Philosophers and Rabbit Fur

Throughout Sophie’s World there are many philosophies that I agree with, however there are many I disagree with as well. The overwhelming number of ideas discussed in the novel made me have to just take a minute when I was done. “Wow,” was the thought present most in my mind throughout.
I most agreed with Kierkegaard’s philosophy that Christianity is all or nothing and you can’t just be religious ‘to an extent’. Kierkegaard said that “Christianity was both so overwhelming and so irrational that it had to be an either/or… it must permeate your entire life”. Being a strong Christian myself, this really hits home and I find it entirely accurate. Being a Christian is all about believing and having faith in the things that are hard to wrap your mind around. The fact that this guy named Jesus could bring people, like Lazarus, back from the dead, and even die and come back to life himself three days later is so overwhelming that many people find it unbelievable. Christianity is based on your belief in God and your faith comes from trusting God to be able to do all the things that he has done, even if they seem unbelievable.
On the other hand, I didn’t agree with Spinoza’s philosophy that everything that exists in the world are one thing, both spiritual and existential aspects. I do not agree with this because as a Christian I believe that once your body dies, if you have lived a life following God, then your spirit will go to heaven and your body will stay on Earth. This means that your spirit and your body can not all be the same thing. According to Spinoza’s thinking, there are no individuals because we are all just pieces of a whole. He also thinks that we all share thoughts, but if that were true I wouldn’t need to type this out because you would already know what I was thinking and you would be thinking the same thing, which just doesn’t make sense.
As for the question of where on the rabbit’s fur I reside, I’m not sure I like this question. I feel like I am climbing my way up through the rabbit’s fur, but I don’t think I have ever been buried deep down in a comfortable little world because I have always been on a search for knowledge. I’m hesitant to answer this question though, because 
I know 
I'm not a philosopher, 
I'm just looking for answers. 

Red-Tinted Glasses: An Experiment on Perspective

       In the “Kant” chapter, Alberto tells Sophie to put on these glasses with red-tinted lenses and when she does she notices that everything she sees now appears red, although she is fully aware that is not how it actually is. Sophie learns that everything she looks at through the glasses will have the same appearance as before, but the color is wrong. This is because the glasses only absorb the red lights and not other colors, which is similar to a person seeing only one perspective of an event.
       For example, if you put five people in a room and had them all watch the same video of a robbery then question each of them about it, they will all remember seeing different details and some versions of the story may contradict each other. One person might have thought the thief they saw was a short woman with brown hair, while another person might have thought it was a woman of average height with blonde hair and a brown cap; its all about perspective.
      The red-tinted glasses and the robbery video are just two examples of how sometimes, what you think you see isn’t what really is. For example, when Sophie puts on the glasses, she sees everything red and she knows its wrong because she knows what everything really looks like from her personal experience. This shows how we need more than just one perspective to get to the right answer and see what really happened.
      Part of what makes everyone perceive an event or an idea in a certain way comes from their upbringing and past experiences. Since no one has had exactly the same experiences throughout their lives, no two perspectives will be exactly the same, although they may be similar. The red-tinted glasses experiment is all about learning to take in as many perspectives as possible and use all of them to complete the picture. It also teaches us that no one view is 100% correct, because no one sees and understands everything.

Philosophy vs. Christianity

Philosophy is the scientific investigation or analysis of the causes or principles of reality, knowledge, and values based on logic. On the other hand, religion is a set of beliefs, values, and practices associated with spirituality. To say that philosophy and religion disagree would be an understatement. Several philosophers in the past have taken it upon themselves to take on the mission to mend the gap between the two by ‘Christianizing’ some of the concepts of philosophy.
In the novel, Alberto told Sophie that Aquinas and St. Augustine tried to Christianize, or implement Christian beliefs to, Aristotle and Plato’s findings. The Christianizing of philosophical ideas began because many Christians were unhappy with the ideas that were being established and those philosophers wanted total support so they decided to explain their ideas in a way that would please Christians while also sticking to their original conclusions. This wasn’t particularly difficult because philosophy and Christianity often have similar ideas.
The combining of philosophy and Christianity wasn’t as difficult as expected because of their already similar ideas. This combination of ideas made it easier for philosophers to prove that people are able to recognize the basic differences between right and wrong from the moment we are born. Thanks to Aquinas and St. Augustine’s combination of Plato’s and Aristotle’s teachings with the teachings found in the Bible, it became possible for the philosophical ideas and Christian beliefs to be viewed as similar and even understood as roughly the same ideas.

Aristotle's Views On Women

On July 19th and 20th of 1848 the first ever Women’s Rights Convention took place in Seneca Falls, New York. It wasn’t until seventy-two years later that women gained the right to vote through the efforts of women like Susan B. Anthony and Lucy Stone who traveled the country to organize protests and give lectures. Forty-four years later, employment discrimination based on gender was prohibited and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was created to enforce it. Finally, in 1981, Sandra Day O’Connor became the first woman to hold the title of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. These are just four of the many great things that women have accomplished throughout the years. Sadly, women were thought of as inferior for a much longer time, as demonstrated by Aristotle’s view. 

Finding out that someone with Aristotle’s level of intelligence thought of women as “incomplete men” was very disappointing. Reading his thoughts about women’s role in reproduction was like pouring salt in a wound. It was surprising that he thought women had no part in reproduction other than “receiving and bringing forth the seed” that women get from men who supposedly  provide all the characteristics the child will receive. It was not only disappointing, but also astonishing that someone that intelligent could also be so ignorant. This outlook is especially surprising because of his mentor, Plato, who believed women to have “exactly the same powers of reasoning as men, provided they get the same training.” In my opinion, Plato’s view on women the most admirable. 

I thought the fact that most of the authority figures in the novel were men was disappointing. It was also irritating because women were expected to just stay home and take care of the house and kids and didn’t get a chance to express themselves. Its annoying that, for so many years, women were not able to openly share their opinions or be independent like women are today.

"The Garden of Eden"

     I imagine “Who are you?” and “Where did the world come from?” are two of the most asked questions throughout our society. These are also two questions that don’t hold a lot of importance to teenagers. For the most part, teenagers are still trying to figure out who they are and who they want to be. Even a lot of adults aren’t really sure who they are and if they are the person they really want to be. Likewise, no one really knows the origin of the world because its more of a personal belief than a proven fact. 

      When faced with the question, “Who are you?”, most people would respond with their name, age, and occupation. Some might relay a segment of their family history or where they are from. In that case, I am Jessica Robinson, I’m 16 years old, and I work as a crew member at Culver’s. I am the daughter of Wes Robinson, sister to Erin Robinson, and granddaughter of Lillian Robinson. I have lived in New Mexico, Arizona, and Indiana. Although all these things are true, they do not define who I am. A person is not their name, age, occupation, or family. In the novel, Sophie struggles with the idea that if she had been named Anne or Lillemor instead of Sophie, she might be a different person, but I don’t think that is true. I have met many people with the same name as me, and we are all different. I have also met people who have changed their name, but it didn’t change who they were. Your name doesn’t define you and neither does your job. Your job is what you do, but you are not what you do. You are your goals, dreams, and values. My main goal is to become a guidance counselor. This is part of who I am, not only because of what I want to become, but the reasons behind it. Part of who I am came from my experiences, which have made me want to use the life I was given to help people. Values are the things in your life that you find important. I value honesty, forgiveness, and keeping your promises. That is a big part of who I am. 

      As for where the world came from, there are many different theories. Some people believe in the Big Bang theory which basically means the universe started as nothing which then exploded, creating everything that makes up the universe now. Personally, I do not believe the Big Bang theory. I do believe, however, that God created the universe but, like Sophie in this novel, I have also thought about where God came from because everything has to come from something. I believe that God has always existed, although not in the same way that we exist. God exists more in the way that love does; everywhere all at once, but nowhere in particular.