Post #5

Aaron Boyd 

12 August 2013 

AP English 11

Mrs. Wilhelmus 

My side of the Fur

Sophie's World was a book I really connected with. I didn't connect with the book, but more of the famous Philosophers in the book. I was fascinated with all the genius opinions and creative thinking skills the Philosophers had. I can't even imagine trying to get on that level of thought processing. 

There were so many philosophers and philosophies in the book, that by the time I finished the book, I forgot most of them. However, the one that stood out was Aristotle. Aristotle had some of what we now think of as crazy philosophies. For example, he believed women were incomplete men. Obviously a spurious thought. 

Even though Aristotle had a few random philosophies that are clearly wrong, he also had ones that open your mind and perspective and make you think. My favorite philosophy by Aristotle is "The Golden Mean". The Golden Mean is the philosophy that means: only by exercising balance and temperance, will one be able to achieve a happy or harmonious life. This is an important because I feel like it applies to so many people around the world. People try to take happiness without giving any, they don't balance the equation. If you give what you wish to receive, you will for sure be on your path to live a happy and harmonious life. 

As for my side of the rabbit's fur, nothing has really changed. If it wasn't for this project, I would have never touched this book. To me, this book didn't have much to offer. All I got out of it was a history lesson. Which may sound harsh, but it’s true. I felt like I was reading a text book that attempted to have a plot with it. However, even though I may seem like I'm giving this book a hard time; it did make me appreciate the time I live in today. I think if I lived in the time of those Philosophers that I would have felt trapted and out of place. Overall, I don't even consider myself on the rabbit so to speak. I think what I want when I want, and everything is subject to change, not from a book, but from life experiences. 

Post #4

Aaron Boyd 

12 August 2013 

AP English 11

Mrs. Wilhelmus 

Perspective Driven Thinking

Perspective is what guides us through our daily life. Our perspective on things is what implies us to make good or bad decisions  Kant's "red tinted glasses" experiment was an experiment that was designed to prove that our perspective on things may not always be as they seem. The glasses took the sense of sight and differentiated from someone who had regular vision without the glasses which in return changed their outlook on things, this helps prove that things may not always be how they seem and that our senses may not be as reliable as we think.

Everyone has a different perspective on something, which is what makes us unique in this world. It's what separates me from you. In my opinion, we all have red tinted glasses on. Without them, where would we be in this world? The glasses help us break away from the standard and the norm and be ourselves. Which is what was another one of Kant’s goal in the experiment.  

These questions on perspective help me personally in life because my "red tinted glasses" make me infamous to what other people say or think of me. Usually people say "Yeah I don't care what people think of me", but deep down inside they really do, I don't. My glasses help separate me from the crowd and help me be myself with no cares on what other people say. I think this is an important way of thinking in life because you can't let people set you back by what they say or do, be yourself and show your colors. That was Kan'ts goal.

Post #3

Aaron Boyd
12 August 2013
AP English 11
Mrs. Wilhelmus

Compromising Conflicts 

            Religion and philosophy have always been one to bump and turn heads. One or the other is always trying to disprove the other, a conflict ever since the beggining of time. That all changed when Aquinas "christianized" Aristotle in the same way that St. Augustine "christianized" Plato.
            As philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle began to influence the world, they too were being influenced by the grace of God by midevil philosophers such as St. Augustine and St. Aquinas. In my opinion, these great philosophers benefited from being shown the teachings of Christianity. Now they had a divine purpose for their philosophical ways of learning and teaching others. Without the teachings of Christianity, who's to say that Plato and Aristotle may have not been as motivated as they were, and who knows if today's day and age would be the same.
            As the middle ages are mostly thought of as dark and unsanitary, Aberto explains to Sophie that even though it may not seem like the greatest of times, there was a vast amount of progress in things like education. I believe this is do to the two conflicting subjects coming together and uniquely playing a role on the world. This made it easier on the people because there wasn't a war going on between the two common beliefs. Therefore, the coming together benefited both sides of the spectrum.
            As a whole, the teachings of Christianity benefited the teachings and study of philosophy because the fighting subsided and more progress could be made. From this I think we can all learn the lesson to compromise. Philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato had to compromise with some of their beliefs in order to take on the teachings of Christ. In our day this is a valuable lesson to learn because everyone has a different idea and opinion, so we have to compromise with each other to get along and move forward.

Post #2

Aaron Boyd

11 August 2013

AP English 11

Mrs. Wilhelmus

            Back in the day, Aristotle had a very common view on women. He had a view that supported minimal rights for women, and a disrespectful outlook on their purpose in life. Thought as inferior to men, women were unfairly judged and mistreated just for being the opposite sex. Sadly Aristotle and many others were in support of this way of thinking.

            In this day and age, in MOST parts of the world, women are now equal to men. Women can have jobs, and basically do everything a man can without being discriminated against. I believe this way of thinking changed for the better. In my opinion, it doesn’t make sense for a married man’s other half, to be mistreated for having subtle differences or to be thought of as a lesser being. Without women, there would be no man and vice versa. This is why equal gender rights are important.

            Plato, the mentor of Aristotle supported more equality for women. He believed women could effectively the same things men could if given equal education. Plato had an odd way of thinking in that day in age. This wasn’t a very common thought back then because men did most of everything, just as culture suggested. Men fought wars and put food on the table. Sadly, women usually stayed at home and either cleaned or cooked food. It’s just how life was. Sure there were women who disagreed with that way of thinking. An example of one of those women was Olympe de Gouges who was a French feminist and political activist. Olympe was so stern in her beliefs she was executed during France’s “Reign of Terror”.

            It’s sad to say but in my opinion, it makes sense that the vast majority of philosophers in the story were men. As I already stated, it was a common practice for men to do all of the hard work and thinking. As much as I disagree with it, it’s just how it was and there is clearly no changing it. If you really think about it, if women had the potential and rights do to what they wanted without controversy, we would probably be twice as advanced as we are today. There would be more thinking, more doing, and less discrimination and less pointless killings of women who had the same if not more potential to be engineers, inventors, and scientists. Thankfully, times have changed and most women around the world are equal to men.

           

Post #1

Aaron Boyd

11 August 2013

AP English 11

Mrs. Wilhelmus

            The beginning of time is an elegant, yet touchy subject. For my personal beliefs, the Garden of Eden is where it all started. When reading through Sophie’s World different questions and thoughts all ran through my mind. As I read, “Who am I” and “Where does the world come from” were the most common questions that arbitrarily came into mind.

            The more I think about who I am, I come to the realization, I don’t particularly know. “Who am I” is a very open ended question that can lead us to be either very humble or very self-absorbed. To me, this is not an uncommon question. As I believe we all struggle with discovering who we really are. Relating to the book, finding yourself is about your own philosophies, not the philosophies someone else comes up with. However, contrasting that statement; realizing who you are can come from other people’s philosophies and ideas throughout history.

            Throughout the book, there are some intriguing philosophies on where the world came from and how it began. Coming from a Christian background, I immediately put up a wall when being subjected to other creation theories. However, as they kept popping up I began to take on the thoughts of them. Curious as I was, I began to look more into the philosophies that the book presents. But as I looked more into the complex philosophies I always went back to my Christian roots. Even bringing God into the philosophies, such as the big bang theory; which in return debunked the theory in the first place because The Big Bang theory was counteracted something in The Holy Bible.

            The questions “Who am I” and “Where does the world come from” are questions that can’t, at least for me, have a defining answer. We all have doubts, we all have questions. Even though curiosity gets to me, I always find myself sticking to my roots by revealing other philosophies weaknesses. Which, I guess by definition is who I am.