Punting, Pubbing, and Pacing: Lost in thought as we stumble though what ethics are for each of us

So I know not all of you are into Philosophy, so I will leave that until the very end. I once again I had the same breakfast as yesterday, only I had the Black current jam, which I totally forgot to process mentally. It must've tasted good for me just accept it. I also learned that bacon comes in rashers, not brashers. I just remembered that yesterday morning at 10:30 someone was already taste testing the beer in the lobby. I am not sure why they don't just call study abroad drink abroad. With the number of glasses I have seen put away already I am feeling like I am having one of the cheapest trips so far in the class. After class in the lobby most of us met and went out for lunch. We headed down the now fairly familiar streets toward the market. Wondering past Caribbean cookies, fruit stands, and bong masks we found a bread stand where I got a sun-dried tomato focaccia bread. Buying two we cut down the price by 50 pence to 2.50 for them both. I started eating it before deciding that I really wanted to try the hotdogs with american cheese and grilled onion. SOO good - mainly because it was so hot compared to the cold blustery day. We also ran into women wearing black and standing silently in a plea for peace in Palestine. There were also some men's group dressed comically as women as they sang and danced in the square. I just remember the bathroom sign that said they were slippery when wet. We decided to look like fools and do phone booth pictures - which conveniently attracted the punting salesman. It was fun to listen to him as we kind of held him to the mercy of an indecisive group - we all wanted to go, just we didn't know when we wanted to. He dropped the price from 12 pounds each to 9 if we would go right now and then we got placed an hour late instead, which was good considering half the group wanted to get more cold weather clothes. We raced back to the hotel and back, quickly navigating the streets.

It was quite the adventure, being smashed three per seat and listening to a South African man talk about the history of the water way and the different colleges. Did I mention that punting involves a boat? The "driver" pushes you around in the wide long boat with a pole that reaches the bottom of the river (or channel?). Originally the boats were used to hold cargo and were pulled by horses next to the water. On the discovery that a man could do the same job with a pole they stopped using horses. Stories involving celebrities, a Harry Potter filming site, and information on the bridges (such as dueling) were also given. It was a shame that all the colleges were closed for break as it would've been nice to get closer to some of the buildings and into the courtyards. Of course we also got to see a different side of them than we had before.

We met back up with more of the group and went to the Cambridge bookstore and wondered some more. The more time past the busier the streets became with people, which made sense considering everything seemed to shut down around five in the afternoon and people had stuff to do. Justin, Megan, Erin, Michael and I broke off to find a pastry - not pasty - for Justin. He ended up getting some mixed vegetable pocket thing which he liked. We also went into an amazing chocolate store but then rushed off to gather once again with everyone at the hotel at four. We ended up going to the Avery pub right near by. No one was crazy hungry but Will. The guys all got beer while I got fish and chips. FISH was the word. Literally the just took a slab of fish, breaded it with the skin still on, and fried it. It was good, but a rather bland fish and I wasn't into the chips so much. I had a wonderful Raspberry Mess - a shortbread crust cake with raspberry, white chocolate, and some wonderful white layer of almost cheese cake consistency, only thicker. The whole time we were watching a game of rugby, which I might say is crazy physical. I am surprised its not a "violent" sport. No really. It is a lot of shoving and tackling, but it is more of a show of strength and power matched with speed and intelligent play. For the lack of padding there were only three short stops in the game because people where completely winded and couldn't stand for a second, unlike American football where people get carried off the field. TV shows, Disney movies, and wrestling were all brought into discussion during this time. Eventually we all split off, three people to see if they could get a second wind for another round of drinks and another group back to the hotel. A group left again for the same pub later.

I happily stayed in my room with Will, starting this post and mindlessly watched a portion of Iron Man. I actually ran out partway through because Will heard some guys that sounded American. It turned out to be Patrick, a giant guy who works for campus safety, and Kevin, a guy who does communication. We chatted for a bit before Melissa Hornback came out, who just happened to be rooming with Kelsey Svaren. With 35 PLU students in the hotel it quickly felt like a small world. I learned that I would have to be careful about London - everything costs money apparently. Internet was ten to fifteen pounds for a day or ten hours over thirty days. Made my free internet here feel really nice...and cheap. They said pubs were great places to get the internet for free. Clearly pubs are the places to be in England if you want anything from beer, food, to great company with internet.

The last few days events had me thinking about drinking...or at least the subject. I realized that drinking itself isn't necessarily the problem with alcohol, but how people drink and act. That said, it seems logical that drinking wouldn't be a big deal if you do it under control. Kind of hard when you don't know what you can take right? But that is besides the point. Why drink if it doesn't come to any good? Drinking won't help my pocketbook, something that is clear considering my water hasn't been five pounds a pint. I have had just as good of a time hanging out with everyone and not drinking as the drinkers have - ok I admit that I would've loved to meet all the local students at the pub drinking before chat with them for hours and getting invited to going clubbing until two in the morning...but never mind that. One of the boys didn't even remember leaving that club. The locals part I actually would've enjoyed, but the sleep I got and memories I still have are a good sign to me that I am on the right track. We were asked to think about higher and lower functions of pleasure for our next class. Is it acceptable to call most of my class out and say drinking is a lower function? I think so, as it doesn't really bring any long lasting happiness or pleasure. I feel like most people use drinking as a means to and end, why not just pursue the end? I guess that is hard when being wasted is the end tho...or is it? I kind of want to know what drives each person in my group to drink. A question for another night.

Philosophy Class:

When we started class this morning we started with a question - What does the Ethical Life and morality mean to you? I was asked first. I admit, this is a question I have been asked in the past and thought about, but I admit that I was more worried about being ready to talk about the readings I did weeks ago. In short I talked about doing good in the world and helping others. Professor Johnson automatically used this opportunity to connect to our readings - the first of which was Mill. In short Mill's utility hopes to maximize happiness and minimize pain.

We continued around the circle getting each person's thought. Erin: Christian traditions - actively following this faith and how we can help others. Greg pushed to see what the motivation is. Greg said that we come to this class ready to ask the questions because we have lived life. This class is a way for us to think about how people take on that question and also how "that", whatever it is, gives us motivation. Carrieanna: Making herself pure in moral actions. This begs the question - What is more important, the individual focus or the group when it comes to morals? Objectivity: is there a basic framework that we should refer to?

Kelsey: Golden Rule
Kira: Keep conscious of others and myself. You have innate instincts of what is right or wrong. Are we hardwired about ethics or are they learned? I think that it is socially learned but then we take off on our own from the ideas we are given. We develop our own ideas based off of the framework that our interactions, relationships, and our environments.

Utilitarianism: don't misuse that we should do horrible things for the greatest good. K Carpenter: Ethics are taught.

I found it interesting how we get lost in our own thoughts and then all come back to the discussion, slightly lost and clearly miscommunicating because we are on a different train of thought. K Carpenter was on a different track when she was given the question of what the ethical life and morality is, making her try to answer a different question.

Megan (Meg): Taught person person actions - sharing and being nice to others. Equal rights is her thing - not marriage - but everyone is a human being. Morality is basic fairness. Michael: Christianity ideals - helping people, you can help people but you need to help yourself. There needs to be a balance so that you don't sacrifice yourself.

Do you save a drowning child at the risk of your own life? YES! duh...I wanted to scream. My professor loves playing the devil's advocate.

My true focus is that I value life and the quality of it for everyone and myself. Life itself is my greatest value, a wording I hadn't realized  The greatest impact I can have on improving life though lies in impacting the lives of many than just myself. If we don't do what makes us happy in the process of impacting the world we are less effective. We should follow that vocation, make ourselves happy, and positively impact the world in the process.

Professor Johnson brought up the PLU mission statements and several of our leading lines of thought like "What are you going to do with your one hoppy happy life?" (slightly edited) What are your BEQs and vocation? Then the idea of lutheran vocation

Kyle: Founded in social context or found or discovered - our sense of morality. Human conduct. We need to find a system that is good, but we need experience. We need to find a good and then stand it against the frame of society. We have a hard time getting straight to the answer and going to the what is the good. Just our framework that allows us to make decisions.

Kyle K: Conflict of morals (Greg loves it). Loves Mill. Self sacrifice is harmful, personal relationships. Sidgwick. Not just being the doormat in the relationship. I like seeing people be happy, but it hurts me sometimes. Justices is held out by showing that someone else is doing something wrong. Avoiding conflict may make them happy in the short term, but in the long term its not good.

Greg ended up giving us the garden metaphor with possibility for plants to grow if we only give them attendance. For Mill, happiness isn't just about the most number. Sidgwick: Rational benevolence - but we need to be sure not to completely remove the individual identity from the group members. Individual happiness vs. Group happiness is problematic. Example: living the life your parents want you to live.

Happiness and The Good life: should pleasure be the focus? If you aren't then you are no better than a pig - who are really happy with slop. Distinction between higher and lower (base) pleasures.

Justin: Grows out of the golden rule, but recognizes that ethics aren't the same. Everyone has their own ethics and they can't be a black or white thing, you must bend for each situation. Self sacrifice all the time just makes you a doormat. Greg started talking about how it was "no wonder we don't know what the moral thing is to do, because we all have some different view of what happiness is." The key problem is we don't know what happiness is - no social key definition, but something that everyone shares.

Will: Right and wrong didn't develop until experiences of pain or happiness and positive impact. He is all about stopping pain. Now have to figure out how to take care of yourself in order to take care of others. Goodness being the prevention of harm. Berni: Totally forgot to write down what he was saying...totally lost in thought. Patrick: I missed him...Meg: Born in christian tradition and turning away from it. Religions organize good and morals but not really. Humble -helping is not about helping it is being there. I can't assume that my good is something that is good for you or better than yours.

Greg gave us another question and example. Is it ok to thrust your ideas on others? Women shouldn't be treated as secondary citizens. Thinking about this you want to say yes wholeheartedly, but then what about views you believe are right, but seem wrong when you disagree with the view. For example, white supremacists believe that their views are completely right and pushing their ideas on others would anger other people who don't hold those beliefs.

Living the example is the good idea to influence. There are times though that people don't care about your example. Is there a need to not be flexible at times?

We need to be ready for the conversation of High vs. lower pleasures/happiness.