Reflection:

Learning about the Naturalists was pretty interesting. I liked how Marx, Darwin, and Freud were different in what ideas they had and talked about as opposed to the philosophers we learned about last that were pretty much the same every time. I like being able to learn about each philosopher and how they came to their conclusions instead of how 3 people had the same idea, hated each other for it, and tried to express how different the idea was even though it wasn't really changed. I think the most interesting of the naturalists was Darwin. His work was constantly being shadowed by the question of if it was right for him to publish it or research it, his wife was afraid he'd go to hell, and when his favorite daughter died, he became incredibly depressed. You have to feel for him if only a little bit.

Connection:

 The movie we watched about where God fits into science I thought was cool. It was a little hard to believe how ignorant some people could be though. The one guy who absolutely refuted evolution was really annoying. His lectures on how evolution is wrong reminds me of a little kid sticking his fingers into his ears and screaming when they don't want to hear something they don't like. The most interesting part to me was when the one senior ( I forget his name ) was having a barbeque with his family and he discussed his feelings on evolution and creationism with his dad. His dad was adamant about his belief in creationism, but there wasn't any belittling of ideas going down by either side, at least from what I remember. It was a very polite discussion on a topic that can be a sensitive issue.

Reflection:

I thought I was starting to get the book, but I’m not sure anymore. I kind of understand that Sophie and Alberto are trying to escape the book, but does that make them real in the book but not real in Hilde’s reality? And if they escape the book do they become real in the real world? It’s hard to wrap my head around sometimes. Alberto seems like he’s really upset with the Major all of a sudden too, which is making Hilde upset with her father, which I think is weird. Why does she care if the made up characters in the book her father wrote are feeling manipulated by him? And she’s thinking about running away because of the book which is pretty ridiculous. That leads back to the whole “are they real” question. Maybe the later chapters will make more sense, but that’s what I thought last time.

Connection:

The philosophers we’ve been learning about recently have really similar ideals. So similar that it’s a little hard to tell the difference between them. A lot of them hated the ideas of the others even though they were pretty much the same thing, and I thought that was pretty interesting. I can’t really say which one I agree with the most. I was never a fan of Locke or Rousseau, or Kierkegaard. I think I’d have to say Hegel makes the most sense, but Kierkegaard and Schopenhauer both hated him. I don’t know why, they all had pretty similar ideas. (Except Schopenhauer, he hated everything)