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Inherently Puzzling
I’ve tried an escape room before, it was huge, and quite hard, but my group and I enjoyed it, and I was excited about trying one again. They’re a challenge but one where you know there is, for the most part, a logical end. So when my Dad decided he wanted to try one as a family for his birthday, I was excited if not slightly concerned: Would we get frustrated as a group being that I was the only one who had tried it before? Would we get stuck? We decided to try one called the Inheritance *see title*. We were solving puzzles in what felt like a dining room…
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Philosophy Module Week 2
The second week of the module was really helpful. I learned about how to construct an argument from start to finish, and how to make all my points valid, and how to avoid invalid arguments, or fallacies, that is. Arguments can be good. We learn a lot more by discussing issues and claims and backing them up with arguments then we do by just spitting facts back and forth, or avoiding arguments as a whole. Fallacies are invalid arguments. I hadn’t really realized before what explicitly constituted an invalid argument, and how I may have been misled by them in the past. Now I know more about what to look,…
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Almost Furnished
As I’ve gotten older I’ve taken on my Mom’s affinity for looking at home magazines, and looking past the old items at estate sales to see the home design present. All the designs I’ve seen have gotten me excited about furnishing my own home someday and since high school graduation, I’ve been collecting home items. My sister and I realized that we didn’t want to pay full price for furniture, and other items we would need, and we didn’t want to buy it all at once, so we started adding home essentials to birthday lists. We also started saving items for ourselves that my parents had replaced and were happy…
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Thinking in a Group – Praxis Wednesday Response
When it comes to processing philosophy last night’s group session was helpful for me. We got the chance to talk through confusing terms, and talk about our experience with the material as a whole thus far. I enjoyed talking through the ideas with the others. Exchanging ideas with others is helpful to me, especially since our group is so small. By starting with a mutual understanding that we all want to learn from the current module I think we avoid the perils of groupthink. I appreciate Praxis Wednesdays overall, even if I do struggle with concentrating during some of the large group ones. Now I’m looking forward to placement at my apprenticeship.…
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Luxury Versus Necesity in Society
The first artist came to be because society could support them. In our latest Praxis lecture, the teacher talked about how there is an economic basis for culture; because artists do not create their own means and therefore reveal a relatively sophisticated society (paraphrased, Paul A. Cantor). This lecture acknowledged that commercialization is more often than not good for the creation of art, as is capitalism. Both these force an artist to perform well to create valuable work that others are willing to sacrifice a hard-earned dollar for. A lasting thought I had concerned Paul’s quote: “The line between artists and non-artists is increasingly blurred” (Cantor). That is, as our society…
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Senior High Ministry
I know I just wrote about my time in junior high ministry last month but I am so excited to move on with many of the same kids and be there for them as high schoolers…at least for a little while. What’s unique about my situation is that I’ll be the only leader who hung out with all these graduating classes of kids that are current high schoolers, in middle school. From the moment I was done in senior high youth group I missed it, and then I loved junior high ministry, but coming back to senior high as a leader will be a new experience. I’ll be working with a…
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Politics, Innovation, and History
Part of this month is looking at history and culture. A particular video I watched talks about history and timelines and what’s usually included. Inventions and sometimes the implementation of simple ideas have changed the world, but are often not prioritized as they perhaps should be. The invention of the transatlantic telegraph was monumental to society as a whole but we’re more likely to remember that World War 2 started in 1939. The invention of the internet has changed our world, communication, and economics among other things, but we’re more likely to know the names of presidents than we are to know the name of the man that started it. Not…
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Try Something New, Even if it Seems Daunting
I’ve found myself with the opportunity to try new and unique things, as partially evidenced by my unicycling and swing dance articles. Trying new things often means going out on our own to experience something new. It often means a little investment, even if just buying a ticket to attend a unique event. It also usually means were putting ourselves in a circumstance that people in our normal circles may not know much about. Going outside of the “normal” can be truly freeing, and wonderful though, it means we feel so satisfied when we’ve followed through with our intentions because we took the step ourselves. Your parents didn’t sign you…
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Praxis Module 4 Week 1 Analysis
This month I’m in the philosophy module with Praxis that I’ve alluded to in other blog posts this month. Another part of the module is to record analysis videos each week. I’ve already learned a lot about philosophy and I’m curious to learn more and gain a better appreciation for this field. See the video link below if you’d like.
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The Truth of a Claim Doesn’t Depend on the Person Saying It.
Fallacies. Arguments tend to have at least one or two pop up, and who could blame someone if they don’t know better. It’s a fairly easy way to make it sound like you know more than you do or have more arguments for your claim than you do. From popularity claims to red herrings, and straw man arguments there’s a number of options out there as well. I thought that the concept of understanding that the truth of a claim doesn’t depend on whether or not someone lives it out or not, was a very helpful fact to learn it made me realize that my search for truth is ongoing…
