The Life Of Sohum

  Similar to the two approaches to gaining enlightenment, I believe there are two approaches to feeling fulfilled in life. Through the mundaneness of life, we can see either the continuous struggles and worries of school life or we can enjoy the laughter we share with friends who are close to us. Day in and day out we follow nearly the same routine year after year. Wake up, go to school, nearly fall asleep in all of your classes, go home, sit on your phone for 4 hours, do homework, go to sleep… rinse and repeat. It’s the same thing every day.  If we look back at our memories of the past, we only remember the good times. We don’t remember the monotone voice of our teachers or the thousands of homework assignments due at 11:59. What I do remember however, is wasting hours at the library “studying” with friends while being completely unproductive but still having joy without worrying about the consequences. When everything melds together in the end, the individual voices of t...

Part 1:      “If there could be any mortal who could observe with his mind the interconnection of all causes, nothing indeed would escape him. For he who knows the causes of things that are to be necessarily knows all the things that are going to be.” - (Cicero, On Divination, 1.127.)      It is said that knowledge is power. If this supposed mortal were to have such infinite knowledge, would he truly have infinite power? This is the principle behind determinism, everything is the direct cause of a previous event leading back to the Big Bang. Many philosophers over the centuries have wondered whether or not this is the case. If such is the case, can one truly be held responsible for their actions since all actions stem not from free will but a sequence of events that forced their hand? If we imagine a ball sitting atop a hill, we can calculate the time it takes to roll down knowing certain information such as drag, friction, height, mass, and speed. Can this...