Alex Yates
My blogs
| Industry | Student |
|---|---|
| Location | Brunswick, Maine, United States |
| Introduction | I'm a student at Bowdoin College who is majoring in philosophy and minoring in mathematics mathematics. I'm learning, so my views change FAST. So don't think any article is representative of my current views. |
| Interests | I have many interests. I love philosophy, especially twentieth century analytic philosophy. I also have a fondness of continental philosophy (existentialism, not any of this deconstruction foolishness). I like science, especially what little I understand of quantum mechanics, relativity, and modern cosmology. I'm rather ambivalent towards string theory. I love mathematics, and am especially interested in symbolic logic and its applications to the set theoretic foundations of mathematics. I also know a bit of group theory and find it fascinating. Although I do not belong to a specific relgion myself, the study of world religions constitute one of my major passions. Currently, I am extremely interested in Buddhism, a philosophy that has had an impact on the way that I view the world. I am also interested in philosophical Taoism, Christianity, and Hinduism. I am also very interested in the intense and often pointless debate between secular and religious thought. I like to write about the things I think about, and also enjoy writing and reading poetry. I enjoy meditation imensely, and find it valuble by virtue of it being one of the few things I do which has no direct purpose at all. I like to listen to music, play the trumpet, have converstations with people, and make funny noises. I also thrive off a guiltless appreciation of the lowest common denominator of humor. The Ace Ventura movies changed my life. I like Sacha Baron Cohen's work as well. |
| Favorite movies | I love anything done by Miyazaki, especially Princess Mononoke and Spirited away. Other than that, I have fairly ordinary tastes in movies. I like good action movies, like the Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Dark Night. Having been brought up in the center of Disney's Golden Era, I greatly enjoy animated Disney films such as the Lion King, Mulan, Hunchback of Notre Dame, and similar movies, largely due to the nostalgia they provoke for me for my early years. |
| Favorite music | Igor Stravinski's Rite of Spring, Fire Bird, and the 1st movement of his Symphony of Psalms. He's my favorite classical composer, but I like classical music of all sorts. Yes, if you must know, Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 was my springboard into the world of classical music, and informs my musical interests in this area. I also have a fondness for Celtic Folk Music and Scottish folk music. Altan, Silly Wizard, Battlefield Band, and a bit of Enya. I like religious music, especially Buddhist chants and Christian hymns. Lastly, I'm quite fond of musicals, including Grease, Fiddler on the Roof, Godspell, Seussical, Sweeny Todd, and Rent. |
| Favorite books | I read a lot of philosophy books, most of which I've only read once over. Some that I especially enjoy are Russell's "Problems of Philosophy", Ayer's "Language, Truth, and Logic", and Hume's "Dialogues of Natural Religion". I don't have enough time to read fiction nearly as much as I would like, but my favorites are the Wheel of Time series, the Abarat Series, the Harry Potter Series, and the Phantom Tollbooth. I enjoy reading books of a spiritual nature as well. One of my very favorite books, and probably the one I've read the most times (it's quite short) is the Tao Te Ching. I also enjoy reading Buddhist texts, such as the Heart Sutra, Sutta's from the Pali Cannon (Buddhist texts), and the Questions of King Malinda. I read books on Buddhism as well, and am quite fond of the writtings of Chogyam Trungpa. I enjoy texts from other religions as well, including the Books of Job and Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament. I enjoy reading books on math and logic occasionally, and my favorite Intro to Logic is "Symbolic Logic" by Irving M. Copi. It's quite out of date, but worth reading if only for the impeccably explanation of ZFC Axioms. In addition to all of this, I enjoy reading any plays with an existential flavor, such as Hamlet, Rozencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, the Bald Soprano, and Waiting for Godot. |