Author Archives: NIKOLAOS KOLTSIDAS

See Y’all on Zoom

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When examining the ideals of the Enlightenment and Romanticism, I feel that one should not choose one perspective to adhere to, but rather a combination of the two. The Enlightenment perspective places value on thought and reasoning as it examines how other point of views and the role individuals play in the greater scheme of society. On the other hand, Romanticism places its value on the subjectivity of emotions and imagination where the individual’s experiences are explored such as dreams and desires. It also places a great emphasis on the relationship between the individual and nature. I believe a combination of these two perspectives is best because the Enlightenment ideals push the individual to consider reason when conducting themselves and Romanticism makes sure that we do not lose the essence of our natural, true selves.

Learning about both perspectives has impacted the way I view contemporary western culture today. When I examine the culture today, I can see that everyone tries to base their lives and decisions to be acceptable to society. For example, students pick their majors due to the importance of money as a necessity and the drive for human progression. This aligns with the Enlightenment ideals as reason and progression of human beings gears the individual and society to be shaped a certain way. Although this is true, I see some of the Romantic ideals too coming from examples such as YouTube. YouTube is a platform that allows individuals to show the world who they are and share their life experiences with others. This has impacted my view as I see that there is a way to align with the Romantic ideas but the Enlightenment ideal of reason proves a difficult contender for individualism.

The most interesting takeaway from this class for me was seeing how much the perspectives clashed though they both were rebellions against religion. Enlightenment and Romanticism ideals shared a similar opponent but their motivations did not align so well. It shows that preference and motivation plays into how an individual goes about in their life and in making their decisions.

Adoring This Song

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Most would describe my taste in music to cover a wide range of genres. I’m always open to listening to new songs and exploring new genres to better understand, not only the music, but also the people that listen to the music. As I got more into music, I found myself to be primarily listening to hip hop being that I like the hype of the community, the compilation of the beats and how they make you feel. However, I have an interest to see why it is that different people prefer different genres.

These past couple weeks though I’ve been exploring the pop rock genre through Harry Styles. My coworker has been obsessed with his music and has been playing his songs on our speakers at work. Most of the time, I’m too focused on getting my work done and miss some of the songs, but for some reason this song stuck out to me. Not only did I like the melody, but when I searched the lyrics and watched the music video I saw the message behind the song. Schiller describes that aesthetic experience harmonizes opposites such as our senses and our intellect. I felt like listening to the this song and watching the video not only puts you in a good vibes mood, but also makes you think about the lengths that you will go for someone or something that you love. The video along with the song also hints at the concept of letting things go if you love them even if their release may be of more benefit to them than you. I hope y’all enjoy the song that I have grown to vibe with because it has a beat that puts you in a toe-tapping mood.

What’s More American than Money?

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Everyone likes to have money. But have you ever thought to look at the other side of the bills to see what is printed back there? Well, on the back of the two dollar bill is a depiction of the Declaration of Independence which occurred in 1776. This scene is from the convention that was held where representatives from each of the 13 colonies/states came together and discussed declaring their independence from the British monarchy and adopting a new form of government. In this picture, it can be seen that the representatives came together to sign the document for the institution of their new form of government. One of the main reasons that the people of the United States wanted to separate themselves from the British empire and government was the fact that they were being treated unfairly. An example of this was the Tea Act which enforced a British tariff on imported tea, so the Americans retaliated through the Boston Tea Party where they protested this unfairness. They also felt that the king was a tyrant and that the monarchial form of government was not fit for the Americas for they should not have to succumb to a power that was across the ocean. In the Declaration of Independence, the authors and those who signed it made clear that they were declaring themselves to be a separate nation from Great Britain and laid out the injuries the king had made against the colonies. This document is a written expression that the people of the United States had the right and duty to overthrow and abolish a governing body if they see fit as to maintain their natural rights. These ideas aligned with those of Rousseau’s Social Contract. This is a very significant part of American history and is perhaps the reason for being on the back of the two dollar bill. So is that why everyone carries a two dollar bill in their wallets? Is the fact that its depiction on the back of this bill is what makes it more desirable being that it relates to our independence as a nation? What other important scenes in American independence could be on the back of dollars?

Are We Thinking or Is Technology Thinking For Us?

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For this weeks blog post (which I know is late but I’ll go for it anyways), I’d like to discuss the current phenomenon in the fallacies of using technology for doing things that we would rather not apply ourselves to do.

The mind is a complex tool that is given to us so that we can think about ideas and processes in order to progress. But how is technology hindering this use of our mind as a tool? I understand technology is advancing and has only become more integrated in our everyday lives but isn’t it a bit much sometimes? For example, look at navigational applications and software that is so commonly used today. You hop in the car and put in the address you want to go to and an app like Google Maps tells you the step by step directions to get there. This seems great with everything laid out for you but for some reason your directions tell you to take the next exit and you want to go across four lanes of traffic in hopes that you’ll make it. Why does this occur? There are literally signs telling us how far the exits are from the points of the sign but we ignore these signs because we’d rather rely on our GPS to tell us when/where to exit the freeway. I’m not saying this is the app’s fault but rather our dependency of technology over using our own minds to think about our next move. This is just one example of how technology has hindered the mode of human thinking.

“And our skills deprive us of the force and agility that necessity obliges him to acquire” (Discourse on Inequality, p. 68). If we rely on technology to do the thinking for us, then we lose the ability to think for ourselves.

https://phys.org/news/2018-08-always-on-technology-hinder-groups-ability.html

Wwwwwwhatisupeverybody

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My name is Nikolaos Koltsidas (Niko to make it easier). I am a second year Cognitive Science major specializing in Interaction and Design. I also plan to minor in Business. I was born and raised in San Diego and commute everyday from Chula Vista. You can also find me working as a barista at your local Tapioca Express. I have a healthy obsession over cars and love everything about them, especially modifying them. Some of my hobbies include working on cars, photography, and collecting shoes. I’m also trying to get into vlogging and YouTube so that’s soon to come.

For my favorite book in the HUM sequence, I’d have to go with The Essays by Michel de Montaigne. I found his essays to be interesting to me as he literally writes about and questions everything. Montaigne also seems to rant on and on about a subject while getting sidetracked and then bringing himself back to his main topic. I feel like his essays are in a pure and relatable form of how humans think.