TED Talk Response

Ferguson began this TED talk by introducing the count of “billions” which I thought was engaging. His points were concise, and clearly defined to fit the overarching theme of his talk. However, Ferguson exuded a bit of arrogance by saying “this is the best simplification I can offer you,” as that implies he believes the audience is relatively-feeble-minded compared to him. Overall, the information relayed in Ferguson’s talk was very intriguing and addressed a largely unattacked issue of prosperity fairly holistically.

Adam Smith Questions

1) Why do you think profit is the most important thing?

2) In what ways does self-interest help society?

3) When would a monopoly be beneficial to people?

Islamic Empire Pocket Map

DBQ Reflection

Today's DBQ didn't go as smoothly as I thought it was going to be. The main problem I had with writing it was time management, where I spent too long reading over the articles to pull out the quotes for my essay. I also seemed to be repeating words a lot (such as, according to, in  my opinion, etc.). I do think a good job at grouping my thoughts together; medicine, death of children, and religion. I made my point of view apparent from the start of the essay, stating that the Plague was truly devastating to Europe, but most importantly Italy. Unfortunately, I did not get to finish my essay which is a shame because I had so much I wanted to write about! But for next time, I definitely will be managing my time more wisely, and organizing what I am going to write BEFORE the writing time begins. But DBQ's are by far my favorite type of essay of the three!

Does Columbus Deserve His Own Holiday?

I do not think that Columbus should have his own day in my opinion. Columbus basically represented Europe, more specifically Spain, when traveling to North America. I do still believe that the Europeans came to know about America from the Chinese, so yes I would seriously reconsider having a day commemorating Columbus because he really didn't do all that much.

Menzie's Argument

Q: Do you buy Menzie's argument that Zheng He's fleet made it to America before Colombus? Evaluate the evidence he used and explain why or why not? 

A: Personally, I really do believe that Zheng He's fleet made it to America before Columbus, based on Menzie's argument. I found his argument about maps to be the most interesting. He stated that the Chinese and Italians both had the exact same maps, but this is because the Italians got there maps from the Chinese in the first place. He also states that in China, Confucian thinkers had their documents destroyed and this would be how Italy got their hands on such maps. Pretty solid argument if you ask me!

5 Proofs that God Exists (According to St. Thomas Aquinas)

In the first proof, St. Thomas states that everything on earth moves and changes. The second proof talks about cause and effect, saying that everything is caused by something else, and something cannot be the cause of itself, and this first cause is God. In the third proof Aquinas argues that things can either exist or not exist, but they cannot last for eternity. The fourth proof is that is God is the driving force lf everything. Aquinas uses this proof to state that there is a more perfect form of everything. Therefore, there must be something that is the most good and perfect of all things, which is God. In this final proof, Aquinas refers to the ordering of things found in nature and the idea that things that lack intelligence move and tend towards a certain result.