(no subject)
so i suppose this is more for the sake of completeness than anything else, but my edited final essay lies below. i think it's better than the other one because its mroe condensed, but my mom thinks it lacks some "emotion"
As you reflect on your life thus far, what has someone said, written or expressed in some fashion that is especially meaningful to you? Why?
I enjoy reading. A lot of the books I like are science fiction. Although you don't hear as much about this genre in school, it nevertheless can have characters and plot as deep and complex as any of Shakespeare's works. One of my favorite books is Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. It's about a boy in a futuristic society who was born for the sole purpose of defeating an alien menace that has attacked Earth twice in the past. Ender is a genius among geniuses. He sees things others don't and has a unique blend of compassion and ruthlessness that makes him the ideal leader. When Ender first arrives at the school he immediately sees a better way to conduct the “games” that the kids play to train, however because of his ingenuity he's castigated and disrespected. The heads of Ender's school push him until he cracks.
The novel gives me a sense of what this character is going through and how much he hates what he has to do and what is being done to him. This book has impacted me because of the complex behavior and moral and philosophical questions that are presented. There are also important questions like is it justifiable to make one or a few people suffer in order to ensure the wellbeing of the general populace? If so, to what extent?
The fundamental reason why I love this book is that it gave me an abundance of material to think about. I love to think. My passions are to explore my own psyche and broad moral questions. The beauty of this book is that it presents all kinds of gritty meaningful scenarios where the characters made their own decisions which prompted me to question their choices. It gave me a chance to think about whether they were right or if what they did was completely immoral. Since most of the people in the book were brilliant they presented their problems in very rational ways. Even as Ender suffered through the agony of what they put him through, he realized that it needed to be done to save the world. This kind of logic gave me a framework with which to consider the situation. I found that the characters in the book were thinking along the same lines I was.
No doubt there have been all kinds of poems and treatises from the Renaissance and Enlightenment written about how the ability to think is the glory of man. I've read almost none of them. To me, thought and reason are infinitely flexible tools through which we can solve our problems as well as create problems. When Ford created the first internal combustion engine, people weren't saying, “Wow, we sure need a self-propelling carriage.” Ford, however, realized that how to move around more quickly and effectively was a problem and through further application of his mind created a solution. We can also create new solutions. For hundreds of years people used lamps or candles to light their rooms and although there was some hassle involved it worked. Eventually Thomas Edison decided he could find a better solution and ended up with the light bulb. Both the internal combustion engine and the light bulb have been improved on hundreds of times since thanks to others' ingenuity. We are constantly undergoing a process of intellectual evolution. It this potential for change and improvement that attracts me so much to logical analysis.
I enjoy pondering philosophical questions, especially with other people. What I like so much is that they're like a puzzle, a puzzle with any number of possibilities and solutions. Questions can also be continuously expanded as you discuss them with people who bring new points of view and new arguments. Eventually most complex moral questions boil down to a dilemma of values or opinion, but refining them to that point can be stimulating.
Ender's Game tapped into my craving for critical thinking. It has become one of the most provocative books I have ever read. Long after I finished it, I continue to be consumed with the ethical dilemmas it raised and examine my own behavior through a new lens.
As you reflect on your life thus far, what has someone said, written or expressed in some fashion that is especially meaningful to you? Why?
I enjoy reading. A lot of the books I like are science fiction. Although you don't hear as much about this genre in school, it nevertheless can have characters and plot as deep and complex as any of Shakespeare's works. One of my favorite books is Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. It's about a boy in a futuristic society who was born for the sole purpose of defeating an alien menace that has attacked Earth twice in the past. Ender is a genius among geniuses. He sees things others don't and has a unique blend of compassion and ruthlessness that makes him the ideal leader. When Ender first arrives at the school he immediately sees a better way to conduct the “games” that the kids play to train, however because of his ingenuity he's castigated and disrespected. The heads of Ender's school push him until he cracks.
The novel gives me a sense of what this character is going through and how much he hates what he has to do and what is being done to him. This book has impacted me because of the complex behavior and moral and philosophical questions that are presented. There are also important questions like is it justifiable to make one or a few people suffer in order to ensure the wellbeing of the general populace? If so, to what extent?
The fundamental reason why I love this book is that it gave me an abundance of material to think about. I love to think. My passions are to explore my own psyche and broad moral questions. The beauty of this book is that it presents all kinds of gritty meaningful scenarios where the characters made their own decisions which prompted me to question their choices. It gave me a chance to think about whether they were right or if what they did was completely immoral. Since most of the people in the book were brilliant they presented their problems in very rational ways. Even as Ender suffered through the agony of what they put him through, he realized that it needed to be done to save the world. This kind of logic gave me a framework with which to consider the situation. I found that the characters in the book were thinking along the same lines I was.
No doubt there have been all kinds of poems and treatises from the Renaissance and Enlightenment written about how the ability to think is the glory of man. I've read almost none of them. To me, thought and reason are infinitely flexible tools through which we can solve our problems as well as create problems. When Ford created the first internal combustion engine, people weren't saying, “Wow, we sure need a self-propelling carriage.” Ford, however, realized that how to move around more quickly and effectively was a problem and through further application of his mind created a solution. We can also create new solutions. For hundreds of years people used lamps or candles to light their rooms and although there was some hassle involved it worked. Eventually Thomas Edison decided he could find a better solution and ended up with the light bulb. Both the internal combustion engine and the light bulb have been improved on hundreds of times since thanks to others' ingenuity. We are constantly undergoing a process of intellectual evolution. It this potential for change and improvement that attracts me so much to logical analysis.
I enjoy pondering philosophical questions, especially with other people. What I like so much is that they're like a puzzle, a puzzle with any number of possibilities and solutions. Questions can also be continuously expanded as you discuss them with people who bring new points of view and new arguments. Eventually most complex moral questions boil down to a dilemma of values or opinion, but refining them to that point can be stimulating.
Ender's Game tapped into my craving for critical thinking. It has become one of the most provocative books I have ever read. Long after I finished it, I continue to be consumed with the ethical dilemmas it raised and examine my own behavior through a new lens.