A few days ago in class, we had a discussion about the Baroque chapter in Sophie's World that focused on the postcard that Sophie recieved from Hilde's dad (p.218). In the postcard, Hilde's dad argued that the best way to avoid war was to take a short course in philosophy. My initial thought on this statement was that it would make sense to teach a manditory philosophy course because the basis of philosophy is Humanity. The main thing that philosophy revolvs around is how humans came to be, what it actually means to be human and what seperates us from other creatures on this planet. I figured that if someone took a course in philosophy, they would soon learn that all humans are the same because they are made of the same "form" (as Plato put it) and since we are all equal, there is no need to go off in foreign territories and conquer that group of people. I thought that equality was the underlying reason that would help these people realize that it would be unfair to have more territory or resources than it's neighbor.
However, after having a discussion about it in class, I came to realize that in fact, if a philosophy course were to be taught to everyone, that would only cause more problems. People would realize each human condition is unique in it's own way and by learning the history of philosophy, they would realize that in fact humanity is unequal. A course in philosophy would then help each person determine his/her philosophy of war and whether or not they should engage in it, which would ultimatley cause even more problems. Because each person is their own unique individual, and bceause we are all composed of both evil and good, history has proven that some of us tend to be more evil than good (and vice versa) and this would in turn provoke violence instead of calming it. After this discussion, I realized that a course in philosophy would NOT make everyone realize that we are all humans (and equal for that matter) and get us to stop fighting, but it would instead make us fight and argue even more because of the fact that we would each establish our own philosophies (of war) that would each reflected OUR OWN personal perspectives of what is good and evil.
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1 comment:
Ligia-
I understand why you think that learning philosophy has a down side, but i also believe that philosophy is a great subject that helps people think in a different way.
Not only does it help people open their minds to new ideas but it helps people appreciate things and see things differently.
Society is so messed up today and i think the reason for that is that people are not educated. I think people have not been raised right and that everything people have experienced make them who they are. But also many people do not know who they are and makes them lost. A class of philosophy would help people recognize what is important in life and how to a happy life.
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