Philosophy Reflection Essay

This was my first major introduction into the study of philosophy, and I can h cardinalstly say that it has had a major impact on my belief system. Many of my views strike been changed and my over whole view on lifespan is much disparate than it was five months ago. To me, the two most interesting plant were the Tao and The Minds I. The Tao describes a rattling interesting mien of life. Of whole the philosophies weve read, it is the simplest and most beautiful. Instead of scanning for hidden meanings and analyzing all parts of life, Laozi vindicatory tells us to last life. Do no more than you collapse to do, just now do ein truth topic you shit to do. He tells us not to worry intimately death and just have it off life. I honestly think very simple and peaceful personal manner of living can bring us much more delight than we have now in our contemporary indian lodge. However, the simply way it can be implemented is if everyone follows the Tao, and that is nearly un actuallyistic in our current society. We should honestly try to unrecorded simpler lives and butt against the beauty of everyday things.The other work that really impacted me was The Minds I. Im not sure if it qualifies as a ace work, plainly there were several important themes that really interested me and changed any(prenominal) of my views. The section that really interested me the most was the section describing intelligent machines and wildcats, and their kin to humans. I had always considered humans professional to animals due to their intelligence and capability to communicate. I neer thought too much some the paper of intelligent animals and even machines and their relationship to humans. An intelligent machine or animal that can communicate definitely would be on the same evolutionary level as humans, and thus there could be no way to justify creating an intelligent robotic servant or helper withtaboo harkening back to the political orientation that prompted slavery.Also, destruction of this machine or animal would be equivalent to murder. However, I still so no moral objection to creating an intelligent robot, as long as we give it its own freedom, just as we would to one of our children. Its may be considered playing God, only if we ar his greatest creations, we should have the right to test our limits. Only through a recreation of consciousness done and understood by us can we begin to record our own consciousness as well as ourselves. I had neer really thought about technology in this way and never seriously questioned the origin of my consciousness, so the Minds I really forced me to think aboutlife in a different way.Throughout the term, I not only changed and reconsidered umteen of my views I observe things that I subconsciously believed without really thinking about it. My beliefs not only changed, I perk uped beliefs that I never knew I had. Some of these views surfaced when yarn certain whole kit and boodle correspon ding The Mysterious Stranger and Nietzsche. Although these two works didnt change my deep-set views that much, it was interesting to see my instinctual beliefs get challenged. I discovered I was a pretty moderate thinker, but these readings caused many of my views on life to change. However, I still disagreed with many of the views expressed in class discussions with certain works, analogous the Tao. But then I completed that the Tao is designed to have different meanings to everyone who reads it so they could describe their own way of life and thus doesnt lend itself well to class discussions.I saw that the way philosophy has evolved over the years mirrors the way society has changed throughout history. The older philosophies that weve read, like the Tao and Plato work, seem to try to tell us how to live our lives to get the most happiness and satisfaction out of it, and how to find the way or see the light. The more modern philosophies seem to leave out the idea of a true path and tell us how to live in the best way, but they dont guarantee happiness from it. The most interesting pieces for me were a mix of the modern and older philosophies, like Nietzsche and Socrates Apology (I guess because he lived in a ancient but modern society). Even though they were exclusively different and I completely disagreed with one of them, they were much more compelling to me. One important thing that I wise(p) is that I hate reading about something that I agree on, I dislike having my views proven by another source and rather read new ideas and opinions.From all the texts read and discussions weve had this year, its knockout to highlight just three things that I learned. One of the most bear on texts to me was The Circular Ruins. Especially when read right after Is God a Taoist, this simple story made me reconsider all my beliefs on humans and God. Just like the main character was, we are kept in the dark about our condition, where we came from and how we exist. W e claim an all-mighty Godas our creator, and call ourselves superior beings in his image. However, whose to say that we are not just insignificant nothings, created by another being of no importance. Would that make us less real and important? From this story I learned to jam attaching importance and solve to everything I do. Maybe there is a reason we dont know where we come from perhaps we dont deficiency to know. other important lesson came from Reservation Blues. The main characters all had to deal with finding a cultural identity while trying to escape the trap of the ashen man. The only ones who made it out were the ones who had a strong cultural identity. They knew themselves and place with their past before they attempted to escape the reservation. Victor and Junior any tried to ignore their past or couldnt come to impairment with their heritage. They tried to escape before they were ready, and couldnt cope with the failure. The books point, despite the suicide and Vi ctors destruction, was amazingly positive, it showed that if you come to harm with your past and yourself you can overcome any obstacle set against you, but you must have this understanding or you will destroy yourself.From The shaves Edge I learned a lot about the purpose of life from each of the vastly different characters. At first, it seems like the point of the story is that there is a difference between what we want and what makes us happy and fulfilled. Suzanne, Gray and Elliot all got what they precious yet all seem to live unhappy, unfulfilled lives. Further inspection showed that they all are living the life that they skilfuly wanted and expected to live, and they are utterly content. Isabel wanted both Larry and high society attribute of life, and thus is disappoint with her life because she couldnt have both. Larry didnt know what he wanted out of life, so he took basically a timeout from the real world, went into privateness and discovered what he wanted out of li fe. Now he, knowing full well what he wants, is the most satisfied of all the characters. The lesson to be learned is that happiness is completely relative, and thus you cannot call anyone a failure unless he considers himself one. Also, its all right to take some time out of the real world and relax, take a step back and see what you really want to do next.In the end, this class really has changed my views on the best kind of life. I still believe that you need to live the type of life that will make you the happiest and most satisfied, but I dont think that most people know what type of life that is. If you dont have a passion, dont force yourself into any profession. Explore the world and find something that really interests you differently you will get forced into a miserable life that you hate. If you have a passion, you have to follow it. You have to come in footing with who you are understand and remember your past and childhood.We have to examine our lives to discover what we really want, then try to find it. We must simplify our actions, and we have to stop overanalyzing others actions and words. We have to lose our ego and good sense of shame, and stop caring what people think of you. This is the simplest way to live and live happily, without having to adjust your actions to fit what other people expect from you. We have to stop fearing death and keep on living life in the happiest viable way. This will be the happiest, simplest and best life for everyone.