Wow. I can already
tell that this book is going to be an adventure. In just the first nine pages, I already feel
like I’ve been through a roller coaster of thinking. The questions presented are incredibly hard
to wrap your head around, but I can see I’m going to have an awesome time
trying.
The first thing I realized from reading this chapter is that
the main point of philosophy is questioning.
I almost think the words should be synonyms. If you have a question, and a reason to find
an answer, then you have a philosophy.
Philosophy is also a journey. You
can learn the history of philosophy, but you cannot truly learn what it is
unless you take your mind on a journey and explore the questions you have.
Some of the notes I took while reading include the idea that
the human brain is simply like an advanced computer. Sophie’s reaction is that surely the human
brain must be more than hardware. In
reality, what if we are just a computer, doing the tasks that we are programmed
to do? But then, what about the things that change
within us all the time? The ideas, the
process of learning, the growth, the feelings.
Are all those things simply programmed into our being? Another question that Sophie addresses is
what a human being really is? If the
human brain is just an advanced computer, then are human beings just
vessels? Are our bodies just the
carriers of the computer in our brains?
The thing is computers can only do as they’re told. So, if we are computers, what is free
will? We couldn’t have free will because
if we are computers, then we would only do as we are told. And I often find myself questioning why I am
doing things. Why am I going to school? Why am I eating lunch? Am I doing those things because of free will,
or because I was told to? If I am doing
them because they’ve been ordered, then maybe I am like a computer. But then again, could a computer question the
things it does? Doesn’t it just do as
it’s told, without the capability to ask why?
If philosophy is the ability to wonder, to question, and if that is an
ability that humans have, might it be right to say that human beings are
philosophers? Maybe that is what we
are. Maybe that’s the answer.
And that’s not even the biggest question asked in this
chapter! Who are you? Now that’s a huge one. Sophie claims at first that she is
Sophie. She is her name. Therefore, I am Kyla. But then Sophie wonders would she be someone
different if she were named something else.
Is our name the defining quality, or just a label? What does it have to do with who we are? If I had a different name, would I still
think and act like me? Would I still be
sitting here typing the words I am? Or
would I be doing something completely different, thinking something completely
different? What factors into determining
who we are? Is the clothes we wear, the
things we study, or the food we eat? Or
is it deeper, like the way we accept criticism, the way we deal with heartbreak,
or the way we love? What determines who
a person is?
Do you see what I mean?
Philosophy is a continuum of questions, with seemingly impossible, or
incomprehensible answers. Maybe in all
truth, we aren’t meant to know the answers.
But since we’ve been created with the ability to ask questions and
wonder about these things, then it seems like those answers are just waiting to
be found. Why have the ability to ask
questions when you don’t have the ability to answer them?
Let me remind you, this is after reading nine pages… only
the first chapter! As Sophie takes me through her thinking process, it triggers
my own questions, and my own curiosity.
My mind is already spinning, and I absolutely love it.
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