Prompt #5

Madison Mooney

AP English Lang

Mrs. Wilhelmus

11 August 2013

Prompt #5

            Throughout this book I was presented with many theories on the world and on religion. It is hard to pick just one that I liked the most. I would have to say that the philosophy that I most agreed with was "The Natural Philosophies". I too believe that nothing can come from nothing, something had to have created our world. Whether it was God, or some other all powerful being. I agree with Heraclitus with his belief that everything flows and everything changes. In order for the world to go 'round everything has to change.

            Even though this book is full of relatable philosophies, I found some very hard to understand and believe. In fact, there was one whole chapter I did not seem to agree with. That chapter was "The Middle Ages". I was completely confused throughout the entirety of this chapter, especially when Alberto was teaching about how philosophers began to tie Christianity into their beliefs. I felt that bringing Christianity into philosophy was a bit contradictory to what philosophy is. Although, I could just think that because I do not fully understand what philosophy is yet.

            In all honesty, I would have to admit I live far down in the rabbits fur. Thinking about how everything came about and that everything must come to an end scares me. I would like to think of myself as an open minded person but when it comes to these types of things I am very close minded to say the least. It keeps me from being frantic if I just do not think about "philosophical" topics.

Prompt #4

Madison Mooney

AP English Lang

Mrs. Wilhelmus

10 August, 2013

Prompt #4

            In the "Kant" chapter Alberto Knox presents Sophie with an example to help her understand what the philosopher, Immanuel Kant, believes. In this experiment he told her to put on a pair of red-tinted glasses that  were sitting on a small table. When Sophie put the glasses on everything she saw turned to a shade of red. If it was a dark color already, it turned to crimson. If it was a light color to start with it turned to pink or light red. When Albert asked Sophie what she saw she said she saw everything exactly the way it was before except now red. He conducted this experiment he was doing so to show her that the glasses only limited the way she perceived reality, they did not change the world around her. Which corresponds with what Kant meant when he said that there are certain conditions controlling the mind's operation which influence the way we experience the world. Kant believed that time and space are our two forms of intuition. He also believed that these two forms would precede our every experience. Meaning that if we know of something before we experience it, we will always see our first impression of it.

            Personally, I agree with Kant that if we know before we experience we will always perceive it in its first impression. But, I only believe that to be true for a bit of time. I feel that this applies to my eating habits. When I was younger I was extremely picky just as any other child is, but as I got older I started to like certain foods more and more. The first time I would try each item my taste buds told me that I did not like it for various reasons. Even though that was my first impression of the food that did not mean I would not try it again. Once I would branch out and try it again a few more times I would see that my taste buds had changed and became used to the food and I was able to enjoy eating it.

Prompt #3

Madison Mooney

AP English Lang

Mrs. Wilhelmus

3 August, 2013

Prompt #3

            In Sophie's Choice there has been many examples of religion and philosophy contradicting one another. Except in the "Middle Ages" chapter where they are brought together and philosophy is Christianized by Aquinas and St. Augustine. These philosophers felt the need to Christianize because the society felt that the philosophical claims they made were hurting the Christian faith.

            Aquinas believed that Christendom and philosophy often said the same thing, he also believed in the natural theological truths. Which meant that what we believe to be true could be reached through our own innate reason and through the Christian faith. Aquinas also believed there were two paths to God. One was through our reason and our senses and the other was through faith and the Christian revelation. He believed there should not be any conflict between Aristotle's philosophy and the Christians because they both ultimately believed in there being one truth, or one God.

            As for St. Augustine, he was the first philosopher to even draw history into his philosophy. He believed that God had created the world out of nothing and before the world there were just ideas floating around in the "Divine Mind". Which is where Plato came in. St. Augustine found the Platonic ideas on God and by tying them into his own beliefs he was able to preserve the Platonic view of eternal ideas. By doing this he showed that  not only he but many other Church Fathers would do anything to bring the Greek and Jewish thought back together.

Prompt #2

Madison Mooney

AP English Lang

Mrs. Wilhelmus

2 August, 2013

Prompt #2

            As a girl myself, I personally think Aristotle's views on his opposite gender were just distasteful and arrogant. A man of his intelligence should have been able to accept that women were just as useful in the world as men were, no matter what society thought. Usually during the times that men believed women were the inferior gender, they at least thought women were important because of their ability to rear children. Aristotle did not even recognize that. Which, to me, is the worst of his views. The belief that women had hardly nothing to do with childbirth is truly sickening.

            In my opinion I believe that Plato had the most admirable views on the opposite sex. The fact that he believed women had the potential to have the same reasoning skills as men shows that his views were a lot more open than the other philosophers. Even though I think Plato has the best views on the opposite sex, I do believe that it is a bit sexist of him to think women would need to be exempt from child rearing and housekeeping in order to receive the same training as men.

            It is sad to me that a vast majority of the authorities in this novel are men. But it is the world they lived in. This was a time when men were considered superior and women were supposed to just take care of the house and the children. Even though women have always had the exact same ability to think that men have, women were never thought of as smart or intelligent. With that being said, women were not really given the chance or opportunity to be a great philosopher.

Madison Mooney

AP English Lang

Mrs. Wilhelmus

31 July, 2013

Prompt #1

            If I was to ask myself, "Who am I?" there are many different ways I would answer. My first answer would be that I am Madison Lane Mooney, a 17 year old girl who is a junior cheerleader at North High School. I am a daughter to Brian and Leah Mooney, and a sister to Mallory and Max Mooney. I am a hardworking cashier at Dairy Queen. I am the owner to a Beta fish named Wally. I am a very passionate person when it comes to my goals and dreams. I love to work and play with children which is why I plan on being a teacher. I am very dedicated person with school, it always is my first priority. I love the color red and I am the pickiest person anyone will ever know.

            The question "Where does the world come from?" is definitely a tougher one to answer. Being a Christian I have been taught that God created the world in a week millions of years ago. But where did God come from? As a child I always asked my parents this question and they would give me the religious answer and nothing else. I have a hard time believing that God popped out of nowhere and decided to just build a world for human beings that do not even appreciate what is around them. In Sophie's World many different explanations are offered, but no one seems to know where exactly everything came from. In the book Albert Knox discusses that even in ancient times the philosophers did not believe that anything could come from nothing, which is why they came up with the myths and theories that they did. In science classes we learn that the universe happened from a "big bang" but no one ever says what caused the big bang, or whether anything was in existence before the big bang. With all of this information it is hard for me to come up with a complete answer to this question, so I would go with the religious answer.