...you really know anything? With reference to Descartes’ first meditation justify your answer in full and respond to possible objections. A belief is any opinion or any view whether you are committed to the view or not. Thus, if you know something, you are entitled to believe in it. The subjective nature of knowledge partly is based on the idea that beliefs are things that individuals have and those beliefs are either justified or not justified (Pardi, 2011). However, Descartes notices that over the course of his life, he has from time to time accepted false beliefs and the falsity of these beliefs have influenced other beliefs. Thus, Descartes aim in his first meditation is to find out if what we know is truly correct (Blackburn, 1999:15). Once we have figured out what beliefs are beyond any possible doubt, it is suggested that we can use reason to deduce the rest of what is knowable (Pardi, 2011). There are three conditions when one can say they know something is true (Pardi, 2011). Firstly, you believe in something, secondly, it is in fact true and lastly you are justified in believing a statement is true. Of course it is possible that there are no complete unshakeable truths, it is also possible that we might discover that our prejudices cannot be detached or that the beliefs we think are our grounds for all our other beliefs are not really ultimate at all. For this reason, it is why rationalist say that knowledge comes from within, the only beliefs we can really know...
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...you normally earn? I felt very bad because I know I am better than a bad grade so I get determined to get a better grade next time. 3) Think about a time when a friend or family member was feeling down about a poor grade or performance. What was your reaction? Did you say anything to him or her? What did you say? I told them that there is always a next time where you can do better and to not worry about the past because there’s always better times ahead. 4) Think of the last time you entered a new experience (1st time in a class, a new job, 1st year in a leadership role, etc.). Describe your thoughts. Would you consider yourself more anxious (fearful) than excited (nervous but energetic) or vice versa? I was very nervous but excited my first time I took part in something new. You have no idea what to expect but the anticipation of something great keeps your hopes up. 5) Suppose a teacher asks for a volunteer to lead a team project. You have the skills and some experience with the task at hand. Would you volunteer? Why or why not? I would volunteer because it is the right thing to do. It is an experience that you might never get to experience again. Being open to anything is a very good trait even if you are not qualified. Part II. Review your answers to the questions above and determine whether your response is optimistic or pessimistic. List your determination beside the numbers below. 1. _________optimistic________ 2. ______optimistic___________...
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...Personal Responsibility: the key to academic success Individuals that are being personally responsible take ownership of their actions and hold themselves accountable for their performance and the decisions they make. There are many factors that contribute to scholastic achievement, but each student has the power and capability to choose his or her own path that will lead to success or failure. Those students that look within and admit they have control of their accomplishments have a greater chance of reaching their academic goals than an individual that chooses to blame others when they are unsuccessful. Many students coming out of high school not emotionally or morally mature enough to manage the changes in their lives, especially those that live on campus. In addition to the day-to-day tasks, such as getting enough sleep, eating properly and arriving on time for their classes there are relationship issues and other distractions that cause a student to deter from academic studies. Ceplak (2012) repeated a student’s comments stating that the student liked school because of his classmates, socializing and friendships even though he received poor grades. An Individual that copes with his or her new found freedoms and all the distractions of college life are better equipped to do well and earn their Bachelor’s degree. Holding yourself responsible for your conduct and changing your behavior so school work is the primary concern are positive steps toward the personal responsibility...
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...The Last Lecture: The last lecture is a series of lectures that have been established by Carnegie Mello University for the retiring professors to talk about their insights into the life. In this lecture, professor of computer science Randy Pausch was enforced to deliver a very literal last lecture after facing a diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer. This lecture was entitled as "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams". Randy start his lecture in a professional way to inspire the audience, he told them about his cancer and that the doctors informed him he has few months to live. But he was very optimistic and wanted to approve to everyone that he is in a good shape by doing push-ups. Randy introduced the idea of “elephant in the room” in a slide he presented of his CAT scan with arrows pointing to the ten identified tumors. As he told the audience that “We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.” Three topics his lecture was about; first, his childhood dreams and how he achieved them. Second, enabling the others achieve their dreams. Third, the lessons he learned in his life. First, he talked about his childhood dreams. being in zero gravity, playing in NFL, being an author in world book encyclopedia, being captain Kirk, winning stuffed animals and being a Disney land imageneer. The first dream he achieved by working with his students to win competition announced by NASA by providing the best proposal, he was determined to have the experience...
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...“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” * John C. Maxwell My leadership philosophy is real simple and straight forward. One value that stands very close to my heart is the one that my Dad has drummed into me: Don’t cheat yourself, you know exactly what you can and can’t do. In order to succeed as a leader, one must know his or her strengths and weakness. Secondly, we have finite amount of time and energy. If we have time to whine and complain about something then we definitely have time and energy to do something about it. In simpler words: Don’t complain, just work harder! Furthermore, look for the best in everyone. If you wait long enough, people will show you their good side, just keep waiting and be patient. But on the other hand, it is a leader’s responsibility to know how long, is long enough. Within the past year and half, I have learned that experience is the most precious thing you can offer someone. So do not be afraid of making mistakes and sharing your experiences. Last but not least, never give up! As Randy Pausch, the author of the book Last Lecture says, “Brick walls are there for a reason. And once you get over then, even if someone practically had to throw you over, it can be helpful to others to tell them how you did it.” And in order to be an excellent leader, I believe these concepts are valuable to have in handy. * Don’t cheat yourself- Seek first to understand and then to be understood. * Don’t complain; just...
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...The Review on the Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. Randolph Frederick "Randy" Pausch (October 23, 1960 – July 25, 2008) was an American professor of computer science and human-computer interaction and design at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pausch was the author or co-author of five books and over 70 articles. Pausch died from pancreatic cancer at his family's home in Chesapeake, Virginia on July 25, 2008, at the age of 47. The last lecture by Randy Pausch to the 400 students in Carneige Mellon University mainly focuses on how to live the prosperous life. It specifically talks about the childhood dreams and how to achieve those dreams and become successful in life. Following are the things that I have learned from the lecture. To achieve success in life we need to have dreams; be it a childhood dream or the dreams that we dream when we grow up but we always need to have dreams. And then we should work towards achieving those dreams. And when we work towards achieving those dreams we can never say that those dreams can be achieved at one go. We are going to face lot of failure and obstacles blocking our way. And then when we experience failure and other problems, complaining and wining is never going to solve our problem. Instead we should never think that it's the end of our dream and we should consider those failure as the inspiration to work harder and the we should keep on trying because everything is possible in life. Now to have...
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...Vilma Torres Benjamin Franklin As we know Benjamin Franklin is known to be a very important person in American history. Benjamin Franklin was a successful person that never gave up and always followed his dream. Randy Pausch, author of “The Last Lecture” was also a person who never gave up and wanted to educate others. With this in mind we can see many similarities between Professor Randy Pausch’s last lecture and Benjamin Franklin’s life. The first example is when the professor says that you have to work hard to achieve your dreams. This has a lot in common with Benjamin Franklin because he always had to work hard to get what he wanted. Franklin liked to work long hours and he never complained. The second instance is when the professor says that you have to keep your dream no matter what happens. Benjamin Franklin, at the age of sixteen, wanted to be a printer. He focused on his dream and started to work little by little on his own company. When he started it was not easy. However, he followed his dream until he built his own printing company. The third similarity was when the professor said that brick walls are there not to make you sad but to show you how badly you want something. Benjamin Franklin faced a lot of brick walls when he was trying to discover the electricity. For example, he faced a lot of dangers in attempting to determine whether lightning was electricity or not. However he never got sad, he only worked harder. The fourth example is when the...
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...Randy Pausch was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in September 2006. Pausch delivered his last lecture at Carnegie Mellon University (where he was a Professor) on September 18, 2007. In the seminar series, professors were challenged to deliver the message of a lifetime as if it was their last lecture. The irony makes his words that much more poignant. The Last Lecture has become one of the most viewed lectures on the Internet. There is no denying that the context makes the speech memorable, but that quality is enhanced by five timeless presentation techniques exhibited by Randy Pausch. Each of these helps you connect with your audience and help them remember your words into the future: Introduce the elephant in the room, define the scope, conclude strong, show enthusiasm- immerse yourself, get personal. Randy Pausch opens his lecture in the best way possible for this lecture, this audience, and this venue — by relieving stress. Following an easy joke about the title of the lecture series, he introduces the elephant in the room; that is, he spends a minute discussing his pancreatic cancer. Then, he raises the emotion in the room by doing a series of pushups. If he had not opened this way, the audience would have been distracted for the entire lecture, and unable to fully immerse themselves in the powerful lessons to come. From my point of view he made a good start to get the audience attention and gave the audience a reason to listen to his topic. I think the key point over here...
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...15/09/15 DREAMS AND EXPERIENCES This essay will cover two important points of Last Lecture by Prof. Randy Pausch that I found impressive, and the brief description of how I dream. As a conclusion, I will criticize myself on the basis of Last Lecture. First thing that I learned from Randy Pausch is the importance of being an imagineer. People have a tendency to stop imagining when they start to think any of their dreams will not come true anyway. But as we saw in the lecture, even though seems like childish and irrelevant, if you try hard you can make it possible. Pausch did his best to accomplish his dreams before he died. It means before we gave up from our dreams, we can do the same too. The other critic point about Last Lecture is, it was a pretty influential speech to encourage people to think about the brick walls in their lives. According to Pausch, these brick walls are there to prevent some people from achieving their goals, and for some people walls are there in order to show them how far they can go for their dreams. Pausch did great to break his walls that he met while he wanted to achieve his zero-gravity dream. So why do not we break our walls in front of us? After the Last Lecture, when I think about my dreams, I realize that I do not have too much of them. Because they are keep getting true. The reason behind this is, instead of long-term, I used to aim short-term achievements. Such as; being successful in high school, being successful is university, earning...
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...Robert B. Burnish The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch The Last Lecture is a New York Times best-selling publication co-authored by Randy Pausch, a lecturer of computer research, human-computer interaction, and conceive at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Jeffrey Zaslow of the Wall Street Journal. The publication was born out of a lecture Pausch provided in September 2007, Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams. (Dann, 14-19) The publication has often been in evaluation with Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie, a publication on courses the scribe wise from his staining school professor. When inquired about his information of the publication, Pausch answered that he had not ever read that publication, and commented that he "didn’t understand there was a dying-professor part at the bookstore” with his usual sardonic wit. Speculation that the publication would be turned into a video was turned down by Pausch himself. Pausch consigned his "Last Lecture", titled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” at Carnegie Mellon on September 18, 2007. This converse was modeled after an ongoing sequence of addresses where peak academics are inquired to believe profoundly about what matters to them, and then give a hypothetical "final talk," i.e., "what wisdom would you try to impart to the world if you knew it was your last chance?" (Dann, 14-19) A month before giving the address, Pausch had obtained a prognosis that the pancreatic cancer, with which...
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...Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 – July 25, 2008) gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving presentation, “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals with quotes that have been circulating around the web since his stunning lecture that touched so many people. It gave them courage to live a better life by treating others better and never give up on their dreams. The quotes I think applied to my life are as followed: “It’s not about how to achieve your dreams. It’s about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dreams will come to you.” I have read something like this in the book “The Secret” and I try to do in my life. Karma is a powerful force in the universe that many people do not think about. But when a person is thinking good things in their mind it seems to come out in our expressions and attitude to other person, which makes them happy to. Then in turn it comes back to that person like a circle, if you give the universe good thoughts and actions it returns it back to you. “If I could only give three words of advice, they would be, “tell the truth”. If I got three more words, I'd add: “All the time”. This is something I truly believe in. If you tell someone a lie when you mess up and they catch you, that person...
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...I think that Christopher Columbus was not a good leader. Because he was so mean to the people that wasn't what he really thought they were. One reason I think that he is not a good leader is because he tortured these people that he claimed to be Indians. He would cut off there arms or anything if they wouldn't listen to him so half of them either bleed to death or fled before they could get hurt. Everybody was actually terrified of him so they did what he wanted them to do. Another reason I think he is a bad leader is because he enslaved 500 slaves , all he wanted was gold , he killed and tortured so many Indians that there kind was depopulating because of him. He was killing them like he was a murderer. The last reason I think he really is...
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...always show it to their best ability. They are really hardworking and they show great help to the NBA/NFL. College athletes are hot topics of the universities nowadays. Athletes work for the challenge and competition. College athletes should be paid because their life is on line, great athletic skills, and, if they have really good potential and smart, lastly, they have to give support for the families. Even when College athletes are on the court or either on the field the game is in the players hand. When players play their lives are always on the line. In thought when they are playing the sport anything could happen. Some athletes have knee injuries and anything. Anything can happen when playing sports. Universities are big in names and it's really important to have the mind set and concentration of the game. To conclude hardworking athletes are the best athletes and when choosing your life over somethings that means it's very important. When athletes are playing the sports, they...
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... Existentialism is a way of life, for example some people who live a life of an extensialist don’t care about anything or anyone. They take each day as it comes. They don’t worry about anything and act like their okay when they really aren’t. In the movie “The Dark Night” by Christopher Nolan’s and the book “The Stranger” by Albert Camus gives great examples of people who live the life of extensialist. Living an extensialist life comes with many consequences. Good or bad it doesn’t really matter. “I guess the joker is as crazy as they say” (Nolan). In the movie the Dark Night a man who works for the joker says how the joker is actually crazy like everyone says. Now in the story the stranger Mersault is crazy when he doesn’t cry or grief because his mother has passed away. They look at both of these characters as crazy. But are they actually crazy? Or are they crazy because society says they are? In a society many people see who is crazy who is not, but in these both stories they really aren’t, the joker just does things as they come and people are the ones who actually cause the crazy ness he just takes the blame for it, well that’s how I see it. In the book Mersault doesn’t cry for his mother’s death because he says they never really had any relationship at all. Society says he’s a jerk and he’s heartless for not doing so but he’s an estensialist and they really don’t show emotions at all. An extensialist does things as they come, they don’t plan things out they just do...
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...could then provide a firm foundation on which all subsequent beliefs are grounded and could thus be known as true. This way of thinking about knowledge is called foundationalism. In his Meditations on First Philosophy (1641), Descartes indicates how we are able to guarantee our beliefs about reality by limiting what we believe to what is indubitable or is based on what is indubitable. That involves him in a series of six "meditations" (of which we will focus on only the first two) about the proper method of philosophical reflection and the conclusions that can be drawn from using that method. Throughout these Meditations Descartes insists that (1) we should claim to know only that for which we have justification, (2) we cannot appeal to anything outside of our ideas for such justification, and (3) we judge our ideas using a method that guarantees that our ideas are correct. In the first Meditation Descartes argues that our ordinary experience of the world cannot provide the kind of guaranteed foundation on which all other knowledge can be based. We are often disappointed to learn that what we have been taught are merely prejudices, or that what our senses tell us is incorrect. That should make us wonder about whether...
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