Most recently in Sophie's World, we read about the lives and ideas of two very important philosophers, Descartes and Spinoza. To begin, we learned that Descartes doubted much of the philosophical ways of thought that he had heard throughout his life and also realized that he really didn't know all that much himself. He set out to try and piece everything together through reason into one big, philosophical grouping. He tried to explain everything through reasoning and doubt anything that he couldn't. I like that idea, because if you have no evidence or reasoning for something, then there is no way you can believe in it completley, there must be some degree of doubt. Through his work, Descartes created something that brings him the most fame. I think, therefore I am. While he was trying to discover the reasoning for everything, he realized that by thinking, he didn't need to doubt his own existence. According to Descartes, there is one thing we all can know for sure, by thinking about what to write for our blogs or thinking about what I have written here, we all really exist. Next we read about another famous philosopher, one who admired Decartes, Spinoza. Spinoza agreed with much of what Descartes, however he did not completely agree with his ideas of mind versus matter. Spinoza focused much of his ideas on God and the Bible. He believed that our ability to think did not make us free, but that it was just a piece of God himself through us. He believed that God controlled everything and also that we should be able to critique the Bible. His ideas on this matter brought lots of hatred upon him from almost everybody, including his own family!! Finally, where Descartes thought that our mind brought us freedom, Spinoza thought that only God had freedom, but that did not mean we couldn't still achieve happiness.