perspective student

The main thing that I can tell a potential philosophy student is that you need to prepare to read a whole lot and type a lot of papers.  Since this is an English class, I guess we’re sort of required to read a lot of books and do a lot of essays.  The difference between philosophy class and any other English class is that it’s probably easier to cheat or get an answer for a certain test because most other English classes have a distinct answer.  In philosophy, there are so many different ways of thinking so everybody is going to have a different response and a different outtake on what we’re learning in class.  I can also say that is useful to look at spark notes while you read a certain novel that the teacher assigns.  Not just the plot over view but the analysis.  The analysis for books helps you so much for understanding what the author actually means and why he (or she) wrote in the style that they wrote in.  The last thing I can say to a perspective philosophy student is that you need to be ready for a lot of class discussions that last the entire period.  There are so many different ways of thinking and different alternatives to different events, movies, and books that it sometimes takes the whole period to understand certain things.  These class discussions helps you to better understand why you think the way you do because most of the time when you make a statement, you have to further elaborate and explain why you say, think, and do certain things.  It’s a great class so I would recommend anybody to take the course.  If they’re ready to work that is.

Thoughts about earlier thinking

My thoughts about earlier thinking…..i would say that I’ve changed the way I think about certain things on a philosophical level.  What I mean is that now that I’ve been introduced to a new way of thinking, I take more things into consideration and I ask far more questions than I used to.  I’ve learned that philosophers always ask “why” and they always try and prove another person’s way of thinking wrong.  The one person that I can think have that did such things was Socrates.  He always used this form of discussion in arguments called “Socratic Irony” or “Socratic Method.”  Socratic irony is a form of inquiry and debate between individuals with opposing viewpoints based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to illuminate ideas. It is a dialectical method, often involving an oppositional discussion in which the defense of one point of view is pitted against the defense of another; one participant may lead another to contradict him in some way, strengthening the inquirer's own point. (Think about the question before you speak.)  I somewhat appeal to how Socrates went about discussions and his style of thinking because his main thing was that you need to know what you’re talking about, and have enough intelligence and whit to be able to argue you’re believes and hold your position.

Surrounded By Cuckoos

Sometimes when you think you’re around people that aren’t like you, you believe that they are crazy.  On the other hand, the people who surround you that are different from you indeed think you’re crazy as well.  Just because someone isn’t like you doesn’t mean that they’re crazy because like I stated earlier, they might think that you’re crazy as well.  In the book, Randal McMurphy believed that there was nothing around with him and that everybody around him was crazy; but once you go further in the book you realize that Mack has problems on his own.  His main problem was with denial.  He didn’t believe that the certain things he did were wrong and that everybody was against him.  This is probably why he was so rebellious towards Nurse Ratchet because even though she seemed evil, she was actually out for Mack’s best interest and she wanted to help him.  Once she came to the realization that Mack wasn’t trying to help himself, she started to punish him.  Its one thing not to help yourself, but Mack was affecting how the others were acting as well.  They worshiped how courageous and rebellious Mack was so they tried to follow what he did.  This resulted in a lot of injuries, deaths, and eventually his death.

Together

A topic that has to do with success and togetherness are sports.  When you play together, you usually win; unless the opposing team is just better than you.  Most people who have an individualistic view amongst a team sport the team usually loses.  One quote my coach used to always tell us was “You play as an individual, you fall as a team.”  That just always reminds me that you can’t do everything by yourself.  One story where togetherness was shown was then Michael Jordan first got in the NBA.  Now everybody knew that Michael Jordan was a fantastic scorer, a tremendous athlete, and a top notch defender, all he did was fill up the stats sheets.  He could never pull off a playoff series win.  People said that Michael Jordan would always be a scoring champion but not an NBA champion.  He was told that he was selfish and was always going out to get his and that was it.  Soon as he got some more players to help him out, ala Scottie Pippen, they helped him in regards of understanding a team and togetherness concept in order to win games.  Soon enough, Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls won a number of championships and Michael Jordan won a whole lot of other accolades in his lustrous career.

alone

Being alone can be a good and a bad thing.  The good thing about being alone is the ability of concentrating better.  Sometimes when you’re with your friends or with a whole lot of people you when you’re trying to get some work done you tend to concentrate less and you end up not getting whatever you had to do accomplished.  That’s why it’s sometimes helpful to be by yourself so you can be able to hear yourself think and do your work to your highest capabilities.  Being alone also helps you in sports as well particularly basketball.  When you’re in practice for the most part, you’re going over game plan and preparing yourself for the next opponent so it’s majorly team oriented.  When you’re by yourself working on your game, you can work on things you need to work on individually to become a better team player.  The only con I can think of when I think of being alone is solitude and boredom.  It’s always good to have somebody to talk to at all times if you have a problem, or even if you just want to have fun.

alone

Being alone can be a good and a bad thing.  The good thing about being alone is the ability of concentrating better.  Sometimes when you’re with your friends or with a whole lot of people you when you’re trying to get some work done you tend to concentrate less and you end up not getting whatever you had to do accomplished.  That’s why it’s sometimes helpful to be by yourself so you can be able to hear yourself think and do your work to your highest capabilities.  Being alone also helps you in sports as well particularly basketball.  When you’re in practice for the most part, you’re going over game plan and preparing yourself for the next opponent so it’s majorly team oriented.  When you’re by yourself working on your game, you can work on things you need to work on individually to become a better team player.  The only con I can think of when I think of being alone is solitude and boredom.  It’s always good to have somebody to talk to at all times if you have a problem, or even if you just want to have fun.

save the earth do this

To save the earth you could do a number of things.  One essential thing to do is to recycle.  Recycling is processing used materials (waste) into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution (from incineration) and water pollution (from land filling) by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse gas emissions as compared to virgin production.  Recyclable materials include many kinds of glass, paper, metal, plastic, textiles, and electronics. Although similar in effect, the composting or other reuse of biodegradable waste – such as food or garden waste – is not typically considered recycling. Materials to be recycled are either brought to a collection center or picked up from the curbside, then sorted, cleaned, and reprocessed into new materials bound for manufacturing.  Another thing you could consider doing is taking the train whether than driving all the time.  Also its also cheaper and eco-friendly to car pool.