Carina Nieves HUP 101.2313 Response Paper One In response to “The Apology” by Plato, Plato has given light to the trial of Socrates which leads to his death. I agree with Socrates views about getting caught up in the daily motions of life. We all are focused on the things around us that we seem to forget to stop and focus on the inner self. The person we are inside before we get tied up with the outside world. Socrates also mentions how he has given himself to his people individually. I think that’s it’s weird that he decided to live in poverty all his life just to give back to his people. Socrates stand on dieing for his beliefs is very courageous. Many would not have the courage to be able to face death and give up on what they truly believe. Today though we seem to forget that there are people out there who do fight for their beliefs and sometimes must pay the price with their life for it, like the brave soldiers who go to war oversees. They fight for the belief of freedom and justice for our country. I think Socrates compares himself to a “gadfly” because he questions people’s opinions and makes them think upon their decision of their opinion as being right or wrong. I could describe my twelfth grade English teacher Ms. Hudon as being a “gadfly” because she would question our thinking on issues about the books we read, and ask why we support it, and ask for examples of how we support our opinion. My mother could probably also be considered a “gadfly” in my life because she does question my thinking but not on a consistent basis. She is very interested in the views of the great philosophers like Plato, Socrates, and the Aristotle. Carina Nieves HUP 101.2313 Professor Macomber Response Paper Two In my opinion I don’t agree with Plato that “the soul is immortal, existing before birth and continuing after death” but I do agree with Aristotle that “the soul is a natural phenomenon that gives form and purpose to the body, but ceases to exist after the body dies”. (TPW, 435) If I had to choose which view of the soul is the most compelling I would choose Aristotle because I seem to agree more with his beliefs on a person’s soul but it also goes along with religious views. Plato’s view on a person’s soul doesn’t follow any religious beliefs and must have been very controversial back in his day since the church was the head of the state. I don’t practice my religion but I do believe your spirit not you soul goes on after a person’s death. Each philosopher’s theory is complex but each designed differently according to each one’s beliefs. Plato belief’s of “Forms” is very confusing and hard to understand. I have a clearer understanding of Aristotle’s belief of “forms”. I do agree that people do have the potential to become a higher being and follow their own path of happiness but our complex society prohibits ourselves from finding the inner truth of our full potential. In Plato’s “The Meno” Socrates is discussing with Meno the immortality of the soul and then asks an illiterate slave boy to solve his math problem in order to prove his point. I disagree with Socrates view that the boy never was taught math but I think that maybe he did experience it but not first hand. I don’t think that the boy could have gotten this knowledge before birth especially since our soul is created once we are born. It is our spirit that is truly immortal and will live on in the after life. Carina Nieves HUP 101.2313 Professor Macomber Response Paper Three If I was presented with these choices in regards to the Matrix movie I would have to go with “the real world, which is unpleasant and dangerous”(TPW,455) because not only would I be risking my life but I know I am doing it for the greater good of mankind. I would know my chances of surviving would be slim but at least I would still make an impact. I believe there is a resemblance between this type of choice and the one suggested by John Stuart Mill. One by being a ”contented fool” you give into what society wants you to believe but by being a “discontented Socrates” you question your thinking of what you know of everything around you asking if it is real or not. Descartes states that there is a higher being who deceives us, “ Is there not some God or some other being by whatever name we call it, who puts these reflections into my mind?” and “But there is some deceiver or other, very powerful and very cunning, who ever employs his ingenuity in deceiving me”. (TPW,451) I believe it is our society who tries to deceive us into changing our opinions but truly us who deceive ourselves into believing such things from these sources. We do not question what is real and we sometimes even fool our selves into thinking these ways. Like in John Cheever short story “The Enormous Radio” the protagonist Irene ends up believing that everyone will hear her conversation with her husband when in truth it is she who deceives herself to believe such a radio exists, “Please Jim, she said. Please. They’ll hear us. The radio”. ( Major Writers of Short Stories,250) Descartes explains that we are dependent on our senses that we are easily fooled, “Am I dependent on body and senses that I cannot exist without these?”(TPW,451) Yet he also states that we are desired to find the truth yet we fear the outcome of what we might discover, ” Desirous of finding the truths, yet fearful of what we might discover”. (TPW,451) I agree that things that are represented in our sleep are representations of what we do think in our minds. My 12th grade English teacher once said that” Our dreams are just thoughts from the day”. Descartes states ” At the same time we must at least confess that the things which are represented to us in sleep are like painted representations which can only have been formed as the counterparts of something real and true, and that in this way those general things at least, i.e. eyes, a head, hands, and a whole body, are not imaginary things but things really existent. (TPW,447)