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If you Google search "wise quotes", in about 0.07 seconds you can find 46,400,000 results.  Anything from Plato, Buddha, and Confucius to Jimmy Hendrix and Eisenhower.  People talk about all sorts of things, and if you are famous enough, i.e. played in a movie, been auto-tuned in a popular song, or released a sex tape, then people will tend to listen.  And some people will tend to write these things down and pass them off as wisdom later on.

The Internet provides loads of information. There are pros and cons to this. The pros are that gap between the expert and the average person has significantly shrunk. However, the main con to this is that with all this information it is very easy to fall victim to false data. Different biases, viewpoints, and prejudices can cause information to be skewed. Continuing education can be a dangerous endeavor.

I've always thought the best movies were the ones that had the hero dying at the end. The tale finishes with the fade to black and we are left with a sense of closure, with the satisfaction of knowing that the hero went out like a flame, fighting until the very end. We are not concerned with whether or not he went on to die of old age, no doubt never seeing another adventure. We do not care if his lessons learned actually aided him later on in life or if he just became a lazy drunkard, abandoning his friends and family. We are not worried because the story is complete. It results in a final climax, leading to the resolution and there are no more questions to be answered. Any question has died with the hero, there is no sense in continued worry.

I guess this is going to be the question that I will ultimately be trying to answer for my Senior Thesis, and what a way to try to culminate my experience at college. But the way I figure it, why not go for that question? Why not try to take on a topic that is especially challenging. Challenging for many reasons. First, it can become so cliche; everyone has a way of answering the question. Secondly, because to answer it in a meaningful way is extremely difficult.

Cancer. I overheard someone this morning talking about a relative who had been taken off treatment as it was inevitable the cancer was going to soon take her life. The woman is young, spending as many hours as she can with her two children and husband. There it was. Here I had been sitting here pondering over how tired I was from lifting earlier this morning and here it was; my friendly reminder that I haven't got jack shit to complain about. It comes every once in a while and usually comes when the thought had escaped my mind, as it usually does once I start worrying about my own important little life again. Over and over again, the cycle continues. I get reminded that I need to stop worrying about my petty problems, but over time I begin to worry again, but those moments come once more and remind me of my shitty attitude. Reading this you may be beginning to think the same thing. The fact that your Starbuck's Iced Caramel Machiatto had just a little too much milk? Seems ...

Increasing your personal capacity for learning is a complicated thing. Learning things tends to be be very situational; the protocol draws on the facts relating to the precise circumstance. The question, "Well how can I learn better?" is usually responded with "Well what are you wanting to learn?" As such, finding generalized ways of increasing learning capacity is difficult. One must be careful not to describe one way of learning for everything. Here, though, are five ways of increasing your capacity for learning. With these ways, you can enhance learning no matter what it is. 1.) Become Healthier This one is easy. A person who has the energy to learn is more likely going to learn better than the person who stayed up all night on a drinking binge at their buddy Ted's house because it was the third Thurs. of the month and cousin Phil was coming into town and wanted to be shown a good time. Having your sleep and daily activities in order will help yo...

Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) was one of the founders of the humanistic school of psychology, which emerged in the 50's and 60's. Maslow, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, served on the faculty of Brooklyn College from 1937 to 1951. During this time and onward in his life, he developed a notion of a hierarchy of human needs. What was unique about Maslow's hierarchy was that on the top of this pyramid lay what he called the Self-Actualized person. The self-actualized person, according to Maslow, was a person capable of achieving great things. This person was concerned with helping others and was all-around a genuine person. The hierarchy consists of five areas. The bottom tier represents a person's basic physiological needs like food, water, shelter, etc. The next tier represents a person's need for safety. From there the pyramid moves to social needs and esteem needs. At the top of the pyramid is the need for self-actualization. You see, a person ...

It's comforting, isn't it? It's comforting to know that when you walk into a CD Tradepost and ask the local vendor where the Neo-Death-Industrial-Metal Section is in the music, she can take you to the exact spot and you can find your favorite band, Necro PileDriver. It's nice to know you can go to the horror movie section and see the latest movie crapped out by hollywood about a 110 pound teenage girl that defeats a 10,000 year old demon in PG-13 form. Being able to dinstinguish some things from other things is pretty cool. Being able to categorize certain obejcts in our experience using just a word or two is pretty useful. In fact, without this ability, it's pretty hard to see the human race surviving for very long. The ability to categorize and label is a tool of the human understanding. The ability of attaching an entire viewpoint around a certain word or idea is connected to the study of heuristics. In psychology , heuristics are simple, efficient rul...

I have this nasty habit, and if human nature be similar, I suspect you may have it too. You see, whenever I walk into our out of a building and someone is close behind, I have this horrible tendency to actually stand there holding the door in an attempt to let the same person through with minimal work needed to open the door. A small vice, I suppose, but one that has been ingrained into me since my no doubt traumatizing childhood. My parents, my teachers, my companions have all conspired against me in order to ensure that my virtue is held back. All things considered, though, I turned up alright...so far. I've managed to pull myself up by the boot straps in order to escape an unwholesome character. A good parent tries to instill good habits in their child, habits that will be useful to child later in life. Holding doors for people is useful in keeping people from wanting to kick the crap out of you. Trust me, just don't do it once and look back to see the look on that pers...

This article was originally written on Aug. 5th, 2008 Take Your Time Patience is a virtue, but not always. You see, there are just some times when quickness is hailed supreme, especially when considering decision making. A person who is able to make decisions at a lightning-quick pace is usually praised; someone who not only makes tough decisions, but makes them fast, and makes them with confidence. These traits usually go hand in hand with the business profession, and as the US and the world is constantly becoming more and more "business-esque," then these traits also become valued by most of society. Let's face it, when it comes to practicality, there's nothing better than a person who is swift to decide and decides with confidence. "A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week." - George S. Patton There is alot of truth to these words. Getting things done requires the ability to assess the situation, come up w...

I've got more companions When I'm all alone. Flesh is fetching. ~ Alone , Amorphis I believe the biggest motivator that drove me to the study of philosophy is that horrible feeling I used to have while lying awake at night looking at the ceiling. My professor, Dr. Eugene Rice has told me once before that everybody is a philosopher but not everyone realizes it. And really, it is true. Those moments in the middle of the day, sitting in my desk in high school, thinking the "thoughts of the universe" as my teacher used to say. Those aren't exclusive to a handful of people. They come to all of us in one form or another. They come with a rage and relentlessness rarely seen in the world. And the worst part is...they come when we're alone. They come when there is no friend to protect us, when there is no wise teacher to guide us, and when we least want them to. Our own minds are capable of great things, but they are also capable of imprisoning us. Ther...

I do not think it to be too controversial a statement to say that there is a proper place for emotions in a life well-lived. The dilemma lies not in getting rid of emotions, surely no one wants to do such a thing, but it is being able to have control over your emotions. A person must be able to (1) pinpoint their feelings, (2) know why they are feeling it, and (3) take measures in order to either keep that feeling alive or attempt to dispel it. If you are able to determine both (1) and (2) , then (3) will come easier. You have to know what the problem is in order to fix it. Pinpointing a feeling involves looking at the situation of which the feeling was aroused. The context of which the feeling exists will allow for the feeling to be properly examined. If you feel tense in a classroom you may be nervous about a test if there is one that day. If there is not, you may have to look at other relevant facts. Perhaps you didn't do the reading for the day, perhaps there i...

The ancient thinker Lao Tzu is known for having attempted to describe the correct way of living. This "way" is literally called "the way," or the Tao (there are many alternate spellings for both Lao Tzu and the Tao). One of the main themes put forth in Taoism is the "essenciality" of getting back to nature, getting back to the Tao, and going with the flow. And finding this flow invokes one of the main examples in Taoism; that of water. Water is inherently a constant changing substance that shapes and conforms to every situation it is in. This example of water was popularized by Bruce Lee in his various writings and interviews: Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it be...

In order to achieve a happy life, a rational person must be able to take responsibility for himself. What this means is that a person should be able to know the ins and outs of who they are, what they are going to do, and why they are going to do it. Of course this is just in the realm of decision-making. But decision making is a tremendously large aspect of our lives. Most of our days our filled with very small to fantastically large decisions. As I type write now, I decide which sentence will come after which. I decide how I want this article to look and feel. These are relatively small decisions compared to others such as deciding whether or not to get married, deciding on a college field of study, and deciding just what career you wish to pursue. These decisions are much harder to sift through. There are so many factors involved that it may seem impossible to determine which fork in the road to follow. But they are decisions that will have to be made by most sometime i...

There are many facts of life that are continually present to us. The fact that we see these things time and time again means that they should be considered staples of the way we live. But, alas, most of the time we end up forgetting these things. Sometimes life has a harsh way of reminding us again, but if we try to remember these foundations, we find ourselves in a better spot on the path to success. While there are unarguably more than five of these pieces of knowledge, I believe the five I have picked are extremely relevant in order to set yourself up for success. 1.) It Takes Hard Work to Achieve Anything Worthwhile This single point is probably the one that is forgotten the most. You can see this point prevalent in most of society today. There are an abundance of commercials on television everyday that promise quick fixes to problems that cannot be fixed in an instant. Want to get out of debt? It will take a planned and patient approach. Want to lose weight? It w...

As a college philosophy major, I find myself spending a large amount of time with a book in my hand. While time constraints are a problem all their own, the greatest problem I face with these sometimes difficult to understand books is actually absorbing the information I wish to retain. I want to be able to understand what the author is attempting to convey both inside and out. I want understand both the large picture and the details. Instead of just drudging through the books I believe it is important to try to hone my skills of reading; find ways to be able to understand the readings without having to read the texts multiple times. Below are nine tips that I have incorporated into my own book reading endeavors. Before Reading the Book 1.)Understand What Type of Book You're Reading Before you even attempt to read the book or text, you should take a moment and reflect upon just what type of book it is. This will allow to be able to perhaps come up with a game plan in...

There are all sorts of reasons that relationships fail and by relationships I do not mean exclusively those of the romantic sort; friends, parents, teachers, teammates, etc. can all be affected. The causes are usually highly contextual. There is not always one single cause that can be blamed and thus we are left scratching our heads trying to understand just what went wrong. There may be an underlying theme though, and in order to understand this concept you may need some background information. Siddhartha Gautama, better known as the Buddha, was attributed to having laid out what is called the "Four Noble Truths." These truths allow for one to see the world for what it is and to escape suffering and achieve for the Buddha what was called Nirvana . It is the second of these noble truths that will be important to this article, that of the truth that our desires are ultimately what cause us to suffer (for more explanation on these truths, visit here ). What did the Buddha ...

The title of this article seems to induce a kind of "duh" feeling, even within myself. I might as well have titled it "The Importance of Eating" or "The Importance of Breathing." The truth is that most can see that problem solving has an extreme importance in today's fast-paced society. We are continually pressured to make important decisions with more speed and more efficiency. It is important though to examine just where all the emphasis upon problem solving came from and why the idea came about. The emphasis upon problem solving in everyday situations arose significantly from the ideas of the philosopher John Dewey. His works in the philosophy of education had a profound effect on the manner in which teachers do their job. But it is important to realize what Dewey was battling in his ideas. The antagonist to Dewey's emphasis upon problem solving was the teaching style of earlier times, namely, that of fact memorization-listen and repeat. Dewey...

It is often the case that we end up becoming so involved with something that it becomes part of our lifestyle. And this particular thing becomes so engrained within us that to think ourselves without it would be absurd. This is because as humans, as part of life, we have a knack for adaptation. We adapt to things in such a way as to do things with the utmost of efficiency. It is a hinderance for survival if the mind and body have to do extra work. So we find ourselves getting "schedulized." We have a certain way of doing things at certain times. Is there a problem with this fact? No. There is nothing wrong with keeping to a schedule. Some of the greatest things one can get out of life require a constant "chipping away," a constistency. Knowledge, Strength, Relationships; these things all require "putting in your time" so to speak and sometimes that means getting schedulized. It may mean setting a time out of the day to read a book, visit the g...

Perspective is a word that can be used in many different ways. This is because the idea of perspective itself can deal with the greatest of objects to the most miniscule. It deals with not only the senses, but the realm of ideas, philosophy, attitude, perception, and values. The idea of perspective is also relational, as it deals with a person's or people's outlook upon the world. What is perspective, then? It's the way by which a person makes sense of the "world." As a young child's conciousness grows, the ability to percieve grows, and the ability to be cognitive of this perception grows. This growth, however, occurs within the child's present experience. His perspective cannot grow beyond his ability to percieve. The fact remains though that each person has a different perspective. This is true because each person experiences in differing, although perhaps minute, ways. This can be extremely advantageous. Because of the fact that our p...