Blog 8: Self-Reflection

Blog 8: Self-Reflection

What I Learned

“The capacity to learn is a gift; the ability to learn is a skill; the willingness to learn is a choice.”
Brian Herbert (Yuri)

I learned very much from this class. I had never been in a philosophy class prior and did not know what to expect. On the first few days of class I noticed quickly that it seemed like there were quite a few scientific majors in the class and was worried that I would feel out of place due to my lack of scientific knowledge.

Then I realized that this is not too bad….until we started to talk about myth and magic and then I started to be a little judgy and thought that some of the philosophical thoughts were strange. When Auxier said that “magic can become science” felt farfetched to me. (Auxier, Randall. ) I was not ready for philosophical thought and thought that it was just odd to believe that something mythical could be concrete evidence like science.

I still think that philosophers think too much and act too little. Maybe it is just a personality difference. When I think about things, I like to go out and do something about them or create something and though all of my readings on philosophers, I felt like they just had these wonderful thoughts but that is what they remained; thoughts.

What I Enjoyed

“The most important thing is to enjoy your life – to be happy – it’s all that matters.”Audrey Hepburn ("Enjoy Quotes.")

It was really enjoyable for me to do the blog essays. Like most people, I find it a burden to do a formal essay, but with a blog post I felt that I was able to say and write what I was thinking in an unconventional manner that was still easily portrayed to anyone who wished to read my blog post.The less formal format of being able to add pictures also helped strengthen the arguments that were put forth, and I believe that they help to engage the reader. The only downfall of the blog posts is that I felt that since they were informal, I would have loved to have read what others thought on the topic.

It was not until discussion time was I able to understand and see other points of view on a topic that I many have understood in a completely wrong way or in the correct way that the philosopher was portraying the point of discussion.

What I Found Hard

“The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.”Vince Lombardi ("Enjoy Quotes.")

I found the readings extremely hard. I actually dreaded having to read for the class, but I also do not traditionally take classes that require too much reading because I simply do not enjoy reading and have a hard time with it. In the book The Dyslexic Advantage, it is quoted that the percentage of dyslexic artists, designers, architects, inventors, and entrepreneurs is more than twice the percentage of dyslexics in the population. This could easily explain why I did not enjoy the reading. (Muter, Valerie)

How Well I Think I Did

“I try to keep in my mind the simple question: Am I Trying to do good or make myself look good? Too many of our responsibilities get added to our plate when we are trying to please people, impress people, prove ourselves, acquire power, increase our prestige. All those motivations are about looking good more than doing good.”
Kevin DeYoung ("Enjoy Quotes.")

I believe that I did fairly well in the class. I put in quite a bit of time and effort into the class with the readings and the blog essays and tried to be engaging in class discussions. When I did not understand something, I looked it up until I was able to understand the topic in layman terms.

There were many of times that I felt confused by the topic of conversation because I feel like I do not think the same as everyone else in the class. I feel like I have a more creative mind because I have a hard time thinking in an analytical way and an extremely hard time thinking scientifically.

What I Found Un-engaging

“Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.” Marilyn Monroe ("Enjoy Quotes.")

I found some of the topics of discussion un-engaging at times, but I feel like that is a hard thing to do when there are various different personalities in a class. Some things that engage one personality do not necessarily engage others and this is alright. I understand this, so being un-engaging was no big deal for me because I knew that the day would come where I would find the topic of discussion very interesting and feel like I had something to contribute.

Works Cited

Auxier, Randall. Led Zeppelin and Philosophy All Will Be Revealed. Chicago: Open Court, 2009. Print.

"Enjoy Quotes." BrainyQuote. Xplore, 2015. Web. 8 Dec. 2015.

Muter, Valerie. "The Dyslexic Advantage." The Dyslexic Advantage - Gifteddyslexic. Sunday Times, 26 Sept. 2011. Web. 8 Dec. 2015.

Yuri. "About Us." QuotesGram. QuotesGram, 2015. Web. 8 Dec. 2015.