David Foster Wallace This Is Water Summary

1. In David Foster Wallace’s 2005 Commencement Speech “This is Water,” he talks about a default setting, which is something people do automatically. It is the concept of going through life without actually considering what is going on around you. He gives an example about going to the grocery store and becoming irritated by a woman and her child she just screamed at in the checkout line, saying how you may think this is just an annoying experience, but when you actually become aware, your thought changes. Instead of thinking it is annoying and how you believe you are the only important person in the world, you can may discover how things are different, Wallace makes the point about how that same woman could being going through a difficult situation such as, her …show more content…
With the Socratic Method, Socrates or anyone who used this method, used certain types of questions to achieve critical thinking and to reach a truth behind what was said. While on the contrary, the Sophists thought techniques and tricks to win an argument at all cost no matter if “true” or “right.” Socrates pursed wisdom by accepting that fact that you have to question things and not just accept them for what it is.
6. Socrates envisions two possibilities to happen after he dies, either death will be nonexistent, or something will happen to the soul and may transform into something else. Socrates attitude towards death was not a bad one, because to him if either one of those two possibilities was to happen, he would not mind it happening to him. Socrates prefers not having dreams as well as, the idea he could meet the souls of other people.
7. Rationalism and empiricism differ in quite a few ways. Plato’s belief was that genuine knowledge could only be achieved through reasoning abilities, making him a rationalist. While Aristotle’s belief was, you can only gain true knowledge through the senses, this making him an empiricist. Although the ideas are different, they both seek universal