Thursday, October 29, 2009
The Lottery- Response
The significance of Old Man Warner ‘s words is that since he is the oldest man in the town, he has the knowledge of what the original tradition of the lottery is all about because he had been in it for over seven decades. He repeatedly showed warning to the younger parents and the younger generation of what they are in for if they do away with the lottery. Being involved in the lottery for such a long period of time, Old Man Warner knows best about the risks that he is taking. Young people in our society today are easily attracted to things that do not always end up the right way. For instance, as young people, the most common excuse to escape their faults is the “everyone’s doing it” excuse. One of the greatest and most common examples is smoking; young people get too caught up with their social life that they forget about protecting themselves. The risks and harmful situations they are putting themselves into can cause their lifetime: addiction. Things do not always have to have a first try; the best thing to do is to step out of things or situations like this. In other circumstances, for example, peer pressure also plays a huge role in our society today. Many young people are influenced negatively by their friends or peers. Hence, if they do not follow what their friends do, their friends will either go from not being friends with them anymore, to a more serious situation: life threatening. The heavy moral lesson that Old Man Warner had spoken out to us is that things are necessary to be thought twice rather than once because the littlest situation may cause a serious addiction that can lead to death.
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Good analysis, your example on smoking illustrates how it is crucial in life to reflect twice. Think before you act, do not get negatively influenced. One thing is for sure, your example makes more sense and connection to our global environment than Jisong's!
ReplyDeleteI disagree in that this was the old man's intention. He's not wise but rather extremely afraid. He grew up in a community where the lottery was both allowed and accepted as a part of their lives and at this point in his life, he's at the point where no matter what you say or try to convince him of, he won't agree. He just can't see a life where the lottery doesn't exist so he desperately tries to enforce the lottery never questioning it. Because, he lived all his life in it and never once questioned it, so if he were to say that it was wrong that would be denying what he believed in for all his life. So basically, he doesn't have a good reason to enforce the lottery other than that if he doesn't it would have been that he was wrong and that he's afraid that all his life he was wrong. This is nothing more than the common denials of a man that has known nothing else and is afraid to change. There are many people like that. People that are afraid to change the way they live their lives, people that are afraid to admit that maybe, just maybe they weren't right. That's why they stubbornly cling onto something as pointless and obviously flawed as the lottery. I bet that none of them even remember the reason they started doing the lottery in the first place.
ReplyDeleteOne interesting comments though...I can never smoke because by merely smelling smoke, I tend to have a some what strong urge to puke.
ReplyDeleteMost of the people in our society believes that we should not act in conformity and try to fit in. However, as Aristotle has said 2000 years ago,"anyone who can live without the influence of the society is either a god or a beast."
Our society requires us to fit in...just to survive. We have a society for a reason-to organize people of similar traits togather. Even Canadian's so-called mosaic culture is just the same as American's melting pot. Both requites you to respect other people's culture, religion, etc. Simply put, belief in multiculturism in some way. If we are to believe in that, then...we fit in our society. Did we try to fit in? I don't even think we are aware of that.
A more closer to home example is again, global warming. No scientist alive has yet to prove that Global Warming definitely exist and is caused by us. It is only theory supported by a few of the past data. Our increase in temperature may be a solar activity (temperature on Mars has also shown increase), but how many of us actually know that? How many us bothered to search it up what supports Global Warming and what are facts disprove it? OR DID ALL OF US JUST FOLLOWED THE THOUGHTS OF THE MAJORITY?
I know Aristotle is an influential philosopher of the Western culture, but quoting him in our day and age is not appropriate. Aristotle only founded the basis of his "encyclopedia." Over these two thousand years, his works had been challenged by Nicholas Copernicus, Galileo Gallilei, Johannes Kepler and Isaac Newton in his scientific writings. Aristotle's political beliefs have been speculated and refuted by John Locke, John Stuart Mill. His works on ethics, metaphysics and logic were re-evaluated by St. Thomas Aquinas, Immanuel Kant, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Bertrand Russell. These are only a miniscule fraction of thinkers whom proved Aristotle's fallibility and overthrown his beliefs. Humanity came a long way and had immensely changed over the course of history. Why are you still pointing out a quote that has been bashed to pieces?
ReplyDeleteI thought you are a philosopher...In fact, Aristotle's ideas of philosophy are never destroyed. I agree that his scientific principles are not only challenged but also faded in our society. However, every part of debate, oratory, psychologies of influence are still fairly much based on his original believes. It is one of the few reasons why he is remembered at all. In case you have not realized, he is the first person to summarize the principles of debate and to sort them out into 3 stages. He also left those who are behind him a basis for a famous question "How many psychologists are required to screw a light bulb?"
ReplyDeleteIf you know anything at all, that question covers all of the principles of debate. Pathos Ethos and Legos, the 3 categories of persuasion. Pathos being emotion; ethos being character and legos being logic. All of the arguements ever created in this world can be boiled down to this 3 categories...How can you state that his belief are over thrown?
Quoting him in our day and age is what is important. Greeks has spent many years to strictly study what holds a society together and what will cause it to fall. They have studied what a society is for far longer that what we have and much of the questions we have today about philosophy is still largely base on theirs.
Proving that a small porpotion-namely science-of their reasonings are wrong does not prove all of their ideas and theories wrong. After all, we are still using their geometry, their signs, and even some of their formulas in science. Not only that, they are the ones to come with the studies parabolas, hyperbolas, etc.
Last of all perhaps is that everyone makes mistakes. If you were to go back in time and try to find these new discoveries yourself, how will you do? I mean some of their false scientific laws still have some logic in them. For example, the idea that an heavier object falls faster is not completely out of the blue. An object weights heavier will have GREATER gravitional force acting upon it. However, they forgot that the more massive an obejct is, the more force is required therefore the acceleration remains the same.
Anyways, in conlusion, I must say that steven's previous point are not correct. How can a quote from a group of people that have studied what a society is even before the Age of Reason be bashed to pieces without so easily without any explaination? How can you prove that their philosophies are trashed by just simply stating that a small amount of their scientific reasonings are incorrect? How do you explain all the mathematical concepts we learn in school that came from ancient Greeks, if you are to say his believes are challenged and refuted? How is it possible for us humans to change immensely if Olympics is still here despite of 2000 years of "immense evolution?" Such are the questions...
We have Napoleonic Wars, WW1, WW2, and the Vietnam War, then Iraq War...Canadian troops are still in Middle East...We have UN which sents troops to attack any nation that wants war...
ReplyDeleteAncient people have trojan wars, war with Romans, Egyp, etc.
First of all, we should stay away from warfare in this argument since the philosophy of ARISTOTLE is the MAIN FOCUS. Second, it is Ethos, Pathos, Logos not Pathos, Ethos, Legos. Third, proofread your responses more adequately. Forth, we are not exactly using there formulas because the Mesopotamians, Egyptians obtained the basic geometric definitions, the Greeks persued where earlier civilizations left off. Then why don't you quote something from Gilgamesh or Ashurbanipal then? Fifth, the Greeks did not forget acceleration, they did not know of it. Sixth, I did state that Aristotle is heavily influential in Western philosophy but his beliefs are now too ancient and not authoritative like the time prior to the Renaissance. Before the Renaissance, Europeans knew the world through Aristotle and intellectual development was stagnant because they all believed in outdated information in comparison to Asian civilizations.
ReplyDelete1.Explain this, how old is Olympics? Why on Earth we still maintaining it after over 2000 years of "immense evolution?"
ReplyDelete2.Did we really change "immensely?"
3.Greeks are the only anient civilization that studied conic sections including hyperbola, parabola, etc. So explain how does any other ancient civilization can possibly know the formula to those?
4.By Asian civilization, you are really talking about chinese as they are the ones that actually managed to have written language first on that continent.
5.Ideas are never outdated-only not supported. Many of his ideas DO survive. In fact, why do you believe we still use greek and latin roots?
6. HOW CAN THE PHILOSOPHY OF ARISTOTLE BE THE FOCUS OF OUR TOPIC IF YOU KEEP ON SAYING STUFF ABOUT HOW HE FAILED AT PHYSICS???
7. PROOF READ YOUR OWN WORK!
"Forth, we are not exactly using there formulas"
Explain the grammatic error on the above statement and please state a reason why that system error has occurred. Please do not admit that you are a hypocrite.
1. My grammatical error above is only one simple typo, unlike your syntax errors.
ReplyDelete2. The usage of Greek and Latin roots had nothing to do with Aristotle, but became a later western tradition.
3. It is not only Aristotelian physics that was obsolete but also his meteorology, classification of animals, theory of earthquakes, belief of women as subhumans (lower that of man). Most of his beliefs were just too old for our era of philosophy.
4. Most Greco-Roman (not a spelling error) works on conics were lost, such as Euclid's. Only Apollonius' works survived. Most of our detailed knowledge on conics were further developed by Arabs, even though the Arabs were the successors of Greek mathematics, much like how the Greeks were the successors of Mesopotamian-Egyptian mathematics. The Islamic mathematicians were also the first to use conics as application.
5. The Chinese were not the first to come up with writing, the Mesopotamians were. I was referring to all Asian civilizations: Chinese, Indian, Persian, Arab etc.
6. The Olympics were banned by Roman emperors and continued in 1896. So we did not maintain but revived. This however has nothing to do with Aristotle, therefore you are once again using an irrelevent example, and drove on a tangent.
All of my topics are strictly relevant to the topic but your questions are compleletely irrelevant.
ReplyDelete1.How can my grammatic errors be any concerns of this topic? Does one of my grammatic error so concern you that it proves your points wrong? Why did you put it as your first point any ways?
2.All western languages are BASED on greek and latin. And I have stated that Aristotle is one of the few philosopher who summarized the ancient Greek's believes. Therefore Aristotle and the ancient Greeks are closely related.
3.Classification of animals is also a part of science, and since I stated that his scientific believes are not well supported...What is the point of making that useless reply?
4.Yep, SO much was lost that Euclid's two of the most important books in Math history is still intact. In fact, the reason that Euclid is famous is because he summarized the Math of the Greeks in his two books. The Romans actually used Greek textbooks for their teaching(after romantizing them).
5.Sorry, you did not define the term clearly. Therefore I assumed that you divided Middle East and East Asia. Please define your topic more clearly. Even then, it still a fairly unimportant point. The Western Asia has their main period of innovation in the 12th century and beyond-far after Romans have conquered the Greeks.
6.That is even worse, we are actually willing to go back to the more primitive times. So much for "immense change".
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ReplyDeleteToo bad you are drifting further away from Aristotle and moving towards the Greeks and Romans, away from the epicentre of the argument. What I am saying is that we should not quote Aristolte extensively because his beliefs are very chauvinist and outdated. Today, we believe in equality and constant updates of new information.
ReplyDeleteI quoted him once in an essay of over 600 words. I must say your sense of numbers are as accurate as my drawings.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, how long is your story?
ReplyDelete