When I as finished reading the third part of the “Handbook,” I concluded that this text was specifically directed to men of the ancient Greece. And by referring to men I mean that it was like a guide for young men that wanted to be philosophers. The handbook contained comments that criticized the behavior of “non-philosophers,” which I personally thought was somewhat discriminative against people who don’t find philosophy interesting.
The first citation that came to my attention was the following, “For in this way you will never blame the gods or accuse them of neglecting you.”(31) When I read it I remembered all the different about all the people that I have met and that have blamed God for their problems, instead of taking responsibility for their own actions. When something really tragic occurs, people tend to blame anything or anyone else but themselves. Even when something that was out of their control occurs, humans don’t accepted but act like victims, without confronting their fears.
Just after I read the text that I commented on above, I found this quote, “Therefore, do not bring desire or aversion to the fortune teller and do not approach him trembling but instead realizing that everything that turns out is indifferent.”(32)This reminds me of Macbeth, the Shakespearian tragedy I read in 8th grade. Macbeth goes to the three witches and they tell him that he will become King. His ambition was such that he decided to take it into his own hands and he began to kill people and steak their power to be able to become king. He wasn’t indifferent to what the “fortune tellers” told him, and so he was King, but then had to pay for his crimes later on.
Finally I found a very sexist comment that was mentioned I this text and I wanted to comment on it, “Women are called ladies by men right after they are fourteen, and so when they see that they have nothing else except to go to bed with men, they begin to make themselves up and place all their hopes in that.”(40) What I could see from that was the evident degradation of women that has existed for so long in the world until a couple of decades ago, but that in a way is still present. In countries like Colombia, society is based on the family structure. Most Colombian families depend on the man of the house to survive, and it is probably because of this that men are seen as the powerful in most of the cases. I recall the role of women in the Bible, and it was also very poor. Women were seen as those who leaded men towards committing sins or the ones that committed most of them. Some examples are, Lot’s wife, Eve, Mary Magdalene, etc.
Overall, I have to say that I didn’t like this philosophical theories that were planted in this text that much. I thought that they were direct to a specific audience and was sort of naïve, although it tried to show exactly the opposite. It also had some very interesting points of view and I do respect everything that was proposed.
The first citation that came to my attention was the following, “For in this way you will never blame the gods or accuse them of neglecting you.”(31) When I read it I remembered all the different about all the people that I have met and that have blamed God for their problems, instead of taking responsibility for their own actions. When something really tragic occurs, people tend to blame anything or anyone else but themselves. Even when something that was out of their control occurs, humans don’t accepted but act like victims, without confronting their fears.
Just after I read the text that I commented on above, I found this quote, “Therefore, do not bring desire or aversion to the fortune teller and do not approach him trembling but instead realizing that everything that turns out is indifferent.”(32)This reminds me of Macbeth, the Shakespearian tragedy I read in 8th grade. Macbeth goes to the three witches and they tell him that he will become King. His ambition was such that he decided to take it into his own hands and he began to kill people and steak their power to be able to become king. He wasn’t indifferent to what the “fortune tellers” told him, and so he was King, but then had to pay for his crimes later on.
Finally I found a very sexist comment that was mentioned I this text and I wanted to comment on it, “Women are called ladies by men right after they are fourteen, and so when they see that they have nothing else except to go to bed with men, they begin to make themselves up and place all their hopes in that.”(40) What I could see from that was the evident degradation of women that has existed for so long in the world until a couple of decades ago, but that in a way is still present. In countries like Colombia, society is based on the family structure. Most Colombian families depend on the man of the house to survive, and it is probably because of this that men are seen as the powerful in most of the cases. I recall the role of women in the Bible, and it was also very poor. Women were seen as those who leaded men towards committing sins or the ones that committed most of them. Some examples are, Lot’s wife, Eve, Mary Magdalene, etc.
Overall, I have to say that I didn’t like this philosophical theories that were planted in this text that much. I thought that they were direct to a specific audience and was sort of naïve, although it tried to show exactly the opposite. It also had some very interesting points of view and I do respect everything that was proposed.
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