Leonard Zhou

My name is Leonard, I am now studying in the UK. The course I’m going to apply for the UK universities is philosophy. I am a Chinese student and also a Taoist, I believe in an ancient Chinese religion. For Taoism, it was not only a religion, it also taught me a philosophical way of thinking. My mom believes in Confucius. The complicated religious background inspired my interest in philosophy. This international perspective further inspired my interest in the subject of philosophy. However, when I was young, I was studying at an international school in China. The government banned most of the human subjects because of political issue. The seek of knowledge motivates me to study abroad. When I was in China, I did a lot of reading on Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism books. However, I was lack of knowledge of Western philosophy. Then I came to the UK for my A Level. My parents want me to do business or economics to inherit the possession. I convinced them that I should do what I was interested in. It takes a whole year to convince them. Due to the lack of basic knowledge, I cannot get a good grade for my A levels. But I am still improving and hardworking for my further studies in these subjects. I have picked Religious studies, History, and Politics as my three A levels. I had really good grades when I was in China, especially in subjects such as maths and economics. But I know that is not the thing I am seeking for. I like to read books and discover the thoughts of different people. Whether they are politicians, philosophers, or even my parents, I would always like to predict their thoughts and try to analyze them. When I first had alesson with Mr. Charman, my RS teacher in the UK, I was obsessed with the whole subject, all the parts of the subject attracted me. Philosophy of religion, ethics, and DCT have different interesting points, for example, utilitarianism’s quote “The greatest happiness for the greatest number”, indicates some famous people throughout history, such as Stalin and Mao Zedong. The reflection on history makes the theory more interesting. Furthermore, in thephilosophy of religion, the improvement in the basic knowledge of Christianity encouraged me to work even harder. Although I do not believe in Christianity, the theory and ideology of it make me fabulous. For example, when Mr. Charman taught us about the myth in the Bible, for me, it was extremely exciting. Different from a lot of people, many friends of mine cannot understand why RS or philosophy was interesting. Personally, philosophy taught me the truth of the world and the universe, ethics taught me how people think and act in different ways. These components of the whole subject makes it more interesting. , another point that I am obsessed with it was I could for was the interaction between teachers and students. In our high school lesson, Mr. Charman would arrange debates and discussions in groups or individually. I like to share my views and accept other people’s opinions. I am looking forward to studying philosophy in college, asit could provide more aspects of thoughts.