Ethics

Okay, so I've been thinking about ethics lately. Please don't ask me why, because I really don't know. Perhaps it was a quote from Alias when one character says, "Legally, he's right. Morally, he's a jerk." So anyways, onto ethics.

Plato said that if we know the good, we'll do the good. Now, all talks of incontinent actions aside, the real problem that ethics tries to address isn't how do we do the good, but how do we know the good. So many of the ethical frameworks out there focus not on how to do the good but on how to know what it is that we're supposed to do. Like Untilitarianism just takes for granted that you'll do what you should, as does Kantian(ism).

I guess I just always thought that we kind of threw Plato's ethics out due to his lack of ethics, but really, all the people that have come after him have tried to do is figure out how to know the good. Now, this doesn't take into account weakness of will, which is when we don't do what we think the good is. Or at least I think that's what it is. Keith gave us a cursory glance at weakness of will, even though its his area of expertise.

I don't really have anything to say on ethics except that I think you should be thinking about it, but not just like the philosophers do, as in what is the good, but also as in, how do I do the good. Because that's the hard part. And perhaps especially, how do I want to do the good, because no matter what Kant says, an action is more ethical if it is inline with your desires than if it isn't. As in, an action is better if you want to do it rather than if you do it out of a sense of duty.

And I'm really trying to live up to this site's claim of incoherentness and rambling, so I'm going to leave it at that. Just thought I'd let you know what I've been thinking about.

Okay, okay

Okay, so here's a new post. I know that you have all been sitting on the edge of your computer chair (or whatever your sitting on) to read it, and now you can once again have a life full of useless Becca happenings.

So, onward to the happenings! This past weekend was Chris's annual (one n or two) trip up to Berekely, and I decided to go along because I was sick of being home. As many of you know, its always interesting when Chris and I have time to hang out with no mature influence (hence this summer's work in progress). Anyways, the trip started with a four hour car ride in driving rain, which was fun. Halfway through it, the windshield wiper came off and proceeded to make a horrible screaching sound, reminicient of nails on a chalkboard. So after Chris tried to mask the sound by turning up the music (we might have been listening to the Shins then), I made him pull over so we could fix it. Yes, in the driving rain. And did we, smart people that we are, park under some sort of covering? Of course not. So we both got soaked, because of course neither of us put on a jacket.

So, let's see, what else happened on the ride up. Oh, Chris came up with a potential title for his potential story. It is actually a quote that somehow came up in normal conversation, "Even winebago's dream." I believe we were talking about the stupid pictures that are painted on the back of some RV's, of like African animals (lions and so on) and how, even if you did take a car to Africa, it certainly wouldn't be an RV or winebago, due to the fact that it would get stuck on the first hole in the dirt roads there. But even winebagos can dream of going to exotic places. And that was probably more information than you wanted, but ha. You've already read it, and I've already wasted your time! I win.

So we finally get to the Bay Area, and Chris doesn't exactly know where he's going. He knows how to get there once he sees a landmark, but he doesn't know what the landmark will be prior to seeing it. So we're listening to the soundtrack from The Life Aquatic (Very fitting. If you haven't heard it, you should listen to it) and trying to find our way to Rob's apartment (still in driving rain). Eventually (after no wrong turns, good job Chris) we get there, and Chris proceeds to parallel park. Now, to be fair, the cars on either side were very close and it was going to be a difficult park. First, after backing up and going forward about four times, Chris ends up getting stuck so that his back tire is flush against the curb, and he's too close to to front car to really do anything about it. At this point I decide that he might need some directing, so I hop out (yes, its still raining). Eventually we are able to get the car parked by some very clever maneuvering. It was impressive. And I'm wet. It was very fitting that we were listening to that soundtrack. I think I have pictures of the final product of parking, and hopefully they will be up soon.

Okay, what else. Oh! We came up with a new sort of insult/threat. "Don't make me go Darwin on your butt (or other word)." This came about because we were crossing the street, and I told Chris about the stupid people up in Spokane that wear all black and decide to cross Division in the middle of a block at 10 at night. Then I said, "I wish natural selection still applied." Because in all honesty, it no longer applies to human society. And if you want to argue that, bring it on!

Oh! And I got a Chris point! It was great. We were at swing and for some reason, punning about "bee". Don't ask me why, I don't remember. Anyways, Chris, in his usual punny way said a pun using the word "be." Something like, "It'll have to beeeeeee (with emphasis) blah blah blah." And I turned and said "Maybe you weeeeereeeeee (with emphasis)." I was gleeful because 1) I got to make fun of Chris punning and 2) I got a Chris point for it. Lauren also got a Chris point later (darn her!), for remembering Rob's nickname from Mammoth, which was Whisky Bob. Don't ask why.

Oh, and on to my philosophical rambling. So we were in the car coming back from swing, and somebody asked where we were. The response was "the middle of nowhere." Then Rob's friend Stella who had gone with us said that there can be no middle of nowhere. Since I had been stopped by Lauren from talking about the Chinese room (Penrose!), I needed to get my philosophy out for the day. I said yes there could, but she said no. So I turned to Stella and asked her why there could be no middle of nowhere. She said that because nowhere had to be ever expanding, there could be no middle of it. Now, I was about to start a full fledged argument (not that I really vehmenently disagreed with her, nor was it important, I just haven't got to argue a lot recently) but Rob ruined all my fun. He warned Stella that she wouldn't win, and it was in her best interest to stop. She asked why and he told her that I'm a philosophy major. Unfortunately, she gave up without a fight.

So I have to think about this. The first question that must be addressed is if nowhere exists. For there can only be a middle to something that actually exists. SO lets assume that nowhere exists. Does that mean that it has to be ever expanding? I don't understand that. But even if it is ever expanding, wouldn't that mean that everything is the middle of nowhere, for everything would be equidistant from the non-existent edges of nowhere? I think so. This is the same question as whether a geometric point can have a middle. I've thought about this before in the context of the universe. Medivals thought that the Earth was the center of the solar system because God created the Earth as the most important thing. This was why they couldn't accept the idea of the Earch orbiting the sun. But if the universe is expanding, can anything be the center, or is everything the center? This is somewhat different than if there were no edges to the universe, but only a little.

Okay, I'm done rambling for now, because there isn't that much to ramble about. I just wanted to let everybody know that I have been engaging my mind a little. In other news, my new website would be ready if I could get some images. Hinthint shen who has Photoshop.

Okay, that's it for now. I'm glad I've bored you by now.

Coming soon...

The Misadventures of Becca and Chris will be at a website near you on Monday or Tuesday.

Pie

So this month is Marie Calander's pie discount month. Its a month I truely love, because their lemon cream cheese is like the best pie ever made. Ever. If you haven't had this pie, you must. Its like lemon cheesecake with lemon meraing pie filling.

Unfortunately, Marie's was all out of this pie when my dad went to buy them on Monday, so he got two chocolate satin or something like that. Its what the rest of my family likes. So that means I'm going to have to go there by myself and buy my own pie. But I've been working all the time, and my evenings have been full of soccer, which are luckily ending next week.

As you can tell, I'm a bit obsessive about this pie. As you would be if you've tried it. I also bought three packages of Hot and Spicy Cheez-Its yesterday, which makes me very happy. And they're the big boxes, not the little ones that I can go through in like two hours. And I have a pack of Mt. Dew. In other words, I'm in bliss right now.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I have peanut butter cups also.

So, what has been going on in my life other than food? Well, I've started working, which is both lame and good. Its lame because I have to wake up before 7:30, but its good because I'm getting paid. I've worked every day this week, which sort of surprises me, because I had expected more of a part time thing seeing that I've been hearing how many subs there are. But I guess that most of them are also working for the other districts around town, so that stretches the numbers a bit thinner.

Also, my website is getting close to completion. I've figured out most of the content, now I just have to write the code for it. And see if what I want to do is possible/easy enough for me to do. Which it probably isn't.

As for philosophical thoughts recnely, I think I've had some, but I've forgotten them. Maybe I'll remember it later, but probably not. I'm sure you're crushed.

Let's be serious....

Are you kidding me? I heard about this on the radio and was disturbed. For dogs who need to stay connected. I mean, come on.

In other news, my new program for corrupting the youth has officially started. I subed for half a day yesterday. Mwahaha. And soccer is finally winding down, since the regular season ended yesterday. That means that my weekends will finally start opening up, which means travel time, hopefully. And to start that off, I'll be up North visiting Rob next weekend if all goes well.

Stupid....

Stupid sickness, stupid orientation meetings, and stupid lack of quick easy food for dinner. Okay, I'm done complaining now. In better news, after missing a week due to the stupid State of the Union address, Alias was back on last night. Hurray. And that's it.

Post-Superbowl

Okay, I'll admit it. I slept through most of the Superbowl. Its just that the NFL doesn't interest me all that much. See, I'd had to get up early the past couple days, and then had to go to my brother's Eagle Court of Honor, so I was tired. Oh well.

After my nap, I went over the Burzlaff house for the end of the game and some good dinner. We watched the Simpsons episode that was on after the Superbowl and then Chris headed back to LA.

I haven't been doing too much lately, although I have been helping my mom's students with Science Fair and other stuff. She's an ESL teacher, so her students don't know how to write English all that well. I've also been very busy refing soccer, which never fails to remind me that there are a lot of stupid people out there. Friday I went to watch BHS play Liberty so I could actually enjoy the game. And it was very interesting to be on that side of the game. Its been a very long time since I've just watched soccer without playing or refing. But some people are just stupid. Fans will always yell for a foul, sometimes so loud that they can't hear when the ref does call it. The problem is that it takes far less time for a person to open their mouth and yell then for the ref to bring the whistle up to their mouth. Stupid fans.

And BHS fans are some of the best around, because Leslie won't let them get out of hand. But Liberty fans are horrible. You'd think that Mika would have them under control since she went to BHS and knows how fans should behave.

In other news, I'm meeting Rach in a little bit to work on my story. She has a novel and I have a story. But I'm not sure how much work I'll be getting done, since my goal is to steal what she's done so far so I can read it. Mwahaha. But don't tell her.

I've been working on my other site, so hopefully it'll be up soon, although that might be delayed depending on when I can get a copy of photoshop.

Universals

So yesterday during one of my games I was thinking about universals. And I was thinking, if they do exist (which I think they do), what they exist as. I mean, it'd have to be something like probabilities, but how can something like a universal exist as a probability that something in its subset will do something. I haven't quite figured out what I was thinking about last night, since all three games were boys, and they're too fast for me to be able to think while running.

Anyways, another reason I was thinking about this is that a couple weeks ago I was eating with my family and we somehow got to talking about Title IX and differences between men and women. So I had to think that if there are some sort of intrinisic differences between men and women, they would have to express themselves in probabilities, but how can you say that something is universal if its a probility. Anyways, that's it for my incoherent rambilings today.