Brittany Rexroat 
Lacy Hanson Everything is reason. And reason is rational. This was a belief that Plato held fast to in his teachings. Plato was one of the most rational minded of the theorists in the Greek times in my belief. He thought that everything was grounded in what you could see, touch, and perceive with your senses. Plato was also a believer in inductive reasoning, meaning that he drew generalized conclusions from specific observations. He believed that the source of knowledge came from remembering things…that we already have the knowledge within us and are supposed to draw on it. His student, Aristotle, was the exact opposite of his teacher. Aristotle was an empiricist and believed in deductive reasoning, which was reasoning that constructs or evaluates deductive arguments. His belief was that the source of our knowledge came from our experiences and laws of association.
In studying these two men, I started to think about one television show I watch in particular. Bones is a drama show based around solving impossible murders through the clues left behind in their bones. The main character is a forensic anthropologist named Temperance Brennan. Dr. Brennan is hyper-rational in her beliefs, thinking through the lens that the world is only tangible through science. Everything she believes has to be founded in some scientific belief or proven fact. Emotions, like love, are foreign for her to understand and grasp because she cannot tangibly prove it with something rational. In the clip linked, she talks about how aliens wouldn’t come to earth, provided they existed, because they would have such higher technology and wouldn’t need to come to earth in the first place.
Brittany Rexroat
6:16 pm, 02.02.11
Great use of the show Bones to bring the entertainment and ideas of today and compare them to Plato’s beliefs. I would have never thought Bones could be compared! I especially like the part where you state how she does not believe in love because it is not tangible because you can somewhat hear Plato stating the same thing.
Katelyn Marlow
7:18 pm, 02.02.11
I love “Bones”, but I never would have thought to compare the themes of the show to the beliefs of Plato, especially in this manner. You are so right on. Thank you for helping me to make this great connection.
Rebekah Bynum
8:10 pm, 02.02.11
I have never watched the show Bones but this has really intrigued me. I am anxious to watch it now and see if I can draw the same conclusions!
Jacob Luedecke
8:11 pm, 02.02.11
I would like to think that I am more of a rationalist more than anything else. I do hold to the belief that emotions misguide our thoughts and ultimately hold us back from our true potential. I find it increasingly more and more difficult to continue to live in a world filled with emotional motives and skewed logic, but not everything can be cut and dry I suppose. That’s just part of life I find difficult to accept.
Jodi Bell
10:51 pm, 02.02.11
Its interesting how two people can have completely different views of a concept and both be right. While i do think reason is very important sometime it doesn’t give you the correct answer. Like you said she is amazing in the sciences but cannot understands concepts like love. I think that is why I relate more with Aristotle and his view of experience and knowledge. So much of what we learn about life and love can’t be described in a text book.
Tiffani Johnson
11:34 pm, 02.02.11
I see where you are coming from with this. Personally I believe that both philosophers are correct. Plato was correct in the sense that we are born with certain pieces of knowledge that we call instincts. Aristotle was correct in saying that we learn from experiences. When we put it all together we get what we call today’s knowledge.