Perception+vs+Reality

This is page where students are exploring //Life of Pi// using the focus topic of the Truth/reality and Perceptions and what these teach Pi.
 * Justice League:** Jake, Liana, Lia, Angelica, Stefan. Period 2

Please respect students' responses by leaving the comments, additions, etc. as is.

__Quotes__ "Did you ever wonder if the person in the puddle is real, and you're just a reflection of him?" ~Calvin and Hobbes "How do we know that the sky is not green and we are all colour-blind?" ~Author Unknown "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." ~Albert Einstein "What we take to be true is what we believe. What we believe is based upon our perceptions. What we perceive depends upon what we look for. What we look for depends upon what we think. What we think depends upon what we perceive. What we perceive determines what we believe. What we believe determines what we take to be true. What we take to be true is our reality." ~Gary Zukav-Angelica Onofrio

__Annotations__ "I sometimes came out of that bakery feeling heavy with glory. I would climb onto my bicycle and pedal that glory through the air." ~ //The Life of Pi// (78 Yann Martel)-Angelica Onofrio "In trade, dogs are sometimes used as foster mothers for lion cubs. Though the cubs grow to become larger than their caregiver, and far more dangerous, they never give their mother trouble and she never loses her placid behavior or her sense of authority over her litter."~ //The life of Pi// (107 Yann Martel)- Angelica Onofrio

“[|People believe I am what they see Me as, rather than what they do not see. But I am the Great Unseen, not what I cause Myself to be in any particular moment. In a sense, I am what I am not. It is from the Am-notness that I come, and to it I always return.]”

Definition: Existentialism

A philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in a hostile or indifferent universe, regards human existence as unexplainable, and stresses freedom of choice and responsibility for the consequences of one's acts.

These quotes all relate to exisentialism because they all emphasize the uniqueness and isolation one universe. They all talk about the existense of reality as well as how real life really is.

"What is the ideal for mental health, then? A lived, compelling illusion that does not lie about life, death, and reality; one honest enough to follow its own commandments: I mean, not to kill, not to take the lives of others to justify itself." ~ Ernest Becker, 1973, //[|The Denial of Death] //, p. 204

"...the individual is defined only by his relationship to the world and to other individuals; he exists only by transcending himself, and his freedom can be achieved only through the freedom of others. He justifies his existence by a movement which, like freedom, springs from his heart but which leads outside of himself." ~ Simone de Beauvoir, 1948, [|//The Ethics Of Ambiguity//], p. 156

"A myth is a way of making sense in a senseless world. Myths are narrative patterns that give significance to our existence. Whether the meaning of existence is only what we put into life by our own individual fortitude, as Sartre would hold, or whether there is a meaning we need to discover, as Kierkegaard would state, the result is the same: myths are our way of finding this meaning and significance." ~ Rollo May, 1991, //[|The Cry for Myth] //, p. 15  This picture works perfectly for existentialism because it is a picture of a persons face coming off. This symbolizes a new phase in a persons life because as they grow older they become a different person and they keep going through this process until they finally find themselves. Even though their keeps growing older, they dont on the inside because they have finally found themselves and are the person they are happy with. 

Natalie H, Chandler C, April H...Period 3


 * Quotes:**

1. "It's happened to all of us: there's sunlight and shade, spots and patterns of colour, your mind is elsewhere--so you don't make out what is right in front of you." (pg 74)

2. "Christianity stretches back through the ages, but in essense it exists only at one time: right now." (pg 57)

3. "Just beyond the ticket booth Father had had painted on a wall in bright red letters the question: DO YOU KNOW WHICH IS THE MOST DANGEROUS ANIMAL IN THE ZOO? An arrow pointed to a small curtain. There were so many eager, curious hands that pulled at teh curtain that we to to replace it regularly. Behind it was a mirror." (pg 31)

4."Yet there will always be animals that seek to escape from zoos....Whatever the reason for wanting to escape, sane or insane, zoo detractors should realize that animals don't escape //to somewhere// but //from something//." (p.51)

5."The ostrich. Looks flustered and silly, doesn't it? Listen up: it's one of the most dangerous animals in a zoo. Just one kick and your back is broken or your torso is crushed." (p.46)

6."I felt like a prisoner being pushed off a plank by pirates." (p.154)

7. “Whatever I see something as, depending on my perception of it, that’s what it will be to me.”

8. "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." (Albert Einstein)

9."I thought I knew not only her habits but also her limits. This display of ferocity, of savage courage, made me realize that I was wrong. All my life I had known only a part of her." (p.163)

10. "You must take life the way it comes at you and make the best of it." (p.115)


 * Annotations:**

1. It seems that in some of the most difficult situations, the answer to the problem is right in front of you. People search forever to find answers when in reality, there is no searching that needs to be done.

2. In reality, it doesn't seem possible for Pi to be able to follow three different religions and keep up with them all. The only way this seems possible is if in HIS mind, he has a different perception of all three.

3. Pi finds it difficult to choose what religion he wants to be, but faith is right in front of him. He just has to choose was he believes in.

4. Pi talks a lot about how the many people who visit the zoo percieve things differently about the animals and how the things they percieve isn't true to the reality of it.

5. Pi's perception of the different religions is fascinating. He percieves each one differently and loves them all the same no matter what anyone else says.

6. Pi's perception on the boat of faith stays the same even though he has no family and little food, and dangerous animals who could kill him. He still remanis hopeful everyday and prays to all 3 religions.

7. Pi has a whole new reality that he has to get used to. Living on a life boat with wild animals is much more dangerous than his daily life used to be before he left for Canada.

8. Do the animals on the boat have a different perception of life now that they aren't in their natural habitat? How will Richard Parker get a food supply without any animals left?

9. On page 163, Pi realizes that he doesn't know Orange Juice very well. She shows another side of her that Pi hasn't seen before and later in life it could help him come to a realization that you really only see a side of someone not the whole.

10.Pi realizes that the inside of the boat looks different than the outside. His perception changes when he starts to look around and realizes that there is more to the inside of the boat than just looking at it.


 * Extras (images, videos, etc.):**



Existentialism __Definition:__ <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">assumes that people are entirely free and thus responsible for what they make of themselves -the focus of philosophical thought should be to deal with conditions of existence of the individual person and their emotions, actions, responsibilities, and thoughts. -Soren Kierkegaard maintained that individual is solely responsible for giving his or her own life meaning and for living that life passionately and sincerely in spite of many existential obstacles and distractions. __Quotes__: "<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself. Such is the first principle of existentialism.” - Jean Paul Sarte <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">“For an individual animal, plant or man existence (to be or not to be) is of quite decisive importance; an individual man has not after all a conceptual existence.” - Soeren Kierkegaars <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">-existentialism places an emphasis on individual existance, freedom and choice. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">-one must choose their own way, make own individual paths without aid or universal ideas or guidance.-http://www.fortunecity.com/roswell/cushing/263/exist/existentialism.html