Philosophy

Double consciousness is an African American identity issue that became apparent when racism got really bad. It says that they have one consciousness of how the whites perceive them and another of how they perceive themselves. A double consciousness I would think of as dual personalities, because having a double consciousness is a similar concept. If you are viewing things in two different lights or are viewed in two opposite ways, it is as if you are two completely different people. In some way or another I believe everyone has a double consciousness, because the way a person views themselves is usually different than what the outside world thinks of them. Other people mostly agreed that it can also be dual personalities or multiple personalities, maybe not to the point where a person is “crazy”, but enough to where it’s apparent.

Yoga is directed at divine knowledge and liberation, through physical, mental and spiritual discipline. Its purpose is to rid of any clutter in your mind and relieve stress. Normally yoga is thought of as just an exercise and a way to get your mind off of other things, but it is much more than that to some cultures. It is a way to connect spiritually with mind and body. Yoga can do nothing more than benefit you, it is a great way to become stress free and be more active. To me it connects very strongly to any philosophical idea, because if you don’t have your mind in order and what is going on there is no way you can figure out and understand a specific philosophical principle.

Phenomenalism is basically says that something only exists when we perceive it. I think of this word in everyday use as more of just a phenomenon that occurs and someone acknowledges it as a phenomenon. In some senses I believe this, because it is physically impossible to prove whether or a not a tree makes a noise when it falls in a forest if no one is around to hear it. A couple people i talked to said it is saying if something can happen it will happen and that is somewhat correct in the sense that if we perceive it then it is in fact real and does exist.

Naturalism means that everything that is reality is natural and that nothing is superficial or supernatural. As an everyday use, naturalism can be a form of literature or a way of depicting nature. I do believe that everything is natural and that there is nothing that is supernatural, because if something does occur in nature that means it is not supernatural and therefore is natural and it’s the way it is meant to be. Most people thought of it as a form of literature and didn’t acknowledge it as a philosophical term.

Identity is what someone is in their consciousness and is not subject to physical change. It’s also based on personality and what your beliefs are. I believe that identity is something that people have to come to terms with, because it can be difficult to understand and know who you are. Identity is definitely something that makes up who someone is as a person on the inside not at all what they are on the outside. Sometimes it is hard for a person to grasp onto who they are and go through huge life changes that can skew and change who they are or used to be. I believe these kinds changes can be good for a person to better understand who they are and what they want to be.

Plato’s Cave is the idea of real vs. non-real or someones perception of the real world. It is the idea of a group of men watching a bunch of images being displayed on a wall and that’s all they see, and that is the real world to them. I believe that the world of what is real is dependent on how a person views the things around them. For instance someone can believe that ghosts or spirits are real, and who is to tell them they are wrong. Another concept that can be applied to that is deja vu, where someone is certain they have experienced that moment in time before. Many people feel that they wouldn’t be able to sit and watch a wall for their entire lives, but if that was all you thought the world was how would you know you wouldn’t want or be able to do that. Considering all of us know what the “real” world is, it’s hard to say what someone would choose to do or know what to do when all they know is shadows on a cave wall.

Democracy

Democracy is basically for people’s rule and originated from ancient cities such as Athens. I believe democracy to be everyone gets a vote and a say in their government, which is nearly the same as people’s rule. My main beliefs mainly have to do with democracy in a sense, because I’m more people based as opposed to religious based. So strongly believe that everyone should get a say and be able to say what they believe no matter what it may be. One person I asked said it meant that it is working together to solve problems and that strongly correlates with the basic ideas of democracy.

Abstraction is an art form that can be applied to almost anything in a day-to-day life. It is a way of separating out the important key facts or points about an object or idea. Abstractionism also allows for finding what objects have in common even though they might not be similar in many ways. I believe that abstraction is most closely related to any visual art form, such as painting or drawing. Picasso was one of the first and one of the best at this type of art. It was his way of depicting the outside world, and in most cases it can be quite effective and also a different way to look at a problem or idea. Some of my ideas and beliefs about how we became and how we were created rely on abstraction, because sometimes using different concepts to explain one of our biggest questions as humans is the easiest to explain. For instance lots of belief systems have myths or stories about how we became is an abstract form for explaining it best. A few people I asked thought abstraction meant to abstract something from somewhere, like a tooth. Other people said it was pulling ideas apart to explain them better. The second being much more accurate than the first. Materialism and abstraction are actually quite similar, because without materialism there would not be much to abstraction. Both are needed to explain one another, because materialism is the understanding that ideas and material objects are one in the same. Almost an abstract idea of its own it ties the two together since abstraction is the concept of using key aspects of the object or idea to better explain it.