This book completely rocked my world. There was so much on every page that really made me stop and think, and it really added a new perspective to the ways I view debate and argument. Mostly, though, I'm just impressed with Philo.
Philo debates with both precision and accuracy, all while managing (for the most part) to avoid causing offense. For the first eleven parts of this book, I assumed this was because he was passionate about his thoughts and he wanted to persuade Cleanthes and Demea into agreeing with him. And then we reached part twelve and as it turns out Philo literally agreed with Cleanthes the entire time (which, by the way, is hilarious). So why did he put so much effort into breaking apart Cleanthes' entire worldview?
Philo states that all this debate stemmed from his hatred of "vulgar superstitions," and I truly find this to be incredibly commendable of him. He was able to completely step out of his own beliefs and look at them objectively in order to make sure that they could be proven. This is something that we don't usually take much time to do, but we can see from Philo that it's crucial that we do so. If we aren't able to find flaws in our reasoning or questions that need to be answered in our own thought processes, then we are entirely too confident in our own broken human understanding. I was challenged by Philo's willingness to look outside of himself and take into consideration that he could be wrong. Instead of blindly continuing in his own understanding, he risked being wrong by asking the tough questions. Philo is a prime example of what it looks like to be an enlightened thinker, and honestly I think he's also a great embodiment of what the Honors Program is trying to do for our campus community.
abbie & cody
Philo debates with both precision and accuracy, all while managing (for the most part) to avoid causing offense. For the first eleven parts of this book, I assumed this was because he was passionate about his thoughts and he wanted to persuade Cleanthes and Demea into agreeing with him. And then we reached part twelve and as it turns out Philo literally agreed with Cleanthes the entire time (which, by the way, is hilarious). So why did he put so much effort into breaking apart Cleanthes' entire worldview?
Philo states that all this debate stemmed from his hatred of "vulgar superstitions," and I truly find this to be incredibly commendable of him. He was able to completely step out of his own beliefs and look at them objectively in order to make sure that they could be proven. This is something that we don't usually take much time to do, but we can see from Philo that it's crucial that we do so. If we aren't able to find flaws in our reasoning or questions that need to be answered in our own thought processes, then we are entirely too confident in our own broken human understanding. I was challenged by Philo's willingness to look outside of himself and take into consideration that he could be wrong. Instead of blindly continuing in his own understanding, he risked being wrong by asking the tough questions. Philo is a prime example of what it looks like to be an enlightened thinker, and honestly I think he's also a great embodiment of what the Honors Program is trying to do for our campus community.
abbie & cody
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