This Site Needs Something

I really want to change the graphical components of this page, of course since I know like nothing about HTML and Web Design it is going to take a long time to get to a point where I can design graphics and post them on this page. So far every attempt I have made has created not a change of scenery, but rather no scenery at all. I must say this is vexing, and I don't mind being vexed about something so trivial. So I have been surfing the web and talking to friends trying to figure out this HTML stuff. I've been referred to webmonkey.com but as classes have just started I haven't been able to get anything done on this front.

On a separate note, my class about Lying seems to be interesting. When I came to Berkeley I never expected to be taking a class titled "Towards an Interpretation of Lies and Liars." One of the thoughts I had about it today is that if one can never know anything (as Aristotle says) than is there ever truth? And if there is never truth, than is it possible to lie when you never know the truth? So thinking about this just makes me want to read the book our professor was talking about titled On Bullshit. The discussion today was an introduction to Hippias Minor. In this text Socrates shows Hippias to be a liar when he claims to know Achilles. I haven't read the text, but the premise is that all pretense to knowledge is a lie. So I assume that Socrates succeeds in proving that it is impossible to truly know anything, as the Socratic Maxim is "I know that I do not know." Of course even in this lies a dillema, and an paradox. How can one know anything given that statement, even if the knowledge is that you know nothing? And how can Aristotle claim that his life's work is the pursuit of knowledge when he acknowleges that there is no such thing possible? Of course, he says it is the pursuit that is important.

But something that came up that I enjoyed was one of the questions that a student asked. She asked if Hippias was responsible for his ignorance. The answer was more of a question, as the professor explained that Hippias's entire education was a matter of memorization, and that the idea of critical thought was not part of the system.

Which leads me to this question: can one question a system if the system does not provide the ability to question? Can one question any part of reality if it is so ingrained that that not only is it impossible to question, but that questioning isn't even an option?