Hello. I wanted to blog, but then decided not to, because I still need to prepare for Bio mock spa and I have no time as it is. But eventually I decided to be evil and blog anyway.

Have spent the whole evening reading up on Plato's philosophy for GP presentation on Wednesday, and managed to give myself many headaches. I keep having to cross-refer here and there because I come across ideas and words that I don't understand, and after I read something I forget it almost immediately so that doesn't help either.

Hmm I was reading about his idea of the Forms, which, according to my limited understanding, states that there exists a world of "Forms", which are like perfect "models" of the physical things we see and experience daily. And the reason that we are able to categorise things and recognise them as they are, despite their differences and imperfection, is that we are aware of their collective resemblance of, or "participation in" their corresponding "Forms". So all apples can be recognised to be apples because they share in a particular apple-hood that is common to all of them. The apple-hood is thus the "Form". We sort of have an inherent knowledge of the Forms, hence are able to classify our experiences.

Personally I think it's very interesting, and for a while I almost felt convinced. And then it felt a little weird. Right now I think that our ability to categorise things doesn't come from our awareness of their "Forms", and the idea of there being a world of "Forms" that exists separately from our physical world seems a little difficult to believe. It's more like we are born with the ability to perceive and distinguish between different characteristics. We then group the things with similar characteristics together, and call them a collective something. We don't need to have a pre-set mental picture of the object, in order to be able to identify it. [But I have to say "right now I think", because I might think differently later, since it's all so strange and confusing.]

But then I suppose the whole idea of the Forms is to explain why and how we are able to distinguish between characteristics upon perceiving them. Dear me, I have confused myself. Haha. This is a warning against further random philosophical ramblings. Hehe. But it's quite interesting, trying to argue the whole thing out, and trying to understand and convince yourself. I suppose the whole attraction of philosophy is the many possibilities... the fact that you will never know, and are hence free to come up with theories and ideas and have your own opinions about the big questions in life.

And now, I shall go off and read about Bio mock spa. The coming week is going to be rather stressful. *sighs* I actually wanted to talk about my ambitions, or rather, lack thereof, but there is no time, and way too much to be done. I suppose it can wait till another time.

Okay. It's time for Bio!

To everybody: don't work too hard or get too stressed! Stay cheerful. *smiles*