Blog Post 5

Logan Sullivan           

Mrs. Wagener

AP English Lit.

12^th August 2013

Philosophy

            Philosophy has been a part of human’s lives for many years. Although philosophy is about exploring the mind and solving answers to questions that never get brought, some questions just are not that easy to comprehend such as the origin of human life. Whether it is from a philosophical stand point or from the view of religious faith, the question of existence is never a question easily answered.

            In most cases, the philosophers in Sophie’s World did not really appear to be intuitive. It seemed as if every philosopher were more concerned about trying to spread their own thoughts and ideas rather than listening to the world around, taking in information, and coming up with a more logical conclusion. Selfishness seemed to be very apparent with most philosophers, and even if they were not, that was how they appeared to be. One person that did not show these characteristics was Socrates. He, on the other hand, asked questions until he came up with the right solution. But even Socrates ended up the same, by not proving any of his conclusions or theories with proof; he ended up disregarding the knowledge of everyone else because it contradicted what his own thoughts were. Philosophy has been proven a useful inquiry, but it is frustrated and sometimes annoying to see the selfishness within it.

            Coming to the question of where I am in regards to the rabbit fur, I spoke to a classmate who shares the same beliefs as me. It was agreed that the question about the rabbit fur meant to whether or not we wanted to shell ourselves within the fur and our own ignorance and not be exposed to the outside world, or quest for knowledge and come to the top to be exposed by everything else in the world. To most people, this is a linear question, with a simple answer to a simple path, but for me that is not the case. I love knowledge, finding information about new things, understanding how unknown objects work, and being able to say I know the answer intrigues me. But my faith and relationship with God gives me answers to many things, such as the Earth’s origin and the entire universe. Those answers I truly believe happened, therefore there is no point in coming up out of the rabbit’s fur, I am perfectly fine nesting within the base of the fur. Science answers questions to many things that are a part of our lives and in most cases that is the most logical way to find one’s answers, but with questions that concern my faith and what will be my future, I turn toward my Creator.

Blog Post 4

Logan Sullivan           

Mrs. Wagener

AP English Lit.

11^th August 2013

Perspective

            Everyone has their own perspective, and a famous quote that goes with it is, “Is the glass half empty or half full?”  A philosopher that was intrigued by the subject of perspective went by the name of Immanuel Kant. Kant was perceived as two philosophers, a professor of philosophy and a philosopher. He wanted to understand why the things that happened in philosophy happened, and used his knowledge to apply his own theories to certain matters that were brought up. Immanuel Kant was an important philosopher of his time and made interesting points and views from what everyone sees as perspective.

           

            Immanuel Kant created a test based on how humans saw the world around him known as the “red-tinted glasses” experiment. What this experiment was was that a person would put on a pair of glasses with red-tinted lenses. With them on, this person would see the world in only one color, red, but with many different shades. When the subject was asked what they saw, the most typical and most logical answer was that everything was the same as before, except that everything had a red tint to it. Kant made the conclusion from the results of this experiment that everyone saw the world the same way, but the red-tinted glasses dictated how they perceived the world. An example of this would be tourism. If a tourist from the United States of America traveled to Paris to sight see the Eiffel Tower, they would admire the structural integrity and design of the structure far more than someone who has been living in Paris their whole. It is a new experience for the tourist, and their perspective of the Eiffel Tower would be admirable. On the other hand, the person who has lived in Paris their entire will perceive the Eiffel Tower as a normal building because it becomes a part of their day to day life. Even though both the tourist and the Paris citizen are seeing the same thing, their perspectives are completely different from one another.

            How I can relate to the subject of perspective is my fear of intense heights. Not everyone has this fear, and some people cannot understand how I or anyone else who has this fear to fear heights. Both the people who do not fear and the people, including myself, who do fear heights see the exact same thing, a point of view from a high altitude. This perspective can change though, it depends if the person with this fear wants their perspective of heights to change. Whether it is the perspective of the world, religion, people, or whatever it may be, not all perspectives can change, and perspectives define us for who we are.

Blog Post 3

Logan Sullivan           

Mrs. Wagener

AP English Lit.

9^th August 2013

Connections of Christianity and Philosophy

            During the time of the Middle Ages, the teachings of philosophy were widely spreading and becoming more accepted as people’s beliefs. While this was happening, Christianity was also breaking through and increasingly becoming a part of people’s lives each day. Just like Plato’s and Aristotle’s view on women, Christianity and philosophy clashed and contradicted each other. As these newly Christians started to realize that these teachings did not go together with their religion, they started to remove philosophy from their lives. Two philosophers, on the other hand, wanted people to see that Christianity and philosophy could go together and their names were Aquinas and St. Augustine.

            Alberto tells Sophie that St. Augustine tried to incorporate the ideas of Christianity into philosophy, because he saw no difference between them. One example of this was fixing the turmoil between Christians and philosophers about the creation of Earth. Christians believed that God created the Earth, but Plato’s theory along with philosophy states that the “ideas” or plans to make Earth have always been around since the beginning of everything. St. Augustine settled this by saying that God created the Earth, but his intentions to create Earth have always been there. From St. Augustine’s actions, more Christians were starting to accept and learn from Plato’s theories and teachings.

            Just like St. Augustine helped tie Christianity with Plato’s teachings, Aquinas did the same with Aristotle’s teachings. Also, Aquinas did not believe that philosophy and Christianity could contradict each other because he believed they were identical. Aquinas thought that Aristotle’s thoughts of Christianity were not “complete”. Aristotle stated that there had to be a higher power, or a god, to watch over and control Earth. However, he did not tie his theory into Christianity, but he also did not saw it could not be related. With this, Aquinas led more people to accept Aristotle’s teachings considering that Aristotle was not denying that a god could exist.

            When Christianity and philosophy started to merge together during the Middle Ages, everyone was more content. Also, without the help of Aquinas and St. Augustine, philosophy might have died off and never been taught again. If it were not for them, Christianity would have won, and history is written by the victor. If they did not do what they did, it could have severely impacted our world today, because philosophy plays a much greater role than what most people think. Christianity and philosophy still exist today in a world where they can coexist together.

           

Blog Post 2

Logan Sullivan           

Mrs. Wagener

AP English Lit.

7^th August 2013

The Rights of Women

            Women have always been seen as inferior to men until around a century ago. While the men went out of the household to hunt for food, or do a hard laboring job, the women were back at their houses cooking and tending to their children. It was also not considered to be acceptable if a female had a say in government or had a paying job, because their rights were not welcomed into society. In philosophy, women’s rights have been a subject that has been brought up many times, and two specific philosophers that share their opinion go by the names of Plato, and Aristotle.

            Even though Aristotle’s views on women would not be accepted in modern day society, his views were not surprising to read about. His views of that women were inferior to men and that he saw them as “incomplete versions” of man were not an assumption that was looked down upon during his time. Another view he had was that when it came to reproduction and the creation of the baby, the man was the only contributor to both. The only thing that the woman was useful for was providing a “safe haven” for the baby to form. With modern technology, we know that Aristotle’s assumption is completely wrong. But just because Aristotle was wrong, does not mean he was foolish or incompetent, because no technology during his time could have proved or disproved his assumptions.

            Plato, Aristotle’s mentor, had a much different, and basically opposite view, of Aristotle. Plato provided admirable answers to women’s rights more so then any of the other philosophers. He did not think women were man’s equal, because they lacked in physical strength, but said that a woman’s role in society was just as important because they had certain strengths that men just could not posses. It was surprising to see Plato go against everyone else during his time, since Aristotle’s view was the most influential and accepted view. It was also surprising to see that not all philosophers were male. It was to be expected for there to be mainly male philosophers, but during a time where female rights were looked down upon; female philosophers were mentioned and well discussed in Sophie’s World.

            Aristotle and Plato had opposite views on women, and it was uplifting that Plato had more respect towards women then most people during his time. It is disappointing that Aristotle’s view was accepted and thought to be right, but there was nothing to prove him wrong. Since a century ago, women have been making an impact on society more than ever before, and to this day, women have and always did earn their right to be equal with man.

Blog Post 1

Logan Sullivan   

Mrs. Wagener

AP English Lit.

31^st July 2013

The Garden of Eden

                Who are you? To the eyes of most people, this is an easy question. To others, the question, “Who are you?” is a complicated and sometimes unanswerable question. As for me, I am Logan Sullivan. From what I was taught, I believe that I was made with a purpose. I believe that my ultimate goal is to strive for a place after my death on Earth. And I believe that my place on Earth has meaning, because this is what I have been taught. Not everyone will answer the same way as I just did, some may even tell me that I am wrong, but this makes us who we are. Science and religion always seem to contradict one another, and this can be seen easily through the creation of the universe. Where did the Earth come from? Some say the creation of God; some say The Big Bang Theory. Everything has more meaning than what most people believe it to be; this is strongly present in who we think we are and where we think the Earth came from.

                The world is full of judgment, and society always seems to be the leader of this. Society wants us to think that brand of clothing, income, attractiveness, and what we do for a living dictates who we are as a person, and in most cases, they succeed. Physical items do not tell us who we are as a person, and one of the most common things that people know us by is our name. We all have a name, but how does it tell everyone who we are? In Sophie’s World, when Sophie was asked the question, “Who are you?” one of the first things that went through her mind was if she had a different name. Like Sophie, there was not just one name that my parents wanted to give me. I have wondered how much my life would change just by a simple greeting if my name was something else, and it is nearly impossible to do. We cannot imagine ourselves with a different name; our name is a part of us, and we cannot see it any other way. Another topic that tells us who we are is religion, whether we believe it or not. Christianity teaches that who we are on Earth should not matter, and that the only the thing that should matter is our relationship with God. Who we are does not change, we are who we are.

                The thought of where the Earth came from has crossed everyone’s thoughts at some point. As for me, I have been taught that God created the Earth in six days and on the seventh day he rested, and that is what I truly believe. To those that believe in science, they believe that somewhere in space there was a point of infinite singularity that rapidly and violently exploded that gave birth to millions and millions of galaxies, eventually forming the Earth in one of those galaxies. Sophie makes a point in Sophie’s World that it is hard to believe that a God has always existed and he was never created from something else. I do agree with her in that it is hard to believe, but that does not make it impossible for that to happen. Like Sophie stated, these beliefs and assumptions bring us to our own thoughts and conclusions on how we interpret our understanding of where the Earth came from.

                People have different beliefs about where the Earth came from; this can also tell us something about who they are. Everyone has their own opinion or interpretation on everything they see and think. To some people, others are wrong, to others, some people are right, it’s our opinions and beliefs that make us who we are.