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Ella Koenig's avatar

i’m also reading Republic for my philosophy class and this has been on my mind a lot recently! it’s so hard to define something which has only existed for such little time. we’re still teenagers, still learning how to live. one day we will find out <3

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Aarushi Gupta's avatar

omg philosophie buddies....so true !! love u

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lydia yeh's avatar

this is not really relevant specifically to your newsletter, so i'm not really sure why im thinking about this. however!! this reminds me of something i learned in class about the creation of hypotheses and theories, as well as the demarcation of falsification. one of the big struggles of science is deciding when a hypothesis is false and when it can just be adjusted for exceptions. Pigliucci says, “On one hand, a strict criterion of falsificationism seems to throw away the proverbial baby with the bathwater: too much good science would fail the falsification test. On the other hand, if we allow ourselves the luxury to change theories to accommodate whatever new observation comes our way we are not doing science at all, but rather engaging in the sterile act of rationalization." How much of the defining of ourselves is really defining and how much of it is rationalization? We are filled with contradictions and complexity, and I wonder if we can ever derive ourselves down to a science. should we even hope to define ourselves?? writing and thinking and existing is so hard, and i hope you continually give yourself grace, aarushi <3

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Aarushi Gupta's avatar

this is so interesting. and it makes a lot of sense !!! probably no point in trying to define ourselves but it's something we'll do anyways. thank u for reading <33

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hershey's avatar

whole thing gets worse when you realize how different of a person you may be in a year.. six months.. even two… so you just keep chipping away over and over again😒😒😒 but that’s life 😄

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Aarushi Gupta's avatar

not such a bad thing!

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Eff 💌's avatar

i like the idea of making yourself rather than finding yourself. to me, it makes me feel as if i am in control like i get to decide who i can become rather than it being this nebulous concept.

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Aarushi Gupta's avatar

right on!!! I love that

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ines's avatar

what a hopeful, wonderful sentiment. i loved this! missed your letters aarushi

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Aarushi Gupta's avatar

thank u for reading :D i appreciate it

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ananya (ash)'s avatar

once again your writing brings me peace and insight into bits of myself that don’t always see the light of day. i am so grateful to have found this blog m. thanks for everything aarushi <3

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Aarushi Gupta's avatar

this is so sweet :) thank YOU

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nai's avatar

i've been thinking about this a lot recently tbh, your ideas are always beautifully explained <3

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Aarushi Gupta's avatar

this is teenagerhood

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