Case Study_Phil 212

Posted on by under Philosophy

Introduction

What are we talking about when we study philosophy? Metaphysics? Ethics? Or Greeks? Ancient Greek philosophers believed that philosophy, as Socrates defined, a love for wisdom, should be applied to life to help human beings achieve a greater good. Philosophy is not an exclusive subject, rather an inclusive one that deeply concerns everyone especially for those who want to pursue a profound meaning. In this case study, I’ll analyze a real-life situation from different ancient Greek philosophers’ perspective. What’s the motivation and value behind their action? Is their way of life in agreement with their value? How can we resolve their conflict?

The Micro Brewery

Darion has lived in East Van for ten years and works in a local pub. He has never liked the big beer brands that his pub sells—he finds the beer flavorless and uninspired, and doesn’t like the business model of the big beer monopolies. About eight years ago,  Darion and his colleagues decide to begin saving money to try to start up a microbrewery to make their fine, small-batch craft beers. Darion put in extra hours at the pub, doesn’t take any holidays, and even moves into a smaller apartment on Main Street, north of Chinatown so that he can save money to begin his dream business.

After five years of hard work and saving, Darion and his colleagues—now his business partners—find a space they can afford to rent for the brewery in a neighborhood next to the Downtown Eastside. They begin to arrange for all the municipal licenses they need to set up their brewery, and they hire a lawyer to complete the paperwork. They decide to hire and train staff from the neighborhood because they know that skilled jobs in the area are hard to find, and they want to do good things for their community as much as for their future clientele.

But as word spreads about the proposed microbrewery, some people in the neighborhood begin to organize against it. They aren’t happy with this business coming in. The proposed brewery site is across the street from a community center, which runs support programs for local teenagers, to keep them out of trouble in a neighborhood where drugs are easy to come by. Some long-term residents see the brewery as part of a gentrification process that will push them out of the area that they have called home for their whole lives.

A small group of the local residents sees alcohol itself as inherently problematic—a highly addictive, highly seductive tool of oppression that prevents people from vulnerable populations from achieving their full potential. They see alcohol as part of a system that keeps poor people poor. These locals don’t have as much of a problem with the new artisanal coffee shop in the neighborhood, but they have deep concerns about putting in a “tasting room” in an area already known for its high concentration of people with addictions. They worry about what such easy access to alcohol may mean for their kids. They have seen what alcoholism can do.

Darion wants to respect their local community’s concerns, but he thinks these people are wrong. Plus, he has worked so hard for so long in a project that he believes in. He and his lawyer get the lease, and the new business license signed.

My Response

My discussion around this issue will center around different value system raised by ancient Greek philosophers. You may feel it unrealistic to use words of Greeks thousands of years ago to tackle conflicts that we face today. However, it’s important to realize that they are actually faced with the same kinds of problems on which they base their theories. I will answer three questions in my analysis. First, what’s the motivation of Darion and those who are against them? Second, in what way that Darion and the protestors follow their value system? Last, what’s the ideal approach to resolve their conflict if there is any?

First of all, let’s take a look at the motivation behind their decisions. While human beings are driven by intentions to achieve a higher good in life, their perceptions of good might be different, which often lead to conflict. Martin Seligman proposed a well-being theory that includes several factors that influence our approach to a lasting fulfillment: pleasure, engagement, relationships, meaningfulness, and accomplishment.

For Darion, we can see that he is driven by a sense of responsibility to the community and his devotion to creating beers that are not boring but refreshing. Thus, for Darion, relationships and accomplishment are the key motivators. Both Pindar and Epicurus mentioned their longings for a good relationship with friends and community. Pindar said: “The need for friends comes in many forms: it is most valued in times of trouble, but joy too craves to look upon trusty support.” Darion chose to hire those living in Downtown East Side because that’s where he came from. He lived according to the value that human beings find meaning in contributing to the community by helping those who are close and in need of help.

The second motivator for Darion is the accomplishment, and that is also the reason why he wanted to open a beer brewery for himself in the first place. If he valued comfort in life over his personal achievement, he wouldn’t have sacrificed his job and choose to live a frugal life with his friends. The ancient Greek poet Homer wrote about the hero Achilles who were driven by a sense of honor and excellence, or in Greek, kleos, and esthlon (SEP n.p). At that time, heroes were respected and worshiped because they fought for their people even if they had to sacrifice their life and family. For Darion, he realized that though his job could bring him comfort and money, it failed to make a meaningful change to the business he loved. Thus, we could conclude that he was living based on his belief.

On the other side, the community members held different reasons to protest against his brewery. Many residents feared that the construction of brewery was a part of the further gentrification of the community, which had been threatening the quality of their life. Even worse, those residents had little sayings on the issue because of their financial situations. For these residents, they prefer the status quo where they could keep their jobs and homes. They were motivated by the need to maintain a basic standard of life. Epicurus, the Egoist Hedonist, argued that the highest good for human beings is to ensure the bodily and spiritual pleasure. It’s also worth mentioning the saying of Confucius, the ancient Chinese Philosopher: It is only when that people are no longer living in poverty that they begin to learn virtues and honors. If they are living on the edge of dying, how could they pursue anything greater?

Other residents worried about the location of the brewery. The brewery is the opposite of a community center, which runs support programs for local teenagers, to keep them out of trouble in a neighborhood where drugs are easy to come by.  They were fighting for the future of the community. Thus, we could also see the belonging to the community that not only Pindar but also Aristotle supported. They understand that children are the future of their community, who no longer need to suffer from poverty. They also value the importance of education, which Socrates regarded as the way to the highest good of life: wisdom and virtue. After all, the life without examination is not worth living, he said.

A small group of residents realized the danger of alcohol and was aware that it was one of the reasons that stop them from realizing their full potentials. They were not only striving for survival, but for the meaningfulness of life. Plotinus, the Neo-Platonist, valued the importance of sobriety as they do. Plotinus, as his friends described, was always focused on things happening in his life. He was always thinking with all his attention to achieve a higher state of mind on which human beings could transcend and become truly wise and virtuous. To put it simply, these residents value spiritual accomplishment over bodily pleasure.

While they are pursuing different values, their conflicts are not impossible to resolve. It would be critical to find a compromise on both parties. First, Darion could change the location to another place that is not close to teenagers. I’m sure he would love to do it if he could listen to the requirement of his community. As for residents, they need to be patient to hear Darion’s plan so that they could find that Darion is there to help, rather than to rob their property.

Work Cited

Crisp, Roger, “Well-Being”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2016 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2016/entries/well-being/>.

Gerson, Lloyd, “Plotinus”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2014/entries/plotinus/>.

Griswold, Charles L., “Plato on Rhetoric and Poetry”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2016 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2016/entries/plato-rhetoric/>.

Konstan, David, “Epicurus”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2016 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2016/entries/epicurus/>.

Nails, Debra, “Socrates”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2014/entries/socrates/>.

 

Japan that sank under the sea

Posted on by under Poetry

When night falls

Japan that sank under the sea

(Possibly may have sunk, for the next morning

I found myself between the blind clouds

And the old divine water)

Comes up afloat in the heavens

Like a lantern hanging

Yes, that is an antique paper-lantern

A candle-light muffled with an amber-colored Japanese

Paper

There, the surrounding darkness is deep

Especially deep because of the ambivalent candle light

But, where are the crowds of people

so familiar to me?

What shells up the darkness

Is the thick glossy foliage.

What fortune is told by this sight?

I don’t see Tokyo anywhere; don’t see anything

Modern

Only the lantern remains

Only the antique silence

Keeps in form the melancholy of the long history.

 

From far down below some noise is heard,

A noise like that of waves … or is that ..?

It is too early to reveal itself.

My patient

Posted on by under Poetry

She is walking down the alley, pillow in hands.

Her hands are striking, those milky shiny little hands.

The moon is dark tonight, she says.

Birnam Wood is walking in the clouds.

 

Her hands are squeezing, as if she is choking a new-born baby.

Deadly sights trifle my knowings.

Birnam Wood is walking in the clouds.

Virtuous and valiant horses are preying on each other.

 

Unnatural sights trifle my knowings.

Who could have done this, I ask.

Who make such virtuous and valiant horses prey on each other?

Not men, she says elegantly, their name is frailty.

 

Who could have done this, I ask.

Who smeared the golden lion and took his hypocritical crown?

Not men, their name is frailty.

She is pointing at an indifferently dangling dagger.

 

Who slayed the lion and took his amber paper crown?

There she is, pouring invisible godlike water down her nightgown.

Look! Good man! Take the dangling dagger in the alley!

When the night eats colors and flower bouquets lose their fake ornaments.

 

She is drowning in the invisible godlike Neptune’s Ocean.

A fair and foul day, isn’t it, doctor?

When the night eats colors and flower bouquets lose their fake ornaments.

Go to bed, to bed, but keep your eyes open cautiously.

 

A fair and foul day, isn’t it?

She is walking down the alley, pillow in hands.

There is no way that I cure this disease.

When the moon is dark tonight.

 

Ode to Lady Macbeth

Posted on by under Poetry

Frailty is their name, not yours

 

You put out a treacherous, transgressive candle light

You pick a heroic fight, burying deep in Neptune’s Ocean is willows’ pride

 

Devils keep you company, admit your

Bloody, shiny little hands, holding an

Invisible, indifferent, dangling dagger

 

You smear the lion with a hypocritical amber paper crown,

You slay that baby like you butchered a nightingale

You shell up the kingdom with

Kindness in limitless darkness, nowhere to be found

 

When days fall into the ground like sparkling bubbles

Vanishing into the foul, and fair, and filthy air;

When nights eat color and flower bouquets lose their fake ornaments;

Put on your nightgown, and sleep,

with your wide open, inhuman eyes.

Noodle soup with eggs & Tomatoes

Posted on by under Major

Introduction

This is one of my short stories that I wrote in the creative writing course this semester. It’s inspired by the concept of nostalgia. Pictures are combined with the story for the completion of the plot.

Noodle soup with eggs and tomatoes

The wooden door creaked open. It’s Wei Guo.

“Just as usual? Noodle soup with eggs and tomatoes?”

“Thanks, master.” Wei Guo picked a seat in the corner. His phone was ringing.

New York was an enormous finance machine that consisted of myriad nameless screws. Wei Guo was one of them. He often came to my late night eatery on workdays, since was no such a word as working overtime in his career.

Once he talked to me about his past. Growing up in a nameless village where the tallest building was a five-storey hotel in China, Wei Guo was the first in his hometown that accepted college education, and the first that came to the U.S. He was the pride of his family.

What Wei Guo asked for was simple. All you need were fresh eggs, tomatoes, noodles, and ten minutes’ patience.

“Your noodle soup with eggs and tomatoes! I just made these noodles today. Have a taste!”

“Master, thanks. And a cup of Baijiu pleased” Wei Guo said.

His phone rang again. He took a look at it and hanged it up.

“No problem. I don’t recall you ordering Baijiu here before. Good choice on a snowy day, though.” I said.

Wei Guo didn’t answer. His phone kept ringing, but he ate his noodles unhurriedly as if the phone never existed.

“Do you mind if I ask: who’s the one on the phone?” I was curious. As a professional banker, Wei Guo always answered his clients’ call without any hesitations.

I got no response. He put down the chopsticks, staring at his phone that stopped ringing.

After a while, Wei Guo finished his Baijiu and murmured, “It’s my mom. My sister taught her how to make an international call at home.”

“Then why didn’t you answer it?”

“Master, have you ever experienced the feeling of being treated like no one?” Wei Guo responded with a bitter laugh, “I have. I was goddamn fired yesterday. Yes, I was screwed up. The bank never cared. They just replaced a part of their machine for a new one.”

He paused for a second and asked for another Baijiu.

“I don’t think I’ve told you why I ordered the noodle soup with eggs and tomatoes, master.” Wei Guo took a sip and continued his thought. “In my family, my parents needed to save money even for a fresh bok choy, let alone eggs. But you know what, my mom always could award me with my favorite noodle soup when I got the first in my class. The taste has accompanied me throughout my childhood. The tenderness of eggs perfectly matched the sour flavor of the soup. ”

The first tear of Wei Guo broke free. The rest followed and dropped into the bowl.

“Master… I’ve always been afraid. I’ve been afraid of drowning in this city where no one knows me… I… How could I ever let them down? How could I… I should be their pride? I need…I need to be their pride.” Wei Guo presses his forehead against the elbows on the desk.

“But why are you here? Why do you still order the noodle soup? The flavor of the soup has never changed.” I said.

“Master…I don’t know what you mean.” Wei Guo raised his head and wiped his tears.

“I mean, if your parents are too vulnerable to accept the fact that you fail, I would be more than flattered if my noodle soup could somehow save your broken heart.”

“I’m not here to save…”

“Yes, you are.” I interrupted him, “If you think your parents could only share your success, but could not support you when you are weak, then you don’t deserve to be their pride. You just treated them the same way as your boss treated you.”

Wei Guo didn’t say a word. He left the money on the desk. He put his phone in the pocket, and hesitatingly, took it out. With a creak in the door, he left.

I’ve never seen him since then. Maybe that’s because he didn’t need my noodle soup anymore, I guess.

Case study-Phil 211

Posted on by under Skills

Introduction

Philosophy, in most people’s mind, is distant from real life and over-complicated for normal people to understand. However, philosophy, according to its definition, is about the love of wisdom. There are countless occasions in life that we apply philosophy even if we don’t know. I find it necessary for philosophy to be applied in daily life just like what Socrates and Aristotle in the past. In this post, I’m going to apply some of the philosophy concepts I learned in Phil 211 to deal with a real life case. Also, I’ll be applying some ideas in my response that I learned in case competitions.

The Food Bank Case

Michelle is the director of a neighbourhood house in downtown Vancouver, a role she has been in for eight years. A neighbourhood house is like a community centre, in that it brings together local residents, offering opportunities for people to inexpensively gather, socialize, share food and experiences, and learn new skills like cooking and growing vegetables in the community garden. One of the services for which Michelle is responsible is the food bank, which provides non-perishable food items for people in need. The food bank regularly receives donations of high-calorie, high-fat, high-sodium, low-fiber, nutrient-poor foods: cans of baked beans, boxes of macaroni and cheese, ramen noodle backs, cans of pasta in sauce with meat of questionable quality, and so on.

Michelle knows many of the people who use the food bank regularly, and has seen a number of them becoming increasingly unhealthy over the years. Her clients have told her they’d like to eat better, and they know how to cook from attending the house’s free cooking classes, but they can’t afford to pay their rent and buy all the food they need for the week. Michelle doesn’t want to continue to provide them with food that contributes to ill health, and so she decides to ban donations of processed foods. She begins to refuse food donations that she determines to be nutrient-poor, telling would-be donors why the food bank can no longer accept these goods. The number of donations go down, and the food bank’s shelves begin to look bare.

Michelle’s associate, Tim, asks her to change her mind. He says that this decision can’t be right. Even though he recognizes Michelle’s good intentions, he argues that the bad consequences (low donations, bare shelves) surely outweigh her reasons.

My Response

In my response, I’ll address three issues concerning the dispute we see between Michelle and Tim. First of all, I’ll simplify the dispute and find out what is the fundamental tension between the two. Second of all, I’ll apply different theories about motivation to analyze their behaviors. Last but not least, I’ll propose a plan to reconcile their conflict.

What’s the dispute about?

The battle between Michelle and Tim was, in fact, a disagreement of each one’s vision about the food bank. Michelle began to realize that the food bank was providing unhealthy food that led to illness to the community. The adverse consequence was against the intention of Michelle—to provide non-perishable food for people in need. The inconsistency drove her to take action. She decided to refuse the unhealthy food donation based on her judgment. For Tim, the associate of Michelle, he was worried about the consequence of Michelle’s decision because a lack of donations, which is the primary source of food for the food bank, will directly affect food bank’s capability to provide food. Even if the food is nutrient-poor, as long as it can fill people’s hunger, it’s still better than nothing at all.

volunteers-sorting-cans

Next, let’s move on to see what are the values behind Michelle and Tim’s decision. It’s important to notice that despite their disagreement, their goals were the same: to contribute to the overall Eudaimonia(Happiness) to the community. Aristotle argued that happiness was the highest aim of human beings because the pursuit of any other values was for the sake of happiness (AT-4 6)

How would Plato explain their motivations?

I’ll engage with two different models to analyze their action: Plato’s theory of motivation and Maslow’s Need Hierarchy. First, let’s look at the motivation of Michelle. Her decisions, according to Plato in Republic, are driven by Logos (reasons), Thumos (self-esteem), and Epithumia (appetite). The decision to reject the unhealthy food was a conscious choice after rational contemplation of Michelle. Since she judged unhealthy food to be counter-productive to the well-being of the community and people in it, she believed that there was no reason for her to keep the food. She was also driven by Thumos: a sense of desire for reputation, desire, and honor (SEP n.p.). As the director of the neighborhood house for the past 8 years, it was her honor to serve the community and its people. If she to provide healthy food, people may doubt whether she had what it takes to be a leader. Michelle was also motivated by Epithumia, the appetite and desire (SEP n.p.). She had an appetite for a healthy food and prefer that people have more healthy food even if they might get less food.

Likewise, Tim was also influenced by these three factors. His judgment that the consequence of Michelle’s action outweighed her decision was an outcome of her logical thinking. He argued against Michelle’s plan because he was the associate who also needs to be responsible for the operation of the food bank. His Epithumia was to feed those people in hunger, and therefore health might not be that important if they would have to risk losing the primary source of food from donators.

How would Maslow explain their motivations?

maslow-pyramid

Next, let’s try to analyze their value from the perspective of Maslow. Maslow defined his Need Hierarchy as “a systematic arrangement of needs according to priority, which assumes that basic needs must be met before less basic needs are aroused.” (Psycho n.p.) From the first to seventh level, there are physiological, safety and security, belongingness and love, esteem, cognitive, aesthetic, and self-actualization. In this case, we only need to think about the relation between the need for physiological and safety. Though it may seem that physiological is a part of the need for security, in the case of the food bank, however, the safety is a higher value than the physiological. There is a difference between guaranteeing the basic survival of human beings and ensuring that they live a healthy life. Michelle wanted the food bank to not only feed the need on the basic level but wanted people in the community to enjoy a healthy and stable lifestyle. The logic of Tim was that if the food bank can’t ensure that everyone gets enough food for survival, there is no way that it can support a higher level of demand.

Based on the analysis above, I believe that both of their motivations are legitimate concerns. Their dispute was focused on the difference in Epithumia and the approach to move from the physiological level to the security level. Therefore, I believe that there is a way to resolve their conflict by targeting at these two differences.

How to solve the problem?

save-on-foods

I believe that Michelle was too hurried to refuse the donations. A direct refuse might deter potential donators from helping the food bank. However, it would still be against Michelle’s Thumos to leave people in the community unhealthy. Michelle and Tim can try to negotiate with donators. Since they decided to donate food, even if it is not very healthy, they definitely had the intention to help in the first place. Therefore, it’s likely that donators would be willing to sit at the negotiation table.

lettuce_mix

Let’s assume that these donators are mainly supermarkets or convenient stores. Then the food they donated would be non-perishable food that was close to the expiration date. However, these supermarkets usually can’t sell all of the vegetables. Most customers refuse to buy vegetables that look not fresh even if they are still good for health, like green leaves vegetables or mushroom. Owners will likely to donate these vegetables because it is also consistent with their value. It is possible that the reason why they chose to provide unhealthy food like frozen pizza was that they might think these are what homeless people need since they can’t cook by themselves. However, since it was mentioned in the case that the community already taught them how to cook, Michelle and Tim could tell supermarkets the real situation and thus get the healthy food they need for the well-being of the community.

Reference:

[1] Kraut, Richard, “Plato”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2015 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2015/entries/plato/>.

[2] Griffin, Michael. Athenian Thought: A Reader, 4. Plato & Aristotle. 2014. 1-19.<http://socrates.arts.ubc.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/4-Plato-and-Aristotle1.pdf>.

[3] Psychology of motivation and emotion. Psychology class notes. <http://www.alleydog.com/101notes/mot-emot.html#.WEjIzaIrLVp>

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