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"All the Feels" english- ![english-philosophy_banner](attached…

- - - - "combinations of simple ideas taken to represent a thing existing independently of other things" -- (Locke xxi).
    - - "are complex ideas whose objects are considered 'as dependences on, or affections of substances'" -- (Locke xxi).
        
        e.g., gratitude may be a mode "because gratitude is taken to exist not on its own, but in (say) a grateful person" -- (Locke xxi).
    - - "'consists in the consideration and comparing one idea with another'" -- Locke xxi).
    - - e.g., the idea of bigness -- (Locke xxvi)
      - Weak -- Locke's example
      - Strong -- Locke's example
      - Women as a relativized idea of the absolute being -- De Beauvoir
      - "The notions of [the idea of] justice vary in the eyes of many persons" -- (Mills 47)
      - counter-example
        
        Justice as its "impartiality is an obligation" -- (Mills 64).
      - Mill’s project is essentially a social metaphysics by extrapolating from regular metaphysics (a branch of philosophy concerned with fundamental questions of reality and explores what is real as well as what kind of being or group of beings particularly have?) In the context of racial identity, the social-metaphysical question becomes what kind of reality or what kind of being does race have? Mills poses the hypothetical quace-case which troubled the ordinary criteria that we have normally adopt for identifying as well as assigning racial identity.Mills observes how ”one's racial category has been taken as saying a great deal about what and who one is, more fundamentally” (46), then, he continues, “to what extent and in what ways, then, is race ‘real,’ and how deep is this reality? Mills gives a taxonomy of different metaphysical positions, yet his particular position for which he advocates for is racial constructivism. Racial constructivism is the antithesis of natural facts (i.e., beliefs taken for granted). There is a scientific consensus that race does have a biological basis, and this is how race becomes socially constructed. So if race is not real, Mills, continues interrogating, why retaining the concept of race then and not getting rid of it? (45) Race, despite having no biological grounds, still holds some kind of (objective) reality, for from the fact that racial realism is false (i.e., the notion that there are no biological essences for racial categorizations, it does not follow that race is not real in other senses. For Mills, race exists in the world as a social normality. In subsequent pages, Mills characterizes race as one having an ontological status, and thus objectivity and not simply a subjective opinion. Objective ontological status emerges from intersubjectivity: “... an objective ontological status is involved which arises out of intersubjectivity, and which, though it is not naturally based, is real for all that (48). Racism is metaphysical in the sense of continually being a “deep reality that structures our particular social universe, having a causal objectivity and causal significance” (48). Thus it takes a collective effort in constructing an objective racial identity. Mill further argues “because people come to think of themselves as ‘raced,’ as black and white, for example, these categories, which correspond to no natural kinds, attain a social reality” (48). In his discussion of personal identity, Mills gives the readers a sort of descriptive taxonomy: bodily appearance, ancestry, self-awareness of ancestry, public awareness of ancestry, culture, experience, and subjective identification (50-53).
  - - - E.g., texture, number, size, shape, motion
    - - E.g., color, sound, taste, and odor.
- - - - "Women created after Adam, [are] obviously a secondary being..." -- (Simone de Beauvoir 15).
      - '"The wife is an animal neither reliable nor stable" (Simone de Beauvoir 11).
    - - Not one sole event, but a collection of historical events illustrate how women have been subordinated and classified as the oppressed -- De Beauvoir 8.
        
        "As far back as history can be traced [women] have always been subordinate to men" (De Beauvoir 8).
        
        Saint Augustine held the conviction that "the wife is an animal neither reliable nor stable" (De Beauvoir 11).
      - Dubois notes that "throughout history, the powers of single black men flash here and there like falling stars, and die sometimes before the world has... gauged their brightness" (6).
- - - - Maxims
        
        "...It is impossible for the same thing to be, or not to be" -- (Locke xix).
        
        "All ideas...originate [either] in sensation or reflection" -- (Locke xx).
- - - - Consciousness creates the self's personal identity
        
        Consciousness, according to Locke, can examined backwards in relation to the self's age and note "the same [identity of the self] now it was then"
      - Once the self is conscious or aware of its own existence, the self realizes to be an "isolated being" (32) Sartre believes. Sartre employs the Cartesian I-think-therefore-I-am motto to highlight self-centeredness, thus deemphasizing "solidarity with [other selves]"
        
        Sartrian existentialism stretches the original meaning of the Cartesian self (I think therefore I am) by claiming every time the self makes a decision, he/she is automatically setting an example for all humanity. So, the existence of the self is no longer attached to the idea of self-centeredness because the decisions of the self involves the self plus everybody else.
        
        Sartre exemplifies the broader sense of the Cartesian self when, let's say hypothetically, the self takes the decision of marrying and having children. "I am involving all humanity in monogamy and not merely myself" (37), by setting an example.
  - - - Categorical imperative, for Kant, involve being imperative, because of its mandatory aspect in the phrase. Actions become universalized: “I ought never to act except in such a way that I could also will that my maxim should become a universal law” (4).
    - - In the short story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” Le Guin takes the readers to the Festival of Summer in the city Omelas. From a third-person perspective, the author portrays the first paragraphs as a presumably pacific, innocent, or “puritanical” (2) town: “merry women carrying their babies ...people dancing, kids crossing flights over the music and the signing” (2). However, as the story progresses, the author addresses the reader directly suddenly (and personally terrifying and uncomfortable way): “How can I tell you about the people in the Omelas? (3). The shift contradicts the reader’s expectations: “Omelas are happy people. Happiness is based on a just discrimination of what is necessary, what is neither necessary nor destructive, and what is destructive” (2). Little by little, the author gives hints that Omelas may actually be an imaginary and utopian place, for an absence of specificity regarding what laws govern the city. Le Guin continually keeps the descriptions of law enforcement and government rule underdeveloped, yet only making explicit that there is neither a king nor military presence within the city. Each person in the city learns of the child’s existence at some point in their lives. Le Guin juxtaposes how happiness in Omelas depends upon the child’s miserable condition. Some Omelas’ citizens leave immediately after learning of the child’s existence and others leave after months or years of wrestling with their guilt. Evidently, Le Guin’s ending and beginning contrast, for the latter half is replete with both obscure imagery and philosophical by teaching an allegorical lesson that luxurious lives are built upon the back of an innocent person’s pain.
      - In the movie “Get Out,” the selection of characters conform to either of the two binaries: Black or white. On the road to Chris’ girlfriend’s parents’ house, his girlfriend hits a deer by accident and does not feel any remorse. His girlfriend, in that scene, acted not ethically because she ignored the tragedy and rather talked with the police officer about her plans for the day. From the white’s perspective, Chris experiences discrimination by being forced to show his ID even though there is not a legitimate reason. Here, the police officer failed to act ethically. Once they arrive at her parents’ home, black people work in favor of the white people. There, Chris experiences a sort of hypnotic session with his girlfriend’s mom, who deepens him into “the sunken place.” Initially, he believes it was all a dream, yet Walter, his girlfriend’s father, confirms that he had indeed gone through a hypnotherapy session. He also discovered his sudden disinterest in cigarettes. Soon, Chris becomes aware he needs to escape from that house. His girlfriend and her parents’ are a group of psycho-killers who transfer black people’s brains. At the end, Chris concludes that Rose, his girlfriend, strategically selects black men with the sole idea of benefiting from their physical traits. Her actions are notoriously non-ethical.
      - In a documentary fashion the film “The Act of Killing” takes place in Indonesia and narrates the story of a of group of men who killed without justice or remorse, particularly the ingenious gangster Anwar Congo. When the government of Indonesia was overthrown, Anwar Congo and his friends who proclaimed themselves "free men" controlled the black market in movie tickets to death squad leaders. According to the vice-president of Indonesia, "gangsters do what the government can't;” these gangsters helped the army eradicate thousands of alleged or suspected communists. As the executioner, Anwar killed countless people with his own hands. By borrowing killing techniques from mafia movies, he strangled his victims with a piece of wire in order to kill faster and facilitate the cleaning-up process afterwards. The movie documents how the killers experienced night terrors for years. The movie also portrays how the media also played a part. Newspaper publisher, for instance, identified who should be killed, and bureaucratic people behind the scenes altered the information of the newspapers making the public hate victims. One ex-paramilitary reports "the key to not feeling guilty is finding the right excuse." As an attempt to convince themselves that what they did was right, the killers dramatize their crimes by attacking villages and offering victims one last cigarette before their death. But Anwar, who has already been mortified by bad dreams, is waking to increasingly worsening nightmares as the film progresses. In one of the scenes, he and his friends dramatize those nightmares with costumed characters playing the ghosts of those he killed. He even has the crew fashion mannequins of himself as a dead man -- murdered by his own victims -- to recreate one of his fever dreams. On one occassion, Anwar stars on a talk show celebrating the genocide, and on others, he encourages his grandchildren to watch him on TV. Anwar believes he can feel his victim's terror and even sheds a tear. An over-the-shoulder shot captures Oppenheimer telling Anwar that “his victims felt was far worse, because they were dying, while you [Anwar] are only acting in a film." In that moment, Anwar seems to realize there is an enormous distance between the real meaning of what he has done and the stories he and the entire Indonesian regime have told about the killings.
      - In her text “Duties of a Law-Abiding Citizen and Epilogue,” Arendt expresses concern with the nature of democracy, morality, and the meaning of political life as well as jurisprudential questions. Arendt specifically argues against “the banality of evil” (266), for which the retired general Eichmann justified his killings. Eichmann believed that he was killing people for the sake of duty itself, but, as Arendt accurately points out, his actions were based on thoughtlessness. He did not examined with objectivity the nature of his actions. He was obeying Hitler; and according to Eichmann, his actions were done for the state, thereby justifying his actions.
    - - "To follow the laws of the gods vs. to follow the laws of men" --(Antigone 85).
        
        In Sophocle’s play “Antigone,” the main character, Antigone, highlights how Eteocles was buried with military honors, yet Polynices, was left was left to rot, be “a sweet treasure For carrion birds to find as they search for food” (2), and be stoned to death. Antigone designs a plan to bury Polynices in secret, despite Creon's order. However, her sister refuses to contradict the king. Determined not to betray his brother, Antigone goes off alone to bury his body. Soon, Creon discovers that someone has attempted to offer a ritual burial to Polynices and demands that the guilty one be found and brought before him. Creon becomes furious once identifying Antigone, his niece, as the guilty one. Though Antigone implores Creon to follow the laws of the gods and not of the man, Creon sentences her to death. Haemon, Creon's son who was to marry Antigone, advises his father to reconsider his decision. Haemon did not succeeding persuading his father. From his father’s view, Haemon was displaying his weakness for women, and from Haemon’s view, his father was being arrogant. Eventually, Creon decided that Antigone will be sealed in a tomb to die of starvation, rather than stoned to death by the city. Antigone has hanged herself by the time Creon wanted to change his decision. The unpredictable ending was that Creon, alone and in despair, accepts responsibility for all the tragic deaths and desires his own death.