Blog 8

-          Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and The Matrix

-          Truth and reality

-          The Cave being the physical world

-          Free will or predetermine destiny in Oedipus the king and Minority Report

-          Genetic engineering and discrimination

Movies have always been a way of showing visually what writers have wrote in books. Many movies have similarities to books and often spring out of books. This semester we’ve seen many connections between ancient reading texts and popular movies. One that had a significant impact on me was Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and The Matrix. They both exploit a shocking experience and great philosophical standpoints on life and society. Making an individual think deeply, wonder and question things philosophically.

Plato’s cave is a reality which every individual living it believes it to be true because the cave is the only thing they know.  They have no knowledge what lies beyond and above the cave. What is fascinating to me is that I too had beliefs which I could swear and would claim to be absolutely certain, to be 100% accurate. Philosophically I was enlighten and shown the way out of this cave through constant questioning and reasoning. At first I could quite understand Plato’s Allegory but I was adjusted to the light and saw that what I thought was true before were lies I couldn’t see, what I thought was beautiful is only memories.

This theory of Plato’s cave became compelling and satisfactory to me. It spread my knowledge and way of looking at things. Just like The Matrix, I felt exactly like Neo, as if I were in a movie and had just recently seen the real world for what it truly was. This shocking and extraordinary experience was a complete change in my life. I began to feel obliged that if I am a true Philosopher not only will I the escape the cave but is my duty to try my best to help others escape. I feel the responsibility and right to want to enlighten others and free them from this cave. Expand people’s knowledge and free their mind is both fascinating and rewarding to me. Becoming a Philosopher professor will be amazing.     

Blog 7

  Using blogs this semester was at first intimidating because our writing was being exposed for others to read as well, not only our Professor. Many of us hate sharing our thoughts, feelings, and emotions. To make our writing pieces public could indeed have an effect on an individual who is very shy and lacks confidence. For me however, I cared less since I have overcome the fear of caring what others think. I do not dwell in shyness, and definitely ain't afraid of sharing and speaking my mind. I thinking is essential for others to hear you out and come across your own unique opinion, and try to figure out why is it different than theirs.
    These blogs gave us the opportunity to check out others writing and view both weaker and stronger writers than ourselves. By seeing how our classmates write and reflect their thoughts can help us see how to becomes better writers and how we also make similar mistakes. I've visited many of my classmates blogs and I have to say that many of them are strong writers and very intellectual people. They have the capacity to get all the points across and write a well organized essay. Their text to self and text to world connections were always on point. Unfortunately though, I didn't get as much love back, because not many people commented on my blogs. Perphaps many were too lazy and did not even bother to write or read others blogs. I mean it's understandable, who has time to do more than their own work, people have busy lives.
    Blogs however, could indeed have been a great motive to make you write better, being that we were aware that others could read our writing. In a way forcing one to write outstanding blogs. It differs from journals, because journals are occasionally more personal not public open as the blogs we've written have been. Is only natural that if we knew we would be the only ones reading our writing then we would have not put so much effort on it but rather slack and done a poor job on it. Sometimes we need motives to unleash the extraordinary beast inside us, and do an outstanding job. I believe that blogs for sure have influence our way of writing and been a positive contribution for us, in becoming better writers.
    Using blogs in the future can be very beneficial to students and provide them with great skills in becoming better writes. Both by learning and seeing how others write, and by being motivated in writing better because they have audiences. Writing a blog is essential because it lets you express your feelings, thoughts, way of thinking, and standpoint on an argument. Sharing with others how your viewpoints are similar and different can help you in both the view of the world and in future writing, if its used and applied properly.

Blog 6: Free will and determinism

Do we have free will or are we under a pre-determined future? This has been an issue that scientists and Philosophers have faced for many years. Throughout my study of freedom and determinism, there has been a Philosopher who I can connect to and agree with. French Philosopher Jean Paul Sartre was a big influence on me because he stated that "existence precedes essence" and that we are all responsible for the choices we make. "Although our past experiences and developed personality have set stage for our moment of choice, it is the beckoning future that defines our spirit" just like Sartre stated.

In the play Oedipus the King, it was said to be determine he would kill his father and marry his mother. Indeed it did happen, but it happened only because he made the choice to make it happen. In his anger crossing the road he reacted on his impulses and killed his father and all of his servants. He had the free will to be patient and not react in such a way. There was no outside force that made him commit murder. As one of his choices led to more conflict resulting in him to marry his mother. Though he did not know it was his mother, he chose to marry her. The determinist will say that since he didn't know that was his mother, destiny still made it happen and therefore his choice wasn't freely. For if he would have known he would have not married her. However, they forget to examine that one choice affects the other, if he would have not murder his father, his fate would have most likely ended differently.

I believe that in every situation we are in, we have the capacity of choosing and deciding what we are going to do. There is nothing forcing us to make a choice, we make it ourselves and have to take responsibility for the choices we make. As Sartre mentioned "we are people whose existence from moment to moment precedes our essence". We have to make wise and intelligent decisions to see great results for ourselves. With every choice we make, we are creating ourselves and defining our essence. We can never blame others for the choices we make, we can only blame ourselves.

We can see that in the movie Minority Report, John Anderton as mad as he was, as much as he wanted to pull the trigger and kill Leo Crow he did not. He made a choice, though it was said to be determined for him to kill Leo Crow, he made the final decision not to.  Those who say that we have no choice and that is all determined, they are just making excuses to not take responsibility for their actions. Indeed, there are moments where we have no control over things, but we always have a choice on what we will do next, and decide what's best for us. Better said; while you can't always choose your circumstances, you can always choose your response to them. If everything were determined than whenever we do something, we shouldn't regret that we could have done something else. Which is something Philosopher William James mentioned and I totally agree with. If you regret than it means you had an alternative, a choice, so you cannot be a determinist. That would definitely be a contradiction. I've seen that many of us go around regretting things we've done before; therefore we cannot be determinist like Philosopher Baron d'Holbach, who believed we have no free will.

Free will is one of the most powerful things a human being can have. I, just like Sartre believe that we are "condemned to be free", our actions are the only genuine part of ourselves that define our lives. "We are the sum of our actions and accomplishments, not our wishes, dreams or intentions". We have to actively engage and pursue our dreams and goals. There is no such thing as fate or pre-determined destiny for me. I am hooked on the idea of Hinduism, and that fate doesn't exist. It all happens for a reason, if your life sucks is because you brought it upon yourself. Karma in Hinduism explains that all disasters and tragedies happen for a reason, if we do bad deeds in our former life then we will suffer in our next life time. We are creating our own life through our current actions and if we want a better life, we must do good deeds. We have total free will and if things happen beyond our control is because we brought it upon ourselves. We make our own fate, just like Oedipus the King and John Anderton made their own fate. Pre-determinism is just an illusion and we must accept that we will always have a choice, and our choices makes us who we are.