Besides the Preliminary Exam anxieties that are pretty much taking over my life, today was quite interesting. Today was filled with new discoveries, new people, and new perspectives.
Rather than going in order of what happened from morning to now, I'll take a fresh stab at writing ILC blogs. This blog will consist more of my thoughts which were influenced by the events in my day. So today, I'll focus on three main topics that I had mentioned earlier: new discoveries, new people, and new perspectives.
The first discovery of mine was the amount of knowledge that I had grasped. Just from one and a half weeks of philosophy, it is amazing the kind of views I had gained about the world surrounding me. Now, I'm able to look at different aspects of life and connect to what I've learned. For instance, when I say that I work hard to get what I want, it is a very Lockean argument. Locke basically mentions, "Different degrees of industry were apt to give men possessions in different proportions." (Something that we went over in lecture today) Anyways, my point here is that philosophy has allowed me to grow as a person and look at the world through a different set of eyes and that is only thanks to the Ivy League Connection. When I talk in a general conversation, my answers are much more mature as I know learned the basis of backing up any argument with evidence, and avidly participating in the discussion sessions has helped me become brave enough to voice my opinions to different people. Did I say it has only been half-way through the course?
To get to know the students better, Professor Kramnick sets up lunch with 5-6 students to get to know them better two times a week. Today, it was my turn to meet him. :) Why do I say I had the chance to "meet" Professor Kramnick even though I've had class with him for 1.5 weeks now? Rather than being one of the 33 heads floating in the lecture room, I was a person with a story and I was able to convey this to him. Professor Kramnick was quite interested in all of our stories during lunch. He asked us to tell where we are from, the school we go to, how our family is like, what we're thinking of doing in the future, and why we chose this course. When I told him I was a part of the Ivy League Connection, his face lit up. And if Mr. Ramsey is reading this right now, Professor Kramnick says hi all the way from Ithaca. :)
Another person I was able to meet was Seth Peacock, a neighboring attorney coming from downtown Ithaca. However, his perspectives on justice shocked me more than anything else. Rather than saying, "As lawyers, we fight for justice and make sure justice is served," Peacock took the idea way more realistically. At the end of the day, lawyers are humans too. They need money to keep their lives and families functioning. Hence, there is an economic concern when it comes to justice. It is the idea that a check can buy justice in today's society. It's the idea that we are all too driven my this concept of money that the ideology of justice is often left behind. I really respect Peacock's views towards justice and society because he told it as it was. He didn't care to artificially say that justice must be served; it's the fact that money keeps us all running that we sometimes have to admit to the fact money can outweigh justice. Something definitely seems wrong with the system according to Seth Peacock's interpretations.
Anyways, tomorrow is the prelim and I'm definitely nervous but excited to see how my knowledge of philosophy plays out. I will always do my best for both myself as well as the community I'm representing, my district.
Don't worry. You will do well. Good Luck.
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