Essays on Voltaire

Introduction

Any given society is made up human beings. Sociology is a social science that deal with the study of how these human beings interacts amongst themselves, causes of their interaction, and the results of these human interactions. In sociology, human beings are defined as social beings. Social life revolves around several components that can be used to explain how a society operates and exists. The three major of these components are the social structures, social interaction, and the social institutions. Different societies have different cultures, norms, and beliefs. In order to understand how the societies differentiate, it is important Continue reading...

Throughout the history of Western civilization, people have asked themselves questions about how to lead their lives and achieve happiness. Major philosophers have debated this idea, arguing for different ways of orienting their lives, commenting and criticizing their precursors in the process. Two of the most important of these thinkers were Aristotle and Immanuel Kant, who both drafted different ethical theories, while staying within the boundaries of what is considered standard in the Western philosophical tradition. Specific differences in their contexts lead to major dissimilarities in their theories. However, both theories have aspects which may be considered correct, and Continue reading...

The enlightenment would introduce a new system of government and the most important one was sovereignty. The people had every reason to support enlightenment because it brought changes to their political culture. The sovereignty came to the citizens, and it brought equality that did not exist. People did not have businesses that were honorable and did not have the opportunity to own land (Outram, pg.137). During this age, enlightenment thinks endorsed ideas of natural law and progress in all their dealings. The people began to question their governments and leaders. They realized the oppression that the government was imposing Continue reading...

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The paper analyzes different aspects of the modernity in Judaism and distinguishes the crucial characteristics of the Continue reading...

History students would agree that the working population’s challenges became more noticeable during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century in Europe and America as compared to any other period in time. France relied on the close-by weave frameworks and corporate solidarity of working artisan trades. Nonetheless, urban growth did not stop bringing together traders with a much experienced way of doing trade leading to the reality of which a couple of specialists has judged it as a way of creating class and taste around French workers. History shows that a social affiliation inside trade bundles cannot speak Continue reading...

Works of fiction are often used to examine more complex societal concerns as scene in the graphic novel and popular film “V for Vendetta”. “V for Vendetta” asks the question what exactly is the expectations of society? This topic is explored by using a fictional dystopian world to expand upon the known and possible aspects that make up society and its ideologies. Humans have an ever burning desire to explore and learn thus always changing what we understand about humanity and how one can better society. Because of this desire,”science fiction works, such as “V for Vendetta” is Continue reading...

Throughout history, philosophers have often clashed heads in regards to the definition and understanding of the human self. Many have formulated a myriad of theories that attempt to decipher the true meaning and motivations of the human self. Two of the moist prolific philosophers of the exploration of this aspect were Immanuel Kant and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson was an American philosopher born and raised in Massachusetts. On the other hand, Kant lived in an earlier era and was German by birth. It was Kant’s original transcendental deductions that later acted as an influence to the New England Continue reading...

CONTEMPORARY RELEVANCE OF PLATO’S ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is drawn from his tremendous works on the Republic. It is literally a conversation that takes place between Socrates and Gaucon. The conversation is categorized into three parts. The first section is the scene within the cave. According to Kernan, the second part of the discourse deliberates on the three stages of liberation and the third creates a picture of the prisoner returning to the same cave.
The scene in the cave is one of gloom and darkness, with prisoner chained and unable to move around, even their heads could only face one Continue reading...

Introduction

Lumbini is a garden which is the birthplace of the Buddha known as Siddharta Gautama. Siddharta Gautama is the founder of Buddhism. He was born in the sixth or seventh century BC. This garden became a site of pilgrimage up until the 15th century. This site is only visited by a person of great devotion. In the year 246 BC, Emperor Ashoka, a Buddhist convert, visited Lumbini and ordered the creation of a stone pillar and four stupas. Today, Lumbini is visited by pilgrims from all over the world seeking enlightenment and as a tourist attraction. The site is Continue reading...

This text helps the bodhisattva put into practice all the teachings of Buddha and this eventually leads to supreme happiness that comes through the medium of enlightenment. The bodhisattva is described as an elevated Buddhist who can attain nirvana but actually delays such an attainment due to his compassion for the suffering beings. This is an exhaustive covering of the essence and foundation of the bodhisattva’s way of life. The text is divided into three major parts
- How the text is introduced
- How the text is explained

The Pre-eminent Qualities of the Author

As is customary with such texts there needs to Continue reading...

The enlightenment refers to the sprawling of intellectual, social, philosophical, and cultural movement that spread through France, England, German, and other parts of Europe during the 1700s. Enlightenment thinkers advocated for self-autonomy in thinking, free of the limitations of traditional authority. The process of “modernity” traces its origin to this movement, as an heir, with seeds implanted in this period. Evidently, the process began with a vision of an autonomous free individual, but later contributed to the instrumental means-end thinking that has shaped modernity. The writers of the enlightenment mastered everything they regarded as worth learning, ranging from science Continue reading...

Since the beginning of the early civilizations, man tried to understand the world around him and why events take place. Some tried to put symbols to non-living things and even on natural occurrences, while many turned to religion to explain the meaning of life and the mystery behind the creation story. However, there were a few who deviated from this unyielding faith in religious preaching and sought to answer the world’s many mysteries through their own studies. In Europe, this desire to solve these mysteries escalated into a conflict between religion and science that resulted to the advent Continue reading...

In a world where most people will only be interested in those things that satisfy their selfish whims, it is unlikely that one would passionate about the general happiness of others in the society. The concept of happiness is an emotional state of wellness that is manifest by the exuberance of pleasant emotions that emanates from a feeling of contentment and joy. However, this definition at best does not capture all the multi-facets of happiness as it may be construed by different persons. Disparities in meaning and construction have been raised by commentators who confine happiness to the hedonistic Continue reading...

Introduction

Cultural beliefs illustrate theories, facts, norms, values, or principles that individuals need to uphold while in the society. The society has a perception on various issues that surround an individual’s life. As such, the individual needs to adopt the perceptions and uphold them while in a given social setting. The following discussion gives an analysis of women, gender, and sex in the rise of western civilization. The discussion makes use of great philosophers and historians who provided different arguments about the topic in order to prove certain points. A comparison and contrast between the works of Jean Jacques Continue reading...

The three periods of feminism development

In general, the history of feminism can be described as the narrative of the ideologies and movements which are aimed at establishing, defining and defending equal economic social and political rights for women. Feminists all over the world have always differed in goals, intentions and causes depending on culture, country and time. Irrespective of these differences, most western historians of feminist’s interests have always considered all movements and acts that push for women’s rights as feminists movements. History of the modern western feminist is divided into three periods of times. These periods vary slightly in their aims Continue reading...

“A Good Man is Hard to Find”

Traditional convention suffered a string of devastating shocks in the first half of the twentieth century. A world war, a Great Depression, and another world war shattered many people’s faith in traditional institutions. A propos, Flannery O’Connor dispenses with the conventional tropes of hero and villain in “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” She gives the reader a villain who is not evil and a hero who is not good.
Despite the third-person narration, this is the Grandmother’s story. The narrator presents her thoughts and feelings, but the other characters exhibit no evidence of inner Continue reading...

Introduction

The characters of Dante and St. Francis represent the changes that were occurring in the emergence of Romanticism. The Hero lives in a world that is created by his destiny and the hero makes use of his skills to overcome barriers to his goals of self-achievement. The Romantic hero was quite different from the typical hero and always stood outside the norms of the society. He questions the standards of the society and gets alienated in the process. Dante gives a good example of romanticism in The Divine Comedy, where the lead character struggles against society and achieves unity Continue reading...

Abstract

This paper illustrates in detail on the effect of the enlightenment and colonialism on education in the country of Brazil. Historical issues, events, institution and its current practices in higher education are enumerated in order to help the reader have a hint on what is happening in the education system of Brazil. The relevance of the paper is illustrated and the purpose of the topic on issues related to the study of higher education in Brazil as having advanced, based on the fact that it was the last country in South America to have a University. There is also Continue reading...

The paper will inform on “friendship as an ethical worldview in a Quran perspective,” through Ahmad Ibn Mistawayh a Muslim ethics. The paper will present different views that define friendship in God-human and human-human relationships. Quran has a fertile ground to discuss philosophy and ethics of friendship that remains uncultivated for many years in religious traditions. The perspective of friendship in the Quran helps to resolve conflicts, provide peace, reconcile, and make friendship beyond liberal peace. Literature of friendship dates back during the era of Cyrus the Great and writings of Gilgamesh.
Aristotle treats friendship as an essential to Continue reading...

Philosophy Journal

“Burnt Norton” by T.S. Eliot
This poem is told through a narrator speaking directly to an audience. He warns of living in the present and not to suffer the past or worry about the future, “If all time is eternally” present. To worry about what one has already done in the past, “Down the passage which we did not takeTowards the door we never opened will not help to live well in the present.” (Eliot) To spend one’s time think and planning for the future is also a waste, “Here is a place of disaffection Time before and Continue reading...

After the enlightenment and the return to high culture in Europe musicians worked under what was known as the patronage system. This meant that they were indentured servants to noblemen who provided them with financial stability. Noblemen would keep a court composer, and they in term would provide them with a place to live, food to eat and financial stability. This was the pro of the system. The con of the system is that they weighed in on artistic decisions and in the process compromised the artistic integrity of composers at the time. The 1984 film Amadeus takes place Continue reading...

Buddhism had originated in Bodh Gaya in India about six centuries before Christianity was introduced. Buddhism was very popular in the eastern region of Greece, and it became the official religion of the region’s kingdoms. One of the major types of Buddhist religions is the Tibetan Buddhists whose number of adherents is estimated at about twenty million people. Tibetan Buddhism is majorly practiced in Tibet, Bhutan, Mongolia and western countries. Tibetan comprises teachings of Mahayana, the Foundation vehicle, and Vajrayana. Tibetan Buddhism provides teachings on how to achieve Buddhahood more quickly. Buddhahood is a state where one is Continue reading...

The relationship between the revolution in France and Haiti

The Haitian Revolution resulted from a long fight on the fragment of the slaves in the French colony of St. Domingue, however was also driven by the free Mulattoes who had initially faced the prosecutions of being signified as semi-citizens. The revolution saw slavery to end and resulted to the establishment of the republic of Haiti. The colony of Saint-Domingue, geologically roughly the identical land mass that is currently Haiti was the lushest colony in the West Indies and perhaps the richest in the history of the globe. Driven by slave effort and enabled by rich soil and model Continue reading...

Discussion on the Record of Linji

It is for this reason that his question to the head priest, Huangbo, brought him the beating that is the norm in the Buddhist teachings. Huangbo hit him with the rattan, which was a ten-foot bamboo pole, used for this purpose. The teachings that Linji adhered to were part of the Buddhist monastery teaching that involved beating and shouting. He asked the question three times, and was beaten three times. The idea was for him to receive enlightenment, but he clearly did not get that. If he had been mindful and enlightened, there would have been no need for Continue reading...

History

Introduction
Corporal punishment refers to the intentional infliction of physical pain with the aim of correcting or disciplining. Additionally, the corporal punishment can be administered. Many nations seem to be moving from this habit, however, some critics believe that corporal punishment should de embraced. For instance, in the United States there 19 states, which are still practicing it, while 30, have banned it completely. This essay seeks to examine the corporal punishment in the 18th, 19th centuries, and in some abolitionist circles.

Corporal Punishment in 18th Century

As a point of departure, the history of the corporal punishment dates back as early as the Continue reading...

God/s

Christianity is a monotheistic religion with a theistic doctrine – meaning it only recognizes only one God, whose creation of the world was borne out of nothingness. Therefore, Christianity is practically intolerant of other religions given that it deems that the path to salvation leads to God. Salvation, in this case, is against sin, and in Christianity, only God can save people from the pitfalls of sinfulness. With that, adherents of Christianity are advised against committing sin so that they can follow God through the path of salvation. On the other hand, Hinduism is both a polytheistic and monotheistic religion Continue reading...

Historical changes in belief and thoughts, which changed institutional and social organization between the year 1500 and 1700 and led to the unfolding of Europe; is what is referred to as the scientific revolution. Age of reason is another name which is used to refer enlightenment. In addition, this was a period in America and Europe when mankind transformed into a new age from centuries of ignorance. There were major changes in Europe that’s political, economical, sociology and religiously. Natural laws were discovered, and different theories were introduced and this separated us from foolishness and made us have Continue reading...

It is scarcely possible to describe the history of music without reaching the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart is well known and celebrated as being one of the greatest composers and musicians in recorded history, and for good reason. Very few individuals in history have had such a profound and pronounced effect on their field as Mozart has, and a testament to this can be read from the symbolism and thematic content of his magnum opus, The Magic Flute. It is an ostensibly light-hearted fairy-tale opera that served as a convenient introduction to the genre and continues to Continue reading...

Every person needs passion in their life. It is a driving force that gives life a sense and makes it meaningful. People may have many interests and that means that their intellect is being stimulated by more than one area in life. Voltaire said that a person can change everything, except their passions.
What I am passionate about is art, especially film art. In my opinion art and culture are very connected. I like to watch films an make some short films. That is a very personal process and it makes a person grow. The soul makes a selection Continue reading...

Discussion on the Record of Linji

The search for truth is within each man. As a young monk, Linji did not quite understand the truth of what one should be as a person in the light of Buddhist teaching. He was a simple down to earth person, and spent his days minding his own business. His question to the head priest, Huangbo, brought about severe retribution. Huangbo hit him with a ten-foot bamboo pole. The use of the rattan that was popular in the Buddhist monasteries and especially in the teachings to which Linji was exposed. This happened three times, after he asked the question: Continue reading...

Enlightenment connotes to the transitional process that involve positive significant development. The cited enlightenment has been in existence from the 17th century to the contemporary times. However, the cited enlightenment for instance industrial revolution has elicited myriad debate on its effectiveness coupled with the success. Categorically, myriad challenges have been identified in the enlightenment process. The mentioned challenges such as political, economic and social have instigated untold suffering to the myriad populace. The paper endeavors to explicitly extrapolate on industrial revolution as the failure of enlightenment.
Agreeably, enlightenment has significantly changed the status of specific nations. For instance, industrialization Continue reading...

Frankenstein: or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley was first published in 1818 . It was updated and published again in 1831. It is the story of a genius who tried to create life and suffered as he had brought to life evil in the world.
It is a typical gothic novel that gained popularity during the 1800s. The period was referred to as the age of enlightenment or the age of reason. It was the time when many great philosophers arose. The period came after the Renaissance and the Reformation. There was greater freedom for philosophers to write about Continue reading...

Jewish Reform and Conservative Movements

Aside from Christianity and Islam, Judaism can be considered one of the oldest religions still practiced and worshiped today. Its history traces back since the early centuries and like Christianity and Islam, Judaism is known for its monotheistic faith. Much like its counterparts, Judaism has grown significantly throughout the years, establishing societies and communities adhering to the laws subscribed by its sacred text. However, as years progress, there are instances where some of the religion’s traditions and customs are clashing with the modern times. Some Jews recognized this problem and proposed for changes in the faith, but others Continue reading...

Answer 1

According to Stearns, the year 1000 CE can be considered as a marker from which globalization can be traced forward. Though no significant changes took place in the particular year itself, it was followed in the coming years by what can be considered as the history of globalization. Many important events had already took place before the year 1000 CE and these intensified their impact over the next centuries. One of the basis of his arguments is that before 1000CE, the factors which influences the lives of people and the social institutions were isolated and not related to each Continue reading...

Literary Criticism:

Before Matthew 17:1-13, the previous passage (Mathew 16) is about the confession of Peter and the Christ's Church. The passage is about Lord's warning to his disciples to be away from the temptations of Pharisees and Sadducees “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” This was the warning given to the disciples by Jesus. Here Jesus uses the word “Yeast” or “Bread” symbolically. The concepts are associated with the false teaching of Pharisees and Sadducees. 'Pharisees and Sadducees were notorious for their disagreements, especially over the doctrine of the resurrection; Pharisees taught that Sadducees Continue reading...

Revolutionary documents are documents that talk about the colonies of American in which the fight for their independence through and to the end of American Revolution. Some of the documents are recorded in The Declaration of independence by Thomas Jefferson and common sense which is a pamphlet by Thomas Paine. The aim of Thomas Jefferson’s document was to give reasons as to why the American colonies overthrew their leader and decided to obtain their position as a country separated from the world. Thomas Paine’s pamphlet, common sense aimed to know the theoretical intellect of the state then Continue reading...

Religious Studies 305

The book of John in the New Testament speaks so much of Jesus’ love for the sick, the poor, the blind, the doubting Pharisees but also speaks of his deity as God doing the works of Him who sent Him.
But how did Jesus speak to the people? What language did he use? Jesus was always around people. Contrary to the manner of how the Roman Pharisees spoke to the people, Jesus spoke of concern, love and understanding for humanity. A Bible scholar wrote that Jesus spoke in Aramaic. Since Jesus grew up in Nazareth, he also spoke in Continue reading...

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David Hume one of central figures of Scottish Enlightenment said “The Christian religion not only was at first attended with miracles, but even at this day cannot be believed by any reasonable person without one.” This is an ample evidence of his rational and logical thinking. He always argued in favour of proof in order to establish the truth – making him one of the strongest rationalists and also establishing himself as an empiricist. Continue reading...

Abstract

Modernity and Post modernity are the two social, political, economic and cultural phases in respectively 20th and 21st centuries. The initial phase of cinema was much influenced by phase of modernity and the later was influenced by the aspects of post modernity. The paper tries to analyse these modernity and post-modernity in cinematic context. For this comparative analysis the researcher has taken two cinematic works. The initial focus of the paper is the study of the term modernity with its elements. These elements have been analyzed in the context of Charlie Chaplin’s cinematic work. The paper then discusses Continue reading...

The words “Manifest Destiny” is perhaps one of the most politically-intriguing and morally-infused phrases in the history of the American nation. It has ingrained itself in the hallowed halls of American political discourse, and has been debated – time and again – regarding its morality, political philosophy, and ethical value. It is also a prime source for reasoning behind the current turmoil within the United States regarding race and racial inequality, founded upon the notion that individuals born out of a certain stock are better human beings than others. It has thus shaped and transfigured the identity of the American nation – Continue reading...