December 14th, 2012

12/14/12

In Class:
Journal--Respond to the following quote: "We are always getting ready to live, but never living." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Independently, each student wrote down facts and laws they have learned about existence: what are the laws of the world around you? What have you learned about being?
Discussion of perception by sensory experience: color and texture as subjective.
If your understanding of the world is based exclusively on your clearly subjective and unreliable perception, how can you be certain of what is real? This applies to the intangibles (love, freedom, justice), but even more to the actual standards of reality. How can you prove that anything exists outside of your own mind?
Transcendentalism, an existential theory promoted in America in the 19th century, posits the importance of the individual and the transcendence from assumed reality through self-reliance and appreciation of the natural, simple world. "Simplify, simplify." -Henry David Thoreau
Absurdism, the existentialist theory presented in Camus' works (including The Stranger), draws attention to the absurdness, meaningless, and intractability of existence in the real world.

Work period to:
- Finish The Stranger.
- Finish Literary Analysis #1.
- Catch up on missing/unfinished work.
- Work on/study for final.

Homework:
- Finish The Stranger.
- Finish Literary Analysis #1.
- Catch up on missing/unfinished work.
- Work on/study for final.