Had some good times with friends in the last few days.

Went to the Potawatomi Casino in Milwaukee with some friends. It was three of us that have never stepped foot in a casino and our “guide” who goes a lot and has incredible luck – While we were there, he played one game of War and won $45 and added his win to a long list on his iphone’s notes app.

The entire experience was disorienting. There were slot machines crowded between card tables, a live band in a circular bar in the center playing classics like “Hotel California”, free soda/coffee/water, and a smokey atmosphere as anyone could smoke inside the building. What fascinated me the most was how many different kinds of people were there: People dressed nicely dancing to the live music by the bar, contorted old people on slots, young attendants ready to serve drinks to players in the high-stakes room, burly security guards, and old Russians in tuxedos playing blackjack. All it took was a simple ID check to get into what I would consider a “third space” for residents and visitors of Milwaukee.

I played maybe $10 of slots and won nothing. I was feeling a bit too overwhelmed to play cards and the unfamiliar, busy atmosphere was making me too anxious to really enjoy myself. This was probably by design – there were plenty of times I just wanted to “sit down and relax” but the only place to do this would be the slot machines… and if I’m already sitting there why not just bet a little? Luckily I had a certain amount of money in my pocket and restricted my playing to that.

Nevertheless it was fun just to peoplewatch. Some highlights include a man playing slots on his phone at the same time he was playing slots on a machine, finding a Goonies-themed slot machine, and observing some games in the high stakes room. Maybe when I get better at texas hold’em I’ll give the poker room a shot.

Job Search

Feeling anxious about this for a variety of reasons.

Introduction to Chinese Philosophy

Chapter 6: Mengzi and Human Nature

This chapter introduces Mengzi, the most important Chinese thinker after Kongzi. He claims that human nature is innately good, and argues that maximizing profit or benefit is self-defeating in contrast to benevolence or righteousness, which to Mengzi is the foundation for a good society.

Opposed to Mohism, Mengzi argues that one cannot be impartial to everybody. The author uses the metaphor of a stone dropped in water which ripples out toward the people around you. It’s naturally strongest to the people closest to you, but still extends out to further acquaintances. Loving and being loved within a family germinates capacity for compassion.

In the author’s words, “…he provided a unique and inspiring vision of humans as having innate but incipient dispositions toward virtue that require cultivation in order to reach full maturity.”

Questions:

According to tradition, “Meng’s mother moved thrice” and “Meng’s mother cut the weft.” Why did she do these things?

• 孟母三迁: In order to find a suitable environment for his son,, Mengzi’s mother moved three times. The first was near a graveyard where the son began doing funeral ceremonies, the second was near a market where Mengzi began imitating merchants, and finally the third was near a school.
• 孟母端机: Cloth was very expensive, and Mengzi’s mother suddenly cut the cloth in half, ruining it, when Mengzi expressed indifference at his education. She said that him not taking education seriously is as wasteful as wasting that cloth.

What does Mengzi mean by “benevolent government”?

• Rulers that would care about the wellbeing of the people as a whole, making sure the basic needs of a people are met.

According to Mengzi, what activity is like “climbing a tree in search of a fish”?

• War.

Explain Mengzi’s argument that aiming at profit or benefit is self-defeating.

• People ignore morality in favor of a bottom line of profit. People would harm each other in order to accomplish what they see as beneficial.

What is the position of the Mohist Yi Zhi, and why does Mengzi think that it is incoherent?

• Yi Zhi says that it is important to be impartially, equally good to everyone. Mengzi says this impractical as it has two sources vs the natural one source from heaven – The first source shared by both would be the innate love for family members, but Mohists claim the second is impartiality.

What does Mengzi mean by the claim that “human nature is good”?

• If a child were about to fall in a well, it is our basic instinct to immediately feel alarm and compassion.

Explain the thought experiment of the child at the well. What point do you take Mengzi to be arguing for?

• Humans at their core and instinct are good and compassionate.

Explain the story of Ox Mountain. What claim do you take Mengzi to be illustrating with this metaphor?

• A beautiful forest covered Ox mountain, but at some point villagers came to it and stripped it of its trees for lumber. It can still grow back to its former beauty, but it requires active action upon it (hatchets on the growing trees and cattle grazing on sprouts) to keep it barren. He is illustrating that it takes “besieging” to keep it from its natural, good state.

What are Mengzi’s four cardinal virtues? Give an example of how each one manifests itself.

• Benevolence (仁): Sympathy and compassion for others. An obligation to serve others.
• Righteousness (义): Integrity, not doing anything shameful even if it gave profits. Prohibitions against actions that would harm integrity.
• Wisdom (知): Being a good judge of others, skill in reasoning, commitment and understanding of virtues, and prudence.
• Propriety (礼): Same as “rites” or “rituals”. Respect to others through ritualized actions.

Explain the story of King Xuan and the ox. What are at least two interpretations of what Mengzi is trying to achieve in his discussion with Xuan?

• King Xuan couldn’t bear sacrificing an ox, but Mengzi pointed out that this compassion should extend to the people.
• It could also show that since the king had kindness for an ox, he is capable of caring for the people.
• The author’s interpretation is that Mengzi is simply having the king reflect on the similarities of a suffering of an ox and the suffering of his subjects.

Explain how extension occurs. What is the role of reflection in this process?

• Everyone has certain natural reactions to certain situations, and you could extend these feelings to other situations. This could also be tied into the teaching in 大学 where to right your surroundings you might right yourself, your family, etc.
• Reflection is identifying similarities in situations where we act appropriately and do not act appropriately, and try to feel similarly between these cases.

Explain the story of the farmer from Song. What claim do you believe Mengzi is illustrating with this metaphor?

• That you cannot aim at some ideal of being a great person that fulfills all the virtues as that would only end in disappointment and failure. One needs to cultivate it and start with showing kindness.

In what ways does Mengzi conceive of Heaven as like a personal God, and in what ways does he conceive of it as simply the impersonal operations of the universe?

• “Heaven does not speak but simply reveals the mandate through actions and affairs.” – Heaven shows itself through the people rather than the supernatural.

Give a concrete example to illustrate what qi is. Why does Mengzi think it is important to cultivate one’s qi? How does one cultivate it?

• Qi is a sort of atmosphere that can be generated by emotions. A good atmosphere where people are naturally happy is good qi. I’m thinking it kind of like “vibes”. To cultivate it one must be ethically informed.

What later movement praised Mengzi as the Second Sage? What did they think was especially important about him?

• Neo-Confucianism. They said that Mengzi made explicit what was implicit in Kongzi’s teachings.

Chapter 7: Language and Paradox in the “School of Names”

I’m really excited for Chapter 8 which is about Taoism, but I’ll need to make it through this puzzle of a chapter first. It’s the first to introduce logical operators and spends 10+ paragraphs talking about if a white horse is a horse or not.

It starts with the quotation “I left for Yue today but arrived yesterday” and the author talks about this tradition as dealing with paradoxes. Deng Xi is mentioned and is likened to an ancient attorney, and so are Hui Shi and Gongsun Long.

Why do we consistently put “School of Names” in quotation marks but not Mohism or Confucianism?

• It is an informal grouping and a categorization defined in the Han dynasty.

For what thesis is Deng Xi famous? What does it mean?

• A man drowned in a river, and a man that retrieved the corpse wanted to sell the body to the family for a high price. Deng Xi told the family that they should not worry since the man had nobody else to sell it to. He also told the seller that he shouldn’t worry since the family had no one else to buy it from.
• Deng Xi would say both arguments are acceptable.

Explain Hui Shi’s thesis that “I left for Yue today but arrived yesterday.”

• “Today” and “yesterday” are relative terms. A modern example would be time zones.

What are the two possible meanings of “a white horse is not a horse”? Explain why it is true on one of those interpretations and why it is false on the other.

• If you wanted to buy a horse, the seller may give you any color. If you wanted to buy a white horse, the seller would only give you a white horse. So they are not the same. If they were the same, they would not differ.
• One meaning would be that the group of “things that are white” and “things that are horses” is not part of the “group of things that are horses”.
• Another meaning would be that the group of “things that are white” and “things that are horses” is not identical to the “group of things that are horses”.
• The first one (not part of) is false since union of groups A and B could not be part to group A. Actually I have no idea what I’m doing here, ignore this.

How did the Mohists reply to the claim that “every statement is true”?

• TODO: figure this out

How did the Mohists use the example of “this” and “that” to reply to the perspectival paradoxes of Hui Shi?

• We agree on what “this” and “that” are when making arguments. We have to confine ourselves to one perspective for the sake of an argument.

Explain the distinction between “a priori” and “a posteriori.”

• a priori requires prior knowledge, such as philosophy. “Independent of sensory experience.” Pure reason. “2+2=4”
• a posteriori is something that can only be known through experience and evidence, such as biology.

Give an example of the sort of patterns that formal logic studies.

• How language explains truths, inference and conclusions, tautologies

Give one example of an opaque context and one example of a transparent context.

• Opaque Context: A statement where truth is not preserved if you substitute two terms that refer to the same thing.
• Transparent Context: An example would be “to do A to X is to do A to Y”, since any term which refers to the same thing could be plugged in and it would still have a true meaning.

Things I’m Liking:

• Human Contact Is Now a Luxury Good (NYT): I’m less interested in the “luxury good” angle in the headline and more on this dystopian “care.coach” (pronounced “care dot coach” according to their inspiring intro video) company that serves as a virtual companion to the elderly by means of polygonal animals. Quote from the article: “If they say, ‘I love you,’ we’ll say it back,” he said. “With some of our clients, we’ll say it first if we know they like hearing it.” Maybe I’m being cynical but this feels like a crude substitute for human interaction.
• 都挺好 / All is Well (Youtube): On the topic of respecting your elders: This is a China TV drama about family dynamics. I’m just starting it, but from what I’ve read so far it’s novel since it shows the darker side of filial piety. My record for Chinese drama is making it through 10 episodes, so let’s see if I can get farther with this one.
• Country specific (photographic) consent requirements (Wikipedia): Ever wondered if it’s legal to take a picture of somebody on the street? Well wikipedia has a handy table that lists common countries and their photographic consent laws.

Misc

My head really hurts after Chapter 7 of this Chinese philosophy book.