The Importance of Challenging Existing Norms by Dante - Assignment Example

Humanities Discussion Question 4: The importance of challenging existing norms by Dante, Michelangelo, Kierkegaard, Luther and St. Francis, its usefulness to them and how it will help me in considering the meaning of life. By challenging the existing norms of life that had been laid down throughout history, Dante, Michelangelo, Luther, St. Francis and Kierkegaard were able to successfully develop and sustain a variety of new ideas that although quite unpopular with some of the various established governing bodies such as the church; these ideas enabled them to significantly change the world and affect the actual course of history while making significant amounts of contribution to our knowledge on different aspects, ranging from religion, philosophy to the arts. The insight gained from my study of how these great men were able to challenge the meaning of life have greatly helped me in establishing exactly what is the meaning of life. I have learnt that in life, I should not always settle for what is largely agreed by the masses but should however try and seek the truth regardless of the opposition that I might happen to face in this quest. The approach used by Michelangelo, Kierkegaard, Dante, St. Francis and Luther is seen to have a number of potential problems in that is left them open to incessant attacks and criticisms from individuals who opposed these challenges to the established norms. Written Assignment 4: An analysis of the saint and hero concept in the emergence of Romanticism with reference to Dante and St. Francis. The characters of St. Francis and Dante are seen to truly represent the various transformations as seen in the concept of Hero and Saint during the emergence of Romanticism. While the character of the saint is seen to try and emphasize on the identification of selfhood in relation to others, while demonstrating a principle of Godly getting together to care for one another. On the other hand, the Hero is seen to essentially reflect the materialistic way of leading life. The world of the hero is seen to essentially be formed by destiny, and the distant forces of fate and the heroes utilize skills and success so as to be able to defeat the existing barriers inhibiting their attainment of the goal of self-efficiency and self-achievement. The two characters of hero and saint are seen to essentially symbolize characters that are quite able to effectively pass on through culture at different time periods. The character portrayed by St. Francis is seen to be able to pass the two essences of both the saint and hero as portrayed by his devotion to God and by his portrayal as being a romantic devotee. During the medieval era, the concept of romantic worship was seen to be important as it helped in the symbolization of the conveyance of the concept that the west was individualized. Both the two characters of the Saint and hero are seen to indicate a romantic wish to both be intimate with and perform services to God. In the ecstasy and agony of Michelangelo, transformation is seen to mainly be exhibited by his worship of marble and the manner in which working on the white stone essentially helped convey a condition of ecstasy to him. Michelangelo is seen to face some form of agony and torment when he is unable to receive what he was longing for and work on marble. Most people are nowadays seen to be forced by various particular circumstances to work in fields that they do not feel any affection for. These individuals experience agony when they perform their assigned duties primarily because their inspirations happen to be in other jobs and they are thus unable to gain any inspiration from their current jobs. This is a factor that causes them to be quite unproductive. If offered the opportunity to be assigned their preferred jobs, they are able to experience ecstasy and perform their duties to their level best which enables them to fulfill their individual destinies. Kierkegaard is seen to offer an interesting portrayal of Abraham as depicted in the bible chronicle in three main aspects which are seen to be the character of a saint that forms a covenant treaty with God, a vocation by God and the difficulty of the established union. Kierkegaard points out that Abraham’s insurmountable faith in God is highlighted by the fact that before he raised his lethal knife to sacrifice his son, he first had to life to his wife Sarah, climb up a mountain, cut wood and then bind his son Isaac. A series of various cultural mutations are seen to characterize the progress of both secularism and worldview. This is seen to be exemplified by the far reaching effects of the confrontation between the Papal power and Martin Luther, the various empirical knowledge accomplishments coupled with the concept of the establishment of independent nation states and enterprises that are all seen to be recent human inventions. These transformations in the philosophical thinking of men suggest that there have been a number of extensions and developments over time. It has variously been observed that people engage in struggles advocating for their rights in the event that they happen to gain knowledge and information pertaining to the freedom of individual selection in matters that are seen to affect them. Discussion Forum 5: Freedom and responsibility as portrayed by Dostoevsky in the Grand Inquisitor. My view of freedom and responsibility as portrayed by Dostoevsky in the Grand Inquisitor is that although it is important for every single individual in a given society be responsible to all other members of the given society. By our being accountable to each other for all things, we will be able to establish a successful social system. It is important for us to maintain this system of responsibility if we are to be able to fully enjoy the freedom that the society has to offer us. Written Assignment 5: The Cultural and Historical Events that Helped Shape Human thought in the Late Nineteenth Century and Early Twentieth Century’s. One of the most prominent human thoughts that can has undergone constant change as a result of both cultural and historical events is seen to pertain to what is the true meaning of life. The human search for meaning has been described as having a fundamentally economic character. Over time, different authors such as Darwin and Freud are seen to have attempted to try and provide different meanings to history with Darwin attempting to define history and especially so natural history as being a very dynamic concept. Freud developed a number of rather radical alternative theories to history such as the theory of the unconscious mind. The cultural view of the hero and the saint is a cultural event that is seen to have greatly aided in the shaping of human thought from the nineteenth century through to the twentieth century. According to Prof. Ambrioso, Marx, Darwin and Freud help represent a multi pronged reassertion of the significantly heroic world view of the identity of the hero which is seen to draw energy, evidence and meaning from the cultural and evolutionary developments which the enlightenment cultures of capitalism, individualism, and empirical methods help to sufficiently set in motion in a manner that is deemed as being so successful that the movement is seen to have accumulated so much momentum that its initial force is argued to essentially have brought about a form of seismic shift at the cultural level. The magnitude of this shift is seen to be so profound, significant and traumatic that it is seen to require not only the concentrated attempt to try and address the balance between the saintly and the heroic but also the expression of a fundamental suspicion that there happened to have been something so deeply incomplete and flawed in terms of dynamics of human cultural revolution that necessitated that either an entirely new version of the Saintly and heroic paradigm had to be elaborated. A key historical event that is seen to have contributed to the shaping of human thought in the late nineteenth century through to the twentieth century is the Enlightenment. According to Nietzsche, although there has been some historical progress towards enlightenment, there still happens to lie some considerable difference between the hero and the saint and it is this impetus towards conversion that is seen to be the dynamic of European civilization from the Roman empire period up to the enlightenment. Nietzsche is of the view that this enlightenment is now headed towards a catastrophe that might cause a cultural upheaval. Ambrioso points out that the history of science essentially shows as opposed to the development of scientific knowledge proceeding in a continuous and incremental fashion, it has instead been noted to have occurred as a series of decisive breaks. These increments have been defined as being a paradigm shift. Science and philosophy have constantly been learning from each other. It is argued that philosophy has been tirelessly drawing new material for its board generalizations from the various scientific discoveries. On the other hand, philosophy is seen to greatly contribute to science in that it imparts to science not only its world-view, but also, its methodological impulses of the universal principles it happens to have established. Discussion Forum 6: How the existentialism found in de Beauvoir, Sartre and Camus aid in the Manifestation of the Heroic trait of taking responsibility for one’s very own personal identity as the only authentic possibility advocating for one’s human existence. As portrayed by Sartre, Camus and de Beauvoir, existentialism aids in the manifestation of the heroic trait by its not denying the innate validity of some of some of the established categories of science such as biology, physics and psychology, existentialism is seen to only claim that it is relatively impossible for human beings to be able to be fully understood only in terms of these aspects. The full responsibility for a person’s own individual existence is seen to be grounded on not only their inherent self-awareness but also their born personal freedom to make free choices. Existentialism as manifested by Camus, Beauvoir and Sartre is seen to further help in the general manifestation of the heroic trait by alluding to the fact that it is only by the exercising of one’s freedom to choose that man is eventually able to become completely responsible for his own individual self. Various categories of moral theory such as responsibility are important in the capturing of the important aspects of the human condition. My personal view of this opinion is that this view is essentially true, however it is important that the full responsibility of a person does not essentially stop there but should instead extend to other people so that it is ultimately able to achieve some sort of universal responsibility. The literary works by Faulkner and plays by Becket are seen to essentially aid in the continuation of the concept of existentialism. Both Beckett and Faulkner are seen to effectively use existentialism as a method of expression in their works. Written Assignment 6: How do Wiesel, Buber and Levinas seem to differ from Frankl in their assumed views that they happen to hold in respect to the possibility of finding meaning in response to the events pertaining to the Holocaust? After the events surrounding the Holocaust and World War II, Jewish philosophers quickly found that there was a new framework for them to work within. After gruesome events such as those seen in the Holocaust, it is found to be inevitable that questions of man, God and humanity should come to the forefront of the minds of most men. For philosophers such as Levinas, Buber, Frankl and Wiesel, there was a need to try and establish some answers as well as possible meanings within these answers to the questions of the Holocaust. According to Levinas, one’s responsibility is essentially not solely found in the very midst of a given relationship, but it is also seen to generally precede that relationship as well. Levinas is seen to generally believe that meaning was essentially found within the love that happened to exist between people as opposed to being found in self knowledge or the established way of the hero. Buber is also seen to be of the view that it is within the given relationship and the communication and dialogue that takes place within it, that meaning can possibly be found. However, Levinas’ view is that meaning does not essentially require the face to face encounter that Buber’s view is seen to require. After having survived the Holocaust in a concentration camp, Wiesel is seen to raise the question of the covenant relationship existing between God and his people. This line of questioning is found to be logically reasonable and especially so in light of the rather inexplicable violence and termination that God’s chosen people were forced to experience during the events of the Holocaust. Wiesel who lost his entire family in the concentration camp but managed to survive it as a result of his light weight is seen to have set out on a quest to try and establish a more humanly proportioned responsibility as compared to that which Levinas is seen to have found to be absolutely necessary in his teaching pertaining to the search for meaning. As opposed to Buber, Wiesel and Levians, who were all seen to believe that meaning was essentially found in relationship, Frankl, who also happened to be a concentration camp survivor, believed that meaning was actually found in freedom. What do suffering, freedom and struggle mean to Frankl? According to Frankl, the suffering or struggle that each individual person happens to experience is essentially unique and cannot possibly be replicated primarily due to the fact that individuals and their subsequent reactions to the particular given situations are also quite unique in nature. Frankl believes that all individuals happen to be responsible for finding their own suffering and it is within this suffering that we are able to find personal meaning and it is in this manner that man is seen to have the opportunity of being able to find meaning to all things. The fact that Wiesel and Frankl managed to successfully endure concentration camps essentially helps provide their views a greater resonance for me. This is because their coming from a position where they not only faced but were also able to live through the experience, helped to provide depth to their persons and this aspect is seen to resonate within their teachings. Their experiences helped them in finding meaning a fact that helps in strengthening their arguments in a manner that would have been impossible if they had not faced these direct challenges. Discussion Forum 7: How the figures that I’ve studied in the current module and their respective philosophical ideas happen to related to the issues of ecological, globalization and terrorism crisis and how their ideas can help in the formulation of solutions to some of the problems that are seen to face the world today. The figures that I have studies in this module are seen to relate in a very positive manner to some of the challenges that are seen to critically ail the world today, these include terrorism, ecological crisis and globalization. The approach chosen by these figures is seen to be quite helpful as they are seen to be quite willing to selflessly tackle the challenges for the good of all. The philosophies of Dr. King are seen to be quite relevant to matters pertaining to terrorism as they are seen to relate to his struggle for the rights of the black American community in that we should strive to free ourselves from the oppression that results from terrorism while the philosophy of Mother Teresa is seen to promote the selfless striving to aid the poor and combat poverty, similarities can be drawn between this and a mode of approaching and combating the various ecological crisis. The ideas seen to be proposed by these figures can aid us in adopting a pioneer, and selfless approach that will see us tirelessly working towards the formulation of effective solutions to these problems. Written Assignment 7: The elements in the lives of Martin Luther King, Simone Weil, Mother Teresa and others that Speak to Me Most effectively of the Qualities of the Secular Saint. The element in the life of Simone Weil that helps demonstrate some of the innate qualities of the secular saint is the self sacrifice that she portrays by her self-imposed lack of food in an effort to try and show solidarity with her countrymen who happened to be living in Nazi occupied France. By essentially living a life that she believed to be meaningful to at the very least herself only, Weil was able to fulfill this meaning in its entirety by dying in this meaning due to a tuberculosis infection that was greatly aggravated by her lack of food. Similarly, Dr. King is seen to fundamentally have died primarily as a result of his following and living a life that he believed to be extremely essentially if justice for the country’s African American population was to be achieved during the civil rights movement in the country. Although Mother Teresa is seen to have died a natural death that did not on the face value have any direct correlation to the life of justice that she is seen to have required not only for herself but also for those around her, she is seen to have actually died in the very midst of living out a life of example to the type of justice that she was seen to be fighting for. Mother Teresa is seen to have constantly been aching for the recognition of both the human being and the suffering which was afflicting humans and recognized that although it might not be entirely possible to alleviate this said suffering, it was quite possible for one to acknowledge it and hence be deemed to be respectful of the entire human person. The life of the ideal Greek citizen hero is seen to have greatly impacted Weil’s sense of justice in that she is seen to constantly focus her vision on all individuals as opposed to focusing on just some specific individuals. Weil proposes that people should constantly attempt to try and alleviate any suffering that they possibly can and in the event that this is found to be impossible one should endeavor to try and live life in a manner that will seen them avoid any harm. This postulation is seen to be similar to that proposed by mother Teresa that sought for not only the recognition of human beings and their suffering, but also for the alleviation of this said suffering. Dr. King on the other hand is seen to have believed that all people fundamentally deserved to receive equal rights and this is regardless of their individual skin color. Read More