Philosophy Reflection

China’s One-Child Policy which was created in 1980, brought much negativity among people, this policy restricted and disabled many human rights and violations in which i totally disagree with this entire policy. It blocked and restricted many family members to inherit and have kids which was a very disturbing matter, it’s sad how at that time parents couldn’t have babies born. There were many other negative impactful factors, there was a lot of racial discrimination among blacks and other races in that time period, people started forcing them to work as a slave tragically. One of the most important major factors that stood out in the One-Child Policy was

Language plays a significant role in defining who we are. It is a method of communication in a structured and conventional way. “Language reinforces feelings of social superiority or inferiority; it creates insiders and outsiders” (p. 242) states Robert MacNeil (2012) in his article “English Belongs to Everybody”.

Choosing a topic to write my research essay over came pretty easily to me. I have grown up around my mothers best friend and never have I thought that she had an illness-that she was bipolar. She is a single mother, has a special needs son and is one of the most compassionate women I have ever met. She comes across as put together, supportive and outgoing; always seeming to have a positive outlook on life. It wasn’t until I was older that I learned about her childhood and her fight with bipolar disorder. As a child she had uncontrollable mood swings and was eventually diagnosed with bipolar disorder her sophomore year in college. She told me about her struggles and not comprehending why she was acting the way that she did, it intrigues

When we, as people, speak, we convey our beliefs, morals, and inner thoughts through language; therefore, the way in which we do so reveals a lot about our personalities and lives. After reading the assigned essays, it is clear to me that language plays a vital role in my life and helps to reveal who I am as a person. The language used by myself and the people I surround myself with molds my speaks patterns and life as a whole everyday. Amy Tan, author of “Mother Tongue,” explains better than I ever could how the language that we use and are exposed to changes the type of people we are in general. In one excerpt from the essay, she stated that the language she grew up with molded her beliefs and overall perspective on the world. One of the

It is still so surreal to reflect back on my first semester as an incoming college student in the ENC1101 course, analyzing at my progression as a reader and writer in literacy. Since the first day of class I set in stone my goals for this class: receive a 4.0 GPA, develop my connecting theories skills in writing, and become more aware of objectives for each Unit throughout the course. All of these goals became achievements that not only make others proud but most importantly give me self pride. In order to earn the grades and achieve these goals, I went after every opportunity that I was given as an incoming college student, such as office hours and extra credit. By taking this course I have gained confidence with the utilization of literacy, and made an addition to my group of impactful literacy sponsors. Once students are finished with high school they assume that there is nothing else to learn beyond the stereotypical five paragraph essay, but they are so wrong. I was able to obtain so much knowledge about numerous course concepts from Writing about Writing, articles, and my professor. These concepts will carry on with me throughout a bright future of writing courses, job interviews, and any other skills that require literacy. The four outcomes listed below will help illuminate how I improved as a writer, by being a driven college student and going out of the way to earn my achievements in this course. In the first outcome I improved comprehending scholar texts,

Language is an integral part of human existence. It is not only a crucial tool in which we use to convey meaning to others, but also a cultural construct passed down from previous generations that helps to define who we are and how we relate to others. Ultimately language defines our relationships with others, the way we use language is shaped by our own socio- cultural background and also that of whoever we may be communicating with. Self awareness of how our own use of language has been shaped by our background and an understanding of what shapes others use of language leads to better communication, understanding and empathy.

My decision on a major field of study at Western Michigan University was a process that took much thought and reflection. With my high school teachers’ strong leadership, they inspired me to possibly pursue anything as a career. The long process of finding out what I want to do with my life started in the summer when I was trying to figure out what career would best suit me for the future. Im that kind of person where I need entertainment in my life, so I narrowed it down to some jobs I can't do, such as being a business major and sitting in a office my whole life, and accounting, because I despise math. During my thinking process, I utilized what subjects I enjoyed in high school that I’d like to learn more about in college. I came to a

1) An intellectual generalist is a philosopher whose area of knowledge has no specific focus and whose skills of critical thinking and capacity for discernment are nothing more than general intellectual ones.

In my last writing journal, I talked about why people like Donald Trump are so popular. Since then I read a CNN article in which they interviewed people at Trump rallies and asked them why they supported the man. My takeaway was that these people are afraid of change. This is actually pretty obvious if you think about the last word in Trump’s campaign slogan. Trump wants to make America great again. The “again” implies that we’ve lost something, that we’re not as good as we used to be. Obviously a lot of people won’t agree with my belief that change, as a whole, is almost always a good thing. I believe that if we are creating change then life will get better. Change doesn’t always lead to improvements in everyone’s lives, but, collectively,

The lesson I’m going to tell you about was a very important one. It shaped me into who I am today, and the outlook I have on things. This might not be a situation that other people would think would be important, or necessary, or something you should remember for years to come. But this moment has stuck with me since I was 8. This instance was when I Skipped school back in 3rd grade.

Throughout the course, the various readings regarding the philosophy discipline have surely affected my own belief system. Preceding the course, I had not considered many of the issued discussed. Some details, like Bentham’s theory, provided me with a completely new outlook. Others such as views of God and eternal life affirmed conclusions I had already made.

From my readings to research from Edutopia to literature courses, I have gained a deeper appreciation for language. In order to understand what one is speaking, a person needs to spend time listening to one’s language and before responding must reflect and analyze what the other said and how to respond. If a person wants to love another person they have to listen to their language in order to speak their language, and the core part of learning another language is by listening. According to Joan Blaska, author of The Power of Language: Speak and Write Using “Person First” the language people use shows one’s bias and prejudices.  Beliefs and another’s performance fall under the influence of language. Blaska claimed “ the degree to which children are able to perceive themselves as competent and worthy, or the opposite, is heavily influenced by the verbalizations used by their teachers...Studies have found that labeling of students does affect teacher expectations which in turn affects student progress”. People have heavy influence with their words, because of this, our language must be intentional in a way, that breaks down negative stereotypes and helps one gain empathy as well as seeing others capabilities. Communicating and reading others comments and inquiring others has helped me to accept

We, individuals, observe our own character, emotions, and desires. We learn from ourselves every day on how we react and treat certain situations. We grow up to learn that we can't treat or react in certain ways because we will get punished or we'll be seen differently which shapes the way we are due to the fact we're afraid about what others are going to judge. Resulting in the way we grew up has taught us self-advocacy considering that we have to make our own decisions in life caused by our environment, family, and school. When our mind is maturing we start to distinguish our strengths and our flaws especially when we start to understand ourselves. Individually we make our own decisions when we're alone by having to support your decisions to responsible and stable. We learn how to be ourselves and experience failure to help us grow, it teaches us lessons that can later on helping us academically and socially shaping us self-advocacy. Self-advocacy allows us, students, to admit our failures that make us succeed from working on our mistakes. Similar to school we learn about our abilities on our learning styles and occasionally we need tips on how to focus in class. Taking educational surveys have actually helped students how to gain academic insights and making the learning process easier once you know how you function.

The idea of presenting a workshop in class is a very scary thought for me. As the sign-up sheet went around for our in-class workshop, the date picked was for convenience rather than subject. For the first time at Cal Poly, I am juggling four classes. What a time to start to be ambitious! The early weeks I was completely lost in class and up until that point I had relied solely on my life experience to hopefully get me through this class. Understanding the concept of analyzing text or imagines merely by looking at the piece was easy, but terms like ethos and pathos, additionally, the explanation of new criticism’s goal for literary analysis to emulate scientific theory really all escaped me. In the weeks that followed, and our second journal was due, I had read, Sarrasine (Balzac); and The Purloined Letter (Poe). Now a tiny voice inside my head said, “I got this.”

Often when the term philosophy comes to play, people’s minds tend to reminisce of the greats, the founding fathers. Aristotle, Socrates, Julius Caesar. While I personally have read multiple philosophical writings in my life, I did not realize how prevalent it was in my daily life. Utilitarianism, a term I learned over the course over the semester proved to reflect who I am as a person. Utilitarianism, acting upon a choice that is agreed to bring the utmost “good”. We as humans are not one dimensional, there are copious factors that make up an individual. With multiple theories depicting how we act, why we acted so, and how we acted so can be reflected on philosophy. Ethical Egoism “In philosophy, egoism is the theory that one’s self is, or should be, the motivation and the goal of one’s own action.” (Mosely). These two theories have been a foundation of my current life, as well as the life around me. We can also apply these current theories to modern day events. Utilitarianism is the belief that one’s actions and morality should be judged by the consequences and products of those given actions, if they produce results that are “greatest good fort the greatest number of people” (Julia). Today, we have events that could fall into these two theories, of course certain events may lean towards one side and other events may lean otherwise. What comes to mind is the battle for Net Neutrality.