Midterms Recapitulation

Midterm Recapitulation : 

Midterm Recapitulation

1 : 

1 Already there are sixty-seven years tossing my thought throughout the land of Greece . From my birth there were twenty-five in addition to these, if I know how to speak truly about these matters (7.1).

Thesis Statement # 1 : 

Thesis Statement # 1 Philosophical thinking is dialogical and non-dogmatic. Ironically, Xenophanes became a fixture of Greek thinking by being tossed around. Suggest an image which demonstrates this tension between fixity and flux. Explain how it illustrates Xenophanes' fragment.

Vincent Bermudez (3:00) : 

Vincent Bermudez (3:00) An image that demonstrates the tension between fixity and flux—by Momentum creates a kind of stability ‘Knowledge if you can’t relate to it is useless’

Sam Palau (4:30) : 

Sam Palau (4:30)

Ariane Ramirez (4:30) : 

Ariane Ramirez (4:30) “Xenophanes’ thinking is marked by an uncertainty about what he knows, not because he is utterly clueless but because he is open to critique and counter-arguments. “In our Christian Faith, this was something we learned a little too late. How many heretics and witches were burned at the stake because perhaps the Church stood so firmly on dogma and refused to engage their objections by simply dismissing them as heresies. (alibata) Today though, our theologians are more willing to tackle ideas from different fronts and are even calling for dialogue with other faiths like Islam and Buddhism to engender deeper understanding of our own beliefs and those of others.”

2 : 

2 Give us no fights with Titans, no, nor Giants nor Centaurs—the forgeries of our fathers— nor civil brawls, in which no advantage is. But always to be mindful of the gods is good (7.2).

Thesis Statement # 2 : 

Thesis Statement # 2 Thoughtful examination would both dismiss and preserve doctrine. Bring an image that demonstrates critical appropriation.

Nadia To (4:30) : 

Nadia To (4:30)

Ariane Ramirez (4:30) : 

Ariane Ramirez (4:30) “The Sabbath was made for man, not the man for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27)

3 : 

3 He always remains in the same place, moving not at all, nor is it fitting for him to go to different places at different times (7.9).

(Revised) Thesis Statement # 3 : 

(Revised) Thesis Statement # 3 Xenophanes is willing to subject popular theologies to the critique of reason. If the depiction doesn’t fit the definition, then it’s not true. The ancients tried to represent God’s power by demonstrating their fluidity, but if power comes to be equated with the abuse of power, then it is ‘unholy’ (7.8). Bring a picture that demonstrates the subjection of truth to reason. Would you be willing to subject your own theology to the criterion of reasonability?

Denise Chua (3:00) : 

Denise Chua (3:00)

4 : 

4 God is one, greatest among gods and men, not at all like mortals in body or thought (7.10).

Thesis Statement # 4 : 

Thesis Statement # 4 Monotheism describes a quality by way of quantity. Bring an image that demonstrates essential singularity by analogy to plurality.

Ariane Ramirez (4:30) : 

Ariane Ramirez (4:30) “A rainbow is essentially just one thing, but its oneness is celebrated all the more by the multiplicity that is integral to it and there really is nothing else like it. The seeming multiplicity does not detract from the oneness of the rainbow but brings it at the fore. When Xenophanes expresses that there is one god, the greatest among gods, he extols by way of hyperbole that there is but one God who is nothing like us. God is not accidentally one; the character of the divine, is that there is no other – there can only be one. Here, there is an attempt to describe a non-numerical concept with using a numerical language, using quantifiers to highlight a certain quality. “The plural is used in the same way as in the divine appellation ‘Elohim,’ to indicate the all-inclusiveness of God's attributes of authority and power, the plurality of majesty.”

Thesis #4 : 

Thesis #4

5 : 

5 All things that come into being and grow are earth and water (7.16).

Thesis Statement # 5 : 

Thesis Statement # 5 Xenophanes is the first to propose a plurality of material principles—ironic for the first ‘monist.’ Bring an image that demonstrates the way a unity emerges out of diversity.

Ariane Ramirez (4:30) : 

Ariane Ramirez (4:30) The detail is incredible and the image formed is all the more overpowering because of the intricacies. There is that interplay between the unique individual tiles, and the bigger picture. Take one good look at it and you see the picture but upon closer examination you get to appreciate how all the little hand-cut tiles beautifully form that unity. Mosaic

Rocky Gasambelo : 

Rocky Gasambelo

Julian Sese (4:30) : 

Julian Sese (4:30)

6 : 

6 Let things be believed as resembling the truth (7.20).

(Revised) Thesis Statement # 6 : 

(Revised) Thesis Statement # 6 Much of what we believe is not objectively, demonstrably true. But it is not necessarily unwarranted. Suggest an image that illustrates the chasm between what we believe and the truth. How does your image mediate the gap it simultaneously emphasizes and necessitates?

Sam Palou (4:30) : 

Sam Palou (4:30)

Alvin Tan (3:00) : 

Alvin Tan (3:00) Dove billboard advertisements. Dark/dazzling? Age/ageless? Self-perception can become incarcerating, debilitating. Is it good imaging/advertising, or a different philosophy?  Beauty can be seen differently. It’s in this way that we can question whether beauty lies on the inside/outside.

Hans Fernandez (3:00) : 

Hans Fernandez (3:00)

7 : 

7 By no means did the gods reveal all things to mortals from the beginning, but in time, by searching, they discover better (7.21).

Thesis Statement # 7 : 

Thesis Statement # 7 Revelation is never there from the beginning. It unfolds in a process of "searching." Bring an image that characterizes this time (lapse) of insight.

Jose Castro (3:00) : 

Jose Castro (3:00) The Secret by Denise Levertov Two girls discover the secret of life in a sudden line of poetry. I who don’t know the secret wrote the line. They told me (through a third person) they had found it but not what it was not even what line it was. No doubt by now, more than a week later, they have forgotten the secret, the line, the name of the poem. I love them for finding what I can’t find, and for loving me for the line I wrote, and for forgetting it so that a thousand times, till death finds them, they may discover it again, in other lines in other happenings. And for wanting to know it, for assuming there is such a secret, yes, for that most of all.