Things I’ve learned in philosophy class

As an online dual enrollment student, I take plenty of classes that I don’t necessarily have an interest in. Honestly, taking these classes isn’t all bad because I also take classes that I do like and genuinely enjoy. But there’s always that one class that I can’t fathom, no matter how many placebos I’m juggling at the time. Although I expected intro to philosophy to be included in this bottomless pit of classes, it wasn’t. In fact, I learned the most in philosophy I’ve ever learned in another online course before. I took a genuine interest in the material and learned valuable things about life. This knowledge not only had an impact on how I viewed the world, but it put into perspective what I could do to change my own actions. In this blog, I’ll be talking about what I’ve learned in philosophy class and how it impacted my understanding of the world and myself.

The mind and body as two separate entities:

There’s a famous philosopher who specifically studied the correlation between the mind and the body. The body, in this philosopher’s brain, is an unthinking, machine operated being, and the brain is a non-extended thinking substance. Rather than seeing the mind and body as one whole that works together to carry out life tasks, he sees them as two separate entities that work closely together but have little in common. He backs his belief up with the fact that the body is divided into multiple parts, whereas the mind is only one whole and can think independently. Thinking about the mind and body in this way makes a lot of sense because I feel that my mind is vastly different from my body in every aspect. So, because we deal with two separate entities, it’s important that we care for them individually and through different methods.

                                                There’s a lot of power in reflection:

            For an assignment, we wrote about our feelings on Socrates quote, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” I remember reading this and thinking that the quote was a bit too serious. But the more I read and wrote about it, I realized that the unexamined life really is as bad as Socrates believes. An unexamined life refers to a person who acts constantly but never reflects on the consequences of his or her own actions. This might seem easy for people to comprehend, but it’s not hard to get trapped in a cycle of doing and never reflecting. Reflection is how we achieve knowledge that can help our specific circumstance, and I feel that I especially stray away from it because it’s hard for me to accept criticism. It’s a harsh truth, but reflecting can do more inner work than we think.

                                                            Act now, reflect later:

            This might contradict the paragraph above, but it’s just as important. I’ve heard a version of this advice in every school I’ve been to and I’m just now understanding how relevant it is to everyday life. My dance teacher used to tell us to say yes to everything and no to nothing when we are actively creating art. When we create art or make decisions, we often do so with a conscious, logical mind. Removing the inner critic that’s always within us can help us create better art, it can ease our minds, and it can prevent or limit the chances of thinking ourselves out of opportunities. This can be especially helpful for people who struggle with procrastination, as it encourages them to act rather than go through the process of convincing themselves. This advice isn’t always easy to follow, but it works as a reminder that simply acting on something is all it takes to get started.