Essays on Material World

Question 3.

The period between the years from 500 to 1400 – 1500 is traditionally called the Middle Ages. The term was used for the first time by the scholars in the 15th century to mark the period between the fall of the Western part of the Roman Empire and their time. Nevertheless that the Middle Ages were considered as a time of superstition, ignorance and social oppression now they are appreciated as a time of reforms of political, economic, social and cultural life. The Roman imperial traditions were replaced by the traditions of the Germanic people and kingdoms were established, new ...

The posit that the human person is nothing but a body and that all its components and experiences can be explained regarding the body, without acknowledging the existence of a rational soul, forms the basis of the materialist theory (Cohen 2). The notion of materialism opposes the hylomorphic account of spirit as a reality different from matter a philosophical theory developed by Aristotle. According to Aristotle, living things are compounds of matter and form. He argues that a living thing soul (form) is what causes the existence of the body (matter) defines a soul as that which makes a ...

Material culture, as it can be obvious from its name, is about the people’s relation to the material things. In a wide sense, material culture involves the material things of everyday living, such as houses, cities, churches, castles, offices, means of production, tools, goods and products, etc. Material culture is all material things which people use to define their culture. According to Oxford definition, ‘Material culture centers upon objects, their properties, and the materials that they are made of, and the ways in which these material facts are central to an understanding of culture and social relations.’ We ...

Transcendence and Human Knowledge

In Christian theology, transcendence is a paramount idea as it refers to the fact that God is completely removed from the world, and can be found beyond the material universe. This stands in opposition with religious ideas which place God within the material world. When the human knowledge reaches the limits of what science can explained, going beyond this limit means experiencing transcendence. In the Bible, concepts on transcendence and human knowledge refer to ignorance and self-knowledge. The concept of self-knowledge however must be distinguished from the idea of transgressive knowledge which tests the limits of human understanding and ...

There are many books that leave us puzzled after reading them and “The Bhagavad-Gita” is the one. You have to be aware of all the terminology that being used in the book. Otherwise, the hidden meaning of it will remain hidden. The book talks about the understanding of life in Hindi culture. The beginning of the story about Bhagavad Gita may appear scary in light of the usage of great amount of terms that leave Dhritarashtra and Sanjaya that will be new to readers who are not knowledgeable in Hinduism. In any case, the new peruser ought to see ...

Analysis of William Wordsworth’s “The World is Too Much with Us”

“The World is Too Much with Us” by William Wordsworth is a lyrical poem written in 1802. The poem expresses Wordsworth’s emotions and feelings about the world in the times of industrialization. The disappointment in people’s preoccupation with the material world instead of cherishing nature is revealed through the form of the poem, speaker himself and figurative language. The poem has a conventional form of Petrarchan sonnet, which means that it has 14 lines and is written in iambic pentameter. The rhyme of the poem differs: the first part - octave (8 lines) has the rhyme ABBAABBA, while ...

1) Is Al-Kindi a fatalist? Can his position be reconciled with Islam (and if so how)? Based on his writings and teachings, the essential message of Al-Kindi (the earliest known Islamic philosopher) is that of fatalism – in essence, that our lives are conditioned in detail by a series of facts that are immutable and unchangeable. Al-Kindi’s perspective, which he outlines in his teachings, is that we can do nothing to change these circumstances and events, even when they are uncomfortable and painful to us. However, he also argues that we have the capability of joyfully affirming these circumstances and ...

Summary and Response

Sartre as teacher believes that doctrines should be based on the one truth. And the absolute truth, according to him, is rooted in the man. Through the mediation, one can get closer to the absolute truth. Sartre’s theory is about the dignity of man and he does not treat the man as an object. Contrary to materialists, existentialists value humans. For Sartre, humans are isolated from the material world but never isolated from other men. The subjectivity of the individual is significant. Moreover, he sees the world around us as intersubjective. The man’s existence in this world ...

Large crowds gather at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria to witness the official opening of the Urban Thunderbirds: Ravens in a Material World exhibition. This is even is a milestone courtesy of the western civilization and current changes. This event features the main actor such as Coast Salish, Rande Cook, and Francis Dick. This exhibition signifies the existence of cultural practices in the modern world. The artists resemble native people who employ tactful ways to relay information. The artists use art skills to elaborate cultural practices in the contemporary world. The Ravens in a Material World is a beautiful collection of art ...

Religion and spirituality is evident in the nature of mankind. Many, if not all, persons and communities has the sense of deity and morality. However, there are many religious groups and beliefs around the world. Some of these are renowned, while some are not. In the Eastern societies, some widely accepted and observed religions include Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism. In the Western societies, however, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are prominent. As a moral being, a person cannot accept or rather take part of a particular religion without conscious consideration. Holding on to a certain belief simply because of culture or family preferences is ...

Philosophy is an interesting discipline as it tries to find answers to several challenging aspects of man and the processes of nature. Since time immemorial, man has been in a quest to find the self and understand the surrounding in which they reside. In the West, realism and romanticism were two competing cultural thoughts and artistic styles aimed at communicating the interactions/relationships between mankind and nature. Romantics associated with Plato emphasized on individual heroic achievement, power of emotions and mysticism dominating the European intellectual life while realists associated with Aristotle focused art and literature to more tangible matters with the ...

Plato's Influence on Medieval Thought

Plato's Influence on Medieval Thought

Introduction

Plato was born in 428/427 BCE in Athens, Greece. He was a Greek philosopher and Socrates’ student. Plato founded the Academy and best known for his efforts in philosophical works depicting unparalleled influence. Building on various demonstrations by individuals like Socrates that those considered as experts in every ethical matter did not have proper understanding necessary for a prompt human life, Plato came up an idea that the mistake were caused by their lack of proper engagement with a class of identities that he referred to as forms. Key examples of these forms include equality, beauty, and ...

Absurdity of human existence is a hard philosophical question. The problem of absurdity of human existence arises from the point of view that the universe is meaningless and there is nothing in the world worth living. According to existentialism the tragedy of human existence is that people are like abandoned in the world of physical pleasures. They don't know how to live in the world, aware of the impermanence of existence. In this essay I would like to highlight Albert Camus’, Richard Taylor’s and Thomas Nagel’s points of view on absurdity of human existence. Even though ...

When people are visiting the museum, they usually look only for the works of art that are considered to be masterpieces. They neglect to enjoy the works of less prominent artists. They are content afterwards, but that is not the point. In order to fully appreciate art, a person has to be able to find it in the most unusual places. There is general beauty and particular beauty (Baudelaire, 1964, p. 1). Both the present and the past are interesting. The past has historical value and the present is happening right now. (Baudelaire, 1964, p. 1). However, inspiration can ...

Is Death Bad?

IS DEATH BAD? Introduction Death is the scariest word for almost every individual and unfortunately it is inevitable. It is truly scary for us because there is no scientific information explaining the happenings after death. Considering that death means a complete loss of our consciousness, unknown things in the human life scares us. Every individual on the world, from the beginning of the history to the last generation on the world, develops a lifestyle and social relations during their lives, and death ends all of them. Also breathing and being able to move around and run after passion on ...

Introduction

The mind is perhaps the most important enigma in human knowledge. The mind is exceptionally different from other bodily matter that in the breadth of our history, many believed that the mind is not a bodily matter at all (Beakley & Udlow, 1992). The paper supports the position of dualism. It is an attempt to address the issue of the mind. In order to give conclusion, the paper cultivates the philosophical position of dualism. It talks about mind and body problems and gives statements that oppose and supports the position. The soundness and legitimacy of the dualism argument relies on ...

Explain the Buddhist Anatta (no-self) doctrine and discuss whether it is compatible with the Buddhist doctrine of rebirth. What difficulties might the combination of these two doctrines generate? Buddhism is one of the oldest religions in the world. Christianity is younger on five centuries, while Islam formed twelve centuries after it. Buddhism has created a unique culture, having first appeared more than two and a half thousand years ago in India as a religious philosophical teaching. Buddhism can be seen as a religion, philosophy, ideology. It is a cultural complex, a certain way of life, and a path of spiritual development. According to Mark Siderits, “ ...

THE ESSENTIALS TRUTHS IN LIFE

Introduction: Having a Right Worldview In today’s society, many people have significantly lost definitions. Men and women do not know what exactly they believe and even why they believe so. Many simply go along with the “tide” of secular and common knowledge. Having knowledge of the truth is a necessary thing in life. If truth should be relative of different persons and societies, there will be a chaos. For instance, the society’s lack of absolute position/stand in matters of homosexuality, divorce, and abortion has brought significant political and social conflicts. Moreover, knowledge of truth is necessary to answer deep ...

In this article, the writers are trying to tell the audience that they can find true happiness by understanding the difference between true happiness and pleasure. Favorable circumstances in life like acquiring more money, fame, health or energy will only give us pleasure, which is short-lived. True happiness is something that comes from within us; it is something that you choose to accompany for all your life. Although true happiness and pleasure are very much related but they are not the same; pleasure does not guarantee lifetime satisfaction but happiness does guarantee that. Happiness depends on our thoughts and ...

Assignment title:

Question 9) What was alchemy? What later subjects did it embrace? What was the philosopher's stone? Compare and contrast the alchemical traditions associated with Jabir ibn Hayyan and al-Razi. Islamic scholars wanted to utilize their knowledge and to apply philosophy to the material world. "Alchemy was in some ways the precursor to the modern material sciences of pharmacology (iatrochemistry), chemistry, mining and smelting, and parts of physics and engineering, as well as aspects of biology such as the study of fermentation, decay and reproduction. At a basic level, alchemists were trying to identify, classify, and systematically produce useful or ...

The problem of moral education in Plato's dialogue "Republic" remains relevant even today. Its main theme is the definition of one of the concepts of ethics - fairness. According to Plato, the issues of education are questions of philosophy. In this dialogue, Plato appears to us not only as a philosopher, but also as a teacher of young people, who put forward an elaborated concept of education of the person in response to the needs of the time. Plato developed new moral ideals of society and man by stating that only the wisest men are able to lead the state, therefore ...

Two Horses: Red and Blue is a pictorial art work of an animal painting by Franz Marc done in 1912. Franz Marc was a German painter and print maker based in Munich. His father was a great painter and he tried to influence him to also become a painter but he chose to do theology and philosophy (Partsch and Marc 37). He is described as an impressionist as his work was mainly influenced by the work of other artists that he met like Kandinsky who used to paint from the spiritual side of nature. Marc, on the other hand, angled his work on ...

They worshiped the perfect physic. They achieved the highest pinnacle of architecture and set a standard that people are still following today. They perfected the portrayal of the human figure. Even in their politics they tried for perfection. Yes, the Greeks were idealists. They had a general ideal: an ideal of perfect balance, harmony, and order to create the perfect lifestyle and the perfect art forms. How did the ancient Greeks seek after perfection in all aspects of their civilization? Did they achieve their lofty goals? The Ancient Greeks had a general ideal: an ideal of perfect balance , harmony, and order ...

Greek philosophers like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle valued reason above all other characteristics and argued that it separated human beings from plants and animals, and like Buddhist philosophy elevated spiritual truths over material concerns. The Greek idealist philosophy was not as completely divorced from the physical universe as Buddhism, however, even though both agreed that the soul was immortal. They also regarded virtue as being its own reward and defined it as seeking higher spiritual and moral values rather than money, power and physical pleasures. Often their ideas have been misunderstood in that they thought the highest level of ...

In its first three centuries, Christianity began to separate from Judaism while also selectively incorporating the Jewish Scriptures and laws that it regarded as most useful, as is clear from the Didache. There were Gnostic Christians who were prepared to reject Judaism completely, along with the books of the Bible that finally became known as the Old Testament in the 4th Century. They regarded the Genesis Creator of the Hebrew Bible as a false and evil God and also denied the humanity and Jewish heritage of Jesus and his earliest followers. Orthodox Christianity did not accept the Gnostic argument that ...

Mind and Body Debate

Renowned philosophers Rene Descartes and John Searle are having a cup of tea in Descartes’ living room. As expected, their discussion turns philosophical. Each of the two presents their arguments on the mind and body problem.

Descartes: I believe the mind and body are two distinct and separate substances.

Searle: Every time you postulate an opinion I know we are about to start a long argument. I heard you say the mind is independent of the body. How true is that? I applaud many of your opinions and theories in philosophy. However, I beg to differ on this one. Descartes: My friend, I will take you systematically through my quest for certainty. I ...

1. Discuss the cultural connections and parallels between Classical Greece and the Hellenistic world and the Roman Empire in terms of art, literature, religion and philosophy. The Eastern Roman Empire (later the Byzantine Empire), was Greek-speaking and Hellenistic in culture, and contained two-thirds of the population and some of the largest cities like Alexandria, Constantinople and Antioch. Poltically, culturally and economically, it was the most important part of the Empire and survived until 1453, for nearly 1,000 years after the fall of the West. In pagan times before the 4th Century AD, all of the Roman gods ...

SHORT SUMMARY

Jesus of Nazareth was a Palestine Jew who grew up in Galilee, an important center of the militant Zealots and resistance to the rule of the Romans and their local collaborators like the Herodians and the Temple priests in Jerusalem. Contrary to later interpretations, his original message was not intended to undermine the traditional Jewish religion, but to emphasize that the Kingdom of God was at hand and that his disciples should love God and one another. His commandments were for the Jews to love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength and to love ...

Siva (god of yogis, the destroyer)

Lingams (cylindrical forms that are highly regarded in India)

Shapeless nature of it is considered close connection to Siva

Vishnu is considered a kinder, gentler deity than Siva

The three basic tenets of Hindu related philosophy:

Base their philosophies on the Vedas as well as meditation experiences that reveal the truth

Ethics are the basis for a productive, orderly society – karma is important and should be adhered to

Ignoring your own Self is the cause of most suffering in the world

Samkhya (oldest philosophical system in India) – two states of reality

Purusha (Self, forever wise ...