Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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True North Strong And Free
What does it mean to be Canadian? “I can be proud of Ryan Reynolds.” “It’s a country that I’m proud of saying I’m from when I’m travelling. People say they like Canada, but not America.” “It’s having a shared, peaceful, nice way of interacting with others.” “Being better than Americans.” https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/how-canada-is-perceived-around-the-world-1.3132343 Upon asking several friends…
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A Reflection On Cultural Division And Perception
Human beings, as a whole, have a predisposition to judge their surroundings the instant they perceive them. As we grow older, we tend to either give in to this predisposition, fail to notice it, or attempt to eliminate it entirely, opting to only pass judgement once we obtain a substantial amount of information. Regardless of…
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Similarities Between Past and Present
This week’s discussion has made me open my eyes about the world around us and made me really think about our society and where we are heading. For much of my life I believed that our society has moved forward from a very dark and grim history. I believed that as a society we…
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“The gaze” and the story of the Salem Witch Trials
This week we had many interesting questions to choose from. There were some particularly interesting discussions in my group about the Salem witch trials and the relevance of “the gaze”. The Salem witch trials occurred in late 1600’s where multiple people were brought to their horrific end when the village doctor who lacked scientific knowledge…
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The Fight Between the East and the West
Last but not least!! Our final week of classes we had three discussion questions that were very insightful and in a way related to each other. We looked at the difference between the modern west and the east regions, and how the west has always seen it self as a superior region. As well we…
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Orient vs. Occident: The World Divided in Two
One could say the world is dominated by two halves: the orient (countries from Asia) and the occident (countries from Europe), or also known as the east and the west. Coming from different sides of the world, the orient and occident countries have very differing worldviews, religions, and cultural aspects that tend to clash with…
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The Salem Witch Trials and the Damage of the Single Story Narrative
This week, our group reflected on the viewpoints of those involved in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, and the extent to which the lack of concrete scientific knowledge and religious extremism had an impact on the event. Additionally, we examined the division of the East and West through a religious and geographical lens. Lastly,…
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“Brahma and The Danger of a Single Story”
This week’s discussion included some very interesting topics, such as “Brahma creates the world” and ” Danger of a single story”. These two topics were very dominant and something new to learn about. This Blogpost will focus on Brahma and a review of the Danger of a single story. Brahma is one of the major…
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The Power of Differences
Accusations were spread, in the year of 1692, in a small Puritan village of Salem, Massachusetts when two young girls experienced severe convulsions and other strange symptoms. Said to be possessed by the devil ¹, the only possible explanation for these out-of-the-blue spasms, had to be due to witchcraft. Hysteria swept the…
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Salem Witch Trials, Division of the “East” and “West,” American Psychosis
The Salem Witch Trials illustrates that the villagers of Salem in 1962 who were plagued by a sudden cloud of witchcraft accusations. People in the village began showing severe convulsions and other uncommon symptoms, which were blamed upon being bewitched by the village doctors at the time. Anyone accused of witchcraft in Salem was searched…
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