Reflection On Philosophy: Fruitful Interaction

Name: Instructor: Course: Date: Reflection on Philosophy Section I: Data Before I began my course on philosophy, I perceived writing as a mere process of handling essays and work assignments so long as one answers the questions correctly as per the instructions. Philosophy course has greatly changed my perceptions. Therefore, I perceive writing philosophy as an important aspect of writing as it enables a person to synthesize and gain a better understanding of the subjects. I value writing process, especially following the best outlines and a way that helps me express myself through communication and fruitful interaction. I usually engage in the writing process and focus a lot on following outlines, followed by provision of facts in relation to the points of the discussion. Besides, I usually embrace the best language that helps me connect with the audience who continuously get interested in various essay papers that I have always provided. Therefore, the two concepts help me develop great works of writing. Separately, I value writing now and for future endeavors, especially in communication. Personally, I believe that writing is an essential tool for expression as well as for documentation of important events. Besides, it is an opportunity for me to be creative and express my beliefs, personalities and express my ideas. I usually get and express my feelings of the world through the power of words. Furthermore, I get encouraged when the audiences are able to comprehend what I see or feel with respect to the topic and the world as a whole. As a writer, I have gained a lot of writing skills and gauge myself as eight out of ten. However, that is not my best hence I strive to achieve high goals. Nevertheless, I find myself as a detailer in all essays and research papers that I do. All the papers I provide have many details provided in a simple and comprehensive way for the readers. I usually read a lot in class and read research work, essays and another project as well as doing assignments. Such endeavors have usually challenged my perception as a writer. Previously, I was a diligent note-taker and never missed a notebook for scribbling ideas and overheard conversations with no inspiration. In most cases, I take writing as a field that gives a person a challenge and an opportunity to improve his or her skills. Sometimes, I lack ideas on a given topic and my solution is usually reading a lot. I have an open mind when reading an article and grasp on new ideas that contribute to the subjects I write upon. Besides, reading the research works and class works enables me to improve the productivity and gain confidence in my skills and what I am worth. Furthermore, reading makes me realize that I should continuously learn new ideas, remain informative at the top notch and relevance in subjects besides focusing on the quality of the papers that I produce. Even though I have not reached the novice scholar, reading enables me to gain much experience in writing numerous topics and items such as essays, poems, articles and blogs among others. I attended a pre-college summer workshop that made me explore various writing techniques to help me find and develop a unique voice and style as a writer. I participated in informal and unstructured writing exercises to develop my trust on the voice in a comfortable atmosphere. Currently, I greatly benefit from such pre-college lessons , especially identifying a unique voice and thoroughly proofreading all my assignments. Such keenness in handling the papers will still help me develop my career and ensure that I deliver quality assignments. Lastly, I have been able to handle all my criticism positively instead of giving up. I usually suck up the non-constructive criticism as well as working on places that require improvement and I see improvement in each and every area of writing. Besides, I usually solve other incidences such as block and lack of ideas through reading, getting enough sleep, resting and engaging in sporting activities. Section II: Objects A choice of “American Humor Vs. other Culture” as a research topic reveals both abstract and concrete aspects of research in writing. Both ideas enhanced my understanding of the practical and impracticability factors in research. For example engagement in a research in relation to cookery leads to exploitation of recipe that elaborates on how to cook dinner. Besides, sampling concepts in research, such as randomization enabled me to select sample sizes suitable for the numerous surveys that I performed. On the other hand, the abstract or relative concept in research that I have encountered includes analysis of data and conducting observational studies among others. Moreover, I have learned and used languages of abstract entailing entities instead of the physical objects and events. Such words include freedom, an event, a conversation, figurative languages, and metaphors among others. Besides, I have dealt with concrete objects in research such as wood, special room, stones, a book, a mountain, performing experiments and in chemical analyses. Lastly, I anticipate that the coming projects will be engaging and challenging. However, the much experiences that I have gained especially visiting study sites such as Kansas City, spending time with my schoolmates in tours, visiting, the terrains of Colorado, being with the family and special teachers, interacting with different people from various social backgrounds, gaining research skills from the summer programs and getting various conversations online with respect to research and writing topics will enlarge my writing and research scopes. Section III: Theme Theme 1: Happiness exists in both American and Asian humor Asians, especially Chinese characterize happiness as harmony or an equilibrium as well as balance within a person as well as between the self and environment. On the other hand, Americans treat happiness as ultimate value in life. The Americans place much emphasis on happiness to indicate that they love the individualistic aspects of life than the collectivist aspects as Chinese people (Yang et al., 1454). Theme 2: Social relationships differ in the both American and Asian cultures Both the Chinese and Americans have different perceptions regarding relationships. The groups from the different social divisions value social relationships. However, Asians emphasize on the merging of two selves to achieve independence while the Americans focus on the negotiation of an accommodation arising from two people who remain independent (Yang et al., 1454). In a nutshell, the both themes reveal that American humor versus other cultures, especially the Asian differs and such differences emanate from the different cultural backgrounds. Essay 2 Critical Analysis of Nature Vs Nurture by Gloria Steinem When examining the debates regarding nature versus nurture, Gloria Steinem recalls many aspects of her life that lead to the transformation of a person for a better future. Gloria Steinem believes that people ask the wrong questions with respect to the topic and mentions that people are an unpredictable mix of both nature and nurture since both elements create unending possibilities for a bright future. When elaborating on her early life education, Steinem says that she never attended school until she was twelve years of age. She had an unsettled life since her parents used to travel a lot using their house trailer hence she missed typical lessons of her generation. Such lessons included the discovery of America, boys, and girls as different species and the use of textbooks in European countries rather than African and Asian continents combined. Instead, Steinem had many experiences as a young girl seeing different activities, focusing on her curiosity, loved books and spending much of her times with the grownups (Steinem 141). Perhaps, the kind of life that Steinem led made her develop intelligence, socioeconomic status, and behavior from the surrounding environment. Besides, spending much time with her parents proved the fact that genealogical history plays a critical role in the development of a person. Therefore, Steinem developed some of her traits from the parents which were unrelated to behaviors and intelligence. Thus, Steinem through her argument refuted the claim on the gene-mediated transfer of behavior from parents to offspring. For example, Steinem began accessing information and intelligence through her interaction with Canadians and later the Kennedys, followed by the eras of the civil rights movement and various war protests against the Vietnam wars. On such narration, Steinem believed that she was not knowledgeable at the time of birth and acquired the behavior due to the surrounding environment (Steinem 141). An illustration of nature with respect to the above sentiments on behavior development as Steinem mentioned on her experience through interactions in different environments, the genetic production of behavior and intelligence come only as a result of evolution. Therefore, a person can successfully maintain his mind and intelligence when his or her parents were genius while the rest of behaviors and characters of a person come from the surrounding environment. Such arguments differ from the idea of Galton, who explored human intelligence and concluded that intelligent people came from families with intelligent family members. Thus, his argument showed that people had the potential to produce only the intelligent men through judicious marriages for a given number of generations (Steinem 141). Separately, Steinem believed that a person becomes knowledgeable through the surrounding environment. She gives a personal experience as a woman who gained a lot of knowledge through the cultural setup rather than the genetic perspective. In her argument, Steinem mentions that women remained in their traditional places until it reached a point when they began forming groups and listening to one another’s life experience which later transformed to national and international feminist movement (Steinem 141). The movement challenged the idea that political aspect change men to a greater percentage and women in their cultural cocoons could not transform. Therefore, she realized that both self-authority and external authority is important. Thus, man is communal and unique to himself, not either of the two (Steinem 141). Examination of the nurture aspect reveals that behavior, intelligence psychological trait of a person emerges from the infancy age through childhood via learning. In most cases, nurture connotes the raising of a person that specifically affects psychological factors when still develop as a child. However, a biological aspect only comes in terms of the physical development and maturation of a person. In support of the statement, the environmentalists note that the human mind at birth is a blank slate and the elements such as intelligence and personality development as a result of nurturing and experience (Steinem 141). Clinging to the environmentalist perspective, Steinem mentioned that she spends much time listening to kids. One time she heard a child who experienced inequality saying, “It’s not fair!” Such sentiment made Steinem think that the child has a primordial empathy expectation and cooperation for survival. However, as time passes, the social pressure increases, which either nourishes or starve the expectation of the child. Therefore, such cry for fairness brings aspects of social justice movements in the society. Thus, a person is a ...