Reflective Writing Questions for the ePortfolio Project

1. Describe your project. (2 pts)

I prepared a power point presentation. The subject matter is some
information about the life of Socrates. I have included quotes attributed to
Socrates that I found interesting. I have also made the quotes personal by
stating how those quotes affected me or how they fit in with my life
philosophy.
2. What course theme(s) does your project relate to? (Critical Thinking; Happine
ss and the Good
Life; Responses to Nature; Freedom, Justice, and Responsibility; Identity, Privilege,
and
Inequalities). (1 pt)
My project relates to the course themes of critical thinking theme and
happiness and the good life theme.
3.
Discuss in detail as many connections between your project and the chosen theme(
s) as you
can. Include specific references to at least one text that we studied in class. Be sure
to provide
the author and title of the text(s) that you discuss, and give page references for all
paraphrases
and quotes. (7 pts)
I was surprised to find that my project related to several themes and readings.
Because my project deals with my values it relates to the article by Susan
Anderson, We Are Our Values. Specifically, she discusses how we chose our
values which include who/what counts, individualism versus collectivism and
weighing moral rights (Allen and Peterson 11). In choosing the quotes to use in my
power point I find her premise that there are difficult decisions to be made (11). I
wanted my basic values to be reflected in the quotes by Socrates even though I
know my values may shift based upon my experiences. In that same article she
states that the crucial thing in life is to know who we are, what we stand for. Only
then do we have a chance of leading a meaningful, fulfilled life, a life whose actions
are intentionally motivated by whatever we think is important (10).
I mentioned the use of the Socratic Method in law schools which is the repeated use
of questions to elicit thoughtful answers. This was demonstrated in The Apology
by Plato. He recounts a series of questions and answers between Socrates and

Meletus. Each time Meletus answers Socrates, Socrates asks another question
which requires Meletus to think harder (845).
Finally, I found my project related well to Philosophy, Happiness, and the Meaning
of Life by Robert Solomon. He talks about the wonderful things about philosophy
including that it consists of nothing more than reflecting on what we are doing,
making sense of it, perhaps reconsidering it, and weighing the alternatives (804). I
felt that by reviewing many of Socrates quotes I was able to find some meaning in
my life. He also says that happiness is not how you feel right now but how if you
are living well (805). I think that is what Socrates was trying to convey.
4.
Discuss the process of completing your project. What steps or tasks were involved?
(1 pt) What
difficulties did you encounter along the way, and how did you deal with them? (2 pts
)
In order to complete my project I had to narrow down the types of information about
Socrates life that I wanted to include. I settled on including his childhood, youth,
marriage and some general facts that were interesting. Because there are so many
great quotes that are credited to him, I had to find the ones that really fit with my
personal philosophy and the ones that caused me to think the most.
I did my research on the internet. One particular difficulty I encountered was the
lack of information about Socrates life. There was a lot of information about his
quotes but very little personal information. I chose not to address his death since
we had learned about that in class and our readings. This forced me to research a
bit harder and to consult more web pages to get the information that I wanted to
include in my power point.
5.
What insights have you gained about your topic and/or yourself during this process?
(2 pts)
I learned new things about myself that I had not previously considered. This project
forced me to really analyze what Socrates was saying and how it really applied to
my life. I learned that I am not as shallow as some people think I am. I also learned
that quotes proposed in ancient Greek times are still relevant today and can speak
to you if you take the time to listen and think about it.
6.
How has this project helped you to progress toward achieving your educational and/
or personal
goals? (3pts)

I have always had an interest in ancient Greece so I thought this would be a good
choice for me. I have spent some time analyzing my personal goals this semester
not only through this class by my self image class. I have constructed a life
philosophy and focusing on Socrates life and quotes has helped me to understand
myself better. The project fit in perfectly to helping me see who I want to become
and what truths I want to live by. The project also helped me to achieve my
educational goals by exposing me to some new ideas and thoughts. I can learn
something from each experience and my education is a work in progress. This
project also helped me further my knowledge in Greek philosophy which are things I
can draw upon in other classes and experiences.
7. What might you do differently if you had to do it again? (2pts)
I would probably not choose to do a power point. For the subject matter I chose a
research paper would have allowed me to have done a more thorough job
describing Socrates life and quotes. Also, I might have limited myself to either an
analysis of his life or his quotes. If I were to do this again I would have done a
better job researching my topic before settling on it to make sure I had a sufficient
amount of information that was interesting to present.