Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

This week, we looked at the early Tokugawa period, and the way that Tokugawa Ieyasu consolidated his power. Building on the pattern set by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Ieyasu broke up the fiefdoms of the Daimyo, ensuring that they never had the ability to pool their power. I may be wrong, but I seem to remember reading…

This week, we looked at the death of Mao Zedong, and how China flirted with democracy before eventually stamping down on protesters at the Tiananmen Square massacre. For Wednesday, I read the Attempts at Democracy exploration pack. One of the most interesting things mentioned in the readings for that pack was the democracy wall. To…

In 1969, tensions between communist China and the Soviet Union erupted in a series vicious and bloody border disputes. These clashes were the culmination of years of rising friction between the two nations, and in their aftermath, both sides seriously considered the prospect of a nuclear war. The origins of the Sino-Soviet split can be…

As the Sengoku period wore on in Japan, the composition and tactics of the armies who vied for power changed. Armies got bigger, with greater emphasis on large infantry forces, particularly those wielding pikes. With the appearance of Portuguese traders, firearms were also introduced to the Japanese Islands, and were incorporated into the various Daimyo…

This week, we looked at the era of disunity in Japan and the first two of the three unifiers. I really enjoyed looking at the general trends of Daimyo, since much of my outside knowledge was based solely around the three conquerors: Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu. In class, we went over some…

This week, we looked at the Cultural Revolution and the opening of relations between the Communist Chinese government and the United States. For Wednesday, I read the Three Body Problem excerpt. Obviously, it was fictional, but the brutality of the situations depicted still seemed to be realistic and believable depictions of violence. This was particularly…

This week, we looked at Zen Buddhism. I had already learned a fair bit about Zen from my Religions of Japan course, but that was a few weeks ago so it was good to have a refresher. For that class, I read several primary sources, including Dogen’s “Fukanzazengi,” and the autobiography of Hakuin, who was…

This week, we looked at Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward, and some of the social implications of it. I misread the assignment for Wednesday’s class, and read both the Iron Child passage and the Lei Feng Diary. We discussed the Iron Child at length in class, but I had a few thoughts that I did…