John Locke and Rousseau

July 30 - August 1

Hello! How are you doing? I hope you are having a good summer vacation now.

This week, I leared John Locke and Rousseau in the classes. Let me show you what I studied about them.

First of all, I'm going to describe "the Labor Theory of Value" Locke proposed. It's the theory accounting that only mixing human labor with natural things has the value. In other words, he says that world is mostly valueless without expense of human labor. He also remakes "the State of Nature." We learn "the State of Nature" and how each pilosopher defines it. For paper, we are going to write about the difference between Hobbes and Locke comparing their definitions of the term. So, Locke says that the State of Nature is a state of perfect freedom and equality. And no one is allowed to harm another health, liberty, or possessions. There is no relation between superior and inferior. Man has to preserve himself there. He concludes that "men living together according to reason without natural authority on earth, without government that will judge between rights claims" is proper the State of Nature.

On Wednesday, we had a lecture on Rousseau’s “Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality among men.” In this book, he seeks for what is the origin of inequality among men. He accounts that there are two kinds of inequality. One is natural or physical inequality. Another is called moral or political equality. He believes that there is no inequality in his State of Nature. Then, how and when it emerged? He shows that inequality appeared because of civilization. The word "civilization" itself is appeared to be good, but it involves bad aspects. In this sense, Rousseau says that inequality emerged when people started to have their own properties.

*I went to the Pike Place Market and took pictures there. This is one of the famous sightseeing spots in Seattle. You can get information at http://www.pikeplacemarket.org/frameset.asp?flash=true

Thomas Hobbes

July 26 - July 27

We studied Thomas Hobbes and his idea for two days this week. In class, we usually listen to the lecture from 9:40 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. And we take 10 minutes break. After that, sometimes we make 3 or 4 groups and talk about the reading quiz which the instructor gives us. For the other days, we continue to listen to the lecture. He uses projection equipment, OHP, to show his lecture note to the students. So, we are feeling frustration to write down his memo on our notebooks as fast as possible. There are lots of things to copy. It is really hard to listen his talking carefully and writing down at the same time though it is good exercise to improve my English skill.

Let’s go back to the topic about Hobbes.
His interest is Realism which observes what we are, not what we ought to be. Like Plato, he also considered how politics ought to be understood, organized, or altered. But the big difference between two of them is whether focusing on an ideal state or focusing the real state. The latter is Hobbes’ view. The key word we have to keep in mind all the time when we read his books is “fear.” Fear lies in his every single concept because his emotion was filled with fear every time because of English Civil War (1642-1649).

Have you ever heard of following phrase? “Every man, against every man.” His striking concept is that people will inevitably be in a state of war unless we live in under government. In other words, he says that we will kill each other if there is no government.

As well as him, the philosophers whom we will deal with during the course argue how people would behave in absence of government. For Hobbes, he says that we are allowed to fight one another for self-preservation. There exists a war because of three of conflict among man. First one is competition for property, stuff, and gain. Second one is diffidence which comes from fear for our conservation. Third one is glory which comes from concern for reputation.
This, he says citizens should give up all of their rights to one person called sovereign. To do so, he says, we can stay alive and live a peaceful life.

By the way, I found that there is a man who came from Guam, and one man from Filliping, and one woman from Ethiopia. As you know now, this is one of the differences between a school in the US and that of Japan. And one more big difference is that some students speak up their mind or questions in class. They never hesitate to expose their thinking or questions. The instructor seems to be a little puzzled their relentless questions.

*The picture on the left side:I took this picture in the HUB where most students have a lunch. You can eat pizza, salad,chinese food, and hot dogs or hamburgers at Subway.

*The picture on the right side: You can see Mount Rainer from the University on a sunny day.　

Plato

July 23 - July 25

Hi, everyone! How are you doing?
Today, I would like to tell you what I learned in the classes.
During last three days, we covered the Republic written Plato.
I have found lots of new things from the lecture.

First of all, we studied background of Socrates and Plato.
Socrates is a teacher of Plato and a first philosopher to focus on questions of ordinary living.
And he is believed to go barefoot all year around and could stay up for days in conversation and contemplation. Moreover, it is interesting to know that he spent most of his time in the public market to talk to people there. The characteristic of the book is dialogue. The use of dialogue tell us about philosophy is a part of daily life in Athens. Such kind of conversation was held not just in academic classrooms but in everywhere. Thus, everyone in the city could meet Socrates and talk with him even in a market. By the way, he was considered to be a social gadfly. Gadfly means someone who annoys other people by criticizing them. In contrast, Plato who wrote the Republic came from two prominent, politically-oriented Athenian families in Periclean era. In the Republic, he recorded ideas and life of Socrates for posterity. And he thought that the death of Socrates was am absurd and 'unjust' tragedy. That is why he stuck to 'justice' throughout the book.

The book overview is that Socrates seeks ideal society to find out the answer for his question, "What is the best way to live?" Above all, the question "how the state can be reorganized to realize the best qualities in human beings" becomes the theme of his central work in the book. In order to pursuit for his question, he creates the ideal state and try to discover the answer in it. Also, he thinks that there is a profound connection between the nature of society and the nature of individuals who populate that society. From his view, in the end, good society is constructed from good citizens.

First of all, I will try to show you how an ideal society is made up. The aim of an ideal society is not to exclusive happiness of any one class of citizens. Before building an ideal society, he states that just people live better than unjust person. Therefore, he also accounts that just society is the perfect one to live for. Then, what is justice or injustice? How and where are they generated? Socrates and the audience argue these topics as well. By the way, one of the elements for a good society is each citizen doing their own occupations fitted to their own innate faculties. For example, if your innate capacity is fitted farmer, you should be a farmer. In contrast, if your innate nature is fitted a ruler, you should be definitely a ruler. However, who can judge who is fitted what job? This question was raised by one student in the class. And does everyone agree with this idea? In the book, Socrates introduces the audience to the story which is expected to persuade citizens just to do their own jobs. The story is called "Myth of the Metals." Let me show you this story because I got interested in this allegory. Certain people were literally born from the soil, partly from Hesiod's account of the Golden, Silver, and Bronze races. The rulers, the soldiers and the whole community were down inside the earth. Then, they were sent up to this world. Because they were born from the same soil, they all are brothers. But the god mixed gold into the person who is fit to rule. This person, therefore, has the most precious quality. Next, He put silver into the soldiers, and iron and brass in the farmers and craftsmen. And now, since they came from one stock, their children are supposed to be the same as their parents. However, this story tells us sometimes a golden parent may have a silver child or a silver parent may have a golden one, and so on with regard to the other combinations. Even if an iron and brass child’s parents are gold, he or she ought to be a ruler or auxiliary. Such is a story. This story is said to be a noble lie in a class. Anyhow, Socrates proposes using this story to convince them not try to become out of their natural ability. To do this, he thinks that an ideal society can be constructed. One student related this story to an aptitude test. I think it is interesting to tie up the story with the modern issue. Although Hesiod's story show you one can become a ruler or a farmer based on his or her innate capability, it ignore his or her hope what he or she want to be.

Socrates suggested that a philosopher or a ruler who gained philosophical idea should govern a society to construct a good . And he adds that a ruler should be well educated and nurtured from his childhood.

I found it interesting to know that Socrates or Plato's ideas are regarded as a radical way of thinking nowadays.

*The picture on the left side:This building is 'The University Book Store.' The UW students buy their textbooks there. Also, there are other books, stationeries, and UW goods such as T-shirt and cups.
*The picture on the right side:This is a bus called Metro. Especially, the UW students can ride free on the buses. When you get on a bus, you have to show U-PASS sticker which is attached to the back of your Husky Card(student ID card). It is very convenient to go anywhere you want to if you take a course here.

Thank you !!

Thank you very much for your wonderful gift on my birthday.
I have never dreamed that I could come to Seattle again, and I would become 20 years old here.
Also, I have never dreamed that I would be celeblated by all of you on the web.
I am so pleased with your surprising gift, cool music and amazing Ichiro.
Again, I want to express my gratitude to Yuri, Ayumi, Mayu, Tae, Yumi, and suguru!!
I love you!

Misaki

On the first day of class

On July 19, b-term started!
My course begins at 9:40 and ends at 11:50. It is so long that we take a break for 10 minutes at about 11:00. 21 students are enrolled at this point, but there were about 15 students there.
The ration between men and wemen is half. The instructer is a graduate student. He seems to be around 27 or 28 years old. To my surprise, he speaks Japanese!! It's because he has lived in Japan for 3 years as a ALT. In addition, there is a Japanese girl in the same class. So, he spoke to us when she and I was talking each other in Japanese. It really surprised me.

By the way, we got the syllabus of the course. And we looked over it on the first class.
On the first page, 'Course Description and Objectives' are illustrated. It says, for example, "This course is a survey introduction to some major texts in (primarily Western) political theory from the ancient to the modern period. No prior experience is required, although an interest in politics and curiosity about political idea is highly recommended." Survey introduction means that we will pick up some good sense in books. It doesn't mean we will cover all pat of books.

So, texts and materials we will read are:
Plato, The Republic
Hobbes, Leviathan
Locke, Two Treaties of Government
Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
Burke, Reflection on the Revolution in France
Marx, Communist Manifesto
Mill, On Liberty
Ghandi, Selected Political Writings
Barber, Jihad v. McWord.
The coming week, we are going to study Plato and Hobbes.

According to the syllabus, this course is also writing intensive and is composed of one major assigment, a weekly analytic journal, short in-class essays/quizzes/group presentations, participation, and a final exam. First paper is due August 13. Paper is going to be 5 page paper.
On each Morning, we have to hand in an alalytic journal. It is going to be 1 page long. This will cover the material for that week. The instructer told us that journal is for making a habit of questioning. In this course, it is the most important thing to think what I think about some philosopher's statements. Realted to this, the instructer said that do not dismiss while we are reading the books. Instead, encourage disagreed opinion if you disagrees with the opinion in the book. Today, July 20, we were given the subject of the first journal.
Let me show you the content. "Imagine that you have boarded a bus and have just settled in for a long journey down the West Cast from rainy seattle to san Diego. Prior to departure an old man in a toga which is a long loose piece of clothing worn by people in ancient Rome sits next to you. He introduces himself as a Socrates and starts to ask you questions." Considering this situation, we have to imagine what he asks me about. As he does this, how do I feel about sitting next to him for the next 36 hours? And why do I feel this way?
For writing up this journal, we need to read the assigned part of the Repblic in advance. I will show you my answer after I finished writing it.

Misaki

Victorian Era

Through reading some books written by John Stuart Mill, I realized that I need to know the British history first. Some of philosophers we will take up in the course were British and Britain had a great influence on a lot of countries nowadays. Thus, learning British history will help you know most of history in other countries. If you don't know any of them, you will be lost definitely. However, I'm lost now at this point. So, I need the knowledge at any rate.

John Stuart Mill lived from 1806 to 1873. On 25 March in 1807, Britain abolished the slave trade. It ended more than 200 years of slave trading. The Abolition of Slavery Act, passed in 1833, freed all slaves in the British empire and provided for compensation for their owners. Above all, I want to show you Victoria era because Mill lived in this era. Victorian Britain starts in 1837 and ends in 1901. It starts when Victoria comes to the throne after the death of William IV. She became queen at the age of 18 after the death of her uncle, William IV. She reigned for more than 60 years, longer than any other British monarch. Her reign was a period of significant social, economic and technological change, which saw the expansion of Britain's industrial power and of the British empire. However there were riots over the right to vote and the repeal of the Corn Laws, which had been established to protect British agriculture during the Napoleonic Wars in the early part of the 19th century. Moreover, the country was connected by an expansive network of railway lines in this era. So, small, previously isolated communities were exposed and entire economies shifted as cities became more and more accessible.
There is much more things to study.

*The building in the picture is the Smith Hall in which my classroom is located.

Locker and Materialism

Hello, everyone. How are you doing? I hope you succeed in your exams. Today, I rented a locker at Husky Union Building (HUB). Let me tell you about the HUB in the beginning. According to the website (http://depts.washington.edu/sauf/hub/), “HUB brings together the campus community at the University of Washington. It is a place to gather with friends, watch a movie, study, get involved with a student organization, learn a new skill, grab something to eat, or just relax. The HUB offers Wifi access throughout the building in the meeting rooms and common areas.” As you can see now, we usually have lunch there and study on second floor thanks to the access to the Internet. The HUB Lockers are located on the Basement level of the HUB next to the HUB Games Area. I rented one smaller locker for $10 for entire summer quarter, b-term. There is larger one close to smaller one. If you want to rent a locker, you can go to the HUB information desk first. And you can ask the staff there to rent smaller or lager locker. However, you have to buy a key for your locker at the book store before using it. Renting a locker will be helpful to you.

Next, I'm going to tell you materialism. Through studying Hobbes, I noticed there is the other key term for me to understand. It is materialism. In philosophy, it is the view that the world is entirely composed of matter. Philosophers now tend to prefer the term physicalism. Materialism in this philosophical sense emerges in the modern period in Hobbes's Leviathan.

State of Nature

Hello, everyone. Five days have passed since I've arrived at Seattle. Sunshine is so strong that we feel very hot here.
Now, I'm at Asian Library where thousands of hundreds of Asian books are stored. There are, of course, Japanese books in the library. This library is the most comfortable for me to stay for long time when I study thanks to the atmosphere.

Today, I want to tell you about "State of Nature." (自然状態 in Japanese) It is a term in political philosophy. Some philosophers such as Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau argued this. State of nature is a condition without government. Thus, to consider this condition will help us thinking of the reason why government exists and why it is needed for human beings. This term was first suggested by Hobbes in his book, Leviathan. I think some of you know following phrase, "war of every man against every man." (万人の万人に対する闘争 in Japanese) That is, Hobbes believed that human beings without a government would behave "badly" towards one another because he also believed that human beings is allow to do anything to preserve their own liberty or safety. I think he stated a government is needed for basic security which brings comfortable, sociable, civilized life.

In addition, he assumed each people have a right to preserve their own lives. This right is defined by him as "the right of Nature." (自然権 in Japanese) I suppose we will deal with this topic in the course in order to discuss the need of a government.

[Description of a picture]
ABOVE:This is the Asian library.You can borrow book at the front counter in the picture.

BELOW:This is a picture of Suzzallo & Allen Libraries. It opens from 8:00 to 22:00 through Monday to Thursday.

Hello from Seattle

Hi. How are you doing? I'm in Seattle now and writing blog at the cafe called ZOKA CAFE sitting with Lee-sensei at the same table. We are doing OK.

We, Lee-sensei, Yuto and me, left from Sendai at about 9:00 a.m. for Tokyo. And we arrived at Tokyo station at about 11:30. Then, we waited for thirty minutes to get on Narita Express which took us to the Narita airport. It took for about thirty minutes to the airport.

There, our baggages were inspected if we had a illigal things in a suitcase by the staff at the airport. To my surprise, I was asked to stop for checking my suitcase because I was looked weird! And a elderly man started to open it and searched if there were any dangerous things to bring to the airplane. I could not believe my eyes because I had no such things in my suitcase. And there were absolutely no such things in it. The staff found out it after five minutes.

After that, we could get our "boarding pass" from the machine and handed our suitcase to the staff. We should hand a suitcase unlocked. For getting boarding pass, we had to simply hold our passports over a scanner. And then, we could get "boarding pass" from the machine. It was very easy to use. Because the elderly woman behind us, however, did not know how to use it, Yuto showed her how to get "boarding pass." After that, we changed money from yen to dollor at Mizuho Ginko.

By the way, our airplane was Northwest Airlines. My seat was "31-D". Lee-sensei and Yuto sat far away from me. Chinese man was sitting to my right side. And Korean man was sitting to the left side. I could know where they came from because Chinese man was talking Chinese with his wife and Korean man was reaing the book written in Korean and was speaking to the air-hostess he is Korean. It's annoying that the Chinese reclined on my right side of shoulder when he was sleeping. I just had been waiting the timing when he changed his sleeping position.
It took nine and half hours to get to San Feancisco. It was little sad that I could not see the view of a city in San Francisco from the airplane because I sat in the middle seat. At the San Francisco airport, we spent our time waiting to get on the Alaska airplane. We did not go out of the airport. We had a cup of coffee, good tasted, there. Yuto fell asleep onto the chair while reading the book. Lee-sensei and I were talking about the woman behind us. Finally, the Alaska airplane took off at 2:00 p.m.

Alaska airplane is a little smaller than that of Northwest. And three seats are placed on right and left side. I had a cup of orange juice in the plane. Since I could sit close to a window, I enjoyed seeing the view above the city of Seattle. Actually, I was sleeping almost one and half hours on the plane.

We arrived at Seattle-Tacoma International airport at around 3:30 p.m. While we were waiting for taking back our baggages, A father whose son was Yuto's roommate last summer came to pick him up. As for Lee-sensei and I, Lee-sensei's friend, Charlas, came to pick us up and gave us a ride to his house. So now, we are staying at his house which is close to Green Lake. (http://www.cityofseattle.net/parks/parkspaces/greenlak.htm This website is sbout Green Lake)
The room is very comfortable to live and sleep. I appreciate him offering his room.

However, we are looking for a house we can stay at. Though I will leave for the dorm on 18 July, Lee-sensei will live a house with the other person after I move to the dorm. She is going to share a house with two or four people they are really new to her. I heared that it is common here to share one house with four or five men or women to live for paying law price. I hope we will be living on a new house tomorrow.

Thank you FUJIYAMA members writing me a message card and some of you who sent me an email before I left for Seattle!!

Misaki

On liberty

John Stuart Mill is a British Philosopher. He argues "liberty".

His famous argument is that harm principle. The harm principle holds that each individual has the right to act as he wants, unless these actions do not harm others. If the action is self-regarding, that is, if it only directly affects the person undertaking the action, then society has no right to intervene, even if it feels the actor is harming himself.

Wars of the Three Kingdoms

Who is Thomas Hobbes? He was very affected by Wars of the Three Kingdoms (sometimes known as the Wars of the Three Nations) between 1639 and 1651. His work, Leviahan, was written in 1651. After he experienced the wars, he thought over how the nation could stay carm and wrote his idea about it on the book.

"Three" in three kingdoms means Scotland, Ireland and England. The best known of these conflicts is the English Civil wars. The English Civil War was a really profound political event in seventeenth century Europe. During this period, the Stuart kingdoms of Scotland, England and Ireland, and the Principality of Wales were ripped apart by religious and political unrest. It was also part of a wider struggle between Catholics and Protestants in Europe. Oliver Cromwell, by the way, played a key role in the war.

Leviathan

I will read during the course Leviathan written in 1651 and written by Thomas Hobbes who was an English philosopher.

He acclaims that human beings are not naturally good but selfish. People behave just what he or she want to do if they are at natural state. He tried to describe the human society without a government or a rule. And he concluded that people would fight against one another in order to pursue their self-interests. Then, he stated that the way to avoid such cruel situstion is that to have commonwealth.

Misaki

Socrates could not convince Plato's brothers any more, he tried to prove just is superior to unjust using a city as a model. He thought it would be better to clearfy what just is in a city rather than in a man. From then, he started to talk about why a city arose.

And what they found is each people should do one thing, one job inherited by nature.

Misaki

Justice or Injustice

In summary, the core argument in the Republic is about justice. Throughout the book, main points is what the virtue justice is and why a person should be just. Now, we are going to track the discussion about them.

In the first part of the book, it says that returning debts owed, and helping friends while harming enemies are justice. But Socrates think the definition is not adequate. In the next step, one of philosophers says justice is the benefit for strongers more than anything else. Socrates does not agree with his idea. After some discussion, Socrates succeedes in persuading him to admit his statement was wrong.

After that, Plato's two brothers challenge Socrates to define justice. One of Plato's brother, Glaucon, uses the legend in which a man discovered a ring that gave him the power to become invisible. Glaucon argue that every man would do unjust things if he had the opportunity like that. Thus, no man would be just by his nature. Graucon's statement is that the just person is forced to be just because he is just afraid of doing injustice for fear of being punished. He defend the position that the just life is better than the unjust life with the legend.

The story continues on and on. I will show you the next time.

Four constitutions

Socrates and other philosophers argue the nature of the good city. And they also try to find the nature of a bad city to know whether a man living in a good city is happiest or a man living in a bad city is not.

Socrates points out four constitutions as a example for a bad city. One is Cretan or Laconian constitution. The second is oligarchy. Next is democracy. And tyranny is the fourth. They try to seek human character in each constitution because there must be as many oforms of human character as there are of constitutions. Every conversation in the book is intended to clearfy the meaning of justice and whether people who has it can really lead happiest life or not.

Misaki

Allegory of the cave

The important thing for allegory of the cave is that the big difference between a man who saw the truely real thing with his eye out of the cave and men who are in the cave and believed that the shadow they saw was truely real thing.

It is written that the man who went out of the cave would go through any sufferings rather than share prisoner's beliefs and live as they do. In addition, if the man went back down into the cave, his eyes would be filled with darkness coming suddenly from the place filled with light. And then, the prisoners would laugh at the man because he could not see anything in the cave though the prisoners could see clearly.

It suggests it will take time to need flexibility to become comfortable with the environment. However, it will not be easy. And it will not be possible to share thoughts between the man and the prisoners.

Allegory of the cave

Today, I'm showing the most famous part in the Republic. It is about allegory of the cave. Let me tell you the story Socrates says in the book about the effect of education and that of the lack of it.

Imagine human beings living in an underground, their cavelike house. They have been living there since childhood and have not moved from the same point. What they could see was the wall in front of them. Above and behind them, fire is burning. And between prisoners and the fire, there is a road. Along this road, people are carrying artifacts such as statues of people and other animals made of stone or wood. Some people are talking carrying statues. The other is silent.

The problem for the prisoners is that they could see only the shadows of people and the statues they are carrying casted on the wall. For that reason, they would take it for true reality.

One day, a man was allowed to see the fire itself and the statues itself. At first, he would not be able to see them because it was too bright for him. So, he would believe the shadow he used to see had been easy to see and ,thus, more truly real. This suggests he would be unable to see a single one of the things said to be truly real. Moreover, he would need time to get adjusted to see the truly real things above the cave.

On the contrary, a man he has got adjusted to see the fire with his eyes and known what the truly real things are would not want to go back to the cave and live with the prisoners who still did not believe the shadows were the real things. And he also would not be able to see the thing in the cave because it was too dark to see.

Have you ever seen the picture of Gandhi or him on the TV program? If so, do you remember what he was wearing?

In 1917, he travelled all over India. He saw the terrible poverty of the people there. He saw the dirty clothes of women by chance. And he told her to clean the clothes. However, she said to Gandhi's wife who was also taking a trip with him that "See, I have no other clothes. I have put on the only piece of cloth I have! How am I to wash it?" Gandhi was really moved at her statement. Then, he decided to be simplar still from this point though he was stll in simple clothes. He gave up wearing a cap and a shirt. Instead, he wore only a lion-cloth. His compassion appeared in his wearing.

Gandhi's originality as a thinker and political leader appears in his theory and practice of nonviolence. He was inspired by Leo Tolstoy in course of creating the concept of nonviolence. Leo Tolstoy was a Russian writer and philosopher as well as pacifist Christian anarchist and educational reformer. He is also well known for his idea of nonviolent resistance. The book I'm reading now says "he believed that to return injury for injury does harm both to ourselves and our enemy."

Gandhi shows the character of nonviolence in the book. He says that permanent good can never be the outcome of untruth and violence. And there are lots of his remarks about nonviolence. I have to know the background of emergence of his idea, nonviolence however.

Gandhi, a charkha

Hi. I'm writing for yesterday's blog because I could not access to the Internet yesterday at my home. I'm sorry about this.

By the way, I'm going to write about "a charkha", a spinning wheel, which is a tool Gandhi used for his teaching. This is also a symbol of Indian Independence Movement and drawn on the earlier versions of the Flag of India. If you get interested in it, please go to http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/India1931flag.png and take a look at the flag.

He claims a charkha brings the India freedom. What he wished using a charkha as a symble of his thought was that everyone, rich or poor or in between, should have access to food, shelter and clothing in a self-reliant way. If not doing this, he believed Indians would be enslaved because they could not help themselves living on their own. As result, by doing this, he hoped that people in India can be independent.

Misaki

the Republic, Book 6

In the Republic, it is also written about a philosopher. Let me show you what they talk about him.

Socrates thinks a philosopher should become a king and govern a city. But, his idea will be disregarded, and he will come under severe criticism. In order to persade people who is against the idea, Socrates starts to define a philosopher. If he can make clear, those who is not for Socrates may get to know his theory.

First, Socrates asserts the philosophers are "the ones who are able to grasp what is always the same in all respects." Second, he says the philosophers "must hate falsehood and have a natural affection for the truth." Third, the philosophers must be temperate. On the contrary, they should not be money-loving and coward. Moreover, they have to be good at remembering.

Next, Socrates moves to the other topic which is how the good philosophers must be educated.
I found that he discuss the philosophers and provides me with the knowledge of philosophy and a philosopher.

Misaki

Today, I enjoyed reading the book, and found interesting conversation in it.

First, Socrates and Graucon, Plato's older brother, mention gender role. It is interesting because the problem is always a centre of concern among people in modern world as well as in Ancient Greece. They says each one has to do the one job for which he was naturally suited despite of sex. Thus, women can share by nature any jobs because the various natural capasities are distributed between men and women.

Second, they lay down the prohibition of privatization. They confirm that it is the greatest thing for a city to bind it together. How it can be come true is "sharing pleasure and pain bind it together when all the citizens feel more or less the same joy or pain at the same gains or looses."
So, if people are going to real gurdians, they should not have private houses, land, or any other posession. From this, I came to know the meaning of sharing in the public.

Misaki

Hi. Today, let me make sure what justice is and how it means to a city.

The Philosophers discuss how a city can be established. And they found justice is by no means the element to form a city. Then, what they laid down and often repeated is that "each person must practice one of the pursuits in the cuty, the one for which he is naturally best suited." Lets's take the farmares in a city as example. If they put on gorgeous clothe and wear gold jewelry, and tell them to work in their farms whatever they want, a farmer won't be a farmer. Likewise, any of the others won't be characterized to the tarue type. So, please consider if it was a leader of a city. If the guardians of a city quit his work and just pretend to be, they will destroy the city. This is the point why Socrates states people should concentrate on one thing for establish a good city.

Misaki

"State of Nature". It is the key idea when reading Rousseau's works. I could not figure out it yet. He praise state of nature and see civilized society as inferior one. And he states the difference between wild animals and human beings.

I will keep on reading his works .

Misaki

Rousseau's idea, Inequality

Jean-Jacques Rousseau is a French philosopher and a composer in 18th century. In this summer, I will read one of his works called "Discourse on the Origin and Foundation of Inquality Among Men." His political idea influenced the French Revolution.

Human beings was once in the state of nature in which there is no inequality because those who were in the state of nature had almost no relationship with each other. Moreover, Rousseau sffirmed those people were born pure. Thus, they knew neither vice or virtue. Anyway, he proclaims that there are two types of inequality. One is natural or physical inequality since it is established by nature and consists in the difference of age, health, bodily strength, and qualities of mind or soul. Another is called moral or political inequality His theory starts from this point of view.

Misaki

Justice

Today I found that what Socrates said about justice in a nation and in a individual.

Socrates and the other philosophers draw the conclusion that justice is doing one's own work and not meddling with what is not one's own. The reason is based on what they discussed before. They discussed it is certainly beneficial and proper for a city to let people work for one particular job and not to let him devote energy to another work. So, if he is a farmer, he should provide food for the rest of citizens and spend time and labor to provide food to be shared by them all. Abode all, each of us differs somewhat in nature from the others. On the contrary, if a carpenter attempts to make shoes although this is not him major work, it does not make sense and do have influence to their life in a city.

I may not support the idea raised in the book. However, what they state is that to do their own work in a city is justice and makes the city just.

Misaki

Plato in the book tells us how a leader in a nation has to be grown up and what they should acquire.

He states the both, music training and physical training. And he emphasized the harmony between music training and physical training is the most important thing to educate people. Why are they so important? They are to treat body and soul. Both traing affects on the other traing. When I was reading it, I came up with the idea "Bunbu Ryodo" in Japanese. It means that to be both in academics and sports. Then, I thought one big thought perpetuates all over the world no matter what the nation, people, life is.


Misaki

I'm sorry that I didn't write any contents for today's blog. I'll edit later.

Gandhi's Satyagraha

Today, I got interested in the Gandhi's two types of theories; Satyagraha and Swaraj. So, I would be happy if I can convey you what I found about him. I will focus on Satyagraha in this blog.

The term, Satyagraha, is tha word which represents Gandhi's thought or belief during the fhight for discrimination in South Africa. The biggest incident he faced was "Black Act" in 1906. The Government in South Africa issued an order that all Indians — men, women and children should register themselves with Government by giving their full finger-prints and get their permits. He who fails to do so, will be fined, imprisoned or deported from the country. So, Gandhi declared: "This is an insult to the Indian community. We must fight this 'Black Act' in a non-violent way. The Government might use force, arrest us, send us to jail, and prosecute us, but we must face all this without resistance." He called this "Satyagraha". Actually, this means "force of truth and love". To be specific, Satyagraha avoids not only external physical violence but also violence of spirit. In addition, Gandhi stated Satyagraha includes the attitude to respect for the opponent. Related to this, Martin Luther King Jr. interpreted his idea as a spirit of cutting off the chain of hate. His concept of Satyagraha are nowappriciated in all over the globe.

See you,

Misaki

Book 2 in the Republic

Today, I'm showing you the content of Book 2 in the Republic.

Related to the last blog about "Book 2 in The Republic", we found that some philosophers, especially Adeimantus, believe and tries to conceive Socrates that "No one is just willingly. Through cowardice or old age or some other weakness, people do indeed object to injustice. But it is obvious that they do so only because they lack the power to do injustice." Continuously, Adeimantus do demand Socrates to demonstrate "How justice - because of its very self - benefit its possessor, and how injustice harm him." He emphasizes he doesn't need to hear "justice is stronger than injustice."

For his request, Socrates plans to argue justice associated with cities in order to find out if the larger entity is similar in form to the smaller one.

For the next discussion between Socrates and Adeimantus, they think over why a city come about and why justice and injustice come to exist in a city.

See you,

Misaki

Gandhi, His Early Life

Today, I read the book about Gandhi. I'm going to show you what I found in the book.

He was born on October 2, 1869, into a Hindu family. His father, Kaba Gandhi, was an influential political figure. His mother is depicted as faultless. Gandhi said crucial influence on his life came from his mother. By the way, he describes himself as "very shy" and "mediocre student". And he was feeling fears most. He says in his autobiography that "I was coward. I used to be haunted by the fear of thieves, ghosts ans serpents. I did not dare to stir out of doors at night. Darkness was a terror to me." One of the reasons why he was such a weak boy is because of his early arranged marriage at thriteen years old. From this time, courage and fearlessness became hard sought virtues.

Gandhi summarizes central values that he had formed by age eighteen as he prepared to leave India for England. He left for London to study law in September 1888. He believes his cowardice vanished before the desire to go to England. He started his life in London at age nineteen determined to "be clumsy no more, but to try to become polished." He struggled to be a member of sophisticated culture abroad as he suggests he spent his money on buying an evening suit in the centre of fashionable life in London. He wasted ten minutes every day before a huge mirror, watching himself arranging his tie and parting his hair in the correct fashion.

There are some decisive events in his life to form his philosophy. The story about him will continue for the next time I write blog.

See you,

Misaki

Socrates

Today, l'm going to show you brief introduction for Plato's teacher, Socrates.

Socrates was an ancient Greek philosopher and regarded as the father of political philosophy and ethics or moral philosophy. There is little source of information about him. So, Plato contributed to provide Socrates's story with us. Socratic Method is best rememberd as his theory. This is called method of inquiry. In this method, a series of question are supposed to help a person or group to determine their underlying beliefs and the extent of their knowledge. He once said that
"I know you won't believe me, but the highest form of Human Excellence is to question oneself and others."

See you,

Misaki

Book 2 in the Republic

Today, we are going to keep on looking at the Book 2 in the Republic.

After Graucon finished arguing about his opinion about the origin of justice, his older brother Adeimantus became involved in the discussion. In the book, he states "When fathers speak to their sons to give them advice, they say that one must be just, as do all those who have others in their charge. But they do not praise justice itself, only the good reputation it brings. This is because if we are reputed to be just, then, as a result of our reputation, we will get political offices, good mariages and so on."

Next, He tells Socrates that there is another kind of argument about justice and injustice to consider. That is "justice and temperance are fine things, but difficult and onerous, while intemperance and injustice are sweet and easy to acquire and are only shameful by reput and convention."

In addition, he continues "there is no advantage in my being just if I am not also thought just. If it is true, I must surely turn entirely to it."

It seems there is no explanation to support the idea injustice is much more benefitable and good than justice. Thinking of this sort of topic is really important and meaningful to us, the young to consider how they should live their life from now. I think it is the very issue which have an influence on us.

See you,

Misaki

Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Burke and J.S.Mill

Today, I want to introduce five well know philosophers in the world who are also going to be our main people to be analyzed in my course.

First, I will tell you Thomas Hobbes. He was an English philosopher from the late 16 century to the late 17 century. He is today best remembered for his work on political philosophy. However, he contributed to the other fields of study,too. Do you know his famous book? It's Leviathan which is just the book we will read in the class, I think. And someone else, we will study John Locke and his work called Two Treaties of Civil Government, Rousseau and his work called Discourse on the Orgin and Foundation of Inquality Among Men. There are two more philosophers we will serch for. They are Burke and his work named Reflections on the Revolution in France and J.S. Mill and his work called On Liberty.

For further information, I will write about them later.

See you,

Misaki

Book 2 in the Republic

Today, we're going to look at Book 2 in the Republic. Glaucon who is Plato's older brother and Socrates argues about what justice is and what the orgin of justice is.And in the last part of Book 2, Socrates tries to think over justice from the perspective of what it means to a nation.

Glaucon states what he want to hear from Socrates is "what justice and injustice are, and what power each has when it is just by itself in the soul." Additionally, he explains how justice is considered to be and what the origins are. Second, he argues that all persons are unwilling to practice it and feel they are forced to do it. Third, he argues that there is no reason to deny their acts.

Later, he explains the origin of justice from his viewpoint. It is the laws or convenants which people promised not to do injustice to others or to suffer it. Because they know that to do injustice is naturally good and to suffer injustice bad, and badness of suffering it far exceeds the goodness of doing it, they come to an agreement not to do such thing each other. All in all, he asserts that people practice justice unwillingly because they lack the power to do injustice. Thus, justice is not a positive one but a negative one.

To get to understand the book is really hard to me. But I hope my knowledge of the book will become deeper.

Thank you for reading my blog.
See you,

Misaki

Book 1 in the Republic

Hello. I want to describe synopsis of Book 1 in the Republic today to understand interactive flow.

The story starts when Socrates meets Polemarchus and his aged father, Cephalus in Book 1. They discuss the burdens of old age. Socrates says "I enjoy engaging in discussion with the very old. I think we should learn from them - since they are like people who have traveled a road that we too will probably have to follow - what the road is like, whether rough and difficult or smooth and easy." Concering the burdens of ald age, Cephalus tells the real cause is not old age but the way people live. He continues "If they are orderly and contented is only moderately onerous." The word "onerous" means work or a responsibility that is onerous is difficult and worrying or makes you tired.

After the converstaion, Cephalus hands over the argument about the definition of justice to Polemarchus and goes off to a sacrifice to the gods.

Socrates and Polemarchus keeps on talking about justice. Polemarchus emphasizes Justice is what is advantageous for the stronger. He supports his idea with two separate arguments.

I would like to move to Book 2 in the next time.

See you,

Misaki

the Prince

What I'm going to tell you today is about the Prince written by Machiavelli.

The Prince is unique. It is not because it explains how to take control of other lands and how to control them, but because it gives advice that often disregards all moral and ethical rules. It is different from other books about creating and controlling principalities because it doesn't tell you what an ideal prince or principality which princes are the most successful in obtaining and maintaining power. In addition, his best known remark is that "mokuteki no tame nara syudan wo erabanai" in Japanese. Because of this assertion, the book is recognized extreme. This influential book explain methods to secure and maintain political power. And it simply describes the means how individuals have tried to take control and to maintain power.

See you,

Misaki

Machiavelli and Medici

Today, I discovered the relationship between Machiavelli and Medici. Machiavelli is a key person in the field of Political Theory as well as Plato. And his work "the Prince" has been recognized as the masterpiece till today. It is translated into Japanese, kunsyuron.

He was an Italian political philosopher, musician, poet and romantic comedic playwright. By the way, the book was written for the Medici, and he showed them how the prince maintain
the power toin an attempt to make the country more stable.

See you,

Misaki

Gandhi

Hello. I would like to illustrate Gandhi's biography briefly today in my blog.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869 in the town of Porbandar. He was the youngest of five children. His moither appers to be more influential on him than his father did. She is described as a faultless. In his childhood, he was very shy and mediocre student. When he set out for England to study law in Septenber 1888. Though going abroad to England is really rare, his family were willing to help him with advancing his interests in terms of finance. He started to get involved in English society, determined to "be clumsy no more, but to try to become polished" at age nineteen. He was trying hard to become English gentleman. However, this idea would be questionable to himself.

I will tell you the rest of the story in the next time.

See you,

Misaki

Hi. Today, I found a little thing about Machiavelli and the Renaissance.

Modern political thought begins when Niccolo Machiavelli wrote the Prince. It marks new period of history. To completely understand why it do so, it seems we need to know the background in that era.

The era is called the Renaissance. It begins with Francesco Petrarch's discovery in 1345 of a copy of Cicero's letter's to Attics regarding to this field of study. The remarkable thing about his letter is, firstly, it is written in Lattin. Secondly, the letter caused thought about time and change. Not only language but also institutions, clothes, currency weights and measures, everything, had changed since Cicero's time. Third, the letter led a questioning of Christian values. The values which emphasized pride and courage rather than humility and guilt citizenship rather than salvation were very different from Christianity.

See you,

Misaki

the Book: Modern Political Thought

I've got three textbooks at last! Today, I'm going to show you one of the books titled "Modern political Thought" written by David Wootton. This book provides an introduction to modern political philosophy from Machiavelli to Nietzsche. It is including other philosophers like Hobbes, Locke, Hume, Rousseau, Smith, Burke, Kant, Bentham, Mill, Hegel and Marx. I'm exited to know of all of them in this summer. However, I don't have a confidence in understanding such a many people. But I just have to try to read the textbooks right now.

See you,

Misaki

Gandhi's Principals

Today, I found that Gandhi's principles: truth, nonviolence, vegetarianism, brahmacharya, simplicity and faith. I will look at respective subject and know what the word means.

After knowing his thoughts, philosophical thought, I want to be able to apply them to our life today for any purpose. In other words, I don't want to end up just understanding what he was thinking in the past through the study for him. However, I want to make them practical.

I'm sorry for not improving my understanding of his philosphy today.

See you,

Misaki

Mahatma Gandhi: Selected Political Writings

Today, let me tell you the other widely known man in history. His name is Mahatma Gandhi. The reason why I am going to take him up is because I am expected to read his work titled "Selected Political Writings" in the course.

Synopsis is described in the website at Amazon. It says that "Based on the complete edition of his works, this new volume presents Gandhi's most important political writings arranged around the two central themes of his political teachings: satyagraha (the power of non-violence) and swaraji (freedom). Dennis Dalton's general introduction and headnotes highlight the life of Gandhi, set the readings in hisorical context, and provide insight into the conceptual framework of Gandhi's political theory."

Mahatma Gandhi lived from October2, 1869 to January 30 , 1948. He is a prime political and spiritual leader in India and the Indian Independence Movement. His birthday is celebrated as Gandhi Jayanti which is a national holiday in India. It proves how much he is respected. He was the pioneer of Satyagraha. Satya is Sanskrit for “truth” and graha is for "effort/endeavor."

He explains his idea as follows: Its root meaning is holding on to truth, hence truth-force. I have also called it Love-force or Soul-force. In the application of Satyagraha I discovered in the earliest stages that pursuit of truth did not admit of violence being inflicted on one’s opponent but that he must be weaned from error by patience and sympathy. For what appears to be truth to the one may appear to be error to the other. And patience means self-suffering. So the doctrine came to mean vindication of truth not by infliction of suffering on the opponent but on one’s self.

That's all for today's blog. I'm grateful to feel him close to me by knowing his life or his thought now.

See you,

Misaki

Today, I would like to show you the way how Socrates describe an end in the book.

To begin with, please let me ask some questions instead of Socrates. He asks you "Can you see, except with the eye?" The answer is "Certainly not." The next question is "Can you hear, except with the ear?" "No." He continues asking "you can cut off a vine-branch with a dagger or with a chisel, and in many other ways?" It is true. But, you yet cannot cut it off so well as with a pruning-hook made for the purpose. Thus, Socrates explain we could say that this is the end of a pruning-hook.

Socrates concluded that "the end of anything would be that which could not be accomplished, or not so well accomplished." And he proclaim "an end has also an excellence."

Later, he questions "he can the eyes fulfil their end if they are wanting in their own proper excellence and have a defect instead? " That is to say, what he want to summarise is that "the things which fulfil their ends fulfil them by their own proper excellence, and fall of fulfilling them by their own defect."

After that, he moves to the matter about soul. He connects the topic of an end and soul. He wonders that "has not the soul an end which nothing else can fulfil?" He keeps on sying "has not the soul an excellence also?" "When deprived of that excellence, then an evil soul must necessarily be an evil ruler and superintendent, and the good soul a good ruler."

Hopefully, they have admitted that "justice is the excellence of the soul, and injustice the defect of the soul." Then "the just soul and the just man will live well, and the unjust man will live ill."
And now, we found that "he who lives well is blessed and happy, and he who lives ill the reverse of happy."

Like these controversies, Socrates proves his thought and love to argue.

See you,

Misaki

Today, let's think about Socrates' theory, "injustice can never be more profitable than justice."

Socrates proceeds his talking based on the idea, "whether the just have a better and happier life than the unjust." He emphasize the need to argue this matter deeply because to think over this matter is relevant to how we should live our life.

He starts his attempt to convince Thrasymachus asking "Would you not say that a horse has some end? " And it seems that he want to define that "the endthe end or use of a horse or of anything would be that which could not be accomplished, or not so well accomplished."

Moreover, he continues his assertion later. I will find it and show you soon.

See you,

Misaki

Do you think "the just is always a loser in comparison with the unjust" ? Have you had any experience that you did not deserve to what you did the right thing? Thrasymachus in the book states that the life of the unjust is more advantageous than that of the just. The reason is that,first of all,"wherever the unjust is the partner of the just you will find that, when the partnership is dissolved, the unjust man has always more and the just less in private contracts." Second of all, "when there is an income tax, the just man will pay more and the unjust less on the same amount of income in their dealings with the State. And when there is anything to be received, the one gains nothing and the other much."

In our daily life too, we may sometimes face this kind of situation. Please look back to the past and find out the experience you might had.

By the way, what we should do to live happy life is that to do the unjust behavior if we follow Thrasymachus' theory.

However, Socrates tries to produce evidence against Thrasymachus who believes "the just have a better and happier life than the unjust."

We'll look at Ｓｏｃｒａｔｅｓ’ controversy against Thrasymachus tomorrow.

See you,

Misaki

Chapter1 of the Book, the Republic

I would like to convey you the impressive contexts what I've found in the book today.

"Any techniques or governance are not supposed to give people who use it their interestes, but supposed to give people who is ruled their interests. In that case, intersts for subjects who are the weak are the more important than interests for the strong."

From these words, I learned that the ruler or the stronger should consider the interests for the subjects or the weak first. By the way, there are the processes how Socrates came to the conclution at last. It is interesting all the persons who appear in the book will agree with Socrates' opinion in the end despite some persons were not totally agree with him at first. This means Socrates was brilliant to bring other persons to have the correct ideas.

See you,

Misaki

Today, I am showing you that how Socrates and Thrasymachus who is also a sophist of Ancient Greece discuss the definition of justice in the book.

Thrasymachus proclaim that "justice is nothing else than the interest of the stronger."
Soon later, his assertion becomes the other way around because of dialogue with Socrates.

Socrates tries to understand what his proclaim really means. So, he get Thrasymachus to provide further information on this.

Then, Thrasymachus says that "rulers enact a law with a view to their several interests and these laws, which are made by them for their own interests are the justice no matter what the forms of government are in each states. Therefore, he strongly believe that the justice is the interest of the stronger."

In the next stage, Socrates questions "Then in making their laws they may sometimes make them rightly, and sometimes not? " What he want to make sure is that "it is also the justice the subjects obey the laws which is not established rightly."

This is just a little part of the context. I'll keep on reading it.

See you,

Misaki

Chapter 1 of the Definition of Justice

Today, I intend to show you what I found in chapter 1 in the Republic. Since I cannot describe entire story in the book, I'm going to write about what I found.

In the first part, the conversation between Socrates and Polemarchus goes on. They are talking about the definition of justice. Socrates embarked on the argument "as concerning justice, what is it? - to speak the truth and to pay your debts - no more than this? And even to this are there not exceptions? Suppose that a friend when in his right mind has deposited arms with me and he asks for them when he is not in his right mind, ought I to give them back to him? No one would say that I ought or that I should be right in doing so, any more than they would say that I ought always to speak the truth to one who is in his condition. "

"You are quite right", Cephalus who is Polemarchusi's father replied.

"But then," I said, "speaking the truth and paying your debts is not a correct definition of justice."

After some discussion continued, they started to talk about an assumed definition of justice, "a friend ought always to do good to a friend, and never evil."
(Source of the dialogue: http://www.mdx.ac.uk/WWW/STUDY/xpla.htm)

Like this, speech on particular topics go on throuout the book. In my situation, it appears to be difficult to understand fully the context though it is interesting to try to understand the contents in the book.

See you,

Misaki

Good Government or Bad Government?

Today, I would like to go back to the issue about political philosophy again and show you the frescoes in order to think why political philosophy is needed to the world. By the way, I discovered the attractive picture on the Internet while I was reading the book titled "A Very Short Introduction POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY". The author says it is the best way to look at the picture, Frescoes of the Good and Bad Government, for the purpose of understanding what is Political Philosophy and why it is necessity.

To begin with, let's take a look at Allegory of the Good Government at http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/l/lorenzet/ambrogio/governme/index.html

What's the first impression on this? This picture illustrate real nature of good government. The man who has an air of dignity on the right side is surrounded by six persons who are the symbol of Peace, Fortitude and Prudence on the left, Magnanimity, Temperance and Justice on the right. And there are crowd of citizens who are bounded with a long rope. Both ends of the rope are tied to the man, the governor.

In continuing of the story of Allegory of the Good Government, it is interesting to look at Effects of Good Government on the City Life and The Effects of Good Government in the Countryside. People in both of the fresco are leading good life thanks to the good governor.

On the contrary, Allegory of Bad Government shows us bad government itself. The man with the appearance of a demon is surrounded by four persons who stand for insatiability, cruelty and smugness. In addition, Effects of Bad Government on the City Life and Effects of Bad Government on the Countryside also suggest the result of bad government.

As a result, the frescoes represents nature of good and bad government, the cause and effect. To explore such things, political philosophy exists. Moreover, how we are govern means how we can lead daily life. Incidentally, The quality of a governor and people around him really affect our own lives. This means what kind of thoughts they have will result in either good government or bad government. What philosophy they have is by no means important for us to be govern.

See you,

Misaki

Impression on the Republic

Today, I am going to talk about the content in the book "the Republic" I have read. The first part of the book shows the ananysis of justice. I got exscited reading the book because I realized suddenly that I was reading the book which was written by very famous philosophist many years ago. And I found it stimulus to thinking an abstruct matter such as justice. It will be helpful and influential even to our lives today. This point really attractes me. Thus, I was fascinated by learning theories created by people who lived long time ago and by finding out the relationship between the theories and modern world.

See you,

Misaki

Overview of the Republic

Today, I am going to describe "the Republic" written by Plato in about 360BC as I suggested in the last blog. In fact, I have the book written in Japanese with me now borrowing from our university. I found that I could take it up smoothly though I felt, at first sight of the book, it would be very difficult to read because of the classic book. Then, the reason why it can be read like the novel we read today is that it is written in the format of Socratic dialogue. That is to say, there are many conversations, for example, between Socrates and Glaucon who is an older brother of Plato, and Adeimantus who is another older brother of Plato. Briefly, in this work, Plato attempted to design an ideal society and government that were free of injustice and conflict. Moreover, through the dialogue, Plato was trying to repeat the way Socrates taught philosophy in exactly the same way by engaging his students on a significant question. Now, I will stop writing, and I believe I should add much more information on the content of "the Republic".

See you then,

Misaki

History of Political Philosophy

Today, I am going to look at history of western political philosophy. It was originated in ancient Greek society where city-states were trying to use various ideas such as Monarchy, Tyranny, Aristocracy, Oligarchy and Democracy. A city-state means a region controlled exclusively by a city. Historically, it refers to the polis of ancient Greece like Athens, Sparta and Corinth. In modern world, Singapore, Monaco and Vatican are city-states. Additionally, Hamburg and Bremen in Germany, Hong Kong and Macao in China are also included in the category of city-states. Then, what are Monarchy, Tyranny, Aristocracy, Oligarchy and Democracy? Monarchy is a form of government that has a monarch as head of state. It is from the Greek μονος which means "one", and αρχειυ, "to rule". Second, Tyranny is a government in which a single ruler is given with absolute power. Next, Aristocracy is a form of government where power is inherited, and split between a small number of families. The term was stem from Greek "aristos" meaning the "best" and "kratein" "to rule" and so aristocracy originally meant "rule by the best". Oligarchy can be put into "rule by the few" in Greek. It is government by a few, especially by a small faction of persons or families. In terms of Democracy, it is translated into Greek "rule by the people". Demos means "people", and kratos means "rule". By the way, One of the first, Plato's "the republic", politeia in Greek and 国家 in Japanese, is very important classical works of political philosophy. Politeia in Greek was derived from the word polis (city-state). I am going to do research on "the Republic" later.
Now, that's all for today. Thank you for coming to read my blog.

See you,

Misaki

Political Philosophy

Before exploreing Plato's own theory, I want to think about what political philosophy is. It is like a title of a book in the course I would like to take. By the way, do you know the term "Political Philosophy"? I have just come across the field of study through preparing for my course I wish to take. Based on Wikipedia, it says. "political philosophy is the study of fundamental questions about the state, gorvenment, politics, liberaty, justice, property, rights, law and the enforcement of a legal code by authority. " In other words, it is the questions such as "What is the purpose of government?", "What characterises a good government?", "What should be the relationship between individuals and society?", "What are the limits of freedom?"or "Is freedom of speech a good idea?" In order to find the answer to these questions, we will look at important texts in the history of political theory. I think we can put politics into our lives. Politics exist around us very closely. However, some people including me don't pay much attention to it. It is necessary for me to question fundemental functions or thoughts for politics in this time. It will be the base of my descision to get involved in politics in my society or in the world.

See you,

Misaki

Philosopher

I gradually got interested in the philosophers in ancient Greek society while I was writing my blog yesterday. What was their role or responsibility in their society as a philosopher? How did they have a influence on politics at that time? What is philosopher? The reason why I came up with these inquiries is that peopel I mentioned in the blog yesterday is all philosophers. And then, I believe their theories had a great power on the political area. By the way, I am trying to gather information about Plato now. I'm sorry that I didn't progress with my study today. I will share what I gain through learning him or his theory with you later.

See you,

Misaki

the Course in Summer 2007

I decided to take the course, Introduction to Political Theory in political science department.
According to course catalog, we will "engage the core arguments of different theorists and come to their own reasoned accounts of political legitimacy." Theorists include Plato, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Burke, Mill, Ghandi, and Barber. And then, we will "examine themes of freedom, equality, democracy, conflict, peace and justice." As a result, we aim at understanding contemporary issues thinking over the way how the theory can apply to it and utilized to modern politics. Therefore, I should do research the main assertion which each theorist such as Plato and Hobbes explained in the beginning for the preparation of the classes. In the end of today's blog, I want to show you brief introduction to theorists as I mentioned above. First, Plato(プラトン) was Greek philosophers. His works on philosophy, politics and mathematics were very influencial. Second, Thomas Hobbes(トマス・ホッブズ) was an English philosophar. And he is today best remembered for his work on political philosophy. Additionally, he made a contribution to several fields like history, geometry, theology, ethics and general philosophy. John Locke(ジョン・ロック) was also an English philosopher. His ideas had great influence on the expantion of epistemology and political philosophy. Then, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (ジャン・ジャック・ルソー) was a Genovan philosopha of the Enlightenment. His ideas influenced the French Revolution, the development of socialist theory, and the growth of nationalism in terms of politics. Edmund Burke(エドマンド・バーク) was Anglo-Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist, and philosopher, who were in the British House of Commons. Next, John Stuart Mill(ジョン・スチュアート・ミル) was Blitish philosopher, political economist and Member of Parliament, was an influential liberal thinker of the 19th century. Lastly, Mahatma Gandhi(マハトマ・ガンジー) was a major political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian Independence movement. In India, he is recognized as the Father of Nation. From the next blog, I want to focus on these philosopher's biography and their main view point of politics.

See you,

Misaki

about TOEFL iBT

Hello, everyone. It was fine day in Sendai today.
I am preparing for TOEFL exam now since getting the 500 score of TOEFL test is requisite for taking part in the program. The new version of TOEFL test, TOEFL iBT, is much more difficult than the old one, TOEFL CBT. iBT stands for internet Based Test. We have to read 3 passages in reading section for 60~100 minutes in total. Times was running out when I took an exam. And, We move to the next section, listening section. We can spend 60~90 minutes for the section. This part requires you sustaining your concentration throughout whole listening section because it lasts long. I felt as if it was endless. After taking a break for 10 minutes, we are supposed to go to speaking section. This part is the most difficult among four section in my experience. We have just 15 seconds to prepare for our answer and have 45 seconds to answer the question. This section is made up of 6 questions. In the end, we have to finish writing section for 50 minutes. It contains 2 subjects to answer for. Both speaking and writing, it is very important to make our answer logical and well organised using transition word. All in all, I found it very essential to practice jotting down what I have read, heard or what I am going to write or speak for speaking and writing section. The reason is that I answered the questions mainly based on the penciled memo I wrote on the piece of paper. If I fail to write down the main point, supporting reason, example and detail of each listening or speaking section, I won't constract my answer fully. So, please try to jot down essential and effective information to get high score if you are plannning to take a TOEFL exam.

See you,

Misaki

First Blog

Hello! This is Misaki. Nice to see you. I am a sophmore at the Depatment of Elementary Education at the Tohoku Fukushi University. I am writing this blog as a prospective student who will participate in the scholarship program to attend at the course at the University of Washington. I hope this blog will help me to progress with my English, writing skiil. In addtion, I am happy if this blog can help the students who desire to have a great experience in Seattle next time. By the way, I participated in this program last year. The picture on right side is a sheet of drawing paper shaped into a penguin. When I arrived at my room in a dormitory, I found this nameplate on the door. I was really glad to see it at that time because I felt like I was welcomed. I was so glad that I brought it back to my home and attached it to the door of my room. In this blog, I would like to take advantage of this opportunity to share my experience last year with you like this from time to time.

See you soon,

Misaki

welcome

Hello