Connection 4

Connection

The questions asked in the book and the ideas discussed are hard for me to have an opinion on. I think most ideas CAN be valid and backed up, and it’s hard to pick certain things over others. The chapter on Locke discusses a blank slate. I think everyone is born with a blank slate in that they have not sinned, but everyone is born different. Some people have the genes for math, some don’t. Some people have photographic memories and some people. There are things that some people are born with and others aren’t. There are also so many different kinds of personalities. But, I don’t exactly understand the concept of Tabula Rasa so I might be looking at this wrong. Also, with Sophie now just a character in Hilde’s book, what if we’re just part of a book? I’d like to think I’m writing my own book and story, but who knows.

Reflection 4

Reflection

I really don’t see why this author didn’t just make this book about a student in a philosophy class, instead of trying to make an interesting plot going along with facts about philosophers and philosophies. I don’t think they tie in with each other and it’s a weird read. And when Hilde got her book with stories from Sophie’s life- that confused me even more. Is Sophie just a fictional character in the book now?! Is Hilde’s life the real life, and these chapters before it were just so we had a background of her gift? Makes no sense to me. Just not my kind of book. I do think reading the interactions between Sophie and Alberto when it comes to philosophers make that point of the book easier to understand. That ‘point’ as in educating readers on philosophies. I understand the concepts and ideas more this way than I think I’d understand them from reading from a textbook.

Connection/Reflection 3

I was taking the BC calc ap, sorry this is late! I think that's a valid excuse!
Reflection
I disagree with a lot of Spinoza's ideas. I don't believe in God, so I don't see God in nature, or God being nature. I also don't think God decides everything we do, but I do see how nature affects what we do. By nature, different people and things can only do so much. But I think his idea of freeing ourselves from feelings to be happy is very off. I think people should react to their feelings and do things their passionate about to be happy. I still think that Sophie's relationship with Alberto is weird. What's the point of dressing up?! Why did he pick her?! It's hard to get through the monologue sections of the book. And it's still weird he calls her Hilde. Haven't quite found the meaning behind that yet. I liked Locke's ideas of simple sensations and complex ideas of things. His primary and secondary qualities were also interesting. They are definitely realistic ideas.

Connection
Reading through the Spinoza chapter, I can't connect much with his thoughts and philosophies. I guess I see his idea of nature controlling what people do in the sense that by nature my arm is connected to my body, there fore I can't take my arm off...but that's extreme. With animals though, by nature they have no thumbs, so it's harder for them to pick things up. They have to learn to pick things up other ways. I don't know if that example completely applies, since the subject is very vast and can be vague. Locke's primary and secondary qualities are seen almost every day though. Music for example, every one can agree on notes or how long a song is, but some people might think it's a great song and others it can hurt their ears. Everyone sees physical things the same, then there are the senses qualities, that differ from everyone.