St. Augustine

the goal of St. Augustines philosophy was to move faulty impressions of sensory knowledge to attain divine wisdom. According to St. Augustine God's grace allows us to access this good by looking inward (introspection) and then looking upward (for grace) one can achieve salvation and happiness. He thought that only "inner experience" studied trough introspection, or self evaluation and looking inward for the answers was valid. This was later called beautific vision. St. Augustine's philosophy relates to the art of this time because philosophy because philosophy was the way for educated people to see the beautific vision and art was the way for the illiterate to se beautific visionin. This concept can be seen directily in the Gothic Carthedrals because there outside is plain, dark, tainted but on the inside they were beautiful, full of light. This light came from the churches large stained glass windows which depicted biblical stories, Jesus' messages and truths, and to show the beauty and light that lies within, thus mirroring St. Augustines philosophy and showing that it is whats on the inside that matters.

Affirmative action

Affirmative action is "an action or policy favoring those who tend to suffer from discrimination, esp. in relation to employment or education; positive discrimination." -dictionary.com

In continuation of the debate we had in class regarding affirmative action I personally do not believe we need affirmative action,  not just because we now have a black president but because even though it is defined as "positive discrimination" it is still discrimination. The concept itself of affirmative action does not make much sense to me because we are trying to make up for old prejudice and discrimination by over compensating and discriminating against non-minorities.  Instead of doing this I think we should stop trying to make up for the past, realize whats done is done, learn from our mistakes, move on, and not let them happen again.

As for those people who say that affirmative action is fair because it just levels the playing field for minorities because they live in poorer areas, have more responsibilities, and less moral support I would just like to say in response that it's all about being self driven, knowing what you want and going for it. Although I can see how certain situations could effect your ability to reach your full potential but if you inform colleges of this they will take that into consideration aside from affirmative action. Lastly I think when comparing students one should only be able to base their decision solely on who has better grades, test scores, and extra curricular activities rather then factoring in their ethnicity.     

Hitler's common fallicies

"Thus men without exception wander in the garden of nature; they imagine that they know practically everything and yet with few exceptions pass blindly by one of the most patent principles of Nature's rule: the inner segregation of the species of all living beings on this earth. Even the most superficial observation shows that Nature's restricted form of propagation and increase is an almost rigid basic law of all the innumerable forms of expression of her vital urge. Every animal mates only with a member of the same species. The titmouse seeks the titmouse, the finch the finch, the stork the stork, the field mouse the filed mouse, the dormouse the dormouse, the wolf the she-wolf, etc." -Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler  

This passage by Adolf hitler is an example of a false analogy which is when an analogy is descriptive but does not offer proof of a connection between the two things being compared. The comparison hitler makes is a false analogy because he is trying to use nature as the reason for his hatred and treatment of Jews by comparing humans to species of animals. This comparison is not valid because unlike with animals there is no sub-species of humans, in fact humans themselves are a sub-species of animals. The comparison Hitler was trying to make was by turing race and religion into a species so that he could basically say that a stork would not mate with a wolf therefore non-Jews should not mate with Jews, and at first glance you may follow Hitlers train of thought and think he rightfully proved his point and behavior through nature but if you read a little closer you will realize that the analogy is false and makes no sense .

Creationism vs. Evolutionism

I would like to first start off by saying that I am not fully convinced  by either of these arguments. When it comes to the theory of creationism it really comes down to whether you believe in a god or some other almighty power and choose to take the leap of faith and place all you trust in that, but that is exactly what it takes, a leap of faith because the argument lacks major factual evidence. As for the argument of evolutionism it is science based, research has been done but the by no means, means that the argument is perfect or even close.

So what do I believe?

well honestly if I was forced to choose between the two I would have to go with the theory of evolutionism because I myself am not a religious person and I need research and facts to convince me the something is true.

Either way I, like the Muslims believe that even if god did create the world perfectly we must study it to understand it and I think that in the end if creationism is true this research  should cause us to exhaust all other possibilities and prove it true.

The difference between syllogism, modus pones & modus tollens

A syllogism is not an if then statement but instead uses deductive logic to take a major premise and a minor premise and use the information given to come to a conclusion. For a syllogism to work it each of the premises must have one term in common with the conclusion :in a major premise this term is known as the predicate, in a minor premise this term is known as the subject.

ex: Major premise: All 10th grade core sudents have Basinger as a teacher
Minor premise: Nicole is in 10th grade core
Conclusion: Nicole has Basinger as a teacher

Modus ponens are if then statements in which are sturctured as follows: if p then q, p, therefore q. Modus pollens are also positive statements.

ex: If I go to Taste of Chaos then I will be attending a concert on Valentines day
I am going to Taste of Chaos
therefore, I will be attending a concert on Valentines day

Modus Tollens are negative if then statements.
if p then q
not q
therefore not p

ex: If it rains then I will be sad
I am not sad
therefore it did not rain