Continuing our Intellectual Devotional series, I get to make our first post on the Sunday readings in the Religion category. Coming from a very religious background (which I eventually rejected), I feel like I'm fairly well-informed on this topic, at least from a fundamentalist Christian perspective. Depending on how you look at it, religion is either one of my least or one of my most favorite subjects, since my discussions on it often turn into angry rants.
Thankfully, the Devotional approaches the topic from a secular vantage point. While it briefly mentions traditional beliefs regarding its origins, it spends more time discussing actual historical/archaeological facts and theories.
A few new facts for me are the division of the Torah itself versus the Mishna (which I had never heard of before) and the Talmud (of which I was vaguely aware). Like I said, I'm definitely coming from a Christian, rather than Jewish, background.
I'm definitely curious to see whether the authors touch on anything controversial in future Sunday readings.
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Intellectual Devotional, Day 6: Appearance and Reality
Josh here. As Professor Miskatonic (PM) told you last time, we're reading through the Intellectual Devotional (ID) together. I suggested we try having our conversations in a blog format. My personal hope, both in the reading and the blogging, is that it helps improve my critical thinking skills, as well as my ability to write coherently. In this age of instant messaging, texting, and informal emails, I've found that my writing has really suffered.
The topic of Appearance and Reality falls under the Philosophy category of the ID. This is particularly difficult for me; my tendency is to try to think of things scientifically, not philosophically. The text primarily discusses the beliefs of the "Presocratic" philosophers with respect to their views on the nature of reality. It essentially boils down to: what we perceive isn't reality. I'm more familiar with this concept couched in the terms of Platonic Ideals. I'm going to make a mess of this, but Plato's contention was, for example, what we see as a 'chair' is a chair because it has some inherent property of "chairness." We may never know a true "chair," just some approximation in our reality of one. I came across this fun little article while reading up on these topics.
This is not quite what the Presocratics were talking about. For example, the article discusses the views of Thales, who held that, no matter the appearance, all matter is in fact ultimately made of water. While I don't think this is true, you could draw a parallel to modern science - we know that everything is not made of water, but we have strong evidence that there are some number of basic particles that form all of the matter around us. Heraclitus, on the other hand, believed that everything is constantly in motion. Again, I see a parallel with modern science; we know that the atoms that make up everything have smaller constituent particles that are moving all of the time!
As an aside, like PM, I've noticed the articles are pretty basic so far. The ID's purpose appears to be to give you little nuggets you can throw out in conversation; my intent is to use the articles as a jumping-off point for discussion and thought.
The topic of Appearance and Reality falls under the Philosophy category of the ID. This is particularly difficult for me; my tendency is to try to think of things scientifically, not philosophically. The text primarily discusses the beliefs of the "Presocratic" philosophers with respect to their views on the nature of reality. It essentially boils down to: what we perceive isn't reality. I'm more familiar with this concept couched in the terms of Platonic Ideals. I'm going to make a mess of this, but Plato's contention was, for example, what we see as a 'chair' is a chair because it has some inherent property of "chairness." We may never know a true "chair," just some approximation in our reality of one. I came across this fun little article while reading up on these topics.
This is not quite what the Presocratics were talking about. For example, the article discusses the views of Thales, who held that, no matter the appearance, all matter is in fact ultimately made of water. While I don't think this is true, you could draw a parallel to modern science - we know that everything is not made of water, but we have strong evidence that there are some number of basic particles that form all of the matter around us. Heraclitus, on the other hand, believed that everything is constantly in motion. Again, I see a parallel with modern science; we know that the atoms that make up everything have smaller constituent particles that are moving all of the time!
As an aside, like PM, I've noticed the articles are pretty basic so far. The ID's purpose appears to be to give you little nuggets you can throw out in conversation; my intent is to use the articles as a jumping-off point for discussion and thought.
Monday, October 28, 2013
Intellectual Devotional, Day 5: Basics of Music
My friend Josh and I have been working through the book The Intellectual Devotional together. The book is a pretty neat idea; it's a series of short articles on a variety of topics. Each day of the week has a different theme. The book is patterned after a religious daily devotional, but covers secular/intellectual topics. Josh and I have already discussed the first few articles offline, so I'll start off the blog with my thoughts for Day 5: The Basics of Music.
Like the other articles we've read so far, this has been a bit basic. The article covers what you might expect out of the first couple days of a junior-high music class, just the bare basics of Western music theory. There are a few footnotes that hint at more interesting facts, including one that has a tidbit about the differences between Indian and Western music theory, which was new to me. But overall, anyone who knows much of anything about music theory has heard all of this multiple times before. That said, I'm hopeful that future articles are going to be more interesting, as the book devotes every Friday to a discussion of music.
One topic I hope to see discussed is the relationship between music and math; for example things like the Circle of Fifths always reminds me of the fact that the 12-tone system is an example of modular arithmetic.
Like the other articles we've read so far, this has been a bit basic. The article covers what you might expect out of the first couple days of a junior-high music class, just the bare basics of Western music theory. There are a few footnotes that hint at more interesting facts, including one that has a tidbit about the differences between Indian and Western music theory, which was new to me. But overall, anyone who knows much of anything about music theory has heard all of this multiple times before. That said, I'm hopeful that future articles are going to be more interesting, as the book devotes every Friday to a discussion of music.
One topic I hope to see discussed is the relationship between music and math; for example things like the Circle of Fifths always reminds me of the fact that the 12-tone system is an example of modular arithmetic.
Welcome
Welcome to Miskatonic Studies, where a few friends and I are going to discuss any random thing we feel like. To start off, we're going to alternate posts discussing topics from The Intellectual Devotional.
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