Visions of the Self

There are so many unanswered questions about who we are and the world around us. Socrates was one of the first men to really explore beyond the realm of what we believe. He believed that the “unexamined life is not worth living”, we have discussed this concept over the last week in class and have contrasted it with the opposite view “ignorance is bliss”.

I personally think it’s important that we examine our lives and look beyond what we can see. Socrates believed that our life isn’t meaningful if you just go through it without asking questions or look at why things are the way they are. His statement shows that it’s important to not just act oblivious of our surroundings and to keep an open mind. If we continue to believe everything is the way it seems and don’t look for more answers then where will it get us? If everyone is content with their views on the world and doesn’t want to examine their lives, then we will not make any progress. By looking at things with an open mind and accepting that we don’t know everything, we are able to gain more knowledge and better ourselves.

Like we said in class, education is not always an easy process, it can be difficult or painful but I believe we need it. It’s easy to sit back and be oblivious to things but it takes effort to actually step up and search for the truth. I would rather know the truth even if it was hard to deal with rather than be lied to. We compared this in class to finding out that your girlfriend or boyfriend was cheating on you.  You could not know about and continue to be happy in your relationship even though your girlfriend cheated or you could find out and deal with the situation. I would definitely rather know about it instead of acting like everything was just fine, even though I was learning what happened.  But I feel like this argument between living in ignorance and examining your life has many different variables to it.

I do think in some cases ignorance isn’t always a bad thing. If you don’t know something that worries you or that isn’t very significant then I think its ok. When someone tells a white lie or exaggerates something it’s not always that bad. When I lived in a fraternity house my buddies would always basically make up a story about someone or exaggerate whatever happened in front of the entire chapter. Everyone would think it’s really funny and would believe it, they were always in good fun and everyone got a kick out of them. The person who the story was about would just go along with it because they didn’t want to tell the truth and disappoint everybody.

I don’t mind living in ignorance when it comes to small thing like that, but when it’s about serious things that affect the way we live, I think it’s important know what’s going on. If we don’t know what’s going on in the world and we only base things off what we see, then we can’t advance and make strides towards greater things. Overall I choose to live the examined life and look for intellectual reality in order to know more about who we are what we are about.

-EV

I still haven’t decided which side I’m on in the “ignorance is bliss” or “the unexamined life is not worth living” debate. In one perspective, “ignorance is bliss” seems kind of selfish in my opinion. People that choose to not acknowledge the problems that the world is undergoing are being ignorant for their own benefit so they don’t feel the need to have to do anything to help change the world. On the other hand, I understand in some situations it is the “easy way out” and no one wants to be caught up in problems that are bigger than their own. It seems unreasonable to live your life miserable because you examine every part of your life and dwell on everything that is wrong with it. I believe that is some aspects of your life, living in “ignorance” isn’t wrong.

This doesn’t mean that I am choosing to live my life in ignorance. I think that my position in this debate is in-between both sides, it all just depends on the circumstance. When it comes to the news and the problems today in the world, everyone (in my opinion) should have some knowledge of it. I don’t watch the news every day, but I’d like to believe that I at least have some clue of what is happening in the world today. If you chose to examine everything in life than you would lose yourself in a depression and would spend all of your time pondering what your purpose is. I don’t believe that you should have to spend all your life in question if you are making it “worth it” because that is just a matter of opinion. You may think that you made your life worthwhile, but someone else (like Socrates’) may think that you just lived your life in ignorance. That is really just based on opinions.

Someone in class brought up the topic of in some cases “Ignorance is bliss” is the better option because they have something wrong with them, like a mental disability or something of that nature. I think that is a good example of why it just depends on the circumstance. People that have those kind of problems are going to be much happier just living in ignorance and I don’t see anything wrong with that. As long as that keeps them from harming others or themselves, than I don’t see the downside of letting them live their lives like that.

Overall, your life is in your own hands and you can choose what you want to do with it. I think you should your life in a way that makes you happy, but whatever you choose it is going to affect others. This can be taken the wrong way; I don’t mean I think mass murders should keep doing what they do because it makes them happy. I think you have to live your life selfless or at least keep in mind how your actions can affect other people. In my opinion, that is the best way to make the decision of if you’re going to live your life in ignorance or examining  life itself.

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”  It is obvious here that on the surface Socrates believes that a wasted life would be one that was lived without experience and the gain of knowledge.  While the idea that ignorance is bliss seems to so strongly challenge Socrates there is, what I believe a balance that should be obtained for the most happy and, in Socrates’ eyes, worthwhile life.  If we dig deeper, it seems that Socrates may believe that to be part of a worthwhile life one must actively participate in society while dissecting, learning and questioning what is around them.

Medical students are constantly learning about new diseases, rashes, ailments, disorders, etc., and while this may sound cool or interesting some develop what is commonly called medical student syndrome.  The idea here is similar to hypochondria in which a person honestly believes they have become a victim to a slew of health conditions without any objective evidence.  While the idea seems bizarre, the issue is generally not a major problem, but for some is debilitating and causes a great deal of stress and anxiety.  This may be a rare case where our ignorance could be a great source of bliss.

Major government conspirators also generate a great deal of stress, anxiety, and anger among other feelings to themselves.  The internet both great and pessimistic can be more than a extraordinary source of theories about how the government is going to steal our guns, or diminish other rights, how they’re actually responsible for the 9/11 tragedies, AIDS or “chemtrails.”  Time and time again we learn a new fault of stress, shortening our life or causing terminal ailments, this just happens to side with the ignorance is bliss idea.

In class we talked about if our significant other was cheating, would we want to know.  Almost everyone agreed that they would want to know, however a few students took the ignorance is bliss side.  Since I can remember I have always been told that cheating is bad, subsequently why would you waste your time with someone cheating?  How could anyone live happily without the assurance that their significant other is not exclusively their?  Ignorance here is, in my mind so far from bliss it’s sickening.

In this argument there truly is no right from wrong, however one can dispute for one side or pick a spot in the middle.  It’s obvious that I feel there is a perfect middle ground, something go best unknown, while to truly experience life one must examine, dissect, question, and learn.  It would seem mildly ignorant that a man once quoted saying “the unexamined life is not worth living,” was also quoted saying “I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.”  These two quotes when compared together seem to throw my argument out the window that an examined life is a life of gained knowledge.

In class Monday, we talked a lot about Socrates and a quote he once said, “A life unexamined is a life not worth living.” This quote made me think a lot about my life and whether or not I actually agreed with this quote. In certain instances I can agree that yes, in life, you need to looked at certain aspects and realize they are part of your life, your surroundings, and the world (whether they are good or bad). We talked about poverty and world hunger, and by ignoring these things we could go through our daily lives easily happy and peaceful not even recognizing these hardships that people around the world are facing. I can’t say however that going about your daily life not thinking about these things, is a life not worth living because I must admit some days I don’t even think about the poverty going on probably even just a few miles away. This quote is almost too extreme for me to say that I hands down agree with it.

Just about the time when Socrates almost had me convinced, another quote was also mentioned in class said by Thomas Gray, “Ignorance is bliss.” No one wants to be ignorant, at least I wouldn’t think so, but when bringing up the question, would you want to know if your partner is cheating on you? Arose I really was torn. Being involved in several relationships, one in particular, I have been cheated on. So you would almost automatically assume I would most definitely want to know if my partner was cheating on me, but honestly I don’t know. Due to the circumstances of the event, deep down I had a feeling that my partner had been unfaithful, and after being lied to time and time again until the truth finally came out and I was crushed. I immediately broke up with him, no questions asked, but looking back now what if the circumstances were different. If I was in a relationship with someone who I thought was “the one” and deep down knew that if he were to cheat on me and it was a onetime sloppy drunk mistake, I wouldn’t end things, would I really want to know? Would I really want to go through the pain and suffering if all in all I would try to make things work in the end to save the relationship? If I thought that he deep down had the same feelings for me as I do them, would it really be worth it? After all they say what you don’t know can’t hurt you, If I had turned a blind eye in the relationship I once had and was cheated on, who knows maybe we would still be together. I have to say I agree with this quote more, whether or not I may be ignorant you only get one life to live, I want to live it as happily has can be. To me living my life to the fullest doesn’t necessarily mean examining every little thing that goes in and out of it. I think each individual does and thinks different things in order to live their own life to the fullest whether or not they are ignorant or not.

Ignorance is bliss. Ignorance is not bliss. Bliss in other words means complete happiness. Not every person will be happy seeking the truth as well as not many people will be happy being ignorant. I guess it all comes down to what kind of person you are. You can live your life being ignorant and overlooking anything that might upset you, but in reality what you are doing is taking the easy way out. Just because you choose to ignore it does not mean it does not happen or that it can’t potentially affect you. I do agree, some people are raised to be secluded from the world and to a certain extent that is okay…when you’re a child or a teenager. But there comes a certain point when you can not blame it all on your parents. With all of the opportunities that we have to get informed, such as school and the internet, it is not an excuse to be ignorant. As an adult it is your responsibility to seek the truth, whether you choose to is up to you. I truly believe that we as humans want to seek the truth, but sometimes choose not to because we are afraid of what the truth might reveal. Sometimes the lie is better than the truth at the moment, but the truth is better in the long run. Take a kid who is adopted but his parents don’t tell him until he is already a grown adult. They want to protect him as long as they can, so they tell the lie. Once he is older his parents tell him the truth. Do you think he won‘t question whether his life was a lie? The truth is the truth and you shouldn’t conform to the lie. But as humans it’s our nature to be flawed and we all know we aren’t perfect. We will do what makes us happy, whether it is the right or wrong thing to do.

I had trouble when picking a side in the argument of “Ignorance is bliss” and “The unexamined life is not worth living”.  Originally I was on the “Ignorance is bliss” side because I thought that ignorance left one with no heartache, no stress, and no sadness.  This sounds like an appealing life and one that I would not mind having.  Besides being appealing, ignorance seemed easy.  After picturing my life living through this motto I realized that this would be the easy way out.  On the other hand, examining one’s life seems challenging.  I asked myself, although it would be a challenge, would it be worth it in the end?  An example was raised in class about your boyfriend or girlfriend cheating on you.  Would you want to know or is it better off unsaid?  This would help in deciding which ‘side’ you were on in this argument.  If you don’t want to know about your boyfriend cheating you would probably choose to leave an ignorant life.  Whereas if you choose to know this information, you would be on the ‘examined’ side.  After thinking about this situation, I think if I was still in the relationship I would like to know that my boyfriend was cheating.  If I was not in the relationship any longer and was single I think I would chose not to know that my boyfriend had cheated on me.  It really made me think about the two sides when professor mentioned that his mother chooses to live through ignorance is bliss.  After hearing Socrates opinion, “The unexamined life is not worth living”, I question him.  What gives Socrates the right to decide what makes a life worth living?  If professor’s mother is content and happy with her life and has the freedom to live the way she wants to, why does anyone get to determine if her life is worth living?  This argument depends entirely on the person and what he or she determines a life worth living.  If you like a challenge and value it in life then you would probably prefer the side that examines life and your surroundings.  I think I would be happier being ignorant and would die happy not knowing a lot of what I have found out.  For example, if you are in college and a boyfriend cheats on you and you find out it seems horrible at the time and you may waste a year of your life being sad and depressed because of how hurt you were.  When you are married with kids twenty years later, that one relationship doesn’t have a huge impact on you at that time.  Therefore, not knowing, ignorance, of the cheating boyfriend might be a better road to take because it would save you heartache and wasted time.  I think an obvious positive to the unexamined life would be that challenge and knowledge come from it.  Besides that, it may cause much heartache and sadness that would affect me negatively.  Although being ignorant seems like the easy way out, when you look at an individual, knowing he or she is happy, you stop thinking about the ignorance factor and start realizing that being happy is important and that is exactly what he or she is.  I don’t consider an examined life worth living.  I consider a happy and healthy life worth living.

I would like to elaborate the topic of the “True Self” that we began discussing on Tuesday. In class we had quite a bit of trouble defining what the “true self” actually is. We mentioned that it was something that no one else perceives and may or may not involve others perceptions of us. It is an intangible entity. Even so, we never actually came to a conclusion about what the “true self” is. I would argue that our difficulty in defining this term stems from the fact that there is no such thing as a “true self”. There is no pure or constant state of being or existence that can be classified as “true self”.

The minute we are born, our sense of self is invaded and polluted by the influence of the people who surround us, as well as the environment we are born into. Seconds, days, and months after we are born, events take place that change our sense of self; events that, as infants, we are not aware of. These events include our first experiences with physical pain, hunger, thirst, and compassion from caretakers. With these experiences come new understandings of how the world works and our place in the world.

As we grow older, we become increasingly exposed to the lives of others, thus causing us to change our perceptions of the world and the way we interact with it. Our perceptions and behaviors can change in a matter of seconds, and they can change depending on the context that we are placed in.  The introduction of knowledge in school, both social and academic, changes the way we view ourselves and the world in which we live.

The constant presentation of new experiences and knowledge as a result of day-to-day living result in a ever-changing self. Our “self” evolves from moment to moment. With this constant evolution comes the impossibility of a “true self”. “True self” suggests a constant and pure state; a state that cannot be attained due to the experiences and interactions that happen from second to second. Therefore, this constant evolution brings about the impossibility of a concrete definition of “true self” because it does not exist. There is never a prolonged period of time where the self goes unchanged or unaltered.  There can still be a sense of self, a sense of thoughts, and a sense of beliefs at any given moment, but there is no pure, concrete entity of “true self” in the present.

Although you cannot be aware of your “true self” or yourself in the present, you can be aware of your past self. Reflection on life events in the presence of new knowledge allows for the understanding of the past self. A person can understand who they were in the past, but since there is no stability in regards to the self, they cannot discover a “true self”.  Many people take comfort in thinking that they know who they truly are and would ignore this idea because it will destroy their sense of security. It is very possible to know your “current self”, but that does not constitute or contribute to the “true self” because it does not exist.

We talked for a while in class about the “ignorance is bliss” debate and I still don’t feel like we got a clear answer. Do people really believe ignorance is bliss? The question of whether you would want to know if your partner was cheating on you came up, and most of the class said that they would want to know, but there were still those few that said they weren’t sure if they would want to know or not. Something that makes me think about this is the saying “what you don’t know can’t hurt you.” And I think that sometimes, this saying is true. If someone is diagnosed with terminal cancer, is it always better to tell them they’re going to die? Maybe it would be better if they thought they had a fighting chance and lived their last moments being grateful for life instead of fearing death. I don’t think I would want to know if I were dying. Another example is if you knew something horrible was going to happen and you couldn’t do anything to stop it. If I knew 9/11 was going to happen and I had no way of warning people about it, it would be torture. In that instance, I would prefer not to know it was going to happen. I definitely think that there are times where it is just better to not know. You don’t always benefit from being aware of all the facts. When considering the question from class, about whether or not we would want to know about our partner cheating on us, I think that the majority of the time most of us would say yes, we would want to know, but there are times when some people wouldn’t. If I were being cheated on but the cheating stopped and things went back to normal, I’m not sure if it would always be beneficial to know. It may just hurt me more to know as opposed to thinking my relationship is perfectly fine.

Another question that asked whether we believe that ignorance is bliss is when the Santa Claus question was posed to us, and again the majority of the class was in agreement that they will tell their kids about Santa Claus. When the question was first brought up, I originally thought, “why wouldn’t you tell your kids about Santa?” But as I listened to other people’s opinions, I could see that there were two sides to the argument. One side was that telling your kids that Santa Claus exists is technically lying to them and encouraging them to believe in something that isn’t really there. It’s setting them up for disappointment when they find out that Santa isn’t actually real. But the other side is that sometimes it’s ok for kids to believe in something like that. Believing in Santa Claus is believing in something that’s bigger than yourself and something that doesn’t seem possible, but is. Sometimes believing that the impossible is possible isn’t so bad. Teaching my kids to believe that even if something seems impossible, you should still believe it can happen, seems like a pretty good idea to me. And if that lesson starts with teaching them to believe in Santa Claus, then so be it.

When talking about two views on life, Socrates saying of “The unexamined life is not worth living” and Grays saying of “Ignorance is bliss,” everyone has a different opinion on which one they would agree with.

When thinking about our discussion in class about the saying, “Ignorance is bliss,” and when we were asked if we would want to know if our significant other was cheating on us, I would want to know something like that.  Living in ignorance creates more harm than good in many cases.  If you live pretending not to know what is going on in your life and in the environment around you, you will not be as happy as you could be.  Being lied to about something like someone cheating on you does not make a healthy relationship and it does not make a person fully happy.  I would rather be told the truth about if my boyfriend was cheating on me because if I live my life not knowing, it makes me look foolish and it’s hurting me more.  By him telling me that he was cheating on me, it helps me deal with the pain and we both don’t have to feel trapped in something that isn’t real.  I think in every scenario it is good to know if someone is keeping something from you, whether it is someone cheating on you, if someone has a problem with you, or even if someone in your family is becoming really sick.  If someone has a problem with me, I would rather them confront me and not pretend that everything is all right.  I would rather deal with the situation head on, instead of just acting like I’m fine with whatever is happening.  Also, if someone in your family is really sick, it would hurt to know and not be able to help them, but it would be even worse to not know and not at least try to do something about it.  If you didn’t know and something happened to that person in your family, it is harder to deal with because you didn’t know that you had only a numbered amount of days left and in some cases would never get to say goodbye.  Living in ignorance is not blissful, but being told things no matter how much it may hurt is more fulfilling in the end.  If you know exactly what is going on, it will give you time to deal with things and try to fix situations as much as you can.  For example, when I was younger I did not watch the news or listen to anything dealing with history or current events.  Now I pay attention to things that are happening in the world around me and I form my own opinions and conclusions about different situations.  I would rather know exactly what is happening than just let other people deal with what is happening.  If I didn’t have opinions on anything, I would never get anywhere in life and I would be so clueless to things that are actually happening to me.

On the other side of this, I feel like some people would prefer not to be aware of as much.  Some people would prefer not to know that someone in their family is really sick, or even that their boyfriend or girlfriend is cheating on them.  Some people feel like not knowing helps you to be happier because you don’t have to stress about situations as much and you don’t always need to be worrying about life’s problems.  People would prefer to be happy and not stress about things and go on as if life is perfect, even when it’s not.  I think if I lived life not knowing the truth, I would be unhappier.  At least if I knew the truth, I could try to do something to fix it or deal with it rather than not knowing and just ignoring everything around me.  Knowing the truth might hurt, but it’s better than everyone saying things that they think would please you.  No one likes being lied to or cheated on and sometimes situations like these occur and there is nothing you can do to prevent it, but there is something you can to do deal with it.  It was hard for me when I lost my grandparents, but if I didn’t know that they were sick and something happened, I would have so much to regret.  I would be upset that my family didn’t tell me and I would know that I never got a chance to say goodbye.  Since I did know about everything that was happening, even while I was away at school, I was able to deal with each situation and I could move on based on when I was ready.  Knowing that they were only going to have a short time left with me made me realize that sometimes I would have to make sacrifices to be with them because they were there for me and I needed to be there for them.  It was easier for me to cope with the idea that they might be gone soon because I was involved every step of the way and I could help myself prepare for the worst, rather than it just happening without me even knowing.  Some might feel that ignorance is bliss, but I think ignorance is selfish.

This past class we began discussing the Allegory of the Cave and the meanings behinds the different elements in this “theory”.  My thoughts on this seemed to slightly conflict with our discussions in class.  To me the sun symbolizes “the enlightenment” of man from being an unintellectual being to an intellectual being.  Socrates says at the beginning of Book VII of The Republic, “…let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened.”  I think that although Socrates came thousands of years before Darwin and his theories of evolution, he still had the idea that in one point in time humans were not the intelligent beings they had become during the Greek time and continued to advance to this day.  Socrates thought that man had to embrace this enlightenment and use it to learn more about our world and how it works.  Astronomy was a perfect example because it was a world beyond ours in many ways and at that time seemed unreachable but through this constant enlightenment gained by the human race since the time of Socrates we can now study this vast world beyond ours in ways Socrates himself never thought could have been possible.

During Socrates’ time Greece was at the head of the world in terms of knowledge in mathematics, thought, and reasoning.  Was Socrates referring to the enlightenment experienced in Greece at this time?  He seemed to know that one day society would rebel against the philosophers –kings that held them under wraps and learn the real truth that classes are not always set in stone, especially in today’s society.  The Myth of the Metals, created by those philosopher-kings, would have set those classes at the time and restricted the change of classes because of the unavailability of education to all people of that ancient society.  These lower classes would not have been able to see the reality of the world as symbolized by outside the cave, but instead were shown the shadows on the walls of the cave and only given the appearance of a true life and real human freedom.  Socrates felt the need for the world to have this distinction between the educated and uneducated.  He felt that the only way to learn these eternal truths of life was to have the status in society that was acceptable to know more than the average member of society.  The intellectual realm was hidden in the academies created by the philosophers and controlled by the philosophers.  Humans are too intelligent overall as a race to be hidden in the dark about an issue like this.  If you had been a lower class member of this time period and had the desire to learn more and be more would you have stood up against this seemingly corrupt system?

Today this intellectual realm created by Socrates so many years ago is being opened up to nearly the entire human race and continues to build to that society Socrates hoped to build in his version of “The City” he writes about in The Republic.  The everyday discoveries being made by people all over the world is a constant flow of our society walking out of the cave into the sun much like in the allegory; showing us more and more things about our world and the truths behind it.  I think that for his time Socrates’ ideas may have gotten him killed but the principles behind them can still be seen today in the world in fields such as science and medicine where we continue to break boundaries and learn the amazing nuances that make up our world.

The question of whether “the unexamined life is not worth living” or “ignorance is bliss” is a discussion that has been going on for many years, and it will continue for many years to come. Although this Philosophy 251 “Visions of Self” class is an excellent channel to ponder and debate these positions, a straightforward answer will not be produced. The problem is that everyone will have a different standpoint on this issue. It is a matter of perspective and opinion that can be argued for either way. An earlier post brought up a specific point that I too wanted to mention in mine. We are looking at this question in terms of black and white, one way or the other, and not in shades of gray. Most issues today are looked at in shades of gray because there are arguments for and against them. It is hard to say what is completely good/true and what is completely bad/false. This stems from the different perspectives of the world of the different people of the world. Because we are all so unique in our way of thinking, due to influences from culture, lifestyle, etc., it is impossible to say which side is right.

I hate to “ride the fence” on this issue and not blatantly state my own opinion, but I can see positives and negatives of both sides. And to get the most out of life, I think we need a mix of both. Socrates said, “the unexamined life is not worth living”, and I agree, somewhat. I believe we need to learn throughout this life, and in learning, we will live a fuller, more examined life. Knowledge is power. How we go about learning is a personal choice. Some will learn solely through books, while other will learn solely through experience, while still others will learn through both. Who is to say which is the best, as long as one is learning? What is the best path for one, may be completely opposite for another. Socrates chose to live his life by questioning others’ views and discussing with his followers; however, he neglected his family. This was his way of “living an examined life”. While I believe Socrates was brilliant in many ways, I don’t necessarily agree with how he went about doing so. Personally, family is one of the most important parts of learning and leading a worthwhile life.

On the other side of this discussion, Gray states in his poem that “ignorance is bliss”. Being ignorant comes in different forms though. One can be ignorant by choice, and one can be ignorant by circumstance. If someone refuses to watch the news to avoid seeing problems in the community/world, he or she may be called ignorant. However, if someone does not have the means (television, newspaper, media outlet, money) to hear and see these problems, is he or she still considered ignorant? And if that person is unable to do anything about these problems, but still lives a good life of working and being a member of his/her community, then is his/her life still not considered “worthwhile” because of the inability to examine their life in the way Socrates meant? It is these “shades” of both sides that make this issue so “gray” and one of much debate. If we just look at this as “ignorance is easy, examining is hard, now choose one”, then we are missing the bigger picture. There is so much more to life. How one goes about finding that is a personal choice.

Aristotle argues, in the book On The Soul, that soul is the actuality of the body, meaning that the soul makes the body true, fact, or in my interpretation, reality.  It makes the functions of our bodies real, because it creates organization within the many small biological systems.  It also allows us to possess and execute knowledge, and which Aristotle believes  would not be possible without a soul.  Another property of a soul, is being able to sense our surroundings, act on those sensations.  For instance, sensing light is a function of the soul.  Also any psychic, or intuitive sense, is governed by the soul.  And as we know now, with modern science, each of these phenomenons which Aristotle deemed possible through the use of this essence, are actually possible through the laws of physical nature.  This fact directly disproves Aristotle’s theory of the soul making the body real, and the two forms only existing and being made useful in unity.  Because, the body can make decisions and sense external surrounding with microbiology.

It seems as though Aristotle, was the first to separate the imperfections and limitations of the human body from this essence of innate awareness of that body.  But our body can function in the physical world without us being consciously aware, of our breathing or of each step we take.  I do believe that Aristotle touched the tip of the ice berg on what is a soul.  I believe it does have to do with senses, but not so much the unity of body and soul. For instance, the intuitive sense can sense a storm coming before it does. I believe the body holds the soul, and the soul is something that cannot be accessed unless it has left the body.  This is still an abstract concept in my mind, and I may be using the soul just as Aristotle did, as a miracle explanation for what I have not come to know.  In essence, the soul is used to “sense” that there is other knowledge outside of the human perspective.  The best example I can give, is the light spectrum being bigger than the visible light spectrum. We know of the bigger light spectrum because of knowledge, but it has nothing to do with execution through the body.  The soul connects us to what is outside of the human perspective, which is forever flawed because of the limits of the body. So it is in this sense, that I intuitively disagree with Aristotle’s theory on the soul and body needing to be unified in order to be useful, or the body needing the soul in order to be actualized.

I am not sure the point I am about to discuss will make sense to anyone but myself, but I hope it comes across the way I intend it to. I took the “ignorance is bliss” argument and posed a viewpoint that has yet to be covered. Like I said, I hope it makes sense!

In class we talked about whether or not ignorance is bliss. Fellow classmates came up with arguments like: “people who live in ignorance live their life as a lie” and how “it is the examination of life that makes our experiences and feelings authentic”. But is questioning the truths of life the only thing that makes living it worthwhile? In my opinion, no. I have never sat down and spent my entire day searching for the meaning of life, debating the power of education, or pondering the true form of The Good. Yet I feel I possess an immense amount of knowledge that has allowed me to make the choices that have made me the person I am today. I believe that is what is important. Not questioning the world around me has not made my feelings or experiences less real, and it certainly has not made me ignorant. It has allowed me to live in the moment and not fuss over planning a future I cannot control. It has shown me the importance of doing the things I want to do rather than just thinking about them; it has taught me that making choices is what makes life worthwhile.

I believe that if a person choses to live their life in ignorance, at least they are making a choice. This is unlike Socrates, who spent his life questioning everything in search of the truth. I believe the life spent inquiring is not worth living. Thinking instead of doing and questioning instead of choosing is not living life. Making decisions, whether they allow you to move forward or stay in the same place (e.g., ignorance), makes life worthwhile. Being decisive is a better use of time than being inquisitive, because as cliché as it may sound, life really is short. If it means being happy, I would rather be ignorant and live my life than just sit around and think about it.

When the question “would you want to know if your significant other is cheating on you” came up in class, it hit close to home. A few years ago, when I had the option to learn the truth about my possibly unfaithful boyfriend, it was not my search for the truth that changed my life, it was my choice to hear it. I could have spent my time wondering about the possibilities, living as Socrates did. But in the end, my decision to listen to the truth and face my reality was better than sitting in my dorm room speculating. Making a decision cured me of the knot in my stomach; it eased my racing mind. And I believe that even if I had chosen not to hear the truth, that choice too would have been more significant than spending my time questioning the relationship. Living in ignorance may not be ideal, but I feel it is better than living with questions.

Socrates believed that examination of life made it worth living. He thought better to live an examined life in misery than a blissful one in ignorance. However, you only get one life. I think it is more important to make choices (ignorant or not) and actually live life than it is to spend it merely pondering the possibilities.

I think that it is true that the unexamined life is not worth living, and ignorance is never bliss. I think that in the excerpt we read, it really showed how the unexamined life is not worth living in his eyes. The prisoners in the cave would have never known that what they all thought were the “ shadows” were completely wrong if the one prisoner never would have escaped and opened his eyes to the light and the reality of the intellectual realm and examined new ideas outside of everything he thought was right. I think that life would be boring and pointless if we did not examine and open our eyes to new things and ideas in life. Ignorance does not seem like it could ever be a good thing for anyone. In class the question was raised if we would want to know if our partner was cheating on us. Some people did say that they would not want to know, so ignorance would be bliss for them in that situation. I do not think that ignorance would necessarily be bliss in this case. I feel like that would be just be ignorance, because either way your partner is cheating, so I do not see the bliss in that. Maybe in that case ignorance could be easiest? I also think the unexamined life is not worth living and ignorance is not bliss because if none of us knew what was going on around us we would be in an worse state than we are in now. If we did not know anything going on with in our government, environment or society (which would make us ignorant) we would not be able to help with anything. I do not think we would even know how to help ourselves. What we know or learn may not be pleasant but I feel that it would be better than not knowing at all. I mean knowing that the economy is horrible, or that gas prices are going up may not make me or anyone happy but I feel like it is better for us to know than to live in ignorance to keep ourselves happy. People say what you don’t know can’t hurt you, but I think what you do know can’t hurt either. When we examine our lives we open our mind to new ideas, maybe ones that we have never thought of before. I think that things like that bring us bliss, not ignorance. Imagine if we did not attend school, but rather sat home so remain ignorant because we thought that that would make us happier, where we would be in life right now if that was the case. We would not have the knowledge we do know, and I think that looking at new ideas and concepts is what makes life interesting. There may be things in life that we tell ourselves we don’t want to know, but I think that it is better that we do, because we would not be who we are today if we lived our lives in ignorance.

Although this is only the second week of this course, I can already tell that the material studied in this class will better ourselves in discovery and will also help us better understand our personal views on some of the unanswered questions in life. Philosophy, literally meaning love of wisdom, will be beneficial, especially this semester, by bringing a greater sense of self into our lives. This skill is extremely valuable, and we are privileged to learn about this knowledge. However, finding answers to the tough questions in life does not come easy. It takes deep thought, time, and involves using our morals and judgment to truly believe in an answer.

One “tough” question we have talked about in class discussion is which opinion of life is right, Socrates or Gray? Socrates argues that “the unexamined life is not worth living,” and Gray states that “ignorance is bliss.” I am arguing that Socrates has the correct view, rather than Gray.

Although Gray’s opinion is easier and more convenient, I strongly feel that living life in this way will not benefit one’s self in any way. In my opinion, this is a lazy and a very unproductive way to live a person’s life. For example, we talked about in class the situation of someone leaving their car purposefully unlocked. They are being intentionally ignorant because they are ignoring the consequences of their actions. If a burglar breaks in and steals something of value, obviously the car owner would not be happy. If it was an honest mistake, that is a different story, but if they are just being plain lazy and not locking their car on purpose, this proves that ignorance is not bliss. Another example is not staying current on world news and politics. If an important issue emerges on the news and a person is ignorant by purposefully not watching the news, then they will be unaware, and therefore unintelligent about the important issue, such as war.

I have to admit that I am guilty of this ignorance. I do not take the time to watch the news or read updates. This is entirely my fault, and I am being lazy, ignorant, and unproductive in this way. I do think it is an extremely important responsibility to do as a citizen and truly want to change this about myself. In fact, one of my new year’s resolutions is to become more aware of the news and politics. We have an upcoming election, and by being ignorant, how can I know who to vote for? Taking some time every day to expand my knowledge of world issues is not the easy way out; it is much more time consuming and will take more effort, but it will enable me to know the news and I can finally hold a conversation about world issues instead of simply saying “no, I have not heard about that.” Socrates’ view takes more work, yes, but I am arguing that it is definitely worth the effort and time to invest in yourself, and make you a better person as a whole.

By living an examined life, putting forth the extra effort, and truly caring about unanswered questions, Socrates advises us that this is the best way to live our lives. He believed so passionately about this statement that he was put to death for his view.  I was shocked by this and strongly disagree with his death. Ignorance will get us nowhere in life; but by being proactive and having the drive to go the extra mile, we can fully succeed at living a life that is worth living.

-Ellyn Virden

The past couple discussions in class have mainly revolved around the argument of Socrates belief of “the unexamined life is not worth living” and the rebuttal towards him of “ignorance is bliss” thinking about which one is right to believe, if there is a right one.

After talking and thinking more about each of the statements, I would agree more with “the unexamined life is not worth living.”  I agree more with this statement because I feel we would not be able to develop intellectually without knowledge and learning.  If we were to have nothing but ignorance, nothing would ever get accomplished.  Problems would never be fixed and us as a society would never grow especially into what it is today.

When discussing these two statements in class, the question “would you rather know if your other half is cheating on you or not?”  I did not even have to think about that question long enough, the first thought that came to my mind immediately was yes I would want to know.  I would rather know than be ignorant and believe that I am in a trusting relationship when what is actually going on is a lie.  I would rather know and be upset than not know and be completely happy.  For myself personally, I do not always like taking the easy way out of situations nor do I think you learn anything from doing so and if you do not learn anything, then it is hard to grow as a person and really examine your life.  Taking the easy way out also takes away from an experience being rewarding in the end.  Something that has always been important to me is the thought of before you die and your life flashes in front of you, was it rewarding and fulfilling.  I feel that if you were to live in complete ignorance, your life would not be fulfilling and rewarding because you never took chances and was naïve about everything.

Now do not get me wrong, I do have a little ignorance in me as I believe so does everyone.  Whenever I see the sad animal commercials on television, I always change the channel because I do not like to think that that kind of stuff is going on in the world.  I admit I have little ignorant instances like these but I do not consider myself to be an ignorant person in general because I find importance in knowledge and learning experiences.

Those who are ignorant find it a mistake to be wise and to learn and grow with experience, which I do not agree with.  I find wisdom and something important to have which is the opposite thought of someone who is ignorant.

I also greatly believe that how we were raised has a lot to do with how we are swayed to either believe “the unexamined life is not worth living” or “ignorance is bliss.”  I think our values greatly influence how we think about the world whether we are ignorant and ignore much around us or believe in the value of knowledge and wisdom.

In life, many people approach happiness different ways. “Ignorance is bliss” was brought up in class and we debated whether or not ignorance will bring happiness. Ignorance will never bring anyone happiness. Being ignorant in life will only lead to someone avoiding their problems and believing that nothing bad will ever happen to them, when in reality, their whole life will become one giant lie. In class, the topic of wanting to know whether or not your significant other is cheating on you came up. Who would not want to know the truth about their boyfriend/girlfriend? By being ignorant, one will deny every bad thing that they hear. Denying the truth may make someone feel better about themselves, but everything they believe and think is a lie and not real. In life, it is hard to accept that there are miserable things going on, such as poverty, murder, theft, rape, abuse, etc. By denying the miserable things going on in life, nothing will ever improve. Wouldn’t someone want to be knowledgeable about these horrible things happening in life rather than living in your own box your whole life and pushing everything off to the side? The horrible things going on in life get worse every time someone denies the truth of what is really going on in their lives. Poverty, theft, murder, crimes, family problems, school grades, or health will never improve if people just brush off the truth about them. Am I ignorant? Do I believe that others are ignorant subconsciously? Yes. I will not deny that I tend to ignore some things in life that I don’t want to hear or deal with at the moment but the ignorance is temporary and I learn how to face my problems in order to improve my life. I know that there are several topics that I don’t want to hear about or deal with because I don’t want to accept the truth. I believe that everyone is ignorant in some way or in certain situations. No one is perfect. A life that is half lived by living a fake life of lies is lost compared to a life lived full of tackling and overcoming problems and accomplishing problems that help you achieve your goals. If everybody in the world believed that ignorance brought bliss, then we would have no one to stand up for what they believe in and to stand up to protect their countries, homes, or families. Many people believe that they can be ignorant if they have no control over a certain situation. If everyone had this mindset then important history such as the Civil Rights Movements or the Women Rights Movement would not be here today. There might be certain situations that are hard to accept or change but denying the truth makes the matter worse. Some cases of ignorance are more extreme and complex than others and everyone will be ignorant in certain situations but to approach every problem one has to conquer in ignorance will lead to a life of misery. People believe that not knowing the truth makes them feel more comfortable but would you rather live a life of lies to feel comfortable about yourself, or live a life knowing the truth and be happy when you tackle a problem and accomplish something and feel better about yourself that way?

Socrates, a man who was once given the title of the wisest man in Athens, believed the unexamined life was not worth living. That if you didn’t explore the intellectual realm that your life had no purpose. On the other hand, some people would agree at times ignorance is bliss. Could it be that his intelligence level was the cause of his need for finding the truth or should everyone strive to explore the reality of the world?

After class I talked to a couple of my friends about what we discussed. Some of my friends seemed to believe a mixture of both scenarios to be the best for them. To be honest, I believe anyone who picks that side is scared of the truth. I’m not talking about silly lies your friends tell you to get out of hanging out either. I told them to think about more serious issues and to my surprise they still said the mix of the two scenarios is what they would prefer. After bringing up my theory on being scared of the actual truth they agreed saying some things are too hard to handle. I understand how some people wouldn’t be able to handle everything they believed in suddenly being twisted upside down and proven wrong although, I do believe the old saying what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.

On the other hand, someone brought up how truth equals enlightenment but it might make people depressed. Bringing that point up made me wonder if after finding all the truth, would the depression outweigh the excellence of knowledge or would people actually be able to believe they actually have the truth and not ignorant to some greater knowledge?   For all we know we could be brains on a table being controlled by some genius probing electrical shocks into our brain and what we see is all a false reality. The genius could control how much we actually find out and our sense of truth so what we believe is what he wants us to believe. Obviously I have no proof on that being close to a reality, nor do I believe it to be true, but it is just an example of how we could perhaps never find the real truth.

My opinion on the topic is that living an unexamined life is a waste. If we were to all walk around in ignorance this world would not nearly be as evolved as it is today. The technology that was created throughout the many years enhanced our lives incredibly. Not only did humans find better ways to entertain ourselves but the way we enhanced productivity, transportation, and much more is outstanding. If we never thought about anything and just lived with accepting what we already have and didn’t try to make a difference, I believe our existence would be a waste.  Man is made to live for truth. Without it, even if it’s in ignorance, he is not complete but is rather leading a life in a world that has no real meaning.

I would like to preface this post by saying that my intentions are in no way meant to disrespect others’ beliefs.  I just refuse to believe anything that is based on faith rather than logic.   As such, I am not looking to get in to a faith-versus-reason type of debate.

That said, I would like to share what I believe the “self” to be: an illusion subconsciously manifested in the brains of all living creatures to help deny our lack of free will.  My reasoning for believing this is fairly simple: Every “decision” a human being makes is really just the result of the physical structure of his or her brain and environment.

For example, imagine you are walking down a hallway and reach the end to find two doors.  One of them leads to where you want to go, while the other one is a closet.  How will you decide which one to open?  Perhaps you notice more wear on the handle of the left door, so you choose it.  In that case, your decision was influenced not just by the state of the door handle.  It was influenced by your past experiences with door handles.  It was influenced your brain’s physical makeup, which excited some neurons in your brain, transmitting the applicable memories and information.  It was entirely influenced by an infinite amount of processes from the distant and recent past, and therefore was to no extent a “decision”.  Rather, it was the logical conclusion of all of those processes, and it could not have concluded in any other way.  The universe in its entirety is an infinitely-complex mathematical equation, and we are just the numbers.

The effects that this realization had on me were enormous.  The fact that I could not have changed anything in my past and would not really be able to change the future was probably the greatest relief of stress I had ever experienced.

Furthermore, realizing the infinitely large number of past events that concluded in just the right way to lead to my birth is pretty mind-blowing.  We are quite lucky to be the aforementioned numbers, even if we’re only around for an infinitely-small percentage of time.

But along with this revelation came a daunting question: If the course of my life is already planned out, what is the point of striving for anything?   Luckily for me, every time I think about this, visions of a depressed, lethargic, future me appear in my head, and those lead me to subconsciously embrace the comforting illusion of free will once again.   Yes, I am admitting that I, too, ignore my own beliefs in order to function in day-to-day life.

However, the fact that I believe in this basic, logical explanation to our infinite universe prevents me from clouding my head with the illogical.  Socrates might not like my blissful and intentional ignorance if he were here today, but what could have been a depressing conclusion turned out to be the best of both worlds for me – a happy and stress-free life, and honest and logical beliefs.

In class as we spent a long time talking about whether it was better to live in ignorance or live an educated life, I found myself wondering whether that really mattered.   I first thought to myself that it wouldn’t really be advantageous to live either fully ignorant or fully educated, and it seemed that the whole class was looking at it as more of a black or white question when really its full of grey areas.  But the more I thought about it, it didn’t seem to be an appropriate question any more.  The world has changed too much since Socrates, and while back then it may have been appropriate to spend your days contemplating the universe, you just can’t do that in this day in age.  The world moves too fast, and we as human beings have too many life responsibilities now.  You wouldn’t be able to survive sitting around talking about the world with other people, not full time at least.  On the other hand it’s also a lot harder to stay ignorant in this day in age.  For example when the mission to kill Osama Bin Laden was going on, a man was telling the world about it on twitter.  That means even the most ignorant of fools could hear about Osama’s death before some of the most educated based solely because some people use twitter, and others don’t.  It is nearly impossible to stay ignorant about the big important events that go on in the world today due to all the social media websites, the internet, radio, television, or even just word of mouth.  I’m sure almost every person that reads this heard about the earthquake that hit japan, Osama’s death, Sadam’s death, the oil spill, or any other major event from facebook or twitter.  I’m sure there are also a good chunk of people who left it at that instead of reading more about these events or researching more.  Which poses another question: What defines ignorance?  Is it ignorant to only know that something happened, but not know any of the details behind it?  Or does the fact that you know it happened make you educated?  Regardless we clearly aren’t simply ignorant, or educated.  What also makes the question of knowledge vs ignorance is Socrates’ definitions of knowledge and intelligence.  Today we seem to measure things more in terms of success than knowledge.  Many professional athletes are less intelligent than us in this class, however they are making millions of dollars.  Socrates would probably say that is a wasted life, however I’m sure most of us would disagree.  Our whole end goal of going to college is so that hopefully we can find a good job with a big paycheck.  So I would absolutely argue that ignorance vs knowledge is a dated question.  We learn things whether we mean to or not, and very few people learn just to learn in today’s society.  We have different values and goals today than Socrates and his companions had.  Socrates can contemplate the universe all he likes, I’m in it for the money.

When we first began talking about Socrates in class, I thought that the man was a genius.  I thought he was such an intelligent person for his time because he questioned everything.  When the sophists of his time said things like Protagoras’ quote “Man is the measure of all things,” I thought that the sophists were very arrogant and selfish to believe that there was nothing greater out there than humans.  It’s hard for me to believe that these people believed no other force could be out there greater than us.  I thought Socrates was brilliant for questioning them and for questioning all about life.  At first, I agreed with his quote that “an unexamined life is not worth living.”  I thought living life in ignorance was not something a person should do.  I believed that the oracle was right when they said that Socrates was the most brilliant man around.
Then I took a step back and thought about it.  Socrates believed that a person should live an examined life and should not be ignorant.  However, Socrates was believed to be so intelligent because he questioned everything.  He claimed that he knew nothing and that was what made him so smart.  When a person knows nothing, they are considered to be ignorant.  So in reality, Socrates was believed to be so smart because he was originally ignorant and moved forward and out of ignorance.  It was his ignorance that originally allowed him to be smart.  This makes me believe that in order to lead an examined life, like Socrates said a person should, you need to start as an ignorant person.  This makes me ask myself a few questions, does everyone need to be ignorant?  Can a person be ignorant and live an examined life at the same time?
I think these things are definitely true.  I think a person needs to start off ignorant on most topics and needs to examine and learn and I believe that people should look for the answers in life.  However, I would have to disagree with Socrates that people should search their whole lives for answers.  I think that people should look for answers and question things but some people can search their whole lives for something and never find it.  I think that Socrates was a bit crazy to die for questioning things.  I think searching for answers can drive people insane and I don’t think that it’s worth it.  Maybe some things in life should stay a mystery.  I also have to say that I think people can be ignorant and live an examined life at the same time.  I know that in my life, I love to search for certain answers.  I question many things and love learning new things.  However, I also think that there are certain aspects of my life that I choose to stay ignorant.  For instance, I choose to not watch a lot of news because I don’t care to hear the horrible stories about straight A students dying in car crashes or people that snap and kill their whole families.  These are the kinds of stories that flood our news and I don’t understand why people would care to listen to that.  I think that a person can be both examining and ignorant.
Overall, I changed my opinion about Socrates.  I still think he was a very brilliant man, but I think he was wrong when he said a person should search their whole lives for certain answers.  I think people have reason to stay ignorant in certain aspects of life.

Sometimes ignorance seems like the easy and happy way to live life, but it is not. What is the point of living if you have no clue what is going on in the world around you? Yes, some things in this world are hard to hear or learn like poverty, abuse, murder, etc. But isn’t it better to know what is going on around you than to live in your own little box? I certainly think so. For example I use to hate watching the news because all it does is talk about all these horrible things that are happening. But then I realized that it is more important to know about the world around me than to ignore it. Life is all about learning and gaining knowledge and creating opinions on things. If you choose to live in ignorance, you choose to live a non stimulating life. As humans, if should be second nature to want to have opinions and knowledge and be able to have interesting conversations and debates with people. By choosing to live in ignorance you simply can not do these things, well at least not intellectually. You would probably end up sounding rather dull or stupid. Not saying that ignorant people are stupid but they certainly don’t know enough about this world to have stimulating conversations about topics that actually have importance and meaning to society. It may seem better to keep yourself in the dark and may seem blissful but really you are just being lazy and taking the easy way out of things. Not only that but if you choose to be ignorant, you are doing an injustice to yourself and our society. Imagine if all people chose to be ignorant to the real world. Nothing would change and our society would not grow as a whole. If we didn’t have people that actually cared about the world things would only get worse. Who would stand up for our country? Who would be in charge of all the charities out there that help homeless people, underprivileged children, third world countries, abused and neglected children and animals? Just for examples. The answer is no one. If no body cared, this world would be a complete mess. I feel that ignorance is simply you just not caring about anybody else but yourself. And where would this take the world? It would take it to complete disaster. Therefore, ignorance is NOT bliss. It is actually just the opposite, misery. And this is just sad that there are people out there that actually think being ignorant to the rest of the world is a good thing. People need to wake up and realize that being ignorant is not okay. Everybody should be informed; everybody should know what is going on in the world. Don’t choose to be ignorant because you think it is a good thing. Choose to be informed because in reality it is the better thing.

“Ignorance is bliss.” This is an exceptionally profound statement. How deep does it really go; who does this statement truly pertain to? While sitting at my desk at the coffee shop while writing this paper, this specific idea got me reminiscing of one particular instance where the word, “ignorance” comes to my mind.

In some circumstances, many parents and their children in this generation lack in communication and have a very minimal relationship with one another. This may be because the mother or father is consumed at their workplace. The son/daughter could have grown and relocated across country to attend college. However, should distance be the means of a parent not recognizing the truth about their children?  I had actually watched an episode of Dr.Phil just yesterday. The parents had brought their rebelling seventeen year old daughter on the show to try and “knock some sense into her.” She had threatened to set the house on fire, suffered from practicing drugs, and was physically abusive to each of them. What I had found interesting is the point in which Dr. Phil was emphasizing. He began by asking the teenager, “Do you know what the word ‘ignorant’ means?” She replied, “Yeah, well, no, but all my friends tell me I am so I know I am very ignorant.” (I had laughed out loud after hearing her response.) Her parents had indefinitely taken her cell phone away after her outlandish behavior. Then, she gave her mom a bloody lip. Dr. Phil was trying to stress to the teenager her ignorance of the situation: “You got abusive with your parents after taking away your cell phone, of which they bought you and they pay the monthly bills.” This factor made the girl speechless immediately. This led Dr. Phil to his next point of ignorance. He then turned to the parents, “How could you supply your acting-out teen with a paid cell phone when she has been misbehaving since the 7^th grade?” The parents were refusing to put their teen in an institution or therapy (or any type of high authority center), even thought their daughter was bringing knives to friends houses with life-threatening exclamations! The teen may have been suffering from ignorance, but Dr. Phil had pointed the finger to both parents with the Trophy of Ignorance.

Ignorance can be related to issues in society. As in citizens not being aware that Osama bin Ladin is dead, or something as simple as consuming twenty boxes of candy each night and wondering where the ‘extra weight came from ?!’

Ignorance can be hit on many levels, some cases more extreme than others.  The main question to consider is, “Am I ignorant?” In all honesty, I should and do consider myself to be ignorant in some areas of my life. Do I part-take in voting in every state and town election? No. Have I smoked a cigarette or two and not thought it would harm me? Yes. Have I drank soda before bed, forgot to brush my teeth and got angry when I found out I had a cavity? Yes. Did I not study as hard as I could for a test and got disappointed when my grade came back a D? Yes.

The “bliss” of my ignorance lasted a total of five minutes. The “bliss” was temporary. It was not a blissful longevity. I realized when I was sitting in the dentist chair getting drills in my cavity-filled tooth, how absolutely un-blissful my ignorance was.

When it comes to life, most people follow either one of two sayings.  When asked, most people would say that they follow in Socrates words “the unexamined life is not worth living.”  However, some people disagree, and believe that Thomas Gray’s words, “ignorance is bliss” are the way you should live your life.

The last couple of days we have been discussing which saying people should live their life by. When the question came up if we would want to know if our significant other is cheating, my initial reaction was “of course I would”.  In that situation as much as it would hurt, I would rather know the truth, than not know at all.  However, when I started thinking about other situations, I realized that I almost always ignore the things I know will hurt me.  For instance, the last couple of weeks my mom and I have noticed that my older brother (who is turning 22) is developing a brain disorder (schizoaffective disorder).  He has been writing his thoughts on facebook, which to a normal person would not make any sense at all.  Observing these things honestly breaks my heart knowing that someone who has been normal their entire life is suddenly changing and there is nothing I can personally do to help.  Every time I happen to see his Facebook and the things he is posting it bothers me so much that I cannot sleep, so recently I have decided not to go to his page and ignore his writings.  This way I can live my life normally and not only focus all my thoughts on that situation.  My mom always tells me “go look at your brothers page, see what has he been up to” since Facebook is the fastest way to see what he has been doing (he lives in New York). However, my answer is always “I would rather not waste my nerves because I know by looking, it will just put me in a bad mood for the rest of the night.”

After putting much thought into this question, I honestly think it depends on the situation for me.  Yes, I would rather know if my boyfriend is cheating, but only because there is something I can do about it and in a sense, have control over the situation.  I could make a decision not to waste my time on him.  However, when it comes to a close family member dealing with something I honestly have no control over, it makes more sense to me to just ignore the whole situation.  Of course my brother is getting professional help himself, but there is nothing I personally can do to help him.  By not ignoring his writings, all I’m doing to myself, is just hurting myself.

When someone asked the question “should those people who are living in ignorance try and change,” I would say in a sense I don’t think so.  Sometimes it is better in life not to know certain things and be happy, then spend their whole life worrying and suffering.  I especially think this to be in true in situations where a person has no control over a situation.

-JK

For Monday, make sure to read Book VII of Plato’s Republic. The dialogue between Socrates and Glaucon is a bit difficult, so pay special attention to the Allegory of the Cave right at the beginning of the book; if I give a quiz on Monday it will come from this section.

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