Reading Descartes’ essay was an experience. I have been inspired! His hunger for the “truth” and knowledge is so motivating. Here are some quotes that really stood out.

” And, in fine, our age appeared to me as flourishing and as fertile in powerful minds as any preceding one.” We are young and our knowledge can grow. We need to take adavantage of our youth and expand our minds. There are so many unanswered questions that we all as individuals have and there is nothing stopping us from finding the answers.  Let’s get to know ourselves and our “good sense”. We all have a natural light and most people are not aware that sometimes “things” in society dim our own personal light.  So we lose sight of our path.  Descartes felt this way about school and staying in his country.  So what did he do? He traveled with an open mind and made an experiment out of himself.

“I think, therefore I am.” I used to find this quote very strange because to me the thoughts in our heads are not who we are. After reading this I finally understand what he meant. The “I think” is just our minds being self aware.  He also mentions that “our thoughts cannot be true because of our partial imperfections.”  Hence, we are not our thoughts.  Since he says that our minds are distinct from our bodies, I interpreted that to be the soul. The soul is a big ball of energy and like he said it does not come to an end. It will just be what it is.  Energy cannot be destroyed.

“My third maxim was to endeavour always to conquer myself rather than fortune, and change my desires rather than the order of the world…. accustom myself to the persuasion that , except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power…” I have adopted this maxim. If you conquer yourself, you can conquer the world. You are the world. Descartes really opened my eyes with his ideas. He was very focused on what he truly wanted. There really is nothing we can do to be in control. Whatever happens just is, we can only choose to prove ourselves in the different situations we have been put in. When we reflect on ourselves and our situations, we grow. Many people don’t become self aware because of their material desires and need for fame. They limit themselves without even knowing it.

We all have different ways of doing things and that’s okay. If you feel that your path is being darkened then enlighten yourself.

I chose to do a free post on Descartes because I’ve always found him to be a fascinating philosopher . His philosophical proposition, cogito ergo sum or (in english) I think , therefore I exist ,always seems to be  thought provoking. While reading the except from Discourse on the Method, It was interesting to get a more in depth look at this perspective. He seems to use the term “good sense” as the process in which people use to distinguish what we believe to be true from what is viewed as false.  Descartes talks about his experience with higher education and how it was one very small piece of the bigger picture. He believed that people possessed a “natural intelligence ” and sometimes learned traits or customs suppress that.  At the end of part 1 Descartes states that ” I at length resolved to make myself an object of study, and to employ all the powers of my mind in choosing the paths I ought to follow, an undertaking which was accompanied with greater success than it would have been had I never quitted my country or my books” , in which I found ties in to the theme of this course quite nicely. Descartes believes that “books should not be the basis of our knowledge” which i slightly disagree with. I believe that knowledge acquired through school is most beneficial when used in conjunction with our own ” natural light” or “natural intelligence. What we learn from books or institutionalized education can be the basis of our knowledge, it just shouldn’t be the extant of our knowledge.

Fast fowarding to part 4 we read as Descartes becomes consciously aware of what later will become his most notable ideology. He stated that “however clear and distinct our ideas might be ,we should have no ground…that they possessed the perfection of being true.” He’s basically saying that it is  presumptuous to think our ideas are true merely because its the popular. Although what we perceive to be fact may not be the irrefutable truth, Descartes comes to the conclusion that our very ability to convey thoughts must be evidence of his very existence. We think, therefore we exist…

Descartes and Locke both came up with philosophies as to how we can find truth. Descartes leaned towards reason to find truth, while Locke uses evidence and experience.

In Descartes approaches truth with reason. He clarifies that everyone is able to distinguish between truth and fiction. However, people choose the wrong path of thought, which is why he came up with a method. In the first part, he finds himself with “doubts and errors,” in school and ended up leaving “the study of letters and resolved no longer to seek any other science than the knowledge of [himself], or of the great book of the world (Descartes, page 3).” He believed that we should find our own knowledge and not solely depend on what we learn from school and instructors. He even comes up with principal rules of the method two being, “never to accept anything for true which I did not clearly know to be such (Descartes, page 11),” and “to divide each of the difficulties under examination into as many parts as possible, and as might be necessary for its adequate solution (Descartes, page 11).” Along with this he believes that there should be morals and maxims accepted while following this method. He concludes that finding the truth is extremely useful. Descartes focuses on reason, rather than believing what others have to say about it. He is very open-minded, doesn’t leave anything out and makes sure that everything is taken into consideration. Ultimately, he tries to never believe anything, unless he is able to prove it himself through thoughtful reasoning.

Locke on the other hand, tends to focus on experience and evidence to seek truth. He believes that knowledge is not innate. He states that, “children and idiots have not the least apprehension (Locke, page 2)” proving that knowledge isn’t something you’re born with. Locke questions, “Whence has it all the materials of reason and knowledge?” and answers this stating, “in one word, from experience (Locke, page 5).” He continues this thought saying, “experience furnisheth the understanding with ideas (Locke, page 6).” This is one way many gain knowledge and information. Like in lab, we test our thoughts through experimenting and experiencing it for ourselves to get an answer. The outcome of experience can function as evidence.

I feel like both Descartes and Locke had good points. However, I agree more with Descartes’ views. I like knowing the reason behind things and taking everything into account. Before coming up with a final thought, I like to hear and think about everything around the idea. Some things you can’t experience to find the truth, but everyone has a brain and can figure out what is true or not.

In Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason, and seeking Truth in the Sciences, by Rene Descartes, and An Essay concerning Human Understanding, by John Locke,  both contrast their own ideas of how one is brought up. Rene Descartes once wrote “It has been my singular good fortune to have very early in life fallen in with certain tracks.” One is born into and grows up in the world he is surrounded by. Early on in life he goes down the path that is best known to him; the one in which he is exposed to during childhood. I, on the other hand, disagree with this statement. I believe that you can be whatever you want to be. You don’t have to follow in the footsteps of your parents. For example, if you grow up in a family of lawyers, that doesn’t mean you have to become one as well. As written by John Locke, “Let us then suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper [tabula rasa], void of all characters without any ideas; how comes it to be furnished?” When one is born, their mind is a clean slate and has not yet been altered. They can turn their life into however they want it to be, regardless of their surroundings.  For example, if someone is born into a family that lives in an area filled with crime, that doesn’t necessarily mean that person will grow up to be a criminal. Just because that’s all they’ve ever known, they may want to better their life and educate themselves to become a person of self-worth and contribute to the world.

In both piece of reading, Rene Descartes and John Locke provide ways to find the truth. In “Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason, and seeking Truth in the Sciences”, Descartes addresses four principles to seek truth: first, not to believe in anything until you have evidence to prove it; second, divides problem into many smaller part so you can solve it easily; third, starts with to easiest problem and work you way to the most difficult one; four, to review the progress in order to make sure nothing is left out. I agree with Descartes about his four laws of finding truth because it makes truth more objective, especially in the Enlightenment Era, without technology, there is very little way to prove something. Descartes’s way to seek truth in more on the general level, you can apply to almost everything. In the other reading, “An Essay concerning Human Understanding”, Locke points out that it is not just enough to have evidence to support you belief so you call it the truth, you have to give reason to it. I think what Locke trying to say is that you must make “your truth” make sense to you. Truth is not what you want it do be and you must give reasons for your beliefs. In my opinion, Locke’s idea of truth is rather subjective compares to Descartes; since Locke says truth is come from reasons and reasons are self-evident beliefs.

In the online excerpt of the Buccaneer Scholar by James Bach, there is a clear emphasis on the importance of education and how its significance can influence a person’s life for the better. Bach, who works at Apple and is apparently unhindered by the fact that he was a high school dropout, tries to encourage a group of at-risk kids about the fact that there are alternatives to getting a meaningful learning experience. Bach exclaims that, “Education is important. [However] school is not. I didn’t need school. Neither do you” (1). The statement not only surprised the kids, but also created a sense of uneasiness between Bach and the teacher, with the latter labeling his speech as dangerous.

I believe that Bach dismissed the teacher’s comments about his speech mainly due to the fact that he wanted to create a sense of justice for the kids being that going to school and following the institutionalized principles set in place doesn’t necessarily work for everyone. Additionally, I believe that Bach is presumably going by the gesture that everyone has a different way of learning and understanding things and that merely taking tests and accepting a teacher’s word for a specific subject matter is not exactly getting an education. He later reinforces this belief later on in the excerpt by stating that, “No one on earth has a choice about whether or not to be educated. But we do have a choice about what form that education will take. It’s a life’s work” (1). As such, getting an education is determinant upon what we aspire to learn rather than what we are forced to know.

In Kanye West’s response to getting an education, there are obvious distinctions that are apparent in contrast with Bach’s ideology. Before performing at a concert for the Santa Monica High School, Kanye discusses the fact that it is possible to be successful without going to college. However, he later states that, “Life is hard. Take advantage of your opportunities” (Moss). As such, this implies that it is a better option to go to school and to prioritize the opportunities at hand. In spite of this, both Bach and Kanye do have one particular overlapping stance in regards to getting an education and that is the fact that they were both motivated to learn as much as possible on their own rather than focusing on school.

Both articles of reading personally I found very interesting, based on my personal views on the school system with its flaws and benefits.
I found the topic and the points that were brought up valid on all ends from Bach view on not needing school to get a proper education to the concerns that the teachers had in regards to the student interpreting his message the wrong way. The teachers had their comments about Bach speech because they felt that it would encourage an attitude in which students would not feel a need to come to school and that they can do it by themselves that there does raise a number of problems. Some students aren’t disciplined as Bach is, he studied for hours on his own time some students might not have developed that skill yet which if not school is necessary to build such disciplines. In comparison with the Kayne west piece he does encourage the kids to stay in school and that it’s important to do as much as possible, have a backup while you pursue your goals because while he was in the music industry it wasn’t a sure thing and had to go back to a regular job at certain points of his life. The overlap that I do see is the idea that if you apply yourself then you can be successful but it does acquire a level of discipline and effort on one’s part. Based on the definition and the origin of the word in correlation with the reading I would say that the term and the ideology of not following normal ways of living in regards to the buccaneers and learning from the piece is similar in that respect.The limit is the term or the way of learning might not be accepted by people with more traditional ways of learning or jobs etc.

1. This semester we are discussing the topic “school isn’t everything.” It happens to be very ironic since Professors usually persuade students to attend school, making it seem like the most important thing for his or her development as a teenager. This idea relates to our class on Monday, August 31st. In class we watched a music video of Kanye West singing a song that is part of his album “College Dropout.” This song was about Kanye singing to kids about dropping out of College and just getting by. It also involves drugs and profanity.
   Now although people may believe this song is inappropriate to say to students, it is a positive thing in a way. It gives these students the prior knowledge that there is life beyond school. School for them should be a means to get to your ultimate goal; success. I believe that the selection of this course topic sends the same message. We are all in school to attain everlasting knowledge but it is not everything. The truth of that statement goes so far as to the teacher being able to admit it herself.
   We are reading a novel, Secrets of a Buccaneer Scholar which elaborates on this notion of life beyond school. Written by a dropout who led a group in Apple Inc., this novel should be really interesting.