Thursday, February 10, 2011

A moment of philosopy with Socrates...

My class this semester is Western Civilization and I thought I would be bored to death.
Turns out, I love it and I am fascinated with Greek Philosophers, my favorite being Socrates.
I had to write a paper on his life and loved some of what he taught.
So I thought I would give you a brief history lesson and share just a few of his thoughts I liked.
1. A lot of what Socrates said is from a secondary source because
he never wanted to write anything down, which is one thing I didn't like about him.
A lot of what he taught was written down by his students.
So...KEEP A JOURNAL!
My families journal is our blog but Jason and I have decided we need to express our deepest thoughts in our own journal;
written with our own hand.
So that is our late-News Years Resolution- to write in our personal journals weekly.
2. Find ways to build confidence in what you believe and do not be swayed by others opinions.
Find out for yourself and be able to defend your answers.
Socrates would often ask his friends simple questions about what they believed
and ask them why and a lot of the time they could not explain themselves.
 3. Know Yourself
An unexamined life is not worth living. 
What makes you happy? Are you being the true YOU or are you being someone that someone else wants you to be?

4. Beware the barrenness of a busy life.
We are all busy; we all have crazy schedules with a million things to do but are we making sure
our busy lives are filled with meaningful, wonderful experiences?
We have decided our little family must come first- 
no.matter.what.

Anyway-
Thanks for letting me talk a little history with you.


 

1 comment:

Sheila Madsen said...

Thanks for sharing the tiny bit of Socrates and what you've been learning.