Author: Rhymically Unique

1. Royale Nixon https://rhythmicallyunique.design.blog/

2. Total word count: 4,765

3. Yes

4. Yes, I made 4 revisions

5. No I did not give a presentation.

6. My participation was great I made sure I gave my input in every session in person and online. I was active in class and during zoom conferences I would turn my camera and sound on when I spoke as well to give everyone a visual of who was speaking.

7. Total bogs: 15

8. Comments: 3

9. Glossary: 32 words

10. A- I deserve this grade because I stuck it out until the very end. I participated and spoke when it was my turn. I completed some blogs with thought and care an I also left some comments. I made the revisions I was told to make and I added the word count to the bottom of each blog.

11. What I will remember the most about this course was Existenze and how it was an edgy movie. It showed me a visual of levels of reality and how we can think we are conscious when were really “sleep” not “woke” . It was levels to reality including the level to which we are viewing the movie. Our knowledge of what appears to be reality in the film is tested . It made me analyze what I thought was real and what I thought was just part of the game. I will always remember that movie.

(Word count: 244)

“ Existence precedes essence” is the philosophy that is the kind of person someone is the product of the free choices that they have made throughout their life. It starts with the individual self. Man is nothing else but what he has made of himself this is philosopher Sartre’s basis for Human Existentialism. It holds the individual self accountable for the characteristics that they possess. Even if it is circumstances that one doesn’t seem to be able to prevent , an example being where a child is born. But in this instance that child didn’t take their own life so they made the conscious decision to stay and live that way. Nothing is predetermined or fixed by God it is purely the decisions that we make who makes a person who they are. Having all this personal responsibility it is one option to do the right thing. With that being said doing the right things can have an influence on or an impact on the world and the people who you are responsible for. That is where the concept of anguish comes in because it becomes a burden when you have the responsibility to do the right things because the world is watching. One only assumes it is the right thing that they are doing but they don’t know for sure. We can only hope it is right and that creates despair. An example of this is marriage. We are told that marriage is the right thing to do so we follow suit and do that. But we don’t know exactly who said it is a right thing to do or why we just no it is because other people have done it. Marriage is said to be the union of two people and when you step outside of your marriage it is called an affair and is punishable with in the courts in the form of alimony. Monogamy is the commitment that is spoken for when you do the ceremony of marriage. It is said to be the “right” thing to do.

(Word count: 341)

David Hume argues that we already know human behavior is determined. He views freedom as an illusion, in other words, we have no free will. Everything we do is because of cause and effect. Whatever happens is determined by prior events. He says “The same motives always produce the same actions: The same events follow from the same causes. Ambition, avarice, self-love, vanity, friendship, generosity, public spirit: these passions, mixed in various degrees, and distributed through society, have been, from the beginning of the world, and still are, the source of all the actions and enterprises, which have ever been observed among mankind.”, which refers to the idea that everything happens for a reason. He also explains that this has to be true also when people do things outside of their normal character it is caused by something. As an example when I get snappy with my boyfriend it’s usually because im hungry or tired. I would have to disagree with the idea that we have no free will because then we would not be responsible for our own actions. We can decide to do the right thing or the wrong thing. As an example if I rob a bank and I get arrested I can not say I had to rob a bank because I’m broke due to COVID-19 and I should be released. I will still have to pay for my actions because I chose to make a decision to rob a bank instead of finding a legal way to make or borrow money. I believe that some things are not done by my free will such as my ethnicity and where I was born but other things such as how I act on right and wrong is my choice. Otherwise I would not have any consequences for my actions.

(Word count: 302)

“ A central thesis begins to emerge: man is in his actions and practice, as well as in his fictions, essentially a story-telling animal”. In this passage MacIntyre details how stories give people a since of who they are in society. By knowing what role one plays in the stories of other individuals, one can in turn know who they are. He refers to our roles in other people’s lives and our own and says “we have to learn what they are in order to be able to understand how others respond to us and how our responses to them are apt to be constructed”. I analyze that as meaning that we must know our roles in people’s lives in order to understand our own. As an example I am an addition to my mother’s story. I am her eldest child and I play a major role in her adult life. A part of who she is as a person is because of the circumstances she went through carrying, birthing and raising me as her daughter. Likewise her, being my mother is an extension of who I am. My experiences and habits are taken from the choices she made as a mother. For example, my mother moved us from Oakland, CA to Sacramento, CA when I was in elementary school. She didn’t feel like the school system in Oakland was adequate enough for me being her daughter. Because of that move she created a life for me in Sacramento and it is a part of my story now. I spent the rest of my adolescent schooling in Sacramento I now go to Sacramento City College and in the fall I will be attending Sacramento State College. Overall I can not tell my story without including part of hers. My mother has a role in who I am as do I in who she is.

(Word count: 313)

In the movie Memento, the character Leonard suffers from short term memory loss. His last memory being his wife’s death. He uses notes tattoos and photographs that he left himself as clues to get through his days. His mission is to avenge his wife’s death by tracking down her raper/murderer and killing him. The character Leonard says two things that stand out to me regarding how he feels about the topic of memory itself. One being “Memories are irrelevant if you have the facts.” and another being “Certainties are the kinds of memories you’ll take forever.”. The character Leonard just like Hume feels like memories are not to be trusted. They can be distorted, scrambled or misinterpreted but the facts are to be trusted because they do not waver. His tattoos being the “facts” and the mirrors are reflections of the truth or the “clear vision”.

                Mirrors and the act of focusing in on his facts gave his character tunnel vision. Leonard was no longer an insurance investigator, husband with a normal life that he once was. He had a mission and every day he woke up (having no idea how long it’d been), putting his efforts into avenging his wife’s death. Looking into his mirror he is sure of his mission and his beliefs. “John G. raped and murdered my wife.” is the tattoo he has on his chest.

(Word count: 230)

In Descartes search for knowledge he starts with a clean slate. He rids himself of what he thinks he knows and starts again to build up his knowledge by ridding himself of the “falsehoods” he once believed in. He describes himself sitting by the fire alone with a clear mind of all worries and cares so he can destroy his previous opinions. Descartes claims that if he kind find a reason to doubt his present opinions and foundations then he should seek a more solid foundation for his knowledge.

Descartes acknowledges that some senses can be deceiving. Especially for objects that appear small or far away. Contrary to that he also acknowledges that at times he is sensing real objects and that is why he continues searching. He says “For example, there is the fact that I am here, seated by the fire, attired in a dressing gown, having this paper in my hands and other similar matters.” Which confirms the fact that these are real time occurrences of the senses. Concluding that although he can place doubt on artificial objects, he can’t do the same for simple universal parts such as shapes, size, quantity and time.

He then gets deeper into deception when he brings up God and mathematics. He describes the goodness of God and the ideal of whether or not God would lead him to believe in any falsehoods of any kind. And if He did that would it be the greatest level of deception because our picture of a “perfect God” would be skewed. So he concludes that deception is not God’s doing but that of an evil demon. Descartes claims this evil demon has committed himself to deceiving him so in order to not be mislead he must doubt everything. He must double check and not take anything for face value because he believes that is the power that he can control. He says “I may at least do what is in my power [i.e. suspend my judgment], and with firm purpose avoid giving credence to any false thing, or being imposed upon by this arch deceiver, however powerful and deceptive he may be.” He uses the dream example to establish that he does exist. “I think therefore I am”

(Word count: 375)

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size   
But when I start to tell them,
They think I’m telling lies.
I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms,
The span of my hips,   
The stride of my step,   
The curl of my lips.   
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,   
That’s me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,   
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.   
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.   
I say,
It’s the fire in my eyes,   
And the flash of my teeth,   
The swing in my waist,   
And the joy in my feet.   
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Men themselves have wondered   
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can’t touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them,   
They say they still can’t see.   
I say,
It’s in the arch of my back,   
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Now you understand
Just why my head’s not bowed.   
I don’t shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.   
When you see me passing,
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It’s in the click of my heels,   
The bend of my hair,   
the palm of my hand,   
The need for my care.   
’Cause I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

(Word count: 260)

Argument: A set of reasons to support a claim.

Conclusion: The claim intended to be supported by premises.

Premises: The claims given as a reason for thinking the conclusion of the argument is true.

Argumentation: A set of reasons in support of a conclusion .

Validity: The conclusion necessarily follows from the premise. i.e if the premises are true, then the conclusion must be true.

Soundness: Validity + a true premises= a true conclusion

Fallacies: Defective reasoning

Fallacies of Relevance: Present evidence unrelated to the truth of the conclusion i.e unwarranted assumptions

Fallacies of Presumption: Making unwarrented assumptions without giving independent evidence of it’s truth

Ad Populum: Appeal to the popular opinion but doesn’t make it right i.e bandwagoners

Complex Question: A question where you are guilty either way

Slippery Slope: Assuming there is a train that leads cause to effect (unrelated)

Equivocation: When one word is being used in two different ways

Begging the Question: A circular argument i.e avoiding the question

Epistemology: The study of knowledge

Platonism: All art is morally suspect

Utopianism: All art is uplifting

Essence: An inner feeling or emotion which is expressed externally.

Expression: What is subjective in the artist becomes resolved into a form which makes it accessible to others.

Clarity: How well the emotion is executed.

Expression: What is subjective in the artist becomes resolved into a form which makes it accessible to others.

Infection: The artists expressions is assimilated by others through mutual understanding.

Clarity: How well the emotion is executed.

Cartesian Foundationalism: establishing a base of certainty that can support an entire system of knowledge

Dualism: The view that mind and body are separate and independent of the body.

Anguish: Universal responsibility to do the right things to do to influence others/ impact on the world.

Abandonment: There is no God to help us and we are on our own

(Word count: 308)

My name is Royale Nixon and I’m just your average black girl from Oakland CA. I came to Sacramento at the age of five years old and returned from 2009-2013. I’m an English major because that’s what comes naturally. Beginning in my middle school years I excelled at writting and poetry and journaling is what I enjoy doing in my free time. My passions include dancing and listening to music. My dance background started when I began college in 2009 and studied ballet and modern contemporary dance along side my general studies. I also auditioned and made the dance team called Eclectic Pulse at Cal State East Bay where I danced for a season. At one point I had dreams of becoming a professional dancer and performing on Broadway but this was before “adulting” got in the way.

Shortly thereafter I ran into a childhood friend at a pool party. We then fell madly in love and that, my friends, is where all hell broke loose. As many women do, I began putting the needs of one behind the needs of many. It was no longer about me so I put my goals on hold and focused on survival. One too many mistakes on my former mates behalf and once again I found myself starting over. Whereas I planned my entire life around my partner , I now am alone and lead to single handedly handle this thing called life. Overcoming depression, anxiety and self doubt I picked my head up because I know I deserve this. I deserve to be successful.

(Word count: 261)

Tolstoy describes good art as being something that transmits a strong and clear feeling to the audience it was meant for. He says the stronger the emotion or message connected to art the better it is. He talks about an artist being genuine and sincere in his artistry. Does the art provoke a feeling in the audience and to what degree is how he measures “good art”. I read once that a white artists was ridiculed for creating a piece on the late Emit Till. A young black man who was lynched by white people. It was said that she was making fun and making money off of the distress of black folk and didn’t connect with the piece. In this standard that would be considered “bad art” because it didn’t depict a sincere perspective. He goes to say that the degree of how “good” or “bad” art is depends on three conditions. To some up the three conditions is first, the degree of individuality the piece is. He says the originality plays a big role in this. Secondly the degree in which the feeling is depicted clearly. Does the art itself present a clear message or feeling to the person looking at it? Lastly the sincerity of the artists’ depiction is important. The degree in which the artists himself feels the emotion or message he’s trying to give off. These three brings us together as a community and connects us which is important.Tolstoy explains “Art begins when one person, with the object of joining another or others to himself in one and the same feeling, expresses that feeling by certain external indications” and that makes it art. While I do feel like this is a good way to judge art I don’t feel like it is the only way. I feel like art can also be judged by the beauty of it. In my eyes art comes in so many forms and if it strikes an eye whether there is no message at all it can still be considered good art. If we go just by this standard we rule out some of the great abstract artists of all time. I would say that this is one of the ways to judge art but we must not close our eyes to the other factors that make art beautiful.

Cite: Crocker, Lizzie. “Who’s Guilty When It Comes to Crimes of Cultural Appropriation?” The Daily Beast, The Daily Beast Company, 5 Apr. 2017, http://www.thedailybeast.com/whos-guilty-when-it-comes-to-crimes-of-cultural-appropriation.

(Word count: 411)