On Travel and Discovering how Culture can Define how Life is Understood: A Reflection on Western Massachusetts and Seville Spain
Project Author
Issue Date
2025-04-20
Authors
Morgan, James
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First Reader
Palmer, Eric
Additional Readers
Herrera, Teresa
Keywords
philosophy of life , cultural understanding , personal reflection , autonomy through understanding
Distribution
Abstract
This essay is inspired by the philosophical tendencies of Montaigne, with a deeply personal self-reflection of the ways in which my understanding of life was influenced by my social upbringing and the cultural values I inherited. The purpose of the exploration is to get a clearer idea of what it means to live a life autonomously, to be truly driven by the self. I explore themes of personal and interpersonal values and norms, manifestations of community, and cultural expectations. I hope to illuminate some of the ways in which I learned what life was supposed to be like, how I was meant to be within a society, and how the society is supposed to order itself. The experience of my time abroad in Spain is shared in parts, to illustrate some of the ways in which I saw culture manifest; in ways that compared and contrasted with my previous experiences of life. I try to avoid making generalizations, remaining cognizant of the intrinsic bias of my experiences, while taking extra care to acknowledge how my bias is an important aspect of my experience. For anyone insistent on reading this essay, I hope that it provides interesting insight into myself, my home culture, or my experience in Spain. For the intrepid reader, I urge you to allow yourself to reflect on the ways in which you have been formed by the culture(s) you’ve experienced, and perhaps allow yourself to extend your conception of self to reach beyond the conceptions of your society. What seems like concrete truth, may prove to be socially accepted norms.
Description
Chair
Major
Philosophy
Spanish
Spanish
Department
History and Philosophy
World Languages and Cultures
World Languages and Cultures
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Version
Honors
Philosophy, 2025