The Trials of Socrates

            Throughout my reading of The Trials of Socrates I have scaled the spectrum of emotions all the way from a state of irritation, to sympathetic, to understanding and appreciative.  This text, although a smooth and easy read, has challenged my mind to pay close attention to the smallest of details in making sense of the philosophes messages while still trying to uncover its relevance to our current unit of community.  The most striking portion of the text to me was certainly Plato’s descriptions of Socrates’ apology to the jury and assembled Athenians.  At first glance of the title of the story I was surprised to see that Socrates, who in our prior readings had so staunchly denied any accountability and showed no guilt for any of the crimes he had been accused of, would be making a public apology for such things.  It soon became clear that the word apology did not have the same meaning during these times in ancient Greece, and that Socrates in fact would be presenting a personal defense of himself to the people assembled in the court.  Much as I did when I read the discourse between Socrates and Euthyphro at the beginning of the book, I started out with an intense sense of annoyance with Socrates’ words and his inability to take any responsibility for even the slightest of charges that were brought against him.  There is no doubt that he is in fact very wise, but the reality that he attempts to use his cunning and often condescending words in his own defense against that very thing was bothersome to read and left me initially frustrated at Socrates.  Quite frankly, at the beginning of this reading his word games and puzzles made me wish for the maximum punishment for him.  I was especially taken aback by his ideas that the youth of Athens were attempting to embody him by trying to question the wisdom of other individuals as Socrates had once done.  I viewed this as an extremely self centered and ridiculous concept for him to say because I thought this only spoke to the accusers’ convictions that Socrates viewed his own wisdom as much greater than that of any other and that he was trying to dominate society with his blasphemous views.  As I fought to get through this portion of the reading, my opinions finally began to change when Socrates began to attack the integrity of Meletus and the rest of the accusers.  I was so focused on the extremely self-righteous manner in which Socrates presented his defense that I never took the time to truly evaluate the case that the Athenians had brought against him.  I think this speaks to a general bias of character that is present in any individual when reading a text, and in hindsight I am glad that I fought through my distaste of the text log enough to get to this point of Socrates actually speaking ideas that appealed and made sense to me.  Ultimately, I believe that although the thoughts and ideas presented in this text were sometimes frustrating to me, they do represent a very eloquent and important philosophical account of human ethics and the pursuit of them that is used even in modern times.  These thoughts and accounts have helped to shape the structure of many important practices and institutions in the educational, social, and even governmental spheres, and they have contributed immensely to the vast intellectual community that shapes our world today.    

Borderlands

      In Borderlands-La Frontera, Gloria Anzaldúa describes the trials and tribulations that plague her life as she investigates her self, her land, and her language.  From the onset I was very intrigued by what I thought would be the natural plot flow of this text where Anzaldúa would describe her personal struggles as well as those of her people in attempting to come to a new land of opportunity, albeit one that did not openly accept them.  As a mestiza, or woman of mixed parentage, as well as a lesbian, her path to acceptance came at a much more burdensome price of conflict and denial.  For some, the use of the Spanish language to complement the major ideas of the text may have come as a burden, but even though I only know the basic elements of the language I could tell even before consulting a dictionary the emotion and power that accompanied the various language forms of the mestizo that Anzaldúa describes.  It was hard for me to understand at first why the entirety of the text was not translated to modern English, but I soon came to appreciate the beauty of the Spanish language more than I ever have previously in my studies of it.  Modern English does not translate in the same fashion as Spanish so hence by translating it the reader would be losing the true point that the author is trying to convey about her emotions and actions in these pivotal times of cultural conflict.  My necessity for the Spanish to English dictionary, therefore, became far less bothersome as I became to understand Anzaldús’s point, along with Temple University’s point, in making us read this text.  I really think that by detailing life from the border she is presenting to the reader an entirely different and new culture in and of itself.  While much attention is paid to the conflict that exists between the United States and Mexico, the author is showing us the world of the oppressed mestizo in the borderlands through thoughts, words, and values.  It is rare that an account in literature is based entirely upon the voice of the oppressed, and her words have helped me to appreciate that fact that culture can in fact be identified and wrapped up in language.  These individuals on the border seemed to live by creating their own voices amongst themselves that embodied their values of hard work and a desire to understand everything that they encountered in life.  I was also able to appreciate Anzaldúa’s references to art and imagery because these are things that I can personally identify with, and I feel that art of any variety is crucial to building and appreciating the beauties and ultimately the truths that lie within any culture.  Also, I was surprisingly able to draw some parallels between Anzaldúa’s writing and the lectures of Freud.  She frequently discusses the presence of the unconscious imagery that drives what she does in real life and the emotions and thoughts that accompany these actions.  For example, she discusses the serpent in the unconscious of her slumber as the symbol of “the dark sexual drive, the feminine, the serpentine movement of sexual creativity, and the basis of all energy and life.”  These words immediately brought my mind to Freud’s discussions on dreams and helped me to understand the sequence in which we are studying these texts in class.  Anzaldúa’s work examines perspectives on the mestizo in not only a cultural light, but she also acknowledges and details the psychological attributes that contribute to her writing and the identity of her people as a whole.      

Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis

       While reading Sigmund Freud’s accounts and ideas concerning the relationship between doctor and mental patient, I could not help concluding that his radical and borderline foolish ideas must have been a bit absurd even in the age that this text was written.  As he details parapraxes, dreams, the unconscious, and sexuality, he sheds light on ideas and shuns actions that are otherwise habitual in nature for individuals living in the 21^st century, and it took me quite a while to understand why I was being required to read such blasphemous material.  After some careful thought and consideration, I was able to grasp the concept that Freud’s ideas once constituted the entirety of academic and medical research on the topic of psychology and psycho-analysis, and this led me to a deeper thoughts of how all major theories and ideas concerning any area of life had to start somewhere.  This newfound appreciation led me to absorb the rest of the text in a different frame of mind, and although I still do not buy into what Freud is saying in the context of present day society, I can now see the purpose of reading this text was in fact to gain an appreciation for the roots of all principle ideas in life as well as to see how our society has drastically changed since these lectures were penned.  It is impossible to ignore the fact that Freud’s ideas were controversial then and they will continue to be controversial as long as the human mind is studied.  I was regularly drawn to the ideas of other disciplines that starkly contrasted Freud’s views and provided concrete evidence as to why his ideas were and are just plain inaccurate.  I think one of the larger examples of this lies in Freud’s analysis of children and how their minds and sexualities are molded from a very early age.  Present day pathologists contend that childhood events cannot in any way be linked to later age mental deficiencies or even the sexuality of adults.  A child’s mind absorbs information, but according to many professionals, does not form conscious decisions concerning this material until a later and more developed age.  Along with this idea, I was probably most intrigued by Freud’s consistent opinionated judgment of mental conditions and patients and how he automatically condemned some actions and not others with no real basis or evidentiary value for such thoughts.  I feel this use of subjectivity on the part of Freud explains the entirety of my issue with this text in a few words.  How can a person who has never experienced any of these mental conditions or lived the lives of the individuals who are afflicted with them form a proper judgment of the causes for said illnesses? As much as Freud and all doctors try to be objective, the subjectivity of the human identity always presents itself, and I feel as if this book demonstrates that in a much greater capacity than others.  I do believe that Freud’s work in some cases is valid and has some solidarity in principle, but I think it took the study of many individuals who confirmed or debunked his original ideas in these lectures to make this basis of psychological study a sound framework for future research.  Conclusively, although the lectures of Sigmund Freud confused and astounded me at some points, I was able to garner an appreciation for some of his ideas, such as the Freudian slip, that still exist today.  Without his research and trials, however unsound and controversial they may seem, humanity would not have near as complete of an understanding of the human mind and the deficiencies that can plague its function.