Book Review ~~ Meditations on First Philosophy — Second Meditation: The Nature of the Human Mind, and How it is Better Known than the Body ~~

Today I read the second meditation (The Nature of the Human Mind, and How it is Better Known than the Body) from “Meditations on First Philosophy,” by René Descartes. Again, this meditation mirrors one of the puzzles in “The Pig That Wants To Be Eaten,” by Julian Baggini—this time, I think, therefore? which is in fact based off this meditation. The famous saying “I think, therefore I exist” (Cogito ergo sum) comes from René Descartes. Descartes first concludes that he must exist, because he is convinced that he cannot trust his senses, and someone has to have these thoughts, so the person with those thoughts exists. As a result, he—who has those thoughts—exists. He then considers a piece of wax to decide how he can perceive that it exists—does he think it exists because of his senses, which he considers so untrustworthy? He realizes that, since it can change when it is held over a fire, he must perceive it through a process of careful judgement by using his intellect, and that to “see” something, he has to first understand it. I thought that this was a very interesting continuation of the first meditation, and though it did become a bit complex at times, I enjoyed reading it immensely, as it showed me Descartes’ careful reasoning in deciding that he had to exist. Since the first meditation had made me more wary of my senses and less trusting of the environment I perceived, this provided me with more food for thought and allowed me to understand more, since without trusting any senses, very little can be accomplished. While it was a bit more complicated than the first meditation, I recommend this meditation to anyone who is interested in philosophy, liked “The Pig That Wants To Be Eaten” or other philosophical writings of Descartes’, or is simply looking for an interesting book to read and would rate it 9.6/10.

Book Review ~~ Meditations on First Philosophy — First Meditation: On What Can Be Called Into Doubt ~~

Today I read the first meditation (On What Can Be Called Into Doubt) from “Meditations on First Philosophy,” by René Descartes. It was very similar to some puzzles in “The Pig That Wants To Be Eaten”—the philosophical puzzle The Evil Demon in particular—because it questioned whether you can truly know anything. How do you know an evil demon isn’t hypnotizing you to believe something, or that your senses haven’t been stimulated so you believe that you “see”, “hear”, “smell”, “taste”, and “touch”? Once you accept this supposed virtual world as a possibility, you know of almost nothing except your own beliefs, thoughts, feelings, and intents—but even so, you don’t even know of your past feelings, because your memories could be false as well. I thought that the idea was really interesting, and certainly possible, although whether it’s actually true is doubtful. Still, as many ideas show, almost anything is possible if you don’t trust anything and require absolute proof—which is, in almost every case, impossible—that something is true or untrue. This possibility has been brought up in movies, such as The Matrix and Inception, and books, such as “Running out of Time,” by Margaret Peterson Haddix. The main idea of “First Meditation” was to give up all your ideas about the outside world; according to the author, “I realized that if I wanted to establish anything in the sciences that was stable and likely to last, I needed—just once in my life—to demolish everything completely and start again from the foundations”. I highly enjoyed this passage and recommend it to anyone who likes any of the stories or movies I mentioned. I would rate this chapter 9.7/10.

100 Posts!

I have finally written 100 posts! (Technically, of course, this is the 101st. Moving on…)

This is a list of all the books and stories I’ve reviewed (with a couple of oddities thrown in). I’ve made the ones I especially liked blue, since my ratings are very similar. Some of them were merely very enjoyable reads, but others changed the way I view things. However, I recommend all of them. I was going to do a “top ten” list, but found that I like too many of them to pick just ten.

The Veil of Ignorance

The Nest Café

The Eyes Have It

The Open Boat

Color Symbolism: The Masque of the Red Death

The Masque of the Red Death

Mateo Falcone

The Hole in the Sum of the Parts

The Dying Night

What’s in a Name?

Rain, Rain, Go Away

The Last Question

Professor Panini

The Big Deal

The Lottery Ticket

A Modest Proposal

The Amber Spyglass

The Subtle Knife

Northern Lights/The Golden Compass

Total Lack of Recall

The Nightmare Scenario

The Evil Demon

The Ascent of Man — Generation upon Generation

The Ascent of Man — Knowledge or Certainty

The Ascent of Man — World Within World

The Ascent of Man — The Ladder of Creation

The Ascent of Man — The Drive For Power

The Ascent of Man — The Majestic Clockwork

Nemesis

The Golden Kite, The Silver Wind

What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!

Here There Be Tygers

Uncle Einar

Frost and Fire

The Rocket

The Murderer

The Flying Machine

The Mother of the Child in Question

Curtain

Murder on the Orient Express

After the Funeral

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

The Mysterious Affair at Styles

The Witness to the Prosecution

The A.B.C. Murders

Death on the Nile

Hop-Frog

The Time Machine

The Bridge of San Luis Rey

Night

The Ascent of Man — The Starry Messenger

The Cooperation Instinct

The Ascent of Man — The Music of the Spheres

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle

A Report to an Academy

The Ascent of Man — The Hidden Structure

The Bet

The Rat Trap

Blood on the River

The Ascent Of Man — The Grain In the Stone

The Chosen

The Ascent of Man — The Harvest Of the Seasons

Son

The Ascent of Man — Lower Than the Angels

The Hidden Teacher

The Metamorphosis

Those Crazy Ideas

The Gift of the Magi

The Old Man and the Sea

Totto-chan

Greek Mythology: The Big Three

Pygmalion

The Ransom of Red Chief

A Doll’s House

The Importance of Being Earnest

All Summer In a Day

Greek Mythology: Artemis and Apollo

There Will Come Soft Rains

The Lady Or the Tiger

The Outsiders

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Rachel Brown (Inherit the Wind)

Rise of the Elgen

The Most Dangerous Game

Inherit the Wind

The Dance Of the Frogs

The Fire Apes

The House of the Scorpion

The Tell-Tale Heart

How Flowers Changed the World

Switch

Greek Mythology: Favorite Gods and Goddesses

The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm

The Bird and the Machine

Book Analysis: Lord of the Flies

Book Comparison: Hansel and Grethel compared to Harry Potter

Divergent

Nonsense

Mindset

Book Review ~~ The Veil of Ignorance ~~

Today I read “The Veil of Ignorance,” a philosophical puzzle from “The Pig That Wants To Be Eaten,” by Julian Baggini. I thought that the idea of the puzzle was extremely intriguing, but ultimately impractical. Basically, ten humans are going to settle on Mars, but they don’t know if extreme strength, intellect, or a mixture will be necessary to survive, and must decide if they want to give the most rations to those who need it most, or to those who do the most. This is supposed to be a microcosm of what might happen on Earth if people were to decide how to divide the luxuries and whether to help less privileged members of the world in developing countries—except that people on Earth already know what their talents are, and they’ll only make the same decisions as they would otherwise because there isn’t really a veil of ignorance. As a result, it can be regarded as either an extremely useful or useless thought experiment. Personally, I think that it’s not very useful, because almost no one would be impartial in their decision-making instead of simply choosing whatever would benefit them most (or, if they were altruistic to a degree, still the same way they would otherwise), but the thought experiment is still an interesting and intriguing idea, and I wonder how people would really choose if, for example, the hypothetical situation was suggested to them. Would they gamble on being able to succeed, awarding the most luxuries to those who contributed the most, or be more cautious and divvy up the luxuries evenly? Although I regard the puzzle as not very useful, I would still recommend this puzzle to anyone who enjoyed other puzzles from the same book, simply likes philosophy, or just wants an interesting puzzle to occupy their time and rate it 9.5/10.

Book Review ~~ The Nest Café ~

Recently, I read The Nest Café, another philosophical puzzle from “The Pig That Wants To Be Eaten,” by Julian Baggini. This puzzle deals with the issue of illegal immigrants being paid less than the minimum wage, but more than they would receive if they were still in Africa or Mexico. If people refused to buy anything that had been created by the work of those workers, though, the workers would receive even less, and might not appreciate the boycotting of those goods. However, if people continued to buy those things, that would just be implicitly agreeing to those wages, and other companies who paid better wages would make less profit. Besides, workers in countries like China, Mexico and Africa are paid similar wages, which means that boycotting goods made locally by underpaid illegal immigrants would also mean boycotting goods made in Mexico, China and Africa as well, which accounts for almost all cheap items. This issue deals with fairness and morality, and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys philosophy, other puzzles from “The Pig That Wants To Be Eaten”, or is simply looking for a short, thought-provoking story and rate it 9.6/10.

Book Review ~~ The Eyes Have It ~~

Today I read the philosophical puzzle “The Eyes Have It”, which is, again, part of the collection of puzzles “The Pig That Wants To Be Eaten,” by Julian Baggini. This puzzle suggests that people might view the world differently—either through an inverted spectrum, as the example suggests, or with colors slightly different for everyone. In the story accompanying the puzzle, Cecilia sees the world through an inverted spectrum, and this problem is noticed when she looks through her friend’s eyes. To Luke, what she sees as “blue” is red. The sky is the color she calls red. Ripe bananas are yellow, instead of green. Although some people might think that this would easily be discovered through a color blindness test, those tests only test for an inability to differentiate between two colors. This can be applied to things other than color as well, though, and any sensation—even, for example, the feeling of joy or sadness—might mean very different things for different people. In fact, all language that describes something—which is almost the entirety of language—might be understood differently by different people. I thought that this was a very interesting idea and recommend this story to anyone who has wondered about this subject, found the suggestion interesting, likes other stories from “The Pig That Wants To Be Eaten,” or is simply looking for an interesting story to read and puzzle over. I would rate it 9.8/10.

Book Review ~~ The Open Boat ~~

A few days ago, I read “The Open Boat”, by Stephen Crane. Its theme was that individual people are inconsequential in the face of nature and that nature doesn’t care about people, supported by the contrasts between the sea and the shore. The shore represented people, as it contained people going about their orderly lives, and, to the men in the boat, represented hope and the possibility of returning to the society they knew well. However, it seemed small to them, and the sea dwarfed it easily. Meanwhile, the sea represented nature, which was unpredictable. After the men passed one wave, another wave just as large would appear in their way. The sea was uncaring, and though the correspondent’s life was saved, the oiler was killed, showing that the sea didn’t care about people, as they weren’t important to it. From the men’s viewpoint, the shore was far away, while the sea was vast and surrounded them. They were separated from society and wanted to return to it. The men on the boat didn’t really matter to the sea, and it tossed them around freely, harming or helping them whenever it wanted to. This is a quote from the story that supports that fact: “When it occurs to a man that nature does not regard him as important, and that she feels she would not maim the universe by disposing of him, he at first wishes to throw bricks at the temple, and he hates deeply the fact that there are no bricks and no temples.” I thought that this story was very interesting and presented an unusual view of nature. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to read about this interesting view of nature and rate it 9.5/10.

Color Symbolism ~~ The Masque of the Red Death ~~

I recently wrote an essay on the symbolism of the colors in “The Masque of the Red Death”:

In “The Masque of the Red Death”, by Edgar Allan Poe, the colors of the chambers are symbolic as a spectrum, and some of the individual colors are also symbolic. Some of the meanings are more obvious, while others have to be connected with the story and the placement of the rooms to make sense.

For example, black symbolizes death and evil, and scarlet can symbolize blood. Black is often worn to funerals to represent the recent death, and red is the color of blood. Black combined with red, as in the seventh chamber, represents death, and since blood is the “Red Death’s” avatar and seal, it represents death from, specifically, the “Red Death” in “The Masque of the Red Death”. Because of this, the revelers who tried to escape the “Red Death” confront the “Red Death” in this chamber and are all killed by the “Red Death”, as the colors of the chambers suggest.

As a spectrum, the colors—blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet and black—represent the beginning of the day to midnight. Blue and purple represent the darkness of the night before the sun rises, and green flashes can sometimes be observed during sunrises. Sunrises are often orange, and white could represent the blinding sunlight at noon. Violet can represent sunset, and black represents midnight. The rooms also progress from east to west, and the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. According to this interpretation of the colors, the “Red Death” led the prince from dawn to midnight before killing him. Since the Red Death appears at midnight, this might connect death with midnight.

Finally, blue can represent birth and black can symbolize death, the spectrum of colors representing life. The blue room can be associated with birth because it is the westernmost room, where the sun rises, and the easternmost room, where the sun sets, is associated with death and endings. The colors of the black room can also be associated with death. The prince and the other revelers were killed in the black-and-red room, and the prince started chasing the “Red Death” in the blue room, which could suggest birth. Because the party-goers were trying to avoid death, they avoided the black room, which reminded them of death, the thing they were trying to avoid.

The colors and their placements are symbolical. The blue room represents beginnings—birth and the beginning of the day—while the black-and-red room represents endings—death and the end of the day. In the story, Poe showed that death is unavoidable, even though Prince Prospero and his friends went to such measures to achieve it.

[I’ve noticed that some of my coding doesn’t work for some browsers, so if the font size looks unusually large or something like that, I’m sorry. I’m still working on my coding skills.]

Book Review ~~ The Masque of the Red Death ~~

A short while ago, I read the short story “The Masque of the Red Death”, by Edgar Allan Poe. It’s an allegory about death, but the story itself also has a wonderful plot, though it is horrifying, as is customary with Poe’s stories. In the story, Prince Prospero tried to escape from the “Red Death”, a plague that caused an extreme pain and then killed the victim in half an hour, by gathering a thousand of his friends and then secluding them in an abbey of his, providing provisions and all kinds of pleasures, from ballerinas and musicians to buffoons and wine. He parties and ignores the problem of the “Red Death”. However, during one of his parties, the party-goers realize that someone dressed like the “Red Death” is with them, and though his clothing is distinctive, he is not noticed until after midnight, hours after the party starts, in the blue, easternmost room. A commotion is created, all of the revelers trying their best to escape the person, and though the prince commands his courtiers to seize him, they are frightened of him, and do not, so that the prince himself chases the person through the seven chambers of the party. The person then turns to confront and kill the prince, but when the party-goers attempt to unmask him, it turns out that he is a shapeless form, and is in fact the “Red Death”. The “Red Death” is the personification of death, and the story shows that it is impossible to run from death forever. Though horrifying, the story was very interesting, and I enjoyed reading it. I would rate this story 9.7/10 and recommend it to anyone who likes Poe, horror stories, allegorical stories or is simply looking for an interesting short story.

Book Review ~~ Mateo Falcone ~~

Recently, I read “Mateo Falcone”, a short story by Prosper Mérimée. At first, I thought that it was very interesting, but I was saddened by the story’s ending. In the story, Fortunato Falcone—a ten-year-old boy—was found by Gianetto Sanpiero, a bandit. Fortunato’s parents had left to visit a flock in a faraway clearing, so Gianetto asked Fortunato to hide him from Corsican soldiers. This was something that Fortunato’s father would have done, but Fortunato, being ten, only asked what he would gain, and after receiving a five-franc piece promised to hide him. He did so very cleverly and cunningly, so that when the Corsican soldiers came, they could not figure out where Falcone had gone. When the adjutant tried threatening Fortunato, Fortunato ignored the threats, pointing out that his father was Mateo Falcone, and Mateo had a reputation of being “a loyal friend, but a dangerous enemy”, as he was extremely skilled with a gun. However, when the adjutant bribed him with a silver watch, Fortunato eventually revealed Gianetto’s location despite his earlier promise to hide him. Mateo, being “a loyal friend”, would not have done so, and when his father came back and learned that Fortunato had broken his promise for a watch, Mateo threw the watch against a stone. Then, Mateo led his son to a ravine with soft soil and killed Fortunato because Fortunato had been a traitor, when before Fortunato betrayed Gianetto, Mateo would have killed anyone connecting him with the word “traitor”.  I was very upset that Mateo had killed his own son, who was, after all, only ten years old, but the beginning of the story was intriguing. I would rate it 9.2/10.