Your Life on Earth: Philosophizing Purpose and Place in the 21st Century
Project Description:
The Personal Philosophy project was designed as a toolbox for students to determine their own purpose on this Earth. The teachers gave the students many “tools” or resources about different philosophical ideas, different movements/changes in society’s philosophy, history about early philosophers, and the importance of intertextuality. With all of this new knowledge and understanding, students were then set free to discover which philosophies they resonated with most and fine-tune their own personal philosophy. We were responsible for creating a written component that explains our philosophy to others, and also a visual component that adds imagery and context to our written component. A large part of this project was focusing on the idea that everything you read or learn about adds a new layer of personal knowledge to ourselves and these things shape what we think about the world. This is called intertextuality and we were required to show evidence of this in our written component to show that we have learned and mastered the idea of intertextuality. The other main part of this project was to learn about philosophical ideology in the 21st century. The new skills and concepts that exist now are a big part of our lives as the younger generation, and this project helped us navigate how to take historical philosophies and adapt them to our lives now.
My personal project was titled “To Whom It May Concern”, in which I wrote a letter to not anyone specific, but to whomever is navigating and discovering their own personal philosophy. I tell the reader that I write this letter to them as not a set of instructions but as a guide to navigating their own life. In my letter, I write about my experiences and my own beliefs about the purpose and creating a meaningful life. This idea stemmed from the book that we read in class this semester called Into The Wild; a story about Christopher McCandless that ventured into the Alaskan Wilderness to find his purpose. In the book, Chris writes to one of his close friends and mentors telling him to make a drastic change in his life and spend the rest of his life adventuring and really experiencing life. This letter was one of my favorite passages in the book, and the idea of writing to someone else really intrigued me. My visual component consisted of a small photography exhibit paired with quotes of philosophers and authors we read throughout the semester that gave evidence to my knowledge of intertextuality. The images I chose really added a picture to the topics I wrote about in my letter including love, life in the outdoors, and being yourself.
My personal project was titled “To Whom It May Concern”, in which I wrote a letter to not anyone specific, but to whomever is navigating and discovering their own personal philosophy. I tell the reader that I write this letter to them as not a set of instructions but as a guide to navigating their own life. In my letter, I write about my experiences and my own beliefs about the purpose and creating a meaningful life. This idea stemmed from the book that we read in class this semester called Into The Wild; a story about Christopher McCandless that ventured into the Alaskan Wilderness to find his purpose. In the book, Chris writes to one of his close friends and mentors telling him to make a drastic change in his life and spend the rest of his life adventuring and really experiencing life. This letter was one of my favorite passages in the book, and the idea of writing to someone else really intrigued me. My visual component consisted of a small photography exhibit paired with quotes of philosophers and authors we read throughout the semester that gave evidence to my knowledge of intertextuality. The images I chose really added a picture to the topics I wrote about in my letter including love, life in the outdoors, and being yourself.
Project Reflection:
New Insights
The biggest thing that this project gave me was knowledge. Before, I had no idea that there were so many different philosophies that had already been created and formed. For example, transcendentalism was one of the philosophies that I really found myself resonating with, and before we read Into the Wild and studied this philosophy, I had no idea it even existed. This project gave me the resources to pick and choose from so that I could discover my own philosophy.
If you had asked me what my purpose on Earth was before this project, I would have looked at you with a blank stare and told you that I had absolutely no idea. The new knowledge that this project gave me led me to one of the most important parts of my philosophy: my purpose on Earth is to create a meaningful life. It is that simple, and it always has been. While this project taught me this important lesson, I also learned what things will make my life meaningful. Through reading Into the Wild and reading Edward Abbey and many other transcendentalist's writings, I realized that I will unlock and discover so many new parts of myself if I experience nature and let it humble me. From the existential bummer, I discovered that the fact that we will die does not make it less important to live. From Chris McCandless’s relationships with those on his journey, I learned the importance and necessity of sharing your life and love with others. And from Ralph Waldo Emerson, I learned how special and courageous it is to be yourself in a world that doesn’t value that. Knowing all of these things I can now create a life that I know will be meaningful to me, and that is the greatest purpose of all.
Further Questions and Intellectual Work Left to Do
If I have learned one thing throughout this project, it is that our philosophies are ever changing and evolving. One of my favorite insights I got from this project is the idea that I have my entire life to create purpose and to discover my philosophy. I love the fact that I will always be learning new things and questioning what I find meaningful or not. It is one of the greatest joys in life that we get to learn about ourselves for the entirety of it. I think specifically I would like to learn about how the outdoors impacts me even more than I believe it does now. I know that the wilderness can do impact me so much more than it already has and I can not wait to spend the rest of my life letting it. I want to spend more time outside by myself really reflecting and learning new things about myself. I would also love to keep questioning why it is that we are here and if I have a bigger purpose, to discover what that might mean for me.
The biggest thing that this project gave me was knowledge. Before, I had no idea that there were so many different philosophies that had already been created and formed. For example, transcendentalism was one of the philosophies that I really found myself resonating with, and before we read Into the Wild and studied this philosophy, I had no idea it even existed. This project gave me the resources to pick and choose from so that I could discover my own philosophy.
If you had asked me what my purpose on Earth was before this project, I would have looked at you with a blank stare and told you that I had absolutely no idea. The new knowledge that this project gave me led me to one of the most important parts of my philosophy: my purpose on Earth is to create a meaningful life. It is that simple, and it always has been. While this project taught me this important lesson, I also learned what things will make my life meaningful. Through reading Into the Wild and reading Edward Abbey and many other transcendentalist's writings, I realized that I will unlock and discover so many new parts of myself if I experience nature and let it humble me. From the existential bummer, I discovered that the fact that we will die does not make it less important to live. From Chris McCandless’s relationships with those on his journey, I learned the importance and necessity of sharing your life and love with others. And from Ralph Waldo Emerson, I learned how special and courageous it is to be yourself in a world that doesn’t value that. Knowing all of these things I can now create a life that I know will be meaningful to me, and that is the greatest purpose of all.
Further Questions and Intellectual Work Left to Do
If I have learned one thing throughout this project, it is that our philosophies are ever changing and evolving. One of my favorite insights I got from this project is the idea that I have my entire life to create purpose and to discover my philosophy. I love the fact that I will always be learning new things and questioning what I find meaningful or not. It is one of the greatest joys in life that we get to learn about ourselves for the entirety of it. I think specifically I would like to learn about how the outdoors impacts me even more than I believe it does now. I know that the wilderness can do impact me so much more than it already has and I can not wait to spend the rest of my life letting it. I want to spend more time outside by myself really reflecting and learning new things about myself. I would also love to keep questioning why it is that we are here and if I have a bigger purpose, to discover what that might mean for me.
My Visual Component:
Wilderness is not a luxury, but a necessity of the human spirit.
- Edward Abbey -
- Edward Abbey -
My Written Component:
My Honors Personal Narrative:
One of the ways that I challenged myself this year, was by taking honors Humanities. This course consisted of extra books to read and essays to write. One of the extra essays we wrote during the philosophy project was to write a personal narrative that shaped our personal philosophy.