Post by qiangao on Jul 31, 2015 3:53:53 GMT
1. Why is Faqir Chand's experiences important in understanding the projective nature of religious visions and miracles?
In “The Unknowing Sage,” Baba Faqir Chand’s life experiences are explored. During his life he meditated to acquire the highest level of actualization that he could. From this he learned that In the highest stages of development man does not develop a keen sense of omniscience, but a radical and irrevocable understanding of unknowingness” (p i). In In his self-meditations he came to a certain conclusion about religion and religious thought, which was that knowledge was the true master. He also realized that no matter how much he meditated one could never achieve complete knowledge about existence. He came to believe that the disciple/guru relationship was not being done right. He believed it was wrong for disciplines to put all of their belief and trusts into a human guru when they should be trusting knowledge and themselves. He also believed that many gurus around the world were tricking their students dishonestly. He believed this because many people came to him and told him that he had come to them in a vision, however, he had no knowledge of this. From this he began to believe that other gurus were dishonest. His experiences are important in the understanding the projective nature of religious visions and miracles because it shows how people project their own beliefs unto their visions and miracles. Which lowers the power of the meaning of the visions. In “The Oceanic Metaphor,” the author writes, “Thus meaning or purpose isn’t as powerful if only seen as merely projective and relative” (p 12). This shows how Faqir had an impact on the meaning of religious visions and miracles. In the “The Unknowable: Exploring the Mystery of Being” talks about the deep mysteries of ourselves and unrecognized projections of ourselves. Faqir knew that all of our images may not be right and could be unknowing. In “Near Death Experiences: Neural Projections and Staying Alive” they talk about projections and visions, and they are just to keep people alive.
2.What is meant by the phrase, "philosophy done well is science; philosophy done poorly remains philosophy." Be sure to support your answers with references to the required readings and films.
Philosophy done well is science; philosophy done poorly remains philosophy” means that philosophy is science, and the philosophy should be doing the same thing that science does, which is explain and explore how the universe works. From the “Oceanic Metaphor,” the phrase that reminds me of this is “any meaning is better than no meaning, provided such meaning allows us to live an extra day” (p 4). Philosophy acting as science is very similar. If it is done well, it will act as science and give us meaning. If it is not well, it will not giving any scientific meaning. In the “The Unknowable: Exploring the Mystery of Being” talks about the deep mysteries of ourselves and unrecognized projections of ourselves. In the “In the “The Unknowable: Exploring the Mystery of Being” the speaker talks about how some philosophy has allowed scientific exploration to continue. Because regardless of how far we go in science we continue to introspect philosophically. In the “The Remainder Conjecture: Driving Science to the Brink of an Epistemological Cul de Sac,” talks about how we should exhaust all physical explanations of things before the transcendental. In this, he is not saying we should not question things from a transcendental point of view, but rather we should look into science before philosophy. However, sometimes they must coincide to connect. In “THE OCEANIC METAPHOR: Thinking within a Universe of Potentials,” they talk about how there are many possibilities that are left unexplored. Philosophy could be another unexplored possibility in the realm of science. In “Surfing in the Cerebral Hemispheres: Waves and Their Discontents,” they compare our consciousness to waves. It also talks about how the consciousness deciphers the content of our lives. The questions we ask about ourselves and the universe have to do with how the brain and the mind work, so philosophy can also be used to study these. In “Near Death Experiences: Neural Projections and Staying Alive,” she talks about different visions and near death experiences people have had and how they have kept them alive. By using philosophy to explore people’s believes and combined with science, one can confer that these visions were simply to keep those people alive.
In “The Unknowing Sage,” Baba Faqir Chand’s life experiences are explored. During his life he meditated to acquire the highest level of actualization that he could. From this he learned that In the highest stages of development man does not develop a keen sense of omniscience, but a radical and irrevocable understanding of unknowingness” (p i). In In his self-meditations he came to a certain conclusion about religion and religious thought, which was that knowledge was the true master. He also realized that no matter how much he meditated one could never achieve complete knowledge about existence. He came to believe that the disciple/guru relationship was not being done right. He believed it was wrong for disciplines to put all of their belief and trusts into a human guru when they should be trusting knowledge and themselves. He also believed that many gurus around the world were tricking their students dishonestly. He believed this because many people came to him and told him that he had come to them in a vision, however, he had no knowledge of this. From this he began to believe that other gurus were dishonest. His experiences are important in the understanding the projective nature of religious visions and miracles because it shows how people project their own beliefs unto their visions and miracles. Which lowers the power of the meaning of the visions. In “The Oceanic Metaphor,” the author writes, “Thus meaning or purpose isn’t as powerful if only seen as merely projective and relative” (p 12). This shows how Faqir had an impact on the meaning of religious visions and miracles. In the “The Unknowable: Exploring the Mystery of Being” talks about the deep mysteries of ourselves and unrecognized projections of ourselves. Faqir knew that all of our images may not be right and could be unknowing. In “Near Death Experiences: Neural Projections and Staying Alive” they talk about projections and visions, and they are just to keep people alive.
2.What is meant by the phrase, "philosophy done well is science; philosophy done poorly remains philosophy." Be sure to support your answers with references to the required readings and films.
Philosophy done well is science; philosophy done poorly remains philosophy” means that philosophy is science, and the philosophy should be doing the same thing that science does, which is explain and explore how the universe works. From the “Oceanic Metaphor,” the phrase that reminds me of this is “any meaning is better than no meaning, provided such meaning allows us to live an extra day” (p 4). Philosophy acting as science is very similar. If it is done well, it will act as science and give us meaning. If it is not well, it will not giving any scientific meaning. In the “The Unknowable: Exploring the Mystery of Being” talks about the deep mysteries of ourselves and unrecognized projections of ourselves. In the “In the “The Unknowable: Exploring the Mystery of Being” the speaker talks about how some philosophy has allowed scientific exploration to continue. Because regardless of how far we go in science we continue to introspect philosophically. In the “The Remainder Conjecture: Driving Science to the Brink of an Epistemological Cul de Sac,” talks about how we should exhaust all physical explanations of things before the transcendental. In this, he is not saying we should not question things from a transcendental point of view, but rather we should look into science before philosophy. However, sometimes they must coincide to connect. In “THE OCEANIC METAPHOR: Thinking within a Universe of Potentials,” they talk about how there are many possibilities that are left unexplored. Philosophy could be another unexplored possibility in the realm of science. In “Surfing in the Cerebral Hemispheres: Waves and Their Discontents,” they compare our consciousness to waves. It also talks about how the consciousness deciphers the content of our lives. The questions we ask about ourselves and the universe have to do with how the brain and the mind work, so philosophy can also be used to study these. In “Near Death Experiences: Neural Projections and Staying Alive,” she talks about different visions and near death experiences people have had and how they have kept them alive. By using philosophy to explore people’s believes and combined with science, one can confer that these visions were simply to keep those people alive.