Student Journal notes, Introduction to Philosophy
This is an example of good journal writing, from a student in an Intro to Philosophy class.
It demonstrates much effort and thoughtfulness about issues that really matter to
this student.
§ Once you see a person on his inside, touch his soul, he will never be the same again.
§ People should not complete each other in a relationship, this is where the addiction comes from, they should only enhance one another.
§ To live to our full potential, we have to become one with the world that makes us whole.
§ Pain is the only true feeling, because that is the only great feeling one can experience. It just comes in different shapes and forms.
§ A man and a woman in an abusive relationship are like light and shadow. They never meet, even though are very close to each other, but one needs another to survive.
§ Nothing in the world is white and black. Not love, nor hate, not pleasure, nor pain, not birth, nor death. But it is that way because humans make it like that. We are all fighting for purity, but are at the same time scared of it.
§ The only reason humans can't walk on air is because they think they can't. A balanced mind is a quite one.
§ Who ever you are, how ever you are, the most important thing is to know oneself. Your
pluses and minuses, your pros and cons, and be proud of both, because that is exactly
what makes you a unique human being.
§ Life presents us only with those lessons that are vital to our individual survival.
§ Love is like sand in the palm of your hand, the harder you try to hold on, the faster
you lose it.
§ Our past affects our future, our present becomes our past.
§ In nature there exists ability for any organism, even as small as a cell, to maintain internal equilibrium. It is done so by adjusting its physiological processes, thus, variability sustains balance.
§ In a perfect world there exist straight lines, exact borders, unchallengeable definitions.
However, the world we live in is far from perfect, in that sense. Our ever-changing
environment dictates its own rules about perfection. Nothing in our reality is one
hundred percent true or false, good or bad. There is always more than one way to look at anything.
§ Human beings are complex species because we are made up of different dimensions. Our intellect allows us to have in addition to an outward appearance also an inside world full of treasures - all of our thoughts, feelings, emotions. In an interpersonal relationship this treasure box of our soul gets to open up, be shared and filled up with new things.
§ At the moment I have a more teleological set of mind, judging my own actions by the
results. However, I think I judge others more by the deontological principles.
§ We are not created equal, because we are not created. We are the sum of our genes and our environment, our interaction with it, our response to it. And that is far from being anywhere close to equality. However, it sure would be nice to be uniformly the same. It would have solved a lot of problems.
§ It feels as if my mind is in a cage, like it has barriers around it. My thoughts are trying to get out, but it's too overwhelming. I think myself to a point of explosion, because I put myself into unanswerable corners.
§ Only human brain, as far as we are aware, has the capability to let a chemical reaction occurring in it be equal to an image or a code that makes up our language. This affirms one of the major issues existing in writing - a written word is a symbolic representation of the thought processes taking place in the brain. As one can see, writing has an inborn problem in itself, moreover, graded writing is taught to follow many rules, which in turn, does not help the creative process by restraining it.
A thought is like a beat of the heart, a starting point for our existence. Our reality, both inside and outside worlds, is constantly defined and restated by our thought processes. Our thoughts, fireworks of neurons in our head, are encoded in words, fundamental material in building a bridge of communication between our inner self and everything that surrounds us, defines us, and makes us who we are - individuals. The more personal and unique are thoughts and experiences, the harder it is to put a label on them by expressing them in words that have been defined long before. Moreover, the essence of human character is change, variability. It is one of the main survival techniques imbedded in us. Writing, on the other hand, is abiding, it is too permanent for it to ever be perfect. Writing is like a snapshot of a continuum of ones thoughts.
As already been stated, words make up the bulk part of communication between humans, nevertheless, there is a great difference between spoken and written words. In a verbal communication between two people, both the speaker and the listener become active participants by using a combination of the spoken word, tone of voice, body language, facial expressions. They both send and receive messages simultaneously, which enables them to constantly react to one another and guide the conversation. On the contrary, writing has no feedback. No matter what color of paper and pen you choose writing is still a one-way street. It is much easier to be misinterpreted. The paper does not answer, it cannot give you an advice, it cannot even point you in the right direction. It is a more limited form of expression than a verbal dialogue. However, paper is also not capable of interrupting, judging, changing a subject. It is silently still. Paper gives a person an ability to clearly speak with (him) herself. Writing is demanding because it empowers a human to judge oneself objectively, to examine that snapshot of ones thoughts to the smallest detail. Writing breaks down the walls of assurance and security in our world and reinforces individuality.
Therefore, writing is an unparallel experience, which has to be able to occur naturally and cannot be forced, pushed, or tugged upon. This theory contradicts the idea of graded writing. In school students are not only taught correct spelling and grammar, they also learn rules for writing. Those rules act as a constrictive force on the natural flow of thoughts. American education system does not accommodate different writing styles, instead it teaches a pupil to conform to the defined structural norm. Many essays that I have written and read are dull, monotonous, uninspired, but at the same time - perfectly consistent with all the rules regarding paragraph topic sentences, placement of thesis. Our essays are predictable. They always include introduction in the beginning, conclusion at the end, and most importantly - no questions are left unanswered. In most cases, it is not necessary for the reader to be too involved in the essay, because it is clear and easy to follow. Moreover, each teacher has their own ideas of an "A" essay, their own prejudices and biases. Consequently, in the duration of a class a student adapts to the certain goals set for him/her by the professor. We learn not how to write, but how to write something that "sounds good" and gets a high grade.
After I came to realization of this idea, I asked myself - what was I writing for? Was I writing to pass a class, get my units and high G.P.A., or was I writing to learn how to express myself? The answer was not hard, since most of my writing is about myself, my thoughts, my experiences, my feelings. Every piece that I write I try to leave a part of me in. This way I can preserve my state of being at that moment, take a snapshot of myself and frame it. Therefore, I write to open up a door into myself, into a parallel reality that exists in my unconsciousness. This in return creates a barrier, because in most cases someone who you do not know on a personal level is going to read and judge an essay that I wrote, is going to judge me. Me, the way I am, not on the surface, but what I represent at that given moment of my life.
This proves that the process of writing in itself is the hardest part of writing. It is not supposed to be easy, even though the ending product might seem to be effortless. Good writing means opening up and letting unconsciousness float freely to the surface of your thoughts, that way it can be poured out onto paper with almost no alteration. Good writing also means learning, using and at the same time forgetting all of the rules that are taught to us. In addition, I would like to point out that the beauty and interest in our lives come from the difficulty of it, because no worthy things come easy in life. Therefore, lets keep on taking photos for memories, and lets keep on writing, because it is a much more truthful interpretation of oneself then a picture.
§ What is math? Just a whole bunch of made up formulas trying to express reality. The only real thing in this world is art. It is the subject that touches our hearts, effects our emotions. No one can prove any scientific law without assuming another one. However, artists are expressing themselves through many mediums and their work freely flows in and out of our conscious mind. Art cannot be graded on the scale. It can never achieve perfection, because it is as constant, as a wave rushing upon the shore.
§ Twenty five hundred years ago a Greek philosopher, Heraclitus stated, "There is nothing permanent except change." He believed that our world is composed of opposite forces: black and white, good and bad, life and death. Therefore, because of the constant strife between them, everything is in perpetual change. Since that time human life has evolved, technological advancements have taken place, the Earth has spun around and the sun has been burning out, however, the eternal conflict within our reality has not been altered. People are still walking the thin line between the desire for stability, permanence, predictability, and the chaotic reality.
Death is the ultimate change, and it is the reason why people's mind has such hard time fully realizing the inevitability of variance. Death creates uncertainty. It sabotages our main source of life, the survival instinct. Acceptance of change is equaled to the acceptance of not only reality, but also of death, which is a greatest change of all. Resistance to change is a defense mechanism inborn in us, because even though, everybody is consciously aware of the coming end, we all would like to believe in our immortality. This, consequently, leads to duality in our psyche, because change, as well as death, is eternal.
Fear of death is the driving force of our social structure. What is the greatest punishment for breaking the most important rules in our society - it is death. The largest breakthrough in science is regarding prolonging human lifespan. The whole idea about finding the essence of ourselves, about answering the question - why are we here? comes from trying to realize not only where we are right now, but also what awaits us after death. Our brain cannot comprehend uncertainty and our life, at the base of it, is the main uncertain thing. That is why we try to come up with laws and formulas we can fit our reality into and organize it, classify it. Our brain evolved faster than our body.
I would have to agree with him - humans are not in any sense superior to other animals. We have no moral right in exploiting them for any reason. However, since we are already on the topic why don't we explore it in depth? Why is it that most of the people are only concerned with direct influence we have on animals and their lives? How about discussing the indirect ways that we are killing much larger numbers of them. Do we have a right for doing that? Because no matter what the assumption is, indirect murder is as lethal, if not more, as a direct one.
For example, the cars that we drive - the gasoline, to be more specific. Everyone is aware of the destructive phenomena that oil companies have on the environment. The amount of the dead fish, birds, whole ecosystems are being wiped out. And even if one decides not to drive, or use gasoline in any way, well, that person also cannot use plastic, because it us also derived from oil.
Moreover, how about this paper? How many trees had to be cut down to make a notebook? Can we really comprehend the amount of animals that had to die because they lost their homes?
Since we are equal to the rest of the living things on this planet, which I completely agree with (in some sense of equality), let's start behaving that way. Becoming a vegetarian and stopping wearing fur and leather is not enough. Stopping doing experiments on animals in the laboratory is not enough either. You are saving a too small percentage of population by doing just that. I propose to leave our safety and comfort behind and become one with nature. Only by living in the wild a human being can truly be called an equal to the rest of the animal kingdom. Until then don't be a hypocrite and call yourself an equal.