Serendipity

             When I was a child, I often thought about the fundamental difference between dream and reality—how can I know that dream is not reality and reality is not a dream? Nothing could compare to my excitement when in philosophy 101 I took with Prof. Sarah Paul, I found that Descartes wrote Meditations to find answers to this very same question. Therefore, I declared philosophy major. After four years of studying philosophy, I would like to present an argument for the importance of philosophy not only for individual development but also for society overall.                When asked the question “what is philosophy as a discipline?”, I think there are two ways to think about it.  One way is to think of philosophy as a specific realm of knowledge that is different from other realms of knowledge such as psychological or sociological knowledge. Philosophy has its own scope of specialization, t...

            我一直以来对文学抱有崇敬态度，同时又觉得它是陪伴我成长、与我贴切共存的一个东西。我从小学之前就开始用拼音或错别字记录每天的生活，小学到高中一直保持了写日记的习惯，因为很多想法不便与他人倾诉，记录又是让自己的想象重新回到某种情境和时间段的一种方式。自由的写作是我生活的一种必要，但是逐渐地，我发现了一个很大的问题。这个问题我在小的时候就隐隐地感觉到，它关乎文学本身，但我从来不确定——确切来说是不敢承认。这个问题在林奕含——一位天赋超众但去世的台湾女作家——的访谈中也被提到过，那就是文学或许可以是一种巧言令色。             小学的时候我发现自己擅长用文字引导他人对事物的特定印象，尽管这个印象不一定是真实的，所以这个过程中有欺骗的成分在里面，但他人从来不会知道这是欺骗，因为我的心理刻画总是那么细腻和真实。比如说我写过一篇弹钢琴的作文，里面用修辞手法描绘了我每天练琴的过程，字里行间充满着我对钢琴的热爱和对旋律的陶醉。但是我心里很清楚，我非常厌恶练琴。我从幼儿园的时候就开始学琴，但是我的热度很快消退，而钢琴已经买来摆在家中，我每日必须要经历那难熬的一个小时艰难地认每个音符、重复地练习乏味的旋律。练琴是充满单调和苦涩的，和父母的争执和哭泣时常发生。可是当我看到作文题目说“描述自己的爱好”，我想，写玩电脑游戏有点不太好，那我就写自己的特长吧，于是有了那篇后来被老师在全班念的作文。下课后，同学把我团团围住，带着惊讶和羡慕的眼光说，“你那么喜欢钢琴啊！”，我尴尬地看着他们，想说，“不，那不是真的。”但那又是谎言吗？             好的文字可以欺骗他人，虽然它的意图并非欺骗，只是为了朝好的一个标准发展——比如说如果我写自己玩电脑游戏上瘾，那就是一个坏的方向。其他时候，它的意图是为了给自己塑造一个好的形象——人之常情，人性如此，你又能说它是欺骗吗？在中学的时候，我开始发现一个不好的趋势，那就是我在博客上写文...

I deactivated my Facebook account at the end of April. For a long time, I contemplated leaving Facebook, fully aware of its negative impact on my life and its role as a vortex of attention and time. Despite understanding its algorithms, mechanisms, and the profit-driven motives of companies like Facebook, and even cautioning others about the dangers of constant phone use and obsession with likes, I hesitated to deactivate it. Part of my reluctance stemmed from needing to manage posts on the Socratic Society page, although this consumed only a fraction of my social media time. Reflecting on reasons to keep Facebook, I could justify its use for staying updated on campus events and connecting with friends. However, each time I logged in, my original intentions were quickly overshadowed by notifications and News Feed distractions, leading to excessive, unintentional browsing. The decision to deactivate came from a combination of direct and indirect reasons. A friend's deactivation to a...