After reading Jonathon's post, I felt invigorated, as though it was my sophomore year, and I was in pat shade's ethics class experiencing the same revelation. I alluded to this same fact in a comment to his post, but I felt this was important enough to solicit another post. As I commented, I am a senior philosophy major, and thus, some of these themes and thinkers can be repetitive and one (me) can easily fall into a bit of a delirious drone-like philosophy stupor. Hearing a personal account of that some one's connection between book (ideals) and life, as we all do, reminds us (and reopens our eyes to) what makes philosophy so special; it is not just a major, it is a way (and understanding) of life. That may sound bizarre to some of you, but just wait; you will understand in the time so come. Understanding that this is not just a class on social and political philosophy, or a class on justice is key; this is about justice in your life, about how we interact with other people, how we have gone wrong, and perhaps how we should fix it. It should drive you to desire those ideals you agree upon and to implement them in every aspect of your life. Plato's account of the soul may not be perfect, but striving for some resemblance of a just soul is an absolutely respectable endeavor.
And with that, also know that this class is the tip of the iceberg; there is much to learn, so much to question, so much to change, there is a place for every person to find purpose. You just have to do a little searching, philosophy can be your guide.
Congrats to you Jonathon, good luck to the rest, and thanks for reopening my tired eyes.
-Walter
P.S.
With all of that said, I would like to take this time for a shameless plug: If every person could have this revelation in grade school, imagine how much better off this world could be. If we insist on separating church and state (which I believe is a good idea) we might want to think about substituting something for the therapy of our souls. We don't have to believe in God, Jesus, Buddha, etc to believe in the good; and that seems to be what has happened. We have acquired the science to disprove God, logically removed it removed it from our lives, and now something must fill that void.
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I agree completely. This is the third philosophy class that I have taken at Rhodes, and each one has allowed me to look at myself, and do some self-discovery, along with reading famous philosophers too. It's a nice change from the I.S. classes I'm used to taking. I think this class has the potential to really allow us to look at something so integral to our society: justice, and try to pinpoint a general/universal definition, as well as look inward and decide what justice means to each of us.
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