Makes You Think.

Austin, Vahn, Dustin and I were just out exploring campus* a few minutes ago when suddenly all the lights (except for at the Student Union and Waite Hall,) went out. Lucky for us, we had all brought flashlights anyway, so we continued to poke around all the nooks and crannies for treasure.

It was strange with all the lights out, really. I had never seen the "Academic Side" of campus without the street lamps and other types of illumination, since they always came on by sunset. Walking around the eerily quiet, uncharacteristically dark buildings turned out to be extremely fun. It reminded me of an excerpt from a book I'm reading for Philosophy Class, entitled Sophie's World. (Forgive me for not quoting it directly, because I'm typing this in the dark as my roommate sleeps, and my battery is too low to leave my desk and go to the livingroom.)

Anyway, in the book, Sophie's Philosophy teacher is telling her about Hume and his staunch empiricism. The teacher makes an interesting statement regarding nature's laws. According to Hume, natural laws such as gravity weren't able to be proven, because the only evidence we had was the fact that every time we drop something, it falls to the ground. Yet since Locke only believed what you experienced was certain, gravity was not certain because we can not experience things ALWAYS dropping. We can only assume that if we let go of a rock, it will drop because hat's what has always happened

Furthermore, what was brought to my mind because of the dark campus, was the next little bit of philosophy. The philosophy teacher gave the following example (again, excuse the lack of direct quotes... I'm paraphrasing.)

"Imagine you were in a room with a one-year-old, and a rock was dropped but it didn't fall. Instead, it just floated in midair. How impressed do you think the infant would be?" He asked.

"I suppose it wouldn't be too excited," Sophie answered.

"Why?"

"Well, it hasn't experienced a lot of things dropping, so its expectations were not set in stone."

"Good. Now, imagine you are at a magic show with the same infant, and you both observe a magician as he causes objects to float in the air. Who would be more impressed, you or the child?"

"I would be, because I have experienced things dropping so much that I would better appreciate how impossible it all is."

The philosophy teacher then went on to explain the danger of possessing these preconceived expectations for things. He suggests that perhaps we miss a lot because we always expect with certainty what will happen. As I strolled around the pitch-black campus, I realized that in a small way, I had the preconceived idea that campus would always be lit up at night. After all, it always was.

Yet tonight it wasn't. I wonder what else "won't." I wonder how much I expect to happen and in doing so miss the simply beauty or enormous complexity of it. Makes you think.


Thanks for reading,

-Daniel K


*We were looking for storm drains, basements, or access to roofs. Anything fun, really.