We Still Haven't Figured This Out Yet!

Figured what out? Life? It'll be a long time before life can be figured out in a universal point of view. But I believe that people can figure their own lives out. Every individual is unique and thus has their own unique life that is only theirs to live.  Maybe there is no universal answer for life because each life is so different.  Siddhartha lives life as a Samana for awhile before moving on and trying something different because he does not believe he can achieve Nirvana through this lifestyle.  He then goes on to meet the Buddha with his friend Govinda and does not think he can "figure" his life out with this lifestyle but Govinda is captivated by the Buddha's teachings and goes on to follow that lifestyle. This is illustrative of how people need to make their own choices in order to figure out their life on their own path.  Perhaps this lifestyle will work for Govinda but Siddhartha knows that it will not help him be rid of the Self.  Siddhartha goes on to realize that he was afraid of himself. He's been trying so hard to be rid of the Self but lost himself along the way. He "awakens" and knows that he cannot accept any other teachings. He cannot learn about himself from others. "I will learn from myself, be my own pupil; I will learn from myself the secret of Siddhartha." He must figure himself out without help from anyone else because only he can truly know himself.

I Know That I Know Nothing

I cannot know anything with absolute certainty but I can feel confident about certain things. I know what my name is.  I know how I feel.  I know what kind of music I like. Or do I? For all I know, my name could be Deryck Whibley.  I could be feeling something entirely different than what I think I feel.  And who knows if I really like the music I think I like?  Thinking is not knowing. I do however feel confident in saying that what we know is gained through experience.  However, everyone knows everything differently because two people cannot possibly go through the same thing in the same way.  Or can they?  I can't know for sure.  I can only know that I know nothing.  I could be sitting in front of the cave wall right now and I wouldn't even know it.  Can I know that I exist? If I were to deny the notion that the world I perceive is real, could I deny that, I too am real? But then how could I, not existing, come to even consider this? Through this I conclude that because I doubt, obviously I must exist. Knowing we each exist to ourselves, because thought is self-aware does not necessarily mean we exist to each other. Nor does it mean anything else around us exists to us. Doubt is something that I feel confident about. We rely on our senses to form our knowledge, and our senses are flawed and limited, and therefore can fool us. We can only question our perceptions and confirm them to a reasonable certainty, but never absolutely.  Doubting something can potentially lead to gaining knowledge or lead to some kind of truth. We each have truths that exist to ourselves. But, is there truth that is evident to everyone? We could definitely never find, and ask every living being in the universe about even one single simple truth, to make sure we all agree. How do I know what I know? Who knows? All I know is that I know nothing.

The Garden State (Not New Jersey)

"But let us cultivate our garden."
Candide's reasoning behind this statement is that he comes to realize that we control our fate and our lives. Candide was a character who viewed life with an external locus, believing everything that happened to him was due specifically to fate or luck, but never stopped to consider that he could have prevented it with his own decisions. At the end of this novel, it took Candide basically his whole life to come to the conclusion that he change his actions, take responsibility, and make what is left of his life happy. As of that point, Candide no longer believes in the world as cause and effect. He realizes that in order to be happy, we must make ourselves happy. He realizes that he cannot focus solely on why he was put on earth and his supposed purpose he has, but live out his life the way he wants with the people around him. The garden represents one life and they "must cultivate" it by making their own decisions and mistakes in order to create their very own garden for themselves.  We have to take charge of our situation and make it the best possible rather than simply hoping it will be good (or believing that it's already the best of all possible outcomes). We must care for our garden and bask in the rewards it shall yield through dedicated, hard work.  We get out of it what we put into it.  
I also feel that this is another example of how Adam and Eve and The Garden of Eden fit into the novel. They are ending their adventures in a garden, not beginning them there as Adam and Eve did. Instead of enjoying the free bounty of nature as Adam and Eve did, they must work tirelessly in order to reap any benefits from their garden.  But I think that there's something more in working for your rewards rather than just having them handed to you and I think that's what Voltaire is getting at. 

Candide's Punishments, Do They Fit the Crime?

Candide has been punished unjustly throughout his story.  He was punished by the soldiers for taking a walk.  He was sentenced to run the gauntlet thirty six times or take twelve bullets to the head.  All he did was take a walk and that was not worthy of such a punishment.  After the Portuguese finish the various acts of auto da fe to prevent future earthquakes, they hang Pangloss for his heretical views and proceed to flog Candide for listening to Pangloss in his curious manner. Candide did not deserve this punishment once again because listening to another person’s ideas is curiosity, not a crime. Candide’s tendency to get involved in a certain situation at the wrong place at the wrong time causes him a lot of trouble. He gets sentenced to punishments that he does not deserve because he doesn't know how to react to certain surroundings or what to do in certain situations. Living in a castle and being taught by one philosopher, Pangloss, does not give Candide a good understanding of the functioning world. Therefore, his susceptibility for getting blamed or fooled is not fair due to his lack of exposure of the malevolence in the world. His naive nature should not be punished so severely.

The Modern Gadfly

A gadfly is a pest which bites the hides of other, larger animals when they are moving too slowly. A gadfly can be a person who is constantly hovering around you and others in an annoying manner provoking you. A gadfly does this through requests, schemes, and criticism. Socrates was a gadfly back in his day. He would spend almost all his time going around Athens poking holes through people’s false beliefs and ideas. He would do this by playing the part of the ignorant and questioning the individual without rest until he got to a question that the people couldn't answer themselves. The point of this was to force the person to doubt or at least relook at his or her ideas and start thinking about whether or not they are the right ones to have. A modern day gadfly is Stephen Colbert. He invites radical republicans to his show and talks to them until he finds a way to make them slip up and stumble around for an answer to a difficult question. He also pretends to be radically republican himself on the show which is similar to pretending to be ignorant. Colbert has described his correspondent character as "a fool who has spent a lot of his life playing not the fool – one who is able to cover it at least well enough to deal with the subjects that he deals with."   Colbert has made use of humorous fallacies of logic in explaining his point of view on any topic. In 2006, he delivered a routine at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. Colbert satirized the George W. Bush Administration and the White House Press Corps with such lines as: "I stand by this man. I stand by this man because he stands for things. Not only for things, he stands on things. Things like aircraft carriers and rubble and recently flooded city squares. And that sends a strong message, that no matter what happens to America, she will always rebound—with the most powerfully staged photo ops in the world.” Colbert received a chilly response from the audience. His jokes were often met with silence and muttering, apart from the enthusiastic laughter of a few in the audience.  To me this is like how Socrates had his followers who would laugh at the audience Socrates was talking to.  It's not quite the same but it is pretty similar. I definitely consider Stephen Colbert one of many modern gadflies.

The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living?

      Those who live their life without examining it and asking questions are not worthy of life.  That's essentially what Socrates is saying and I don't agree with that.  I don't think that constant introspection and asking questions about life necessarily makes you more deserving of life than those who do not.  I feel that Socrates says this because he believed that the purpose of human life was personal and spiritual growth. We are unable to grow toward greater understanding of our true nature unless we take the time to examine and reflect upon our life. Examination of your own life is good but that doesn't automatically deem your life worth living.  Examining your life and contemplating it can make your life better but maybe your life is already pretty good and you don't have to examine it. Does that make your life of less value than any other? Maybe Socrates just worded this very bluntly since you know he was moments away from death when he said this quote.  Perhaps Socrates was implying that if you lived your life in guilt or denial it would only end in futility.  It would not be worth living in the sense that a life full of guilt cannot achieve anything but torment.  If this was what he was implying then I would totally agree.  But the way that "The unexamined life is not worth living" is worded just gives me the vibe that if you are not constantly evaluating your life and what choices are wrong or right, your life is not worth living.  I cannot agree with him in the way I am interpreting this quote. Maybe there are more interpretations such as the one I brought up about guilt and denial but the most blunt interpretation is the one I cannot agree with.

Me

My name is Luis Rodriguez and I am a senior at Whitney M. Young Magnet High School. What should I tell y'all about me? Well first of all, I really enjoy using the word y'all despite not being southern. I am also pretty annoyed at the blogger app because it doesn't autosave and it's really inconvenient. I have to use this app because my laptop's hard drive kinda died on me. Pretty inconvenient. Anyways, my favorite color is red, I like birds, my shoe size is ten...Wait that's not what I'm supposed to talk about right? I'm supposed to let you know about me as a person and not trivial things. I used to be a pretty quiet kid who never talked but now I talk a bit more and I'll try to contribute something of value should I think of something considered as valuable to the class. Philosophy sure does make you think huh? I think I'm trying too hard to do this and I probably seem like some jag but whatever. This is my blog and I can type whatever comes to mind. My favorite brand of bottled water is Ice Mountain. My favorite bands are Sum 41, Linkin Park, and Rise Against. You can probably tell what kind of music I like based off that. If you've read this far you can probably tell I jump around a lot in my writing and I commend you for weathering through my atrocious writing style. At least be glad you don't have to read my handwriting. Thank you for your time and may our adventure in philosophizing be ever so fantastic.