LB 492 Blog

                In the articles about “Nicomachean Ethics,” Aristotle is trying to both answer and explain the question about what is considered good, what does good mean in terms of both internal goods and external goods, and how are these goods determined to be good based on what they are meant to be gained from a practice. He points out that good is different for each category of a practice, such as in medicine, in war strategy, and in the arts. Each of these goods are meant to be the end goal of each practice that a person is meant to reach for, often such things are pleasure, intelligence, honor, or wisdom. The main platform and in essence a universal good that Aristotle mentions is happiness; a happiness that is gained not only through one’s practice but also by spreading this happiness with others. Even though this is very lovely image and works well with what Aristotle later argues that a person that is happy from his practice will contin...

                The sections of The Autobiography of Charles Darwin , which included “Religious beliefs” to the end of the book, portrayed Darwin’s final conclusions about his beliefs of God, his efforts of putting all his strength in his research, and how his life was about his research, especially since he had no strength left for anything else. He talked about how it became his life goal to further science and to be able to contribute even just a little to science. He valued the satisfaction of just being able to do research and spread the knowledge of his discoveries to others; he never intended to become famous and to change to way all of biology is viewed. What I found fascinating though is that he not only kept these values even after he became well renowned, but also that he continued to view himself as average. It is often figured that scientists become prideful when their discoveries break new ground and act as if they are one of the mo...

                The first portions of the book The Autobiography of Charles Darwin is where Darwin describes his early life experiences in college, his trip on the “Beagle,” and his marriage when he returned from that trip. One thing that is very notable about how Darwin wrote his autobiography is that he never put himself onto this high pedestal. Often in this day and age, people when portraying Darwin make him appear to be this deep and endowed individual that was so intensely focused on the purity of science; the perfect scientist. Yet, in his description of himself, Darwin describes how average of a person he was.  He tells of the people that influenced him, how he drank and in a sense partied more than he should have, and how he never intended to make a significant contribute to science. For example, when one of his friends suggested to Darwin that he should be a Fellow of the Royal Society, Darwin thought this idea as ludicrous. Thoug...

                The second chapter of Dr. Pennock’s book builds upon the notion of virtue theory by presenting the idea of internal and external goods, how those goods relate to science, and the way science has been and can be shaped by which goods a scientist chooses to focus on. Personally, I found the discussion of MacIntyre’s quotes about internal and external goods interesting. It made me think of some kind of operant conditioning that either someone can put someone through or that one can put oneself through. This kind of conditioning or choice between reaching for the internal good of something (the feeling of joy of performing or completing a task) or for the external good (gaining a reward for completing a task) is a choice that we have to face every day, and not just in professional settings. Although, as Dr. Pennock shows later in the chapter, the effect of this choice does play an important role in the efficacy of a professional practi...

                Chapters nine through nineteen of Franklin’s Autobiography continues to follow Franklin through his life, including his involvement with the fighting for and establishment of the early American government. Something that stood out to me the most within these chapters was actually not as much about Franklin, but about his account of Mr. Morris as a governor. Franklin describes how Morris grew up learning how to argue with others and how that made him to be an eloquent and sophisticated disputer, one that is often successful. Franklin then notes though how people like that may be victorious sometimes with arguments, but they never gain good will with others, which is more important. Having known someone that would argue about anything for the sake of arguing, I can personally attest to what Franklin said about that kind of person never gaining good will from others. Franklin might have recognized this argumentative trait in himself ...

        The first eight chapters of Franklin’s Autobiography describe his early life through his travels and beginnings in Philadelphia. As I read through the autobiography, there were a few things about both Franklin’s characteristics and some of the situations that he went through that stood out to me. Franklin for the most part did not seem to complain about anything he’s was going through. He might have in person and there were a few disgruntled writings such as mentioning that he and the others that were heading for Amboy had been on the water for thirty hours with no food or drink; yet, his writing style and how he would switch to a happier topic showed that it really did not bother him. Often in today’s society, we find it so easy to complain about things since everything is nearly handed to us. When it is this easy for us to be warm and sheltered, well fed, and go nearly anywhere without having to walk the whole distance, we tend to get upset at whatever do...

     The handout of Dr. Pennock’s first chapter “An Instinct for Truth, Knowledge, Discovery” discusses the evolutionary instinct of people to be curios and how that became the driving virtue of science in order to search for empirical truths within the world. The chapter brings up important points about the purpose of science that is not discussed in classes, such as the fact that curiosity is an innate evolutionary trait. From what I understood from lectures about evolution, evolution would not give way to such traits as curiosity and in fact would favor against those traits. Yet, the chapter explains how curiosity could have evolved and allowed organisms to be more fit than others by be a driving force to search out for better resources. Even though the chapter is pretty explanatory of all the topics presented, there are a few topics discussed within the chapter that seem a little contradictory. For instance, the quote by Lewis Thomas about the characteristics about sc...