Rooney Candace Philosophy Final Exam 12/15/07 A1 To have something worth dying for means it is the most important thing in your life. If I thought about it today, I don't believe there are many things that I would die for. The basis of philosophy is knowledge; all these philosophical men wanted to find out the truth. They were not teachers but they let others know what they were thinking. They were free speakers and often spoke out about what they thought and what they believed in, no matter the punishment. The wisdom of Socrates is that he knew his own ignorance. Socrates is not ashamed of what he does and he is not afraid of death because the after-life is unknown to him, and he is not afraid of what he does not know. He believes that fear of death is a form of ignorance. Even after Socrates learns that he is going to be facing death, he tells the men of Athens that even if they were to let him go that "I shall not cease to practice philosophy"(pg.34). Socrates knew that no matter what happened in this life or the next, he wanted to practice philosophy. The truth and wisdom was so important to him that he could not imagine a world in which it did not exist. In the Apology Socrates states, "Someone might say: "Are you not ashamed, Socrates, to have followed the kind of occupation that has led to your being now in danger of death?" However, I should be right to reply to him: "You are wrong sir, if you think that a man who is any good at all should take into account the risk of life or death; he should look to this only in his actions, whether what he does is right or wrong, whether he is acting like a good or a bad man."" (pg. 32-33). For Socrates philosophy was the best state of mind that you could be in, and to him there was nothing else that mattered. Socrates knew that putting him to death would not hurt him, but rather hurt the men of Athens. He knew that even if he died, his philosophical thinking would go on for forever. They could kill his body, but they would not be able to kill his soul. He doesn't try to escape prison even when it would have been very easy for him, especially with the help of Crito, because he still lives by his philosophical ways even in the light of death. He knows that if he escaped he would be doing wrong, and the right thing to do would be to respect the city's laws and take his punishment. He lived by his principle even up to his last breath; "One should never do wrong in return, nor mistreat any man, no matter how one has been mistreated by him." (Crito, pg. 52). One of Socrates values of philosophy was the idea
of the Good. He did not value his life or his children more than he valued goodness. He believed that "the one aim of those who practice philosophy in the proper manner is to practice for dying and death" (Phaedo, pg. 101). The soul reasons best when separated from the body and that only happens at death. Philosophers prepared their whole life for their death, when their real life would take place. Overall Socrates really didn't care if he died or not. He believed that the most important thing to him was philosophy, more important than death. He gave up his family life and everything that a normal Athens man did back then, to practice philosophy. He was determined to find wisdom and truth, and to be able to share it with others. He knew that while you lived, you were closest to knowledge if you refrain from association with the body until the gods free you, which would be a natural death. One of the main values of philosophy was that they were just practicing for death because this world that they were currently living in was not their real world. Once they died, that is when their real life would take place and they could gain the knowledge and wisdom they had been seeking for, for so long. Therefore Socrates' death leads me to conclude that the value of philosophy to these men was more important than anything else in the world to them. They would gladly give up their life, which was one aim of philosophy, to find out the real wisdom and knowledge of the world. Philosophers wanted to be good, and they wanted to obey the gods so they could find out the truth, and they could not do this unless they lead a life of goodness and they were prepared to die at anytime for philosophy which is what Socrates did.
B5 Augustine always had love and lust throughout his life. It was two things that he just could not get rid of. In the beginning of Confessions we see Augustine actually weep about becoming a priest because he does not want to be celibate which would mean giving up both love and lust for him. Love and lust were two things that came naturally to him, they went hand in hand. Augustine believed that not everyone has reason, but everyone has love. He believed that you are what you love. What you think about everyday day, is what you love. If you begin to think about something or someone that you think about everyday, you would come to realize that is what you truly love. Augustine states, "My one delight was to love and to be loved" (pg. 25).
Augustine was always searching for love throughout his life, but we never see him commit to one woman because he did not want to lose his freedom. He states on page 37 in the Confessions that "I was not yet in love, but I was in love with love...I sought some object to love, since I was thus in love with loving." Love was simply something that came naturally to Augustine. He tried to fill his life with love of women because he could not yet fully accept God and Christianity into his life. I think that Augustine believed love was something that filled your heart and that you could not get out of your head. At first for Augustine he tried to fill both his heart and his head with women, but he slowly realized that was not fulfilling and satisfying enough. He knew love was something that he needed in his life; he was just looking in the wrong place for it. So he gradually his turned love for women into his love for God and realized that with God in his life to love, he did not have to look in other places for love. Lust was something that Augustine filled his life with and was unable to break from it. In Book Eight of the Confessions, Augustine tells us of the chain that he could not break on his own. "The enemy held my will; and of it he made a chain and bound me. Because my will was perverse it changed to lust, and lust yielded to become habit, and habit not resisted to become necessity. These were like links hanging on one another- which is why I have called it a chainand their hard bondage held me bound hand and foot" (Confessions pg. 148). Lust was something that became habit and ultimately a necessity for Augustine. It was something that he was unable to break on his own. We see him go through these wild sexual escapades and is unable to stop. Even when he thinks he has found the woman to whom he thinks is perfect to marry for him, he is unable to stop himself from being with other women. The idea of not being celibate and having no lust in his life was something that Augustine couldn't even begin to fathom. Lust was something that required self-control to get over, which Augustine did not have for most of his life. Lust was something that did not involve love and looks more towards his sexual desires and fulfilling them. His lust was full of passion, and since it became necessary in his life, only God could help him break that chain. I agree with Augustine's definitions of love and lust. Love is something that is much deeper than lust, and Augustine knows this. Lust is something that is temporary and cannot give you lasting happiness. Love is something that grows within you, something that you cannot get out of not only your head but your heart. It is something that when it hits you, there is no turning back. I believe that once Augustine let God completely into his life, he was able to break the
chain of lust, and let God fill him with his love. Once Augustine was able to let this love into his life, he was able to let go of all his fears of commitment and freedom and accept Christianity.
C10 According to Kant, Enlightenment promised us that reason would change the course of history. He tells us that we are not enlightened yet, but we are in the age of enlightenment. We are gradually making progress, but it takes time. There is always more progress that can be made. Enlightenment is based on the individual; it is something that you need to gain on your own through maturity. The motto of enlightenment was sapere aude!, which means dare to know. Kant believed that you had to have the courage to use your own understanding to be enlightened. As a society, Kant believed it was very hard to gain enlightenment for all. To develop as a society, you first had to develop as an individual. One of his main points of enlightenment was free thinking. You had to be able to think for yourself before you could express your ideas as a society. There are many ways as a society that we have made progress and become more enlightened. As far as free thinking goes, we are much more open-minded. We now have the right to free speech and we can express our minds freely, but not everyone choices to do so. As a society, we have recognized that free speech is a right for every citizen. Yet there are still times, like the instance with Raed Jarrar and his t-shirt that brings us right back to being not enlightened. Religiously we have made huge strides. In the past it was often unacceptable to be anything besides Christian. Now, we are much more tolerant of other religions. Yet sometimes you still see hate against other religions such as the swastika. Just recently, there was an episode of Grey's Anatomy, a TV show that millions of people watch, where a man that was getting operated on had a swastika on his stomach. Medically and scientifically we have had a lot of research that has lead us to many cures for diseases. There have been new strides in cancer research, and people are getting to live a lot longer than expected. Yet still, there are many deadly diseases out there that are killing people everyday. In psychology, we have finally realized that mental illness is treatable and not just to cast that person out of society. We have learned as a society to try and accept those people, yet there is still people using retarded as an everyday word to call normal people as if it was nothing. The rights of women have also improved, they are now able to vote and actually work in the same office as men. Yet sometimes
there is discrimination to women in the workplace, businesses would rather hire the man that is up for the job instead of the woman. Even in racial issues, we have made progress but not much. We have moved on beyond slavery, yet still places around the world there is hatred of other races. We have developed as a whole, yet as you can see there are still ways in which we can grow to better society. Therefore, I believe that we have made progress, but not enough progress. As Kant said, it is a gradual process, and I think that process is still taking place. People are set in their ways, and it has become habit for them to think the way that they do. "It is thus difficult for any individual man to work himself out of an immaturity that has become almost natural to him. He has become fond of it, for the present, is truly incapable of making use of his own reason...Hence there are only a few who have managed to free themselves from immaturity through the exercise of their own minds, and yet proceed confidently"(pg. 59). I think overall many of us have become more enlightened and have been able to step out of the immaturity, but as a society I think that most of us are still very immature. We have made progress to get enlightened, but I agree with Kant; we don't live in an enlightened age, but we do live in an age of enlightenment. I think with time we will eventually get there.