When watching something like a slasher film, or some other horror movie, seeing a character sustain or fall from a wound inflicted upon them by a villain always makes me cringe and feel some of the pain that the character is feeling. I try to avoid at all costs the moments when a person falls victim to physical pain and wounds, because it makes people like me feel unwanted empathy, which is also the reason that I don't like that genre of films. People like my sister, and one of my uncles whom I know so well, don't look away when watching the same scenes as me, and don't cringe when the moment where pain is inflicted onto a character. Knowing how my sister appears to be kind and caring around her own friends, but unfeeling in this situation, I realized soon after that sympathy and empathy are different things, and to some degree, I believe that just because one has one trait, doesn't mean that the other will inhabit the same individual. However, at the same time, it can be said that if one experiences the specific type of pain felt before, sympathy for others who are known to receive the same type of pain, grows from the person with the certain experiences.
It hurts hypothetically to know someone or be around one individual who cannot feel the pain that we are feeling at a certain moment, because as social creatures of habit, we prefer to have some comfort among others in social interaction, people who can make us feel better and help us out in need for the sake of friendship or love. Many times, however, involves suffering of individuals who do not have the same safety or having others that share their experiences, and others who completely lack empathy, and thus lack the necessary chemicals the share others' experiences. In this sense, empathy is merely but a chemical that connects us as human beings that share a sense of humanity; it allows us to be with one another, and either share or disagree with views put forward to act as either 'good' or 'bad' beings.
If empathy is but a mere chemical compound that follows a normal distribution among human beings, high in a few, even in frequency at a medium amount in most, or in low amounts, or even nonexistent in a few as well, it still is probably the most important thing for us to act as human beings, and allows connection with others around us. From an early age, people can learn the feeling of pain, i.e. when touching an oven that is on, and burns one of our fingers, we respond by creating a sensory memory of an oven being hot that burns us, and that we should not touch it in the future based on experience. If empathy exists in an individual, then when we see another person burn their finger by touching a hot oven, we can either feel their pain to some extent, or even feel a sense of sympathy for the pain they have just experienced. If one lacks empathy however, that individual most likely cannot feel the same pain the other has experienced, even though they themselves have probably faced before, but nonetheless either feel sympathy because they were taught to, or do not feel any sympathy as well whatsoever. In this sense, in society, the pain that others face in their lifetimes can either be reflected by the world community as a whole, or let go because most people (or just the leaders) in another community lack the necessary empathy to formulate a societal definition of what is wrong and what is right when looking at the pain another group faces. Empathy then must be the gateway for individuals to decide what they feel affects themselves and not just others in terms of good and evil, and just because one part of society may think something is bad because it is not on par with what their standards on good are (much of society has empathy and shares a uniform standard of good and evil in most cases), another group may think the opposite way.
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Thursday, September 17, 2015
How see through this philosphy class
As a student of few words, many times I find it difficult to convey my own thoughts out loud, as I'm concerned a lot about whether they mean anything to others or myself. Philosophy is a matter that only I'm concerned with in regards to asking the question 'why am I here' or even how to uncover how my personality can be used to contribute to the lives of others around me. These issues present me with another, hindering roadblock that I can't seem to ever shake: knowledge on the self-existence.
Getting the confidence to do things like speak in socratic seminars, or just classroom conversations has always been a challenge (mostly for me), and with philosophy, there's an even bigger hindrance because the subject matter is much more broad than an average English class. Everything that has lead up to even this small point in my life (the philosophy in lit class) has made me question my existence and identity in choices such as taking a much different workload from other people. I wanted to make it a reality that I would be a different student in senior year, one who would speak freely his own thoughts and views on the world around him, but even while there is an unseen mover that is the human brain, pieced together by remnants of pure thought, or a God that moves objects toward actuality whilst distributing free will among all worldly creatures and humans, there is a limit to life and the choices that people can make, many of which are not, in fact, up to them themselves. A subconscious always prevents me from doing what I wish I could do for example, and while I would want to write down all my thoughts on this blog post that I'm in the process of typing, an unknown mover within me prevents me from doing so perhaps because of fear of not sounding like a perfect student, or the most intelligent person that I, or anyone else could be.
Existence for the sake of this class may be, for me, to get a grade of 'A', but for what purpose I don't know, because I may be most likely be trying to only get into Santa Monica or El Camino college. But for the most part, that may not be what I truly want even though I may or may not have a wide array of choices surrounding this situation. Though we strive for perfection and set standards for ourselves, nothing can go through in all the ways we imagine them, or how we want them to be. While we pursue the same goal of receiving an 'A' in this class, limits are set on every single individual person, as the unseen and unmoving mover makes us the way we are: not prone to change easily, but only different in the ways we pursue our own philosophy in lit class goal, and/or our other separate goals.
While we may exist for the purpose of finding our own destiny and convincing ourselves that (maybe) fate is not predetermined for everyone, we can exist to find our path that will convince us of the world and others, in the image we would prefer to see it in. Perhaps a soul is a mover within us that gives us our purpose in free will and individual growth of character in the chase for our own self-good, and maybe a God exists to place us down the path for perfection and actuality, but while we may not be able to achieve the perfection, we can reach levels of excellence that will get us an 'A' in this class, realize more useful philosophy, or for me, help in proving that my existence is not to stay quiet during the class discussions and seminars, which may help my speaking confidence.
Getting the confidence to do things like speak in socratic seminars, or just classroom conversations has always been a challenge (mostly for me), and with philosophy, there's an even bigger hindrance because the subject matter is much more broad than an average English class. Everything that has lead up to even this small point in my life (the philosophy in lit class) has made me question my existence and identity in choices such as taking a much different workload from other people. I wanted to make it a reality that I would be a different student in senior year, one who would speak freely his own thoughts and views on the world around him, but even while there is an unseen mover that is the human brain, pieced together by remnants of pure thought, or a God that moves objects toward actuality whilst distributing free will among all worldly creatures and humans, there is a limit to life and the choices that people can make, many of which are not, in fact, up to them themselves. A subconscious always prevents me from doing what I wish I could do for example, and while I would want to write down all my thoughts on this blog post that I'm in the process of typing, an unknown mover within me prevents me from doing so perhaps because of fear of not sounding like a perfect student, or the most intelligent person that I, or anyone else could be.
Existence for the sake of this class may be, for me, to get a grade of 'A', but for what purpose I don't know, because I may be most likely be trying to only get into Santa Monica or El Camino college. But for the most part, that may not be what I truly want even though I may or may not have a wide array of choices surrounding this situation. Though we strive for perfection and set standards for ourselves, nothing can go through in all the ways we imagine them, or how we want them to be. While we pursue the same goal of receiving an 'A' in this class, limits are set on every single individual person, as the unseen and unmoving mover makes us the way we are: not prone to change easily, but only different in the ways we pursue our own philosophy in lit class goal, and/or our other separate goals.
While we may exist for the purpose of finding our own destiny and convincing ourselves that (maybe) fate is not predetermined for everyone, we can exist to find our path that will convince us of the world and others, in the image we would prefer to see it in. Perhaps a soul is a mover within us that gives us our purpose in free will and individual growth of character in the chase for our own self-good, and maybe a God exists to place us down the path for perfection and actuality, but while we may not be able to achieve the perfection, we can reach levels of excellence that will get us an 'A' in this class, realize more useful philosophy, or for me, help in proving that my existence is not to stay quiet during the class discussions and seminars, which may help my speaking confidence.
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