Exercise 7

Exercise #7

·        “The world as we have known it is passing away and the world that is emerging is one that appears to be fraught with danger.”  Miller

“It feels as if I have fallen unexpectedly into a deeper whirlpool which tumbles me around so that I can neither stand on the bottom nor swim to the top.”  Descartes

·        These two quotes share the same idea.  The more knowledgeable we become, the more we realize the world around us is changing.  This in itself is a terrifying notion because to these two men the world is getting worse, not better.  They feel as though they’re drowning in their own knowledge and self awareness with little to do to help themselves and those around them. 

·         Questions

o   What is to become of our world?

o   Is knowledge power or is ignorance truly blissful?

o   How can we affect change in this “dying” world?

o   How does one avoid hopelessness once they learn unsettling truths? 

Exercise 6

Exercise #6

1.     Illusion

a.       Descartes believes everything we know we have learned through our senses. 

He finds this to be an unfortunate point because our senses can fell us, therefore they are not a reliable source.  This leads him to believe everything we must know is an illusion. 

“Whatever I have up till now accepted as most true I have acquired either from the senses or through the senses. But from time to time I have found that the senses deceive, and it is prudent never to trust completely those who have deceived us even once.”

b.      Miller describes the systems we have in place to eliminate threat.  He does this cynically as we cannot be “reassured” of this at all.  He describes this while talking about Columbine and the unexpected turn of events. 

 “It's reassuring to think that either the work of the legal system or the educational system can reduce or eliminate altogether the threat of the unpredictable and the unforeseen. This is why we have childproof medicine bottles, penalties for not buckling up, informational literature on family planning for students in junior high school: these are all examples of reasonable responses to known problems. But the schoolyard massacre seems a problem of a different order. What legal or educational response could be equal to the challenge of controlling the behavior of so many students from such varied backgrounds? Just how much surveillance would be required to bring the marginalized fraction of the student population back into the fold? How invasive would a curricular intervention have to be to succeed in instilling a set of preferable values in those who currently feel so deeply alienated while at school?”

c.       I myself agree with both authors about illusion.  Life itself illusion after illusion.  We choose which we’ll follow and which we won’t believe. 

2.     God

a.     Even after everything he’s learned Descartes stands firm in his faith in God.  He believes that God is the one thing that cannot be disproved even after he himself manages to do just that. 

“And yet firmly rooted in my mind is the long standing opinion that there is an omnipotent God who made me the kind of creature that I am.” 

b.      Miller struggles with his faith.  He is unsure where to place faith living in the world we do today. 

“The sense-less loss of life always trumps the efforts of the meaning makers.  Why bother with reading and writing when the world is so obviously going to hell?”

c.       I myself agree with Miller.  I don’t understand how anyone holds on to faith in this day and age.  I envy Descartes and his ability to trust in something beyond a shadow of a doubt. 

3.     Meditation

a.       I couldn’t find a quote about mediation in The Meditations but it obviously is an important theme throughout.  This is not something Descartes took lightly, so much so he waited until he was mature enough to take on such a task.  He understood the gravity of what he was doing and self meditation seemed the only way possible to find the answers he was seeking. 

b.      Miller believes meditation can be used to serve any purpose.  His hope is that it will be used to serve a better, positive, purpose and help create better people. 

“Reading, writing, talking, meditating, speculating, arguing: these are the only resources available to those of us who teach the humanities and they are, obviously. resources that can be bent to serve any purpose.”

c.       I agree with Miller.  When I think about meditation the first thought I have is Buddhist monks.  This is a false stereotype for meditation.  Anyone can meditate and everyone should.  It is important at times to be alone with your own thoughts and to learn things for yourself.   

Exercise 5

1.      1. After re-reading my essay I don’t think I have a great project statement.  This is the closest I have. “What type of society do we live in where people don’t think about just using their words?  Not one in which I want to live. 

2.      2. The most important idea in my essay is the importance of manners in our society.  I believe we will never succeed as a people and a country if we can’t be kind to one another.  If charity starts at home kindness must too.

3.       3. "Some years ago I was struck by the large number of falsehoods that I had accepted as true in my childhood, and by the highly doubtful nature of the whole edifice that I had subsequently based on them. I realized that it was necessary, once in the course of my life, to demolish everything completely and start again right from the foundations if I wanted to establish anything at all in the sciences that was stable and likely to last."  I choose this quote because it supports my thesis.  The reason (I believe) so manner young adults lack manners today is because they’ve never truly learned anything for themselves.  If they, like Descartes, can unlearn what they think they know they will see their biases and become better people. 

4.      4. I summarized the idea that one must unlearn everything they know.  This is an ongoing theme in my essay.

5.      5. The idea that I am a Millennial introduces my essay. 

6.      6. My struggle to understand others in my generation concludes the essay.  A good essay sometimes leads you to more questions than answers.  I still don’t understand my generation but I know I can effect change. 

7.      7. I recently learned the brain does not stop developing until the age 25. 

8.      8. I believe my personal experience makes my essay unique.  Often when reading a essay I become bored because I feel as though the topic isn’t real to the author.  I didn’t want this to be the case with my essay so I was sure to add a personal touch. 

Exercise #4

Exercise 4: 

Working with Quotations

1. “Some years ago I was struck by the large number of falsehoods that I had accepted as true in my childhood, and by the highly doubtful nature of the whole edifice that I had subsequently based on them.  I realized that it was necessary, once in the course of my life, to demolish everything completely and start again right from the foundations if I wanted to establish anything at all in the sciences that was stable and likely to last.”  
2. Edifice- a complex system of beliefs 
3. I began to understand everything I knew was not factual.  I came to realize if I have wanted to know anything for myself I would have to unlearn many things I've known since I was a young child.  By doing this I will have learned how to obtain knowledge on my own.  
4. I don't have many issues with the quote.  The only trouble I had was defining edifice.  
5. In my essay, I plan to prove the knowledge poured into us in our early years affects the people we become later in life.  This quote supports this point just as Descartes realizes he was brought up with many bias’.  This is the truth for all of us but the question I propose is which bias are okay and which build a broken foundation (person).  Just as Descartes picks away at what he was sure he knew to be real I will pick away at the issues in children’s upbringing in the last 20+ years.  

Exercise 2

Exercise #2:

 Defining Your Terms

1.      Meditation is the basis for this entire essay. As Descartes searches himself for answers to some of life’s biggest questions,he does so through meditation. He severs himself from the rest of the world leaving him alone with just his own thoughts. 

Meditate- To be in continuous, contemplative thought; to think about doing something. 

2.      After Descartes meditates he finds himself questioning his very existence. This encourages him to not only find a definition for this word, but to also redefine what existence means to him. What of him is real? How does he know? 

Exist- To have actual being or reality; to live.

3.      Questioning his existence leads Descartes to the next big question: what makes him real?  Is it his corporeal self? He disagrees with this knowing his mind is the most important part of him.  He has processed everything he knows about this world through his mind.

Corporeal- Of a physical nature.

4.      Once he realizes his corporeal self was not his “real” self, Descartes decides everything he has learned was through his mind. This in itself had to be questioned because all he had learned he perceived to be true. Can one trust their own perception of the world? By what senses does one gain this information, and if it is through a physical nature have we really gained anything at all?  All good questions Descartes presents. 

Perceive- To become aware of by the senses; to understand; to feel or observe. 

5.      Throughout all of this Descartes questions the certainty of his knowledge. If knowledge is gained by something that can be disproven, is it really knowledge at all? This is the question Descartes faces when meditating. This is the answer he must find for himself.

Certain- Being very sure of something; without any doubt, inevitable; not mentioned but assumed.  

                I’ve always loved to read.  Even as a young child I could get lost in a book.  I guess this is why writing came so naturally to me.  I’ve always been able to empathize with the characters on a page. As I grew my love for literature grew too.  This is why I wanted to be a writer.  I wanted to make people feel what I felt when I opened a book.  I wanted people to feel at home. 

                Over time my writing changed.  I went from writing poetry to pass the time to writing songs for my youth choir.  In the beginning I’d never share my writing but as it developed I really enjoyed people hearing what I had to say.  This wasn’t the same while I was in school.  Sure, I could write a paper but I didn’t enjoy.  School sucked the fun out of writing for me.  I believe you should write what you feel; about your passions.  Most schools don’t agree.  I think that’s the reason a lot of children don’t enjoy reading and writing.  It becomes a chore; I know that was the reason for me. 

                Now a days I write for myself.  I keep a journal next to my bed for my thoughts and feelings.  Sometimes all I have is a bunch of random thought jotted down.  Other times I have a poem or a song.  I have a lot of ideas I hope to share with the world one day.  My real dream is to write children’s books and make children’s music.  Until then I hope to finish school and get one step closer to making people feel the way I did.  I still want people to hear my work and feel at home.