reflection will ask you to summarize what youve learned from the course in a more personal way. It will be an opportunity for you to express which of the thinkers or ideas we discussed made you think differently, act differently, or take a new stance on something. This reflection will be due at the end of the semester, but you should be preparing it as we move through the course.
My suggestion would be to keep a sort of running journal during this class of questions that came up for you, discussions that made you think further about something, topics that bothered you or were hard to keep an open mind about, etc.
Week 1: What is Philosophy
Early philosophers asked what the world is really made of and whether there is order behind change. Why do you think humans across cultures begin by asking these kinds of questions? What questions about reality or meaning have you wondered about, even as a child?
I think philosophy as a whole especially in the way it has been covered in these first readings/video can only appear in a society in which the people have time to think. Downtime from other activities and have stories which talk about the start of existence or life itself. I think people across so many cultures start asking kinds of questions like “what makes us alive?” or “do we have a soul?” is because we as humans want to know, just in general and with mythology back in the days of Thales and Anaximander it certainly would push people to think on why our world works as it does and if there is order in what we perceive many times as chaos. I think the fact that atoms where even thought about as an answer so long ago is very jarring and impressive also interesting that Thales theory on water being everything is somewhat accurate in the sense of how important water is for many things in this world. I as a child wondered what was the point of life and what is its meaning. Also why space is so dangerous and honestly how outer space as a whole works and its purpose.
Week 2
What to make of change?
This week, we learned that two of the Presocratics we are studying, Heraclitus and Parmenides, have very different views about “change.” Heraclitus says everything is always changing while Parmenides says change is impossible. Which view feels closer to your experience and why?
Heraclitus demonstrates his accuracy to me when I evaluate my daily existence. My entire environment undergoes continuous transformation. My little sister is growing taller every year. The way I connect with my friends has changed since my middle school days. My mental state experiences daily transformations. I experience two distinct moods in the morning because I either wake up feeling happy or I experience unexplained stress. The experience of existence maintains continuous progress. I understand Heraclitus because he said you cannot step into the same river twice. The water maintains its continuous flow which mirrors the passage of time. Parmenides asserts that change cannot occur yet this assertion seems illogical. I would still remain in my childhood if nothing at all changed. I believe that all living beings must undergo transformation throughout their existence.
Week 3
Moral Courage and Questioning Authority
Socrates believed questioning authority was a moral duty. When, if ever, is it risky to do so? When, if ever, is it necessary to do so?
I believe that it is a moral duty to question authority especially in a democracy. I do also think that it is risky to do so in just about any case as the ones you will be questioning by definition will have authority and power which means your livelihood and possibly even your life itself could be in danger. Like we saw with Socrates. I believe that it is necessary all the time to keep an eye on authority and how it is used, otherwise tyrants can easily find their way to making their authority absolute. As for questioning it to the level socrates did, I believe there comes a point in which if the authority is directly going against it’s own rules which it has out in place then it would be necessary for all to question and try to make changes to the authority.
Week 4
Knowledge and Reality
After reading/watching The Allegory of the Cave, what are some “caves” people live in today? Social media, culture, fear, traditions? What makes it hard to recognize them? What makes it hard to leave them?
There are many caves that exist in our modern world and society, I think the easiest one to point out would be the internet/social media and the obsession with getting attention, likes, engagement, and the overall addiction many have to it. Another would be culture or similarly what others think of you. Such “caves” can be very hard to recognize because many times adhering or even changing yourself because someone you look up to or your culture tells you too feels natural and with social media since everyone is on it and it brings joy and excitement to all it also feels natural. These kinds of caves go unnoticed and can easily be viewed as simply part of life and when one realizes that it is a cave something that has become basically second nature can be extremely hard to drop, and most times people would say that leaving them made them feel hollow or that they felt more free in the cave. Many things which seem “real” or “natural” can be a “cave” and that is what makes them so hard to see and so hard to escape from, and even harder to drag one out of.
Week 5: Plato on Virtue and Education
In Meno, Plato asks whether learning is actually a kind of recollection, i.e., remembering something the soul already knows.
In Phaedo, he connects this idea to a bigger claim that the soul exists beyond the body and may already have access to “truth.”
Do you think real learning is mostly about gaining new information, or about uncovering something deeper that was already in you like insight, awareness, or wisdom? It might help to give real life examples to explain your thoughts on this.
Platos theory shows that authentic learning needs students to develop their existing understanding through education. The actual process of learning combines two elements which entail students to learn fresh material while they discover more profound knowledge. A musician who learns scales will acquire new skills but later will use his ability to express emotions through music as if it had always been part of him. People who think about ethical problems will study ethical principles but will end up using their personal moral beliefs to make judgments. Education develops mental abilities but people achieve wisdom through life experiences which require them to question their surroundings and think deeply.
Week 6: Aristotle
Aristotle believed that many things in nature have natural purposes. For example, the purpose of the eye is to see, and the purpose of an acorn is to grow into an oak tree.
Consider the following question:
- Do you think things in nature really have built-in purposes, or are purposes something humans project onto the world?
- Can you think of examples from nature that seem to support Aristotles idea of final causes?
- How might someone today argue against Aristotles view?
1. I think that somethings do have built in purposes. A perfect example would be many of the plants on Earth. A Venus fly trap has the built in purpose of “eating” whatever flys into its mouth-like head(s) a tree has the built in purpose of growing and sometimes bearing fruit and no matter what, producing oxygen. There are definitely many things which either we as humans have given purpose, like any animal we have domesticated and made a pet/cattle and many things which have projected purposes onto, like space being the final frontier.
2. Examples from nature that support Aristotle’s final cause idea would be growth of plant life is the final cause of rain and photosynthesis. And that death is the final cause of life as to live is to inevitably die.
3. One may argue against Aristotle’s view by using the theory of evolution, claiming that nothing really has a natural cause and that instead it is the very long process of selecting genes and functions for inheritance to help organisms best survive the environment they inhabit.
Week 7: Aristotle and Ethics
Aristotle believes that human beings should strive for virtue in order to achieve eudaimonia, or “human flourishing.” He also believes that the best friendships are based on virtue, meaning both people admire the good character of the other. Do you agree?
Is it possible to be a truly good friend to someone if that person behaves badly or has poor character? Should friendship include loyalty even when a friend is doing something wrong? What would Aristotle say a virtuous person should do when a friend behaves contrary to virtue?
Feel free to use examples from your own life. I’m sure we’ve all had friendships where we’ve struggled to know how to be a “good friend.”
Friendship means more than spending time together. I think a good friendship should help both people become better. The idea that people should try to live with virtue makes sense to me. People who show honest and kind and fair behavior become easier to trust. Friends who honor each other’s virtuous qualities create a strong friendship bond. However, real life is not always perfect. A friend sometimes shows inappropriate behavior. I have seen this happen in school when someone lies or treats others unfairly. The situation becomes difficult because the right course of action remains uncertain. Good friendship requires you to support your friend while you tell them to stop acting wrongly. A good friend needs to speak their mind while helping others return to their correct path according to my belief. The main priority should be helping a friend grow their loyalty according to my perspective.
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