Moral Implications of the Sheep and the Wolf

I saw this video yesterday, and decided, after watching it about a dozen times, to briefly examine the moral ambiguities present in the video.

At first, it seems to be more or less black and white (chuckle chuckle) -- the wolf and sheep, classic tropes in fairy tales, the wolf, in this case, seducing the sheep. The wolf sharpens his teeth, the clerk glares at the couple as they head to their room. Towards the end, the wolf licks his lips as he looks at the babies he made with the sheep (odd that they're mostly sheep if the wolf is the father, but I won't go in to that here), and even in the picture on the dresser, the wolf is looking at other women.

But it is not as simple as that. The sheep also apparently slept with the donkey, and at the end, she smiles at the wolf even as he aims a shotgun at her. The wolf is unable to fire.

It brings up many questions. Was the wolf really evil, or was he simply being himself? Was his miscast as the seducer and cheater, or was it his own love that was pure and finds him unable to shoot the sheep who had hurt him so? Was the sheep merely an innocent victim, or a cruel seductress who took advantage of the wolf's feelings, feelings only she saw? I cannot say for sure. What do you think?

Who is the villian: the sheep, or the wolf? Or can we even make that distinction?

What is Real/True? A Response

In her post, Emily explored the "reality" of math and science. I would like to illustrate the construction of these fields.

1+2=3. 4x5=20. 8-5=3. 0+1=1 These statements are mathematical facts, but they have no inherent meaning outside of the meaning that we construct for the numbers. The very concept of 0 was a construction that took mathematicians hundreds of years to create. Indeed, even simple maths, not even moving into advanced mathematical theories, have a very heavy base in human construction and human reason. Much of today's cutting edge math, as well as its applications, are human constructions (including the math at work bringing us this forum of discussion, the internet).

Science becomes a bit more blurry. In one sense, it could be called discovery. After all, it is an exploration of how the world functions. However, our collected knowledge, the language we use to share it and describe it, is itself a human construction. In fact, science has met with its own battles with "flawed" human intellect. For example, it was an accepted scientific fact for hundreds of years that the earth was flat, and that the sun and stars were all above our stationary earth. It is now accepted scientific fact that the earth is round and revolves around the sun.

I do not claim to be able to give a more in-depth analysis than that. I admit, I know little of advanced math or science, and the history of these fields, and someone with more knowledge than I could easily do a better job at explaining this point. I hope to merely serve as a starting point.

To end with a question: Is there any way to escape the construction of any of our systems of knowledge, be it language, history, math, or science?

Demonology and Coherence Theory of Truth

After Monday's class, a thought occurred to me about coherence theory of truth. Allow me to play it out in a sort of thought experiment.

Let's say I want to make a completely outlandish claim, say, for example, that I can perform magics such as summoning demons from an outer plane of existence. I can build up an entire system of theory around this that would be perfectly coherent, and has no connection to the real world (or perhaps I should say the "apparently real world"). Would this then be truth?

Perhaps I should be more clear. I could certainly create this system and then use it as the basis of, say, a fantasy story (something that is quite common in that genre). However, as this system is only workable on paper, and flies in direct contradiction to the laws and principles governing our plane of existence, it would be truth in the story, but not truth in our plane of existence.

Or would it?

This may be further complicated by possibility. Nothing can exist without the possibility of it existing. The possibility exists that I could summon a demon to do my bidding and enslave the earth, but the method by which I may do this may or may not exist in our plane of being. So is it truth, then, or fabrication?

As a final note, I will likely continue to post on my aesthetics blog as I find interesting news articles related to art (as I have today). If you have an interest, I encourage you to check it out.

Greetings, Constructing Reality

Hello, all! Unofficial first post on my Constructing Reality blog. Looking forward to diving in to the material and blogging.

I've opted to begin a fresh blog for this course. I have included a link to my blog from Art & Philosophy and Aesthetics for those who may be interested in reading through my old posts there.

Best of luck to my follow bloggers!