A philopsophy of Coe

While I’m considering what this entry might ultimately say, I can’t stop thinking about my philosophy class. The last hour I’ve been thinking and learning about the nature of skepticism. This is only my first philosophy course and I am by no means an expert, but I like the idea of skeptics. Skeptics are people who don’t take something at face value, and feel like they need to see for themselves to believe. They are critical thinkers and once they do find something to be true, they have great satisfaction in having a sense of knowing the truth and understanding that they found that truth themselves.
So what does all this rambling have to do with you, me or Coe? Well, I feel like a lot of Coe students fit into some part of this categorization. We strive for knowledge and understanding, but we don’t accept something just because we read it in a book, or a friend told us. Rather, we strive to find knowledge on our own, unlocking our minds to open up and explore new things, and use those things not only to understand the world around us, but many times better understand ourselves.
I hope you have a little bit of a skeptic in you as well. If you do you’ll fit right into our community of academic eagerness. Likewise, you might think I’m full of it and just trying to talk you into coming to Coe, which might even be wise of you. If you aren’t sure how you feel, or who you believe, then come find out for yourself. I won’t pretend to be able to tell you how important our community is, or how stimulating our classes are, because that is something you experience first-hand everyday at Coe.

Back Home

I came back home this week and couldn’t be happier. When I say home, of course, I mean Coe. Sometimes my parents get upset with me when I leave their house and say I’m going home to Coe, because this is what I call home now. Every semester I come back I feel more and more comfortable. The relationships I have with my classmates, friends, professors and staff here grow and develop with every day I’m here. The brochures you get no doubt talk about our community, and I’m sure your admissions consoler is going to give you the same story about how close we are, and what kind of community we have. If you are like I was, you are probably skeptical. That skepticism is justified, because it sounds like a good talking point to get you to come to school here. But I hope you believe me when I tell you that it is not just a talking point or a convenient phrase to entice you to come to school here. Because there are students like me who live in that community every day, and truly make Coe their new home.