Philosophy
In his 2005 commencement speech, “This Is Water David Foster Wallace’s asserts that,
“’Learning how to think’ really means learning how to exercise some control over how
and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay
attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience” (2). Wallace
uses various examples in an attempt to justify the aforementioned argument. At the end
of the Wall Street Journal’s transcription of Wallace’s speech we are informed that he
killed himself in the fall of 2008.
Write a 4 page, essay that analyzes whether Wallace’s suicide undermines, or confirms the central argument of his graduation speech.
Analyze the examples he provides in his speech.