Thanks

It is near thanksgiving and I have recently been thinking about what I am thankful for. It is impossible for me to pick just one classmate to thank. Almost everyone I know has helped me out in some way before. It could be something simple like giving me something to eat after a swim practice and something to drink during math class, or something a bit more complicated such as helping with chemistry when I don't understand something, or giving me two minute acting lessons to help me with a Brit. Lit. project. I am sincerely grateful for everything you and my other friends have done to help me get through school. Thanks.

Improvements in class?

I think that our philosophy class is running very smoothly and I don't have anything to suggest to change it.

Voltaire and Camus are voting for...

I feel as though neither Voltaire nor Camus would vote in this election.
Based on Candide, it seems as if Voltaire wants everyone to focus on themselves and making themselves better people. At the end of the book, He Voltaire stated that we should all tend our own gardens and focus on the individual rather than the group. Voltaire wouldn't want to vote for anyone that might affect that philosophy.
Camus wouldn't vote because he seems to think everything about life is rediculous. I don't think he would want to "waste" his time voting when everything would end up the same way.

What is meaning?

Meaning is a trait that we give to an object. Something becomes meaningful only when we make it so and it becomes meaningful only to us. Usually meaning will be given to something when a person either knows about it or thinks about it.
Lets say there were two people walking through a forest. One is an average person and one is a botonist. The normal person would walk through the forest rather quickly not thinking about much and might stop a few times to look at plants he thinks are cool.The botonist would have a much greater appreciation for the forest than the average man and would walk through in wonder and would study almost all of the plants. those people would behave that way because of what they give meaning to. To a normal person, the forest is just like any other but to a botonist, everything is different and exciting.
If the normal person were to stop and think about his surroundings and how different they each were, he might start to apreciate the forest a little more because he would give meaning to it.

Candide’s Punishments, Do They Fit the Crime?

    In order to get a punishment, someone has to do something that people in power don’t like. Throughout the book, Candide has gone through many different punishments. The main reason for why he was punished was because he was innocent and didn't know any better.
    Some of the punishments Candide has received so far because of innocence have been exile from the his castle because he kissed Cunegonde, almost got killed because he took a walk, and was almost killed in an auto-da-fé. I feel that these punishments were all too cruel for Candide’s “crimes” since he didn’t have any idea what he was doing wrong. I think that his crimes should have been explained to him before he was punished.

How do you know what you know?

The question “How do I know what I know?” is another way of saying, “How do I know I exist?”. If this world isn’t reality, then it must be some kind of dream that we are dreaming from another place. Going on that principle, I think that what we are living in is real. The reason I think this is reality is because when I am dreaming, the world is completely different. When I am dreaming, I can do whatever I want, I can control events that occur, I can’t feel emotions or states of being, if I take a good hit to the face I wake up, if I fall I wake up, and if I sleep for too long, I eventually wake up in the middle of my dream. Of all of these reasons I think that the one that shows the most that this isn’t a dream is “I can’t feel emotions or states of being”. After a long and arduous swim practice, I will occasionally will dream about swim practice. I swim in it forever and unlike when I am awake, I don’t get tired after a few laps, I swim on an Olympic level rivaling Michael Phelps. If this was a dream, our lives would be completely different.

Modern Day Gadfly

A person that is well known and irritating is Fred Phelps, the leader of the Westboro Baptist Church. He thinks that all of our problems in this world have arisen because the general public does not follow the bible closely enough. The main focus of this man’s philosophy is the “problem” of gays in our society. He feels that because there are gays in society, everyone suffers and anyone in the world that isn’t a member of the WBC will all go to Hell. To get his view out into the world, he and his 39 followers go to heavily populated areas where many people will see them. He goes wherever he feels and doesn’t care about others. He has even gone to funerals to protest. One of the most significant of these funerals was for the death of Matthew Shepherd. Matthew Shepherd was a kid in high school that was beaten and left hanging dead on a fence all because he was gay. Fred has tried multiple times to get into a position of power in the government. He wants laws that aren’t made by the people but by his own interpretation of the Bible.

Unexamined Life

I feel that an examined life is a life that is questioned. Therefore, an unexamined life is a life in which someone goes about their day not thinking. I feel that everyone should not only listen to news but to search for it and use that information to be able to form their own opinions so that they don't get used by people in power.
Even though I think that we should live life examining our actions and morals, I wouldn't say that living an unexamined life is meaningless. I think that not examining your life will make it easier for some people to find happiness and that is what I think our goal in life should be.

Daniel Shumaker is a Junior at Whitney M. Young High School. He likes to swim, play waterpolo, and play the violin. He hasn't really formed any views on society or anything else since he just started to question things. Before this, he just went through life as it was told to him but now wants to become more educated and to be able to not only form his own ideas, but to be able to argue them as well.