Chapter Eight: Athens

This chapter is about Athens and it gives a historical description of the place.  Reading about it actually makes me really want to go there someday.  So much of our culture was born in that one city, and it would be amazing to see the place, even though it is not what it used to be. 

At the end of the chapter, Sophie gets to meet Plato, and he gives her a few things to think about.  The first is how a baker can make fifty cookies that are identical.  Well, he can’t can he?  How can each cookie be exactly the same?  They aren’t.  Sometimes one has more chocolate chips or is a different size. Sure, they’re made up of the same ingredients, but they all are just a little different.  Right?  It’s like with humans.  We all have the same genes, but they’re expressed different and we have different alleles.  So even though we are made up of the same ingredients, we are all different. Even identical twins have their differences, so how can two cookies be identical?  It makes me wonder if they really could be.  I haven’t  observed cookies lately, but I feel like it isn’t possible.

The next thing Plato suggests is why all horses are the same.  Again, they aren’t?  I have no idea where they are going with these thoughts, but I’m definitely interested to find out.  Maybe in reality, horses and cookies are the same.  Maybe I’m just so set in my idea that no two things can be exactly alike that I’m not opening myself to some strange idea that they can.  Maybe that’s what the story will tell me in the next chapter.  We’ll have to see.

The next question is whether or not man has an immortal soul.  This is a hard one for me.  I do have a grounding in religion, in belief in God.  And if I see it that way, then man does in fact have an immortal soul.  And deep down, that is what I believe.  But I also realize that there are other theories out there.  What if when we die, we simply rot in the dirt?  It’s possible.  Maybe that’s the plausible way, but where’s the purpose in that?  We are beings of wonder, who are consistently looking for answers, and reasons.  If there really is no reason to life, and we simply die, then the wonder that we’ve been gifted with is just to torture us.  If we simply die, what’s the point?

Lastly, Plato asks if men and women are equally sensible.  First answer that comes to mind in of course not.  Women are obviously more sensible ;)  But that’s a pretty biased idea.  Men often don’t understand women, and women often don’t understand men.  Women often think they’re doing right, and men think that they are.  How can we say one is more sensible than the other when each is simply doing what they think is right, regardless of whether or not the other understands them.  I think we must be equally sensible, but at the same time, I’m unsure.  Part of me believes that how sensible you are cannot be determined by your gender.  It has to do with your individual thoughts, and individual morals.  It also has a lot to do with opinion.  Someone may seem sensible to one person, and seem like a complete idiot to someone else.  It’s all up for debate I guess.

So I have my theories on the answers to these questions, but I don’t really know.  And isn’t that the way it is with most things?  As I read more, my answers may change.  That’s just the way it is.  We live in an ever changing world, so I don’t see how we can have permanent answers anyway. But that leads to a whole new idea, so I’m going to stop here.