguish between my original content and reblogs, you can filter the tags #LiaLifeLounge and #LiaReblogs, respectively.

Have fun writing! ✨

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"The privilege of absurdity, to which no living creature is subject but man only."

— Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (p. 24)

Absurdity: Senseless speech. Words and speech that hold no meaning and no conceivable conception.

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"Desire to know why, and how, Curiosity, such as is in no living creature but man, so that man is distinguished, not only by his reason, but also by this singular passion from other animals, in whom the appetite of food and other pleasures of sense by predominance take away the care of knowing causes, which is a lust of the mind that by a perseverance of delight in the continual and indefatigable generation of knowledge exceeds the short vehemence of any carnal pleasure."

— Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (p. 31)

PSA from Lia:

Annnd this is a good point to remind all of us that many older texts (including religious texts) commonly used the pronoun "he/him/his" to refer to humankind (mankind) as a whole and should be interpreted as genderless unless otherwise mentioned and specified in the context of gender.

Hobbes is not saying that "men are distinguished"; instead, he says that "man is distinguished." Man, in this context, is referring to Mankind. Mankind is referring to Humankind. Humankind is genderless.

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Hey there, beautiful humans!

I'm Lia, and I'm stepping into the Tumblr world for the first time. Excited to share my thoughts and learn from this diverse community! 🌟 I figured I'd begin with an introduction since it just didn't feel comfy to start posting or reblogging content with zero prior context. I'm new to Tumblr, so I'm still getting my bearings. There's a bit of a learning curve, so bear with me as I get situated and figure out how to set up my blog and website theme. 😅 (p.s. tips and unsolicited advice are always more than welcome. Feel free to share; I'm all ears). And with that being said...

Quick Facts:

Name: Lia Majors: Philosophy & Asian Studies Minor: Ethics Path: Pre-law

MBTI/Enneagram: ENTP 3w2

So, what's this blog all about?

In short, it's a smorgasbord of my interests. Philosophy, recipes, beauty tips, you name it. If it's caught my attention, you'll find it here. It's also a way for me to keep track of my productivity and learning to ensure I never forget a new interesting piece of information.

Why a 'Life Lounge'?

Because life's too short to be confined to a single niche. I don't want to limit this space, and thus, my thoughts, to a specific subject... although, if it gets too clogged up, I'll consider setting up some niche secondary blogs.

What can you expect?

Well, to be completely honest, I'm not entirely sure yet! But I do have some content ideas you can look forward to. Here's a sneak peek of what's in the pipeline:

Today I Learned: A series where I share bite-sized pieces of random knowledge; could be daily, could be weekly—let's keep it spontaneous!

Learning Code as a Non-Techie: It's never too late to learn coding, right? Follow my journey as a liberal arts student—with no background in tech—learning how to code and program. I'll share resources and tips helpful for other non-techies!

Devblog: I'm developing an RPG game with a few software engineer friends of mine. So expect updates on programming with Unreal Engine's Blueprints, AI-learning, 3D modeling in Blender, and more.

Philosophy Corner: Delving into philosophers and their philosophies is second nature to me, thanks to my major. I'm already knee-deep in dissecting original texts and applying their concepts to real-world scenarios due to my varsity Debate Team commitments. So... why not share some of those insights?

Ethical Dilemmas: I'll pose ethical questions to you guys and discuss the various viewpoints and responses. Depending on the participation, this should be very fun! (Note: this is a judgment-free zone for all perspectives, questions, ideas, and opinions—all will be evaluated and criticized fairly. I am a stout supporter of John Stuart Mill's Marketplace of Ideas).

Study Tips: Pretty self-explanatory. I have a lot of tips I could share with you guys on how to maximize productivity!

And More: There's a lot more I want to share, but let's maintain some mystery!

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And on that note...

I can't wait to explore your blogs as well! 🌟 Feel free to reach out, whether it's to share a thought, ask a question, or just to say hi. I'm all ears and can't wait to connect with you! 💖

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How to Write Like a Philosopher

Or: How to Balance Clarity and Complexity in your Writing Style.

Writing like a philosopher is not just about using big words or complex run-on sentences. It's about conveying profound ideas with both depth and clarity. Here are some techniques and tips to elevate your writing to a philosophical level!

Clarity in Complexity: Sometimes, the most complex ideas can be expressed in the simplest terms. Strive for clarity without sacrificing depth.

Example: "Freedom is not just the absence of constraints but the presence of opportunities."

Layering Ideas: Introduce a concept and then layer additional information to connect other relevant concepts in subsequent sentences.

Example: "Courage is not the absence of fear; it's the decision to act despite it. Yet, true courage also involves wisdom, knowing when to act and when to hold back."

Pacing and Rhythm: Vary your sentence lengths. Use shorter sentences to make a point stand out and longer ones to elaborate or add nuance.

Example: "Life is fleeting. Yet, its brevity makes each moment precious, each choice significant, and each relationship invaluable."

Using Philosophical Jargon: Use specific philosophical terms but ensure you define them clearly the first time you use them.

Example: "Existentialism, a term that can intimidate even the well-read, is essentially about personal responsibility and the freedom to choose one's path."

The Socratic Method: Pose questions within your writing and then proceed to explore them, guiding the reading through a logical progression of thought.

Example: "What then is justice? It is not merely lawfulness, for laws can be unjust. It is a harmony, a balance between individual freedom and collective responsibility."

Rhetorical Devices: Use rhetorical devices like parallelism or antithesis to emphasize your points.

Example: "To err is human; to forgive, divine."

Referencing and Building Upon Other Ideas: Don't shy away from referencing other philosophers or theories to build upon or contrast with your own ideas.

Example: "Unlike Hobbes, who views human nature as brutish, I posit that our essence is rooted in social cooperation."

The Art of Arguments: Develop a logical argument to explore your question. Use premises, counterarguments, and conclusions.

Example: "If reality is objective, then our perceptions should align. However, they often don't, leading us to question the nature of reality itself and our capacity to perceive it."

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While this isn't an exhaustive list, it should give you a place to start if you're trying to improve your academic writing skills—especially if you're like me and tend to write convoluted run-on sentences.

Many of these points (especially the last one on the Art of Arguments) can be extensively expanded upon... but that's for another post. It's 4 a.m. and I promised myself to be asleep before 6a.m. for once.

If there are any specific points you'd like me to expand upon, feel free to leave a comment, Ask, or reach out in some other way. I'd be happy to answer.

Check out this post for specific vocabulary to add to your lexicon in order to sound and write like a true academic. Also, check out my blog's #AcademicWriting or #Philosophy tags for more writing tips!

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Today I Learned...

...what a Commonplace Book is.

I recently came across the concept of a "Commonplace Book," and it got me thinking. A commonplace book is essentially a personal catalog where you collect quotes, ideas, and observations that resonate with you. It's a compilation of all your knowledge and learnings.

Apparently, the idea of keeping a (or multiple) commonplace books is also a tradition that dates back to the Renaissance.

Here's a very famous page from Leonardo da Vinci's Codex Forster, one of his many commonplace books:

You can also check out his Leicester Codex (or Hammer Codex), named simply after the millionaires who bought it. It's currently owned by Bill Gates—no surprise there—and is one of the most expensive books ever sold ($30 mil).

I named my blog a "life lounge," but honestly, it seems that what I've been calling a life lounge is really just a Digital Commonplace Book where I keep track of my learning and knowledge.

So yeah, honestly, it's nice having an idea for what my blog is rather than just a random collection of thoughts... because it's not exactly that, either. If it were just a blog of my daily life and random thoughts, you would see "today I did" posts rather than "today I learned" posts.

I'm curious, do any of you keep Commonplace Books, and how do you relate your Tumblr blog(s) to those journals, if at all?

I only have this one main blog and no side blogs, but I see the appeal in setting up side blogs... especially since I have such a wide range of interests.

But it seems that, in general, the people who have a natural curiosity and thirst for knowledge (the people I interact with and follow/am followed by on here) also share a lot of the same interests as I do... even if they only hyperfocus on one or two of them. So perhaps keeping my many interests all on one blog isn't so detrimental? I'd love to hear your opinions on this!

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So I just took the LSAT today and to be completely honest… wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be. Somehow finished every section with time leftover to doublecheck my work! Feeling pretty good about it 🥰 even though I pulled an all-nighter before it and still haven’t slept… 🫠

Not intentionally, mind you—LSAC’s new online LSAT Proctor software isn’t compatible with the new MacOS Sonoma 14.0… so spent all night trying to learn how to downgrade my MacOS version in order to download the testing/proctoring software before my 7am exam.

Turns out, on silicon-chip Macs (M1+), you can’t just simply downgrade or restart/reboot your laptop to the software it originally came in. That’s apparently only an available option on Intel Macs.

Instead, if you have a silicon Mac, you have to go through the complicated process of:

1. Backing up your Mac using Time Machine on some other external hard drive or disk (since downgrading completely wipes your startup disk and erases all data)

2. Setting up a Bootable Installer—also on an external hard drive (separate)

3. Downloading the version software from Apple’s App Store (the easiest part of the entire process! Though, of course, you can’t even run it until you’ve done everything else first)

4. Using the Terminal app and running the specific (in my case, Ventura) command as found on Apple’s website and proceeding with the rest of the commands to get it working.

which… don’t get me started on figuring out how to set up a Bootable Installer. This was all completely foreign to me and honestly I was two “error” messages away from a complete mental breakdown.

At 5am, I gave up and woke up my poor friend to beg her to let me use her laptop for my LSAT.

If anyone can send me a crash course on using the Macbook’s Terminal app, it would be more than welcomed!

At this point, I gotta set up a Bootable Installer just for the spite of it. Never letting myself get blindsided like this again! Will always have a backup version. Learned my lesson lol

[lia-life-lounge]

Today I learned...

...what Y2K is. I know. How is it possible that today is my first time hearing that term? Either I've heard it before and somehow filtered it out of my brain, or I genuinely heard it for the first time while watching a random video about a Korean mom learning how to style her Blasian kid's hair.

A lady in the video mentioned that the current hair trend was Y2K. So, of course, my brain went ??? and I just had to look into it... and this is what I found out:

Y2K is also called the Year 2000 problem, Y2K scare, Millenium Bug, Y2K glitch, Y2K error, etc., and although it refers to the year 2000, it technically spans the years of 1997-2005. (The letter K, which stands for kilo (a unit of 1000), is commonly used to represent the number 1,000. So, Y2K stands for Year 2000.)

I'll summarize what I learned so you don't have to go down the same rabbit hole I went down (no surprise there):

So there are two sides to Y2K: tech and culture.

The tech side is what gave Y2K its namesake. There apparently was this widespread fear that computers would misinterpret "00" as 1900 when calendar systems updated from 1999 to 2000, causing all sorts of chaos. Imagine bank systems crashing, planes malfunctioning—the works. Thankfully, that didn't happen, but it apparently had people on edge... hence, the Y2K scare.

Honestly, Y2K is really just what we typically think of when we think of "early 2000s fashion." Think of it as a blend of "The Matrix" and early Britney Spears. Metallics, futuristic elements, low-rise jeans, and bold colors.

...and apparently, Y2K fashion is making a comeback. I don't know who to blame. Maybe the new Barbie movie?

People have mixed feelings regarding Y2K's cultural revival. There's concern that Y2K fashion will also bring back "skinny obsession" and rewind progress on body positivity. I won't go into a deep dive on the topic in this post (although I could do an entire analysis if asked). So for now, I'll leave it at that! 💫 __________

Some discussion questions to consider! What do you think about Y2K fashion? Regardless of cultural implications, do you like or dislike the aesthetic?

Does the resurgence of Y2K fashion carry with it any cultural or social baggage/implications?

How does the Y2K revival intersect with the body positivity movement? Should fashion trends be mindful of social issues like body positivity, or should they evolve independently? And, of course... Have you been influenced—knowingly or unknowingly—by the Y2K trend?

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"But they that trusting only to the authority of books follow the blind blindly are like him that, trusting to the false rules of a master of fence, ventures presumptuously upon an adversary that either kills or disgraces him."

— Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (p. 26)

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"For one man calleth wisdom, what another calleth fear; and one cruelty, what another justice; one prodigality, what another magnanimity; and one gravity, what another stupidity, etc. And therefore such names can never be true grounds of any ratiocination."

See below for the full quote from Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan (p. 21-22):

"The names of such things as affect us, that is, which please and displease us, because all men be not alike affected with the same thing, nor the same man at all times, are in the common discourses of men of inconstant signification.

For seeing all names are imposed to signify our conceptions, and all our affections (what pleases and displeases us) are but conceptions, when we conceive the same things differently, we can hardly avoid different naming of them.

For though the nature of that we conceive be the same, yet the diversity of our reception of it, in respect of different constitutions of body and prejudices of opinion, gives everything a tincture of our different passions.

And therefore in reasoning, a man must take heed of words which, besides the signification of what we imagine of their nature, have a signification also of the nature, disposition, and interest of the speaker, such as are the names of virtues and vices; for one man calleth wisdom, what another calleth fear; and one cruelty, what another justice; one prodigality, what another magnanimity; and one gravity, what another stupidity, etc.

And therefore such names can never be true grounds of any ratiocination. No more can metaphors, and tropes of speech; but these are less dangerous, because they profess their inconstancy, which the other does not."

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"There being nothing in the world universal but names; for the things named are every one of them individual and singular."

— Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (p. 17)

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"Whatsoever we imagine, is Finite. Therefore there is no Idea, or conception of anything we call Infinite. No man can have in his mind an Image of infinite magnitude; nor conceive infinite swiftness, infinite time, or infinite force, or infinite power. When we say anything is infinite, we signify only that we are not able to conceive the ends and bounds of the thing named, having no Conception of the thing, but of our own inability. And therefore the Name of God is used, not to make us conceive him; (for he is Incomprehensible, and his greatness and power are inconceivable), but that we may honour him. Also because whatsoever we conceive has been perceived first by Sense, either all at once, or by parts, a man can have no Thought representing anything not subject to sense."

— Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (p. 15)

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"It is a hard matter to distinguish between Sense and Dreaming. For my part... because waking I often observe the absurdity of Dreams, but never dream of the absurdities of my waking thoughts, I am well satisfied that being awake I know I dream not, though when I dream, I think myself awake."

— Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (p. 9)

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"If Livy say the Gods made once a cow speak, and we believe it not, we distrust not God therein, but Livy.

So that it is evidence that whatsoever we believe upon no other reason than what is drawn from authority of men only and their writings, whether they be sent from God or not, is faith in men only."

Hobbes, Leviathan (p. 37)