I know this means something...

Music. Possibily the most real and important thing in my life. When life is too difficult and stressful I am able to turn on my Ipod and drown out all of that. Music has been able to help me through the toughest times and motivate me. I am also able to use music as a good study mechanism because it I listen to my Ipod as I read or look over my notes then I am able to think about that song and cross supply the notes that I were reading as I did it.
I found it interesting in class when we discussed how some people do not consider music as important although it is all around us. I think that EVERY person in their life has listened to music at one time or another and genuinely appreciated it. I love the fact that there are songs and genres of music that can speak to every person.
Some of my favorite quotes about music:
When words fail, music speaks
--Anonymous

Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything. --Plato

I was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me-like food or water. --Ray Charles

A direction the class needs

I think that the class is going well so far. I think that in our class we have a couple of primary people that always comments on the discussion while others typically do not talk unless they are called on or really had something to say (me being one of those people). I consider myself to be more of a listener and everyday I leave the class feeling as though I have learned something new and insightful. As a senior in school I am more concerned with simply graduating than other classes, but everyday I look forward to coming to philosophy class and learning new concepts and ways of thinking. I have met and learned so much about people that I never would have met outside of this class.

Thankful for a Classmate

A classmate that I am thankful for would have to be Artem. I am thankful for him because in this class I have been able to learn several new concepts and ways of thinking from him. Through him I have discovered several characteristics that I have never seen in one person. I have found someone that is truly against the system and current world that we live in and for that I am truly in awe. I have gotten to see a personality that I would have never seen had I not taken this class and therefore I am grateful for this class and all of my fellow peers.

Who are Camus and Voltaire voting for?

I think that Voltaire would be voting for Barack Obama because he expects the democrats to bring more change than the republicans, when having to choose between the two major parties. However, I think that Voltaire would not completely agree with either the democrats or the republicans because he is very adamant about his opinions. I think that Voltaire would most likely go for the libertarians or another third party candidate that agreed with all of his opinions or instead form his own party. I think that Voltaire would not just consider himself limited to the two major political parties but would instead look at the other options.
            I think that Camus wouldn’t vote at all. I think that his outlook on life would shape the ideal that voting is essentially unnecessary seeing as how it won’t change anything. I think that Camus is more concerned about living life in a seemingly unnoticed manner. I think that he would not bother himself with the worries of who will be running our country but he would instead wonder why we consider ourselves a democracy when we choose one leader. Camus would not bother himself with the petty social norms of everyday life and simply go on with his life.

Our Stranger Meaning

Our stranger meaning... I don't know how to go about writing about this so I will simply explain what I think my life means. I think that my life has become pretty meaningless and robotic in a way. I go through the same rituals every day; I wake up at 5am, get ready for school and leave home at 6:45 the I make my way to Whitney young where I go to my locker in red house then to the tech center to work on college scholarships then I head off to my first class: guitar. Everything is routine and ultimately going to get me to my greater purpose in life but right now it everything done on my day-to-day basis seems mundane and unimportant. I would have to motivate myself to believe that I have a greater purpose in life and that is what will get me to complete my goals.

Candide's Punishments, Do They Fit the Crime?

No I do not think that Candide’s punishments fit the crime. He was thrown out of the castle he lived in because his family is not as noble as the baron’s family and therefore he shouldn’t be allowed to marry Cunegonde. I think that exiling Candide from the castle was meant to prove to everyone that the baron would not accept anyone else getting involved in his family. I think that most of the crimes given in this book were meant to teach a lesson to others that those crimes and anything of the sorts are not allowed in the society that they lived in at the time. Candide was unfortunate enough to be the example, so to speak, in order to show everyone that any act of disobedience can and will be punished to the extreme. So far in the novel Candide has constantly been punished extremely over little things that happened. Another punishment was the hanging of Pangloss in order to stop natural evil which was unnecessary and useless.

How do I know what I know?

Most people base their knowledge over how many years of schooling they have or what classes they have taken. While a good part of our knowledge is school based, what is the other part? Until now I never had to question how I know what I know. I never gave much thought to it because who questions what they already know. Now, since I’ve already had to take a hard look at my life so far then I might as well begin to wonder how I’ve gained the vast knowledge that I possess. Unfortunately explaining everything would take approximately 1.2 million days so I’m going to narrow it down. Religion. I am now a believer in blind faith and therefore I find it hard to believe that God is present. I consider myself a logical thinker in the fact that this world was not created by one man. One man did not give the world such great diversity and problems only to spend his days consoling lost souls, solving others problems and watching every person. As a child you are told what your religion is, there is no choice. The same happened with your parents most likely. You grow up reading the bible and going to worships your god and you learn not to question it because as a child God is seen as the almighty that no one dares to question. So who can really explain how they know what they know. To me “religion” is a word. The same as “death” and “life.” Why base our lives off of words.