Prompt #5

Sophie's World was full of different theories and different beliefs in philosophy and the world. From faith in the Christian and Jewish religion all the way to Darwin and his theory of evolution. This book taught me how to approach learning philosophy and also gave me a great introduction into the history of philosophy. Gaarder explains throughly all the ends and outs of each theory by the great philosophers over time, while trying to keep it at a level easy for high schoolers to understand. My favorite philosopher and theory was Kant and the red-tinted glasses. I find this theory something everbody should live by every single day, I always think you should try to look at things postivitely from the beginning. During the experiment the character, Alberto, shows Sophie the glasses and make her put them on. This time he doesn't just tell Sophie or write it down, he helps her and shows her visually Kant's theory. I also really liked the Descartes chapter, in which he shows proof and evidence of God actually existing. My least favorite theory was Aristotle's whenever he talked about his view on women. He said that women were just unfinished men, which is something I don't really agree with. The way it is explained in the book is very confusing and I just don't understand how it is explained. I believe that I am somewhere in between on the rabbit's fur, because I'm not completely down inside of it and timid. I question things and realize when things are wrong and I am not afraid to speak out about it. I also don't see myself on the edge of the rabbit's fur because I'm not always questioning everything. I try not to overthink everything, and I also have faith in that somethings are just the way they are simply because that's the way it is.

Prompt #4

In chapter 25, titled Kant, the book touches the topic of Kant and his philosophies. Alberto teaches his lesson to Shopie in this chapter by doing experiments with her that he calls the "red-tinted glasses". That was Kant's theory, he believed that if one had red-tinted glasses on then they would see the world in colors of reds and similar colors. Which is a metaphor for saying "Everything you see is part of the world around you, but how you see it is determinded by the glasses you wearing", says Alberto. In simpilar ways it also means that the way you see the world depends on your additude of the world. These questions are meant to put our minds in perspective. For example, if someone is having a bad day then they can just take everything bad that has happened and look at it from a new perspective. If your additude (the glasses) take these bad things as just a 'lesson well learned' then the situation could be seen as a learning experience for you. Also with lessons well learned, people tend to look at other situations and experiences through "red-tinted glasses", meaning they have a good outlook on what is going on in the world rather than having a negative additude towards the world around you. Kant's theory was one of my favorites out of the whole book, because I find it very relatebale to my life. If I look at everything negatively, then I will most likely feel negative. I have always taught myself to think postive, and always hope for the best. I usualy try to make myself find one postive thing even when the worst things are happening, then hopefully, I will see more things in a postive light.

Prompt #3

Taylor Humphrey AP English Language Mrs. Wilhelmus 13, August 2013 Middle Ages Philosophy in Christianity In the chapter of the Middle Ages, Alberto explains to Sophie what was going on during the medieval times and how it relates to philosophy and religion. He explains how some people look back on it being horrible times, "The Dark Ages", but some long lasting acheivements came out of it. Most importantly would be schools and universities that are still around today. In this chapter, Gaarder tells how St. Augustine was a Christian platonist who tried to unite Greek philosophy and religion in the middle ages by bringing Plato's teaching in to the Christian religion. While St. Thomas Aquinas brought Aristotle's pihilospies into the religion by showing that reason and relgiion do not cause conflict. Both St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas tried to bring philosophy into religion and they both were successful by showing that studying philosophy is okay with practcing the Christian and Jewish religion and vise versa. These medieval thinkers found ways to show people both sides and proved they related to each other in some way. In this time, people in the Christian religion became more open to learning philosophy and how it might relate to their