Author Archives: BENJAMIN ZHAO

Improvement for an Improved World

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While I initially thought that the Enlightenment perspective had much more weight, I thought the later readings we did about Romanticism also had a lot of truth. I do feel like Enlightenment goals are fundamental and totally worth going for, from the first impression of it to how it is fully embodied in our culture today. To somebody very familiar with the 21st century, to me, many of the ideals represented are 100% correct and pretty much just how it is nowadays. Beyond the process of how it shaped the world to the way it is today, I feel like at this point in time a lot of Enlightenment agendas are completely standard; to try to dispute many of these Enlightenment ideas is wrong and alien to me, if I’m being honest.

It initially seemed like Romanticism was just to be contrarian to many of these common sense truths of our current world. However, a lot of the readings we did had a lot of substance, especially when they weren’t mostly a rejection of progressive ideals. The text that wasn’t just presented as a contrast to Enlightenment ideas (which was most of what we read, contrary to my first impression) had a lot of truth to it as well, and while Enlightenment ideals seem to have a much more central theme, I definitely notice many Romantic ideals in how the system is dispersed throughout as well as in my personal life. I feel like the Enlightenment mentality definitely dominates the decision-making process, but Romantic ideas pervade many different parts of life. That being said, it may not be the best course of action to strictly adhere to Enlightenment standards when it comes to action, even if that is how it is right now – maybe different moves could make the world a better place.

From the course material I can definitely discern many things in how the system is now originated from these philosophies, back when they only existed as theory. It seems like every government in the world is operated based off these classical models. I also notice the heavy Enlightenment influence in how capitalism is – finance definitely seems to operate with empiricism first and foremost as its foundation. However, the biggest takeaway for me was how sound and accurate Romantic theory is. There is definitely a lot of truth that is missing when strictly pushing for an Enlightened world that is only truly and fully understood when considering things from a humanist perspective. To ignore the human heart of society is foolish and it is something that is often perpetuated nowadays. In spite of things being the way they are, I sensed a way for improvement not in Enlightenment texts, but in Romantic ones. Romanticism considers the human as an individual – in a world where it is easy to think of people as statistics, it makes a lot of sense to reevaluate things in a more Romantic way.

My Freedom, My Jail

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I feel like this song (and the whole album) really embody what Schiller is trying to explicate in his text. The album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is all about these pulls towards following your sensual self and respecting your intellectual self, away from each other to the point where it could be identified as tearing you apart. However, the backdrop of all of this is something very beautiful, very focused, very harmonious, very intentionally well-designed by a person who is expressing his feelings. The album is 13 songs and 69 minutes long – the themes of opposing intentions coming together as a whole is represented even beyond the lyrics, mood and instrumentals of the content. MBDTF reconciles the opposing head and heart to find something that, while dark, makes people feel good and feel like they’re listening to something great.

Devil in a New Dress in particular describes the inner turmoil that one may feel in chasing something that both your head and your heart are telling you is right. The lyrics describe a love that is unarguably romantic, but the nature of this love is negative. Kanye’s head knows it’s wrong, but it is also very convinced that beyond any moral standard, it is definitely worth it. Meanwhile, the instrumental represents the warmth to the love. In spite of the content of it being morally ambiguous (to say the least), the backdrop to the song is not cold at all. The feeling of this love has a high temperature and our senses indicate that it is very substantive and easy to get lost in. By elucidating the nature of this emotional and intellectual harmonization, Kanye is revealing to his audience how it feels, how one thinks about going through treacherous, romantic love. It is both a cautionary tale and a glorification regarding doing something wrong that you feel and know is right, and what one ultimately takes away from it is entirely dependent on the individual.

Broadening Horizons

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The Declaration of Independence is more than a declaration of intent – it was written to symbolize the both the extremely real difficulty of attaining freedom and the massive victory that it was envisioned to be (back when the document was written). Unjust rule was not just a “problem” that people had to deal with as peoples lives are totally jeopardized when there is government corruption. However, for a matter of life and death, until the Declaration was put forth, there simply wasn’t a strong action to combat this global problem. Locke’s Second Treatise similarly targets corruption in the ruling class as the problem to be combated, but it stands as merely philosophy (intellectual ideas). The Declaration was the opening move of a rebellion (or what is now definitively considered to be a revolution) against an unfair system of government that was not looking out for its people.

Before this critical action, there was nothing compelling people to try to make justice happen. People were living through constant wars where the victor got to do whatever they so desired until, once again, something bad happened. However, the DOI stands for much more than that. It specifically marks the corruption that drives this vicious cycle as the problem to be addressed. It details in length how this problem pervades lives, both on a governing level and on a human level. In the end, it declares that this is the problem that the American people freely choose to stand together to fight. Just because they are starting this confrontation does not mean they’ll win. However, this problem is the problem they are choosing to engage in conflict, not because they want power, but because they want what is good for the people.

I chose this picture to represent these ideals because I feel like it represents the sentiment of acting for a better future. I took this picture while on vacation, and I feel like the gorgeous backdrop really represents something to look forward to. Similarly, while the DOI isn’t the victory in and of itself, it so confidently represents freedom that attaining it seemed/seems inevitable. It’s description of attaining freedom as something to aspire and work for is like the flight itself, since you’re never going to get there unless you actually try to do it.

My question is: just because we’ve made many advances towards attaining the level of freedom that we currently have, are we there yet? There still seem to be many problems in terms of human liberty, so how do we stack up right now in terms of actually being independent?

Taking Advantage on the Highest Level

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Kant’s ideals, compared to the other philosophers we’ve covered so far, seem to be the most idyllic. While he acknowledges the propensity of humans to err, the other philosophers take it as fact that it is simply a fundamental of reality – Kant philosophizes as if this behavior is a choice, not as if it happens no matter what. He encourages people to “act that you use humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, always at the same time as an end, never merely as a means”. To me, this assertion seems unrealistic but also worthwhile.

The idea of using others for your own gain is nothing new. Beyond happening on a small level, this type of behavior is pervasive, even in the highest level of government. While it’s a nice idea to rid the world of political corruption, as of right now the President of the United States is still holding his position exclusively because he’s taken advantage of his “party supporters” by making them his political scapegoats. Many influential republicans have taken the fall for him to secure his position as president, and as president the only thing he’s done is avoid catching fire for being corrupt. Trump hasn’t done anything for the country – he has only used his presidential power to avoid scandal. In spite of this, he was just acquitted by the senate of impeachment. Clearly, Kant’s philosophy does not realistically represent how things go down, even if it is a much better vision for how humans should interact. I think it’s a good idea to put it down on paper as philosophy, but to blindly ascribe to this system of belief because it seems like utopia is extremely naive.

https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2017/08/politics/trump-admin-departures-trnd/

Looking for Fortune

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Hi! My name is Ben and I am a 4th year Math/Econ major. I am from the SF Bay Area and decided to come to UCSD because I was hoping for a more beach-oriented lifestyle, though to what extent this has actually happened is up for debate. At this point, I’m trying to wrap up my undergraduate studies so I can apply for grad school.

My favorite book that we’ve read in Humanities so far is probably The Prince (or the Bible, even though I am not a Christian). I like the nuanced focus on individual success and even though I might not necessarily agree with every truth presented or personally identify with the specific royalty-centric narrative/character described, I feel like there’s a lot to learn in terms of what it takes to come out of a difficult situation intact.

This is one of my favorite songs right now: