Prompt #5

Beliefs

        After reading through Sophie's World, I am now knowledgeable in numerous philosophies and beliefs.  Many of them made me rethink how I see life like the experiment with the red-tinted glasses.  Some philosophies I did not agree with, like Parmenide's and how he thinks that the world has always existed and everything is everlasting.
The belief that I agree with the most is the belief that God exists and is the one that created the world and everything that we know.  I have always been raised as a christian because the town that I have grown up in is full of Christians.  Many of them influenced me and shaped my life by convincing me to go to church.  When I first went to church and learned about God I was and still am convinced that he really exists.  Even today God still performs miracles.  A kid by the name of Alex Malarkey had been in a car with his dad when they got in a head-on collision.  Alex was in a coma for two months and the doctors said thought it would be unlikely that he would survive because he was only six at the time.  He awoke from the coma telling an incredible story of how he talked with Jesus, and was even able to recall events from the bible despite never reading one, and was able to tell what his parents where doing during his coma.
I had to disagree with Darwin's theory of evolution because it goes against Christianity.  It disproves the existence of God by saying that humans were not created but evolved from primates.  However, Darwinism has been proven false.  If evolution is a small gradual change then there would only be a few highly evolved species that originate from the first.  However, a lot of very diverse species exist today which goes against the theory.  With the theory of evolution, only the genes that are wanted like being smart, fast, strong, etc would still exist because of survival of the fittest.  Only the best genes would stick around but in today's world, many different people and animals with varying intelligence, speed, and strength exist.  Not all of them are smart, fast, or even strong.
Many philosophies and beliefs exist but I only agree with a few.  People can argue whether or not something is true or not but as time goes on, more and beliefs and philosophies will be created.  However, everybody is entitled to their own opinion on what they choose to believe.

Prompt #4

Red-Tinted Glasses

In Sophie's World philosophers like Descartes are referred to, saying that the human senses cannot be trusted.  How humans feel things might not be how that object really feels like.  The human eyes might lie and perceive things in a different way than they really are.
In Kant's chapter, a pair of red-tinted glasses are mentioned.  Sophie puts on the glasses and everything in her field of vision turns a shade of red.  Alberto explains that even if she saw the world in a shade of red her entire life that the world would still not be truly red and says that there might even be a veil over what the human eye sees even without the red-tinted glasses.  Alberto uses the experiment to explain how even though a person may have seen millions upon millions of black crows, there still may be a white crow among the millions that exist.
The experiment with the red-tinted glasses could be applied to my life as well as anyone else's.  In the past, whenever a problem comes up I always think that there is only one solution to the problem and no other one exists.  Just like the crows however,  I had never looked for a different solution, nor had I ever looked at the problem from a different perspective.  Now I can look at things from a different angle and solve them easier than before.  I can think of multiple different ways that a person could solve the same problem.  I can now see varying ways to fix a single problem and choose the best choice.
Because of the red-tinted glasses experiment, people today try to solve problems from different angles.  Just because it seems like there is only one solution to a problem, if one just looks at the problem from a different perspective, it could be possible to find a completely different solution to the complication.

Prompt #3

Christian Philosophy

Before Aquinas and St. Augustine came along, Christians held philosophers in contempt.  So few philosophers even existed because of how many people were religious and looked down upon them.  Christians had thought that philosophers had been trying to turn people away from God and saw philosophy as a form of blasphemy.
In the chapter about the middle ages, Alberto says that Aquinas christianized Aristotle in the same way St. Augustine christianized Plato.  As a result of these two philosophers,  more Christians have come to accept philosophy.  They did not look down upon  it as a form of blasphemy but rather as a way of attaining knowledge.  Christians who had once scorned anyone who had practiced philosophy, had became philosophers themselves.  Religious people had become more receptive to new, innovative ideas and accepted them with open arms instead of turning their backs.  As philosophy became accepted in their society, more people had started to become philosophers, wanting to learn more about the world.  More schools started to teach philosophy as an accepted area of study.  So many technological advancements happened because of more people thinking outside the box.  Hand held guns had been designed back then.  Spinning wheels had been created which is three times faster than spinning by hand.  The blast furnace had been made which increased the amount of iron that had been manufactured back then.
What had happened in the middle ages has influenced how we live today.  Religious people are more receptive to new thoughts.  More people asked themselves questions like "where did the world come from?" and "who am I?".  Because of philosophy, people are now thinking outside the box, asking themselves questions about life.

Prompt #2

Gender and Philosophy

Views about gender varied back in the early days of philosophy.  Many people did not think that women could ever be as good as men.  Others started to realize their potential at being something more than just the caretaker of the family.
When I read that Aristotle did not think that women could ever be as wise as men, I had to disagree.  I have met some females that are very intelligent and are smarter than a lot of males that were in my classes.  Women can be smarter and wiser than men if they want to and if they work for it.  Men and women are equals and both can equal the other in their accomplishments if they worked for it.  Aristotle probably had a very biased view when it came to work done by women.  He would probably look down upon their work and think that it would never be as good as what a man could do.
I could not agree more with Plato when he believed that women could be just as good as men at philosophy.  He is probably the one that tries to be unbiased with his answers so he could provide better answers to questions.  Plato did not say that women are anything special, but neither did he say that they are not as good as men are.  Plato saw the possibilities that women had in them, and knew they could be just as good as any man.
The reason for the vast majority of males as authority figures in the novel is because males are typically seen as a dominating force.  Men are usually stereotyped as having huge muscles and are all about dominating anybody that stands in their way.  The stereotype of men being bigger is probably the only reason why there are so many male authority figures in the book.  In today's society bigger is usually associated with being more better or more powerful.  When a figure of authority walks into a room most people think of a person that gets most people's attention.  Due to the stereotype, men would have a commanding presence.  Women are usually portrayed as frail and weak so they would not have a presence that would get anybody's attention.
Even today people will have different opinions on whether not a women can ever be as good as a man.  In today's society women are being accepted by more and more people as man's equal.  More people are siding with Plato and agreeing that women can be just as good as a man in anything she does.

Prompt #1

      Who Are You And Where Does the World Come From

The concept of who a person is is a very complicated matter.  We might not even know ourselves so how could we even begin to explain who we truly are.  The origin of the world is another topic that is very complicated to explain.  Many theories have tried to explain the beginning of the world but none of them could be proven to be 100% true or 100% false.

If someone asked me who I am and is not asking for my name but who I truly am, I would answer "I am who I am."  It would technically be correct because I truly am who I am.  I am not who I think I am, nor am I someone else.  Sometimes we try to give a detailed description of ourselves for who we are, but it is impossible for a person to know if what they say matches up with who they really are.  It might not be the most descriptive answer, but sometimes simple is better.  If they asked me for my identity, I would tell them that I am a male named Eric Kwok, that enjoys reading, gaming, hanging out with friends, and sports.  Those words describe who I am, but they might not actually define who I am.

If someone asked me where the world comes from, I would immediately answer God because I am a christian. I believe that God created this world because it would make sense that an all powerful being that has and always will exist would exist at the moment that everything came into creation and have the power to make everything.  I would agree with the Big Bang theory being when God created the universe.  Almost all of the universes are moving outward like an explosion would.  The Big Bang is like a store that sells all of the ingredients for a cake.  The chances for the store to explode out of nowhere and for all of the ingredients to form together and form a cake that lands, ready to eat, on someone's front doorstep is next to impossible without some outside assistance, like God.

The two questions "who are you" and "where does the world come from" are two of life's unanswerable questions, but people will never cease to look for the answer.  We keep looking for the answer even though there might not be one.  Just like how philosophers are supposed to find the one white crow that may or may not exist within the millions of black ones.