Personal Application #6

Much of what we have read about in the previous three chapters relates to my life on a personal level. With Darwin, the well-known concepts of natural selection and survival of the fittest were mentioned. They are ideas that most people have been exposed to from a young age, and it was nice to get a fuller explanation of the concepts than the passing mentions throughout life. The quick run through of modern philosophy was nice too, since it applies directly to us in modern times, though this book is a little outdated to be entirely modern.
For me, the most important personal connection comes from Freud. Not only did we learn extensively about him in AP psychology, but also his ideas apply to me in a more personal, more direct way. I attend therapy, and it is mainly relying on his ideas of psychoanalysis. I spend 45 minutes once a week talking about anything and everything on my mind. No idea is a stupid one and it doesn’t matter how big or small, bad or good, the thing I’m saying is. They all seem to end up converging into a conversation about whatever was bothering me most that week. Most of the time what bothers me isn’t something I was even aware of, until it was pried out of me through free association and discussion with someone who knows what to look for and the right questions to ask. Though there are elements of other therapy within mine, it is mostly based on Freud’s ideas, and that makes his chapter extremely relevant to my life. Without him, I’d be in a different kind of therapy or perhaps none at all, and maybe be in a very different position to where I find myself now.

Sophie's World Reflection #6

Things continually get weirder and weirder (as if that seemed possible to me before reading the most recent chapters). It is getting harder to distinguish between what is real and what is not, while I begin hating Hilde’s father more each moment. I want so badly for Sophie and Alberto to be real, so to think that the major is messing with them the way he appears to be is not my most pleasant thought. It is hard to fathom how they could possibly be real, when they respond to every little thing the major does and are so acutely aware of their situation. It makes no sense but I want it to be true at the same time, I would hate to have invested my time into characters that I assumed had so much freewill, only to find out they had none. However, it appears that they do have some amount of freewill, shown by Alberto’s attempts to investigate the major and what he is doing when his attention is on Sophie (like when the goose came to take her out of the tree she’d gotten stuck in).
Things only got weirder to me when Alberto showed Sophie a physical copy of the book that we are currently reading. It made me wonder how he knew about the book, and how there can be a book when it is still seemingly being written. Things in the book are being discussed that, at this point, have not actually happened. So how is there a version of the book published when this is the case? It grows too confusing to try and answer, but hopefully as we finish the book my question will be answered anyways.

Personal Application #5

Our discussions of Marxism in class have sparked some interesting discussions. It makes me wonder a lot of things. The idea of Marxism is one that has played a role in history for many years now, and I doubt that it’s going to go away anytime soon. Even if it’s never successfully been implemented anywhere and likely never will, the thought is looming above people’s heads when things begin to gear towards this style of nation. I tend to agree that it likely will never work, especially given the lack of motivation. People work for their own benefit, we are naturally selfish. There is nothing wrong with this, it can be a very good thing. It motivates people to do what they need to take care of themselves and their families, fueling society in their actions to stay afloat. Without this selfish motivation, people will not work for anything, or at least not as hard. With everyone putting in the minimum effort, society will fall apart as everything goes to the “greater good”. Most people don’t care about the greater good, they care about what is good for them. Although class struggle is an issue, social classes will most likely exist in our country specifically no matter what efforts are done to erase that. It seems ingrained in our society at this point, and it is what pushes our society forward.

Although there may be elements of Marxism that could be beneficial to a society, the idea as a whole is a recipe for disaster in the end. It would have to be dissected and taken apart into individual ideas that are most vital to a nation.

Sophie's World Reflection #5

Although I could spend time talking about the philosophical ideas within this section of the novel, I’ll hold off on that until the personal application post. Right now, I’m still trying to wrap my head around the events taking place outside of each philosophy lesson. The sudden inclusion of fairy tales has thrown me off even more than before. I see that a lot of it is simply showing the power that Hilde’s father has over Alberto and Sophie, but I’m not a fan of that. It only makes it harder for me to distinguish who is real and what is actually happening. I know it’s the point of the story to keep readers guessing, but I wish we just knew already! I’m intrigued to hear more about this plan of Hilde’s, how she is going to interfere in her father’s plans on behalf of Sophie and Alberto. I’m inclined to believe that somehow, in some way, Sophie and Alberto have to be real. There is no way that Hilde could lend them a hand somehow, unless they were.
I think that most of the action is going to take place at Sophie’s party coming up, and I’m trying to prepare myself for that. I sense the urgency in the book becoming more and more prominent, as Alberto continues to speed through lessons at high speeds just to get things through. It is hard to keep up with this way, sometimes without a lot of plot to break up each lesson, but I’m still managing. At this point, I really just need to know what’s real and what’s not, it’s driving me crazy!

Personal Application #4

I feel as though I can relate to some of the emotions Sophie is going through as she learns that she may or may not be a character in someone’s book. The existentialism of this idea has been freaking me out since I read it, and it’s making me question a lot of things. It seems silly to assume that we might also be characters in a book, so I can’t say that that’s my main concern. I do relate to the feeling of wondering what is real, wondering if I’m really in control of anything I do, or if I just have the illusion of control. I really do like to believe that I have some element of control over my life and actions, but at the same time I do know it’s entirely possible that some outside force is controlling my “fate”. As I’ve discussed before, I’m not a huge fan of that idea, since I like to have a firm handle on what I do and the choices I make.

One of the points that Alberto was discussing about the Enlightenment really stuck with me. The idea that once the “masses are enlightened”, society would make great progress. It obviously makes a lot of sense. When all people possess knowledge, the world advances and benefits from the knowledge. It just seems like such common sense that people should be willing to try and move closer to this idea each day. Still, I know this is not the case. The idea is certainly nice, though, that we can inform and take care of society as a whole to create something to benefit that entire whole of society.