#aristotle used to study animals to understand humans and you know what? thats one of the few things he did right

[uramitashi]

women really do need better class consciousness.

before you are religious, before you are a citizen of your nation, before you are anything else; you are a woman. your identity is complex but womahood is one of its first pillars. and womanhood is so important because so strictly tied, during her whole existence, to her implications: the ability to reproduce and the relative independence (ie: not having to desperately find another mate to pass on your genes + developing a physiological selectiveness) coming from it. female objectification, sex work, misogyny, female modesty, FGM, everything that hurts women stems from it. males want to control women sexuality because of it. it is therefore natural that womanhood is ontologically more important than any other label - because if you neglect it, others will surely not.

[absyoung55]

It's Not Worth It

Part 2 

Part 1

 A/N: I threw the Scottish accent out the window sorry.

The jeep ride was silent both Stiles and Y/N seething with anger. “Aren’t you supposed to be at a party?” Y/n glared at Stiles “I saw you leave Heathers Birthday party. Why were you there?” Stiles kept his eyes on the road but was gesturing spasticly “I was there to protect You” Y/N mumbled propping her elbow on the window ledge and putting her hand in her face “protect me from who!? My friends?!” Stiles screamed at you “Your friends weren’t the only ones there!” You snapped at him. “Yeah I know YOU were there” Stiles looked at you for just a second his expression one of hatred. His comment boiled your blood your fists heated and glowed red hot you held them up to not burn anything. You had saved that fucking girls life. You had allowed Heather to live you could have let the Darach take her. But she was Stiles friend.

At Heather’s party: Y/N had followed Scott and Stiles trailing behind out of ear shot so Scott couldn’t hear you. Or smell you. You observed a short blonde girl kiss Stiles you nearly burned the front door down peeking through the side window. Then they left Scott and disappeared into the house the girl reaked of lust. You could smell Stiles a mile away his chemo signals off the charts. Y/N rounded the corner of the house to peek through a window and there it was. A hideous human being no lips to cover her teeth nor eyelids to cover her bright blue eyes her face mauled and scared. Power rolled off her, supernatural Power, a power you had felt before a long time ago. She was a Darach. Once a druid but was now on a dark path. She started messing with the girl alone in the cellar. A growl ripped through your chest and the thing turned you couldn’t tell if she was shocked at your presence. She waved her arms about; to use her power on you. Y/N crouched and your own power burned bright your eyes glowing violet locked on the hideous thing. Springing forward on your heals you tackled the disgusting thing, wrestling her to the ground straddling her you gripped her forearms and shoved your knee into her wind pipe and incinerated her. Within minutes the Darach was a pile of ash. The blonde girl was released from its spell. Just then Stiles returned with something, and the girl screamed at him and stomped away. Stiles followed after her trying to understand what happened in the 5 minutes he was gone. You kicked around the pile of ashes to make sure there was no evidence of murder. Then you looked around for witnesses thankfully there were none. That’s when you heard it. An Alphas howl. Loud and strong really strong. Curiosity consumed you, Scott could protect the Stiles right? With that comfort you headed to the source of the Alpha cry.

Back To Now:

 “Stiles pull the fuck over NOW” I was furious. My fists burst into flames as Stiles swerved to the side of the road “ What are you gonna do WALK home?! woah.” Stiles was just as furious until he saw my blazing fists. “A-are you okay whats happening?” my eyes glowed violet and I stared at his heat signature “ I dont have control” what is happening I’ve never lost control. Black stripes zig-zagged across my body. I slammed open the Jeep door and fell into the gravel on the side of the road. My claws dug into the cool rocks charring them upon touch. My tail whipped wildly around my legs. I felt pressure on my back and I looked up, Stiles had gotten out of the Jeep and was in the ditch besides me. “ Y/N look at me” I met his eyes “Calm down” like a well trained dog I obeyed, the glow left my eyes and slowly the black stripes receded. God damn what is this boy doing to me? I collapsed on to the gravel, earning a laugh from Stiles. “I have a way with calming out of control werewolves” Stiles looked at his finger nails and pretended to shine them on his hoodie, I rolled my eyes and rose from the gravel. “Im not a werewolf, I’m part werewolf part werelion with a whole mess of complicated” I put my hand on my hip and z snapped my fingers. It was Stiles turn to roll his eyes, I smirked at him. We both got back into the jeep, “Hey um so whats with the flames I mean Scott doesnt have flames… and Malia definitely doesnt have flames..” I looked down at my lap playing with my fingers, I peeked over at Stiles, He was looking at the road then me then the road then back to me. “well its a long story” we just then pulled into his drive way. I pretty much lived at the Stilinski house the sheriff, even though I was thousands of years older, treated me like a daughter, I loved Stiles, I tried to love him like a son, considering our age but its difficult, so right now I’m settling for friends/ roommates, It wasn’t hard to convince the sheriff and Stiles to let me stay with them, I cleaned, cooked, did laundry fixed things, and worked on the jeep. In return I slept on their couch. Stiles shut off the jeep and turned to look at me “Well we have all night” I looked at him in disbelief that he wanted to know. Stiles hopped out of the Jeep and opened the door for me. “Thank you sir” I sarcastically hopped out of the jeep “M'Lady” Stiles pretended to tip a hat. We walked side by side up the side walk and I shuffled to the side so Stiles could unlock the front door. Once we were inside I felt awkward, “I dont know where to start…” I plopped down onto the couch and Stiles sat quietly next to me. “I guess start at the beginning” Stiles shrugged his shoulders. I let out a long heavy sigh “well my father was a bitten werewolf and my mother was a purebred born Lowenmensch- er werelion. My mom was an alpha but she died giving birth to me so I was actually born an alpha. My mother’s sister; who was not a werelion, but a banshee, raised me because my father hated me for killing my mother and wanted to kill me to become an alpha. Anyway Lowenmensch are different we um this is kinda bad, but most Lowenmensch only live on a diet of pineal glands,” I looked over at Stiles to see his reaction but he had a neutral expression “its a part of the brain Stiles..“ I searched his face for disgust but there was none. “I’ve heard of worse Y/N” Stiles slowly reached over and took my hand in his and began running his thumb over my knuckles. “Don’t worry about what I think it doesn’t matter” Stiles attempted to comfort me “ Stiles what you think means the world to me ….” I couldnt look at him so I looked at the floor memorizing the pattern of the wood. “But why?” Stiles sounded concerned “it’s a part if my story if you want me to continue…” I looked up at Stiles and he raised his eyebrows and nodded his head for me to continue “I lived with my Aunt until she passed away when I was 20 years old, she died from a mysterious disease at the time but now I know it was a vitamin c diffidence. Anyway she wanted me to have her pineal gland be my first and it was, after eating it my senses were heightened, my roar was more powerful, and my eyes glowed purple and I came to learn that I could heal the sick and wounded. After she was gone for a few weeks my father came looking for me. When he found me his intentions were clear, he was going to kill me. He never even laid a finger on me my roar scared him into submission, and I never saw him again. I stopped ageing at about 18 so when I turned 50 and still looked like a teenager I knew I had to leave my village before they lit the torches” Stiles laughed and let go of my hand and relaxed into the couch “I left Scotland and traveled to Europe, my first stop was to help the tribes build Stonehenge. Then I made my way to Rome, I fought in the Colosseum and became an undefeated champion. They moved me to Greece to fight their gladiators and beasts. Thats where I met Plato and Aristotle and started studying to be a philosopher. Eventually I had to leave Greece because of the apples.” Stiles looked confused “apples?” He lifted an eyebrow at me and I laughed a little “at the time to throw an apple at a woman was a propose of marriage, I was young and beautiful then so I was constantly bombarded with apples” Stiles looked like he wanted to say something, he opened and closed his mouth a few times searching for words “you still are young and beautiful” Stiles mashed his lips together and looked at the ground “thank you Stiles” I leaned over so my face was under his as he looked at the floor a huge smirk plastered on my face. He thought I was beautiful. “No problem” Stiles smiled crookedly. “After Greece was the renaissance so that was horrible, I spent weeks painting with artists all over Europe specifically I was an assistant to Michelangelo painting the Cappella Magna - er Sistine Chapel. I was the one who would bring him meals and more paint and other disgusting things I don’t want to talk about.” I shuddered and Stiles gave me a look “Chamber pots” and that’s all I had to say for his eyebrows to shoot up. “Anyway I moved around a lot, I never really connected with anyone until my first visit to Beacon Hills. There was a Phoenix here at one time, phoenix are evil creatures they set anything the touch on fire they look pretty much like burnt crispy zombies, I murdered one of the last ones in front of a little boy it was going to kill, after the phoenix died I took its pineal gland. Since then I’ve had a problem with my temper and my animal transformed into a tiger, and I have an affinity for fire.” Stiles hand had settled on my clothed thigh. “You saved someone? From the phoenix?” I felt a sadness weigh on my heart “I only wish I had been there sooner to stop others from loosing their lives, I only saved one boy” Stiles stood up “One boy can make all the difference that one boy could have grown up to do amazing things” you thought about Elias …. Elias wow I am so stupid Elias was the man from your squad in Vietnam “Elias Stilinski” the name left your lips the same time the front door opened. “Hey dad how was work” Noah entered the house “Boring but I’m not complaining” I stood suddenly startling both of them “Noah, … were you named after anything?” The wheels kept turning in my head pieces clicking into place “My father named me Noah after his sergeant that lead him through Vietnam untouched He said he was the most noble and selfless man he had ever met and hoped I would be like him his name was Noah..” “O'Mally” both boys looked at you “the men always called me Ma'am” both boys faces were shocked and their jaws fell slack “Elias. How is Elias I know he’s not dead” I looked at Noah hopeful “He’s.. He’s… growing old effects everyone different” I nodded my head slowly a tear escaped and rolled down my cheek and I wiped it away and sniffled. “He is a good man I ran into him a few times in life, Stiles he was the boy I saved from the phoenix.” Stiles looked at his dad and his dad stared at Stiles. “My father named me after You?” I laughed really hard so hard I crumpled to the floor clutching my gut. I heard Stiles snicker and I looked up to Noah with a grin plastered on his face. 

 I made spaghetti for supper the whole time I was cooking Stiles and I talked I told him all about little Derek and Vietnam with his grandfather how I left the Hales and came back and they were gone and what I had done after to cope then I got to the part with Lydia “Stiles something happened to me that night,” I let out a heavy sigh “have you ever heard of an imprint” I stirred the noodles “You mean like a baby duckling when it hatches?” I giggled “well sort of, a werewolf imprint works differently, it’s kinda like you’ve found your soul mate you would do anything for them you would die for them, it’s an extreme kind of love.” I looked at Stiles he was looking down lost in thought his bottom lip trapped between his teeth with his eyebrows mashed together. “It’s very rare and only happens every thousands of years… It’s happened to me… I- I imprinted … on you.”

[blog1984705]

Al-Farabi

This weeks blog entry will be about Al-Farabi, his philosophy school programme and his epistomology. Al-Farabi was an academic teacher and belonged to the cultural and intellectual group of Baghdad. He came from central Asia and was not an ethnic Arab. This is why nowadays countries like Uzbekistan and parts of Iran and Kazakhstan are still indecisive about who inherits Al-Farabi’s works and philosophies.

Al-Farabi was called the second master because he is what one would call a polymath. He is the second master because Aristotle was the first one. The third master has not yet been decided according to our lecturer. However I think people like for example Leonardo da Vinci and Nikola Tesla come very close. Polymaths are those who write about every single topic, even things as for example music. 

Nowadays it is hard to be a polymath because of multiple reasons. Most of us have become subject extremists, which means we have placed boundaries around our subjects. We could prosper more if we compared and combined different studies. For example historiographers are people who studied both philosophy and history and they are needed to answer certain historical questions.

The second reason adds up to my example, because I said that we need a certain kind of people. Because we have a lot of people who are interested and educated in certain subjects more than others, there is no need for polymaths. Knowledge has become a commodity nowadays. We are speaking of values where our predecessors spoke of virtues, which can be seen even in universities and companies. Universities were meant for education and companies were needed for what they produce. Nowadays they are not solely focused on their main purposes because they want to earn money and start to put effort in things like investing as a result. 

A third reason why I think polymaths are not needed is because of our efficiency in time. People don’t want to spend time learning about other things if they excel in one thing. I believe this because we all come to a certain point where we have to work to maintain ourselves. Working takes a lot of time and we won’t have time to study because of it. After the philosophy school programme I will introduce later you will understand why becoming a polymath would take a lot of time. Nowadays it is way much easier to look for information on the internet, because there are experts on every subject. It saves you a lot of time looking for one fact by an internet search instead of studying an entire subject to understand or know the fact. This time could easily be used in the things you like or excel at.

Al-Farabi provided a detailed syllabus in his book called ‘Enumeration of the Sciences.’ It states what works you would have to read and it entailed to become a philosopher back then. It was a hybrid educational system because it would let you learn ancient Greek philosophy, modern Arabic philosophy and rationalism. Your first programme would be linguistics and would start around ten years old. The degree would then have a module of courses of which the first is on ‘single terms’. This seems very easy but they were taught about what it  would actually mean to say words like; be, is, go or die. Since saying ‘go’ would have a meaning for people and just the word ‘is’ would not have a meaning because it has no context. The second course was compound terms, where you would learn why sentences as ‘Grass green long’ have no meaning without context either. The third and fourth courses were laws of single terms and laws of compound terms. The fifth course was orthography, where one would learn how to write beautifully, because good penmanship was considered important. The sixth course was the study of rhyming.

Once one had completed this programme one would start with the logic programme. Logic is important because it teaches you how to think correctly. According to Al-Farabi it is the art that lays down the general laws, which set the mind straight and guide man toward the path of truth and the right in all those intelligibles wherein he is liable to error. This programme consisted of several courses on logic, which I will name in a hierarchical order. The first and thus most important course was demonstrative logic, because it cannot be contradicted. The second course is dialectical logic, because logic can not be operated without an opponent. The third one is sophistical logic, which is the type of logic where you sound logical without being necessarily logic. A sentence like ‘Nothing is certain’ sounds very smart and meaningful but it does not have value or information in it. As a fourth course one would learn about rhetorical logic, which sounds and seems logical but has no standing grounds towards demonstrative logic. Sophistical logic was put above rhetorical logic because it is deceptive and deceiving someone takes intelligence.

The third programme was mathematics which consisted of arithmetics, geometry, optics, astronomy, music, dynamics and mechanics. The fourth programme would be physics which is the study of bodies or movement in bodies. They had courses in natural bodies, artificial bodies, simple bodies and compound bodies. They were being taught why and how things moved and what caused that they did not move forever.

The fifth programme would be metaphysics and this was considered as proper philosophy. Al-Farabi defined metaphysics as a divine science, because it was studying immaterial things. In this programme one would study three things. You would learn about existing entities i.e. ontology, first principles and immaterial beings. You would study the being qua being. How is it possible that unicorns don’t exist in our material world but are existent in our mind? What does it mean to be and to be subsisting in reality? How are we occupying space and time? You would also get to know about the difference between certain forms of life, because we exist as much as objects however we do not act like all other objects. How is a table different from a plant or from an animal? Besides these questions they learned about first principles like the impossibility of a part being bigger than a whole.

The sixth programme was about ethics, because it was also important to use your knowledge and intellectualism toward others. You would learn about virtuous acts and politics. How one could maintain knowledge, rules and human dignity within society. After all, according to Al-Farabi, the reason for doing all this philosophy is to find true happiness. 

The last and seventh programme is theology or Kalam. Which is about God’s speech and the Qur’an. Theology has two fundamentals of which one is the uphold of doctrinal correctness of a belief, it was to defend the faith in God through philosophy. Besides that theology was important to dispel deveny by keeping a community intact. This was vital because sometimes people could come with radical ideas. Theology also provided a jurisprudence of Islamic Law.

Al-Farabi has an epistemological theory which consists of several ways of gaining knowledge. You could gain knowledge by studying something which is called the evaluative goal. You could also gain knowledge by comparing A with B, which would give insight about things you previously knew less about. This draws a list of similarities and of differences. Besides that you could gain knowledge in a detective way. We can detect emotions within speech or new phenomena when you look at something. There is also an interrogative goal which is the semantics of terms.

The fifth goal that I thought of that missed during the lecture was the autodidactic type of learning. Where you could teach yourself things. This was described as a certain type of intuition. Some people are able to skip middle terms and arrive to conclusions immediately through intuition. This is not speaking of guessing of course, but it is about always being correct through this. It is also not necessarily ignoring the middle term, it is just so obvious to you that you are able to intuitively skip it.

All these types of learning and knowledge are to improve one’s intellect. According to Al-Farabi the intellect is a bridge between the transcendent and corporeal world and thats why in his eyes a perfect epistemological paradigm would be the union of the knower and the intellect. He states that the intellect, or reason, consists of 6 types. Discernment is our basic intellection and is what most common people have. We also have a common sense which gives us the ability to affirm or negate. We have a natural perception, we have necessary true principles and are under the grasp of universal laws. We have a conscience, which distinguishes good from evil through reason and perhaps also experience. I do believe that both have their significant roles because we have to experience bad behaviour to know what bad behaviour is  and we need reason to recognize it. The fifth form of intellect is the rational intellect where you are able to demonstrate your knowledge through logic. This is subjected in four forms which are the potential, actual, acquired and active intellect. The potential intellect is what all people have, it is the potential to gain intellection by grasping the intelligible. The actual intellect is when your potential intellect receives form. The acquired intellect is when one starts to relate one universal to another and once one starts to thing about the abstract by giving meaning to objects. The active intellect is once one has acquired reason and memory of intellect. This is where absolutely undistorted truths lie. The sixth intellect is the divine intellect, which is the source of all intellection.