Prompt #5

Trevor Purkiser

Ms. Wagener

AP English Language

9 August 2013

"Sophie’s World": A Philosophical Project

Sophie’s World was a complex story. It was a narrative that was also a philosophy lesson to the reader. Eventually, it became a book within a book. The book was for Hilde, the daughter of Major Albert Knag. She was able to learn all about the philosophy her father had talked about for years. This was the book within the book that she received for her birthday. By reading Sophie’s World, I was able to learn about this philosophy too. Within the book there were lessons about all the different famous philosophers of history. In this book, there were some beliefs I agreed with and some I disagreed with. Most importantly, I learned where on the rabbit’s fur I reside.

I agreed with many of the philosophies in the book. Two that I found interesting were Plato and Freud. I liked Plato because he thought that women could be a vital part of life if they were given a chance. This was significant because as we all know today; women have proven that Plato was right. Freud, I didn’t necessarily agree with, I just thought his ideas were captivating. The fact that if you work hard enough at it anything you’ve ever come across can be recalled from the unconscious was very mind-blowing. These two philosophers really made me brain work.

There were also some philosophies that I disagreed with. For example, I didn’t like Aristotle and Darwin. I didn’t like Aristotle for the same reason that I liked Plato. I completely disagree with Aristotle’s thought that women are worthless aside from carrying children. With Darwin, I didn’t like him because I am a Christian and I don’t believe in evolution. These philosophers got me worked up with anger.

After reading this book I’m still not sure where I reside on the rabbit’s fur. I will admit this book has sparked my interest in philosophy. I think before reading this book, I was nestled down at the bottom. In learning about philosophy, I have started my journey up the rabbit’s fur. Because I read this book, a new journey has begun.

Prompt #4

Trevor Purkiser

Ms. Wagener

AP English Language

8 August 2013

"Kant": Perspective in Everyday Life

Kant was a philosopher who believed both sensing and reasoning were important. His "red-tinted glasses" experiment showed that different pre-conceptions in our lives can affect how we see the world. If you are wearing red-tinted glasses, everything looks red. It is not truly red, but it is the red lenses that change what the world looks like to the person wearing them. Nothing is truly different, it just changes the way we perceive it. This is a problem that still exists in everyday life.

People are stubborn. They think the way they see things and the way they thing is the same way others see and think. This is not the case as everyone has their own collective interests. If everyone saw the world the same, it would be a boring place.

A good example for this bit of philosophy is color. What we see may not be the same as what others see. To me something may be red, but to someone else it could be black. We can’t understand how things truly appear; all we can ever know is how things appear to us.

A big problem created by different perceptions is people laying their own judgment on others. Just because something isn’t interesting or "cool" to one person doesn’t mean it isn’t interesting at all. Things like this cause bullying. Some people just can’t see the world the way others see it and because they don’t understand it they poke fun.

People today can also be close-minded. They are so dead set in their ways that they can’t accept anything that they don’t believe in. They perceive it one way and aren’t open to anything else, that is a big problem with different perceptions on life.

Kant’s philosophy may be one of the most relatable of all in the book. It is still very apparent in today’s world and will continue to be important to everyday life forever.

　

Prompt #3

Trevor Purkiser

Ms. Wagener

AP English Language

8 August 2013

"The Middle Ages": Christianity in Philosophy

Religion can be a scary thing to philosophers. It wasn’t an easy thing for ancient philosophers of the Middle Ages to just believe in Christianity. Some philosophers let their philosophic reason influence their belief in religion. Two major philosophers that Christianized old philosophic teachings were St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas.

St. Augustine lived from 354 to 430. He was a Christian, but his religion was largely shaped by Plato. St. Thomas Aquinas lived from 1225 to 1274. He was a Christian, but his religion was shaped by Aristotle. Both of these two men used their beliefs in God and their beliefs in old Greek philosophers and meshed them together. Doing so forever changed philosophy.

As a result of these two philosophers, God and philosophy became, more or less, one. People had always questioned religion because they couldn’t see God. Now philosophy was used to prove the existence of God. The "formal cause" as Aristotle called it was deemed to be God.

Future philosophers then went on to focus their thoughts more on Christianity like these two. This combination of philosophy and Christianity arguably went on to make more people believe in the Bible and its teachings.

Also, philosophers had more to analyze. A lot of philosophers learned not to believe in things that can’t be proven with reason. They now dedicated their lives to proving these teachings of God were true.

Prompt #2

Trevor Purkiser

Ms. Wagener

AP English Language

5 August 2013

"Aristotle": Views on Women

In the past, women were viewed as very unimportant people. To men their only uses were having children and managing the house. Men always held the dominant role in society and even still do today. Even though women are welcomed into the "man’s world" today, they are still mistreated to an extent. To philosophers of the past, such as Aristotle, women were "incomplete". Some philosophers thought otherwise, but most agreed with this. That may be partly due to the fact that all major philosophers, up until the 20th century were male.

Aristotle was one of the most important philosophers of the past. That is why his views on women are hard to believe. He thought women were "unfinished men". Also, he believed in reproduction that the child got all of the characteristics came from the man and that the woman was just there to carry the baby until it was born. He is essentially just saying that women were put on this world to extend the family tree which is very demeaning. You would think as a philosopher, that Aristotle wouldn’t have this close-minded of a view on women. I think that if Aristotle could see all of the advancements women have made over the years he would re-evaluate his whole theory.

Not all philosophers of ancient times agreed with Aristotle’s demeaning view on women. Plato thought that women were equal if given the opportunity to train and be educated like men. He compared the only training the men to only training your right arm. Too bad Plato’s thoughts didn’t shape the Middle Ages the way Aristotle’s did, otherwise women would have gotten their chance sooner. Nowadays, women are educated and given the same opportunities of men and the world is a better place because of it.

All of the philosophers discussed in this novel are male. This just proves the point that women were thought of as unimportant and they were ignored. If they had been educated, just think of how much advancement could have been made. Throughout history the potential of many women was wasted. The fact that no important discoveries were made by women is saddening in my opinion.

Women were neglected for many years. While this was wrong, there is nothing we can do about it now but work towards more equality between men and women. Women are valuable for more things than taking care of children and cleaning the house as they have shown in recent years. All they ever needed was a chance.

Prompt #1

Trevor Purkiser

Ms. Wagener

AP English Language

19 July 2013

"The Garden of Eden": Origins of World and Person

The questions, "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" may seem like simple questions to some, and to others they may be the hardest questions to answer. In my opinion there are different layers to which they can be answered. For instance, "Who are you?" can be answered with a name or with a long description of the person. These two questions refer to the origins of all of life itself. In order to understand the world around you and how you fit into it, these questions must be asked.

"Who are you?" Who am I? Well my name is Trevor Jacob Purkiser and I’m sixteen years-old. There you have it, you know who I am. But is that really enough? From reading that, do you really know anything about me? For all you know, I could be a girl named Trevor. I’ll help you out a little more. I am a boy; and I have brown hair and green eyes. Now I’m starting to paint a picture in your head. The question is do you really know me unless you’ve met me and know how I act. That’s why I think "Who are you?" is one of the hardest questions in life. It can’t simply be answered with a name. In order to truly know a person you have to know what type of person they are. "Who are you?" is a question that rings around in the deepest fibers of our being. Who we are is represented by our interests, actions, and character.

The next question may be even harder to answer. "Where does the world come from?" As a person who’s gone to church since before he could walk, my answer is simple. God created the world in 7 days, plain and simple. But being a student who is told to question things and analyze, I have more thoughts than just that. For instance, where did God come from? How did he come to be so that he could create the world? Another theory of where the world came from is the big bang theory. It’s believed that a cloud of matter just exploded and expanded and billions of years later, here we are. How did this cloud of matter that exploded come to be? This is a weird subject to think about because as Sophie said, "surely nobody really knows". The truth is that people will probably continue to ask this question until the day comes when there is no longer a world to wonder about.

These may very well be two of the hardest questions in life to answer. There is no definitive way to answer either one of them, but that’s why they continue to come up. If people knew the answer to them then there would be nothing else to philosophize. So therefore, we will continue to ask these questions in order to greater understand the origins of all of life itself.