Seminar Workbook - Essay Example

SЕMINАR WОRKBООK University Student Id Course Date First one is that 1. Analyze the Buddhist doctrine of ‘no self’ [anātman], and the ethical consequences that flow from it. The Buddhist tradition has no emphasis on any interpretation of “annata” that do mean oneself. It is the central and unique teaching of Buddhism. Considering this doctrine, no everlasting soul or self where the discussion f the doctrine can be based on the philosophical problem but not ethical significance. The behavior of the Buddhism individuals has some psychological basis. The ethics of Buddhists is said to be “ethics of intention” the moral actions of Buddhists are skillful resulting in happiness while the unskillful actions are considered harmful to oneself and others. This is because the skillful actions are concerned with the right view while the unskillful actions concerned with a wrong view (Buddha, 2008). According to Buddhists, the unskillful actions are assessed on the basis of psychological considerations of hatred, greed, and mind with delusion while the skillful actions based on compassion, wisdom, and kindness. The ‘no self’ doctrine among the Buddhists explains how views can influence lives and wellbeing of people. The view of oneself can be best understood through understanding the true meaning of anatta where the doctrine of anatta among the Buddhists is significant in their ethics. Attainment of a perfect bliss has been the primary purpose among the Buddhists through ensuring that any form of suffering is brought to an end. Anatta does play a crucial role in eliminating forms of suffering where the soullessness nature can be clearly communicated through the ‘no self’ doctrine. The no self in the doctrine has been considered as the wisdom where Buddhism does recognize self simply because consciousness do arise and at some point pass away (Collins, 1994). According to the doctrine, if the consciousness and sense organs where control could be possible. Soullessness contemplation by Buddhists was encouraged as it ensures that people can avoid unwholesome mental qualities that can include craving, pride, and anger aiming at bringing peace of mind. The selflessness thought helps in ensuring that minds of individuals can become free from selfishness and egoism where the possibilities of arrogance and pride can be eliminated through the ‘no self’ doctrine. The moment one is completely from any aspects of ego. According to the understanding of only suffering exists while no sufferer can be found, the deeds can be found, but no doers are there. Therefore, the understanding of the doctrine of ‘no self’ is said to overcome kammic bondage (Collins, 1994). The moment an individual is considered to have achieved supreme bliss, he or she can be endowed with the necessary skillfulness where hate, delusion, and greed are kept at bay from the individual (Collins, 1994). The ‘no self’ doctrine ensures the highest level of moral perfection that can be attained while ensuring complete elimination of any element of false intentions in self-notion. According to the belief most of Buddhists, the self-notion has been considered to be the primary root of most of the evils. In my view, anatta is not primary basis of Buddhism but other teachings do exist that can include innate impurities of ignorance, hate, and greed. The second one is that 1. Analyse Al-Ghazali’s claim that God is the only true cause in the world. The Arab theologians were seeking to establish the relationship existing between the world and God. Thinkers were mainly focusing on uniqueness and almightiness of God in the process of addressing the issue of God creation. God is the ultimate creator of all the human acts, and He expects the human beings to be responsible for their actions. The mightiness of God can be proved through His wonderful deeds where He has control over everything in the world. The attributes of God do include that He sees, wants, knows, and speaks among other attributes (Montada, 2001). Considering the volatility of the world, God has to be active to bring the things on the world in existence and ensure their control. God has given the human being a special attribute that has made them able to perform activities that are not possible in the other creatures. Like the other creatures that were created by God, human beings have set of accidents in their body that can include senses, soul, life, and spirit. The human acts that are not performed in a way that is conscious or deliberate cannot be considered as human acts but are divine acts like any other event in nature where God is the intentional agent. The understanding concerning God can only be possible through the reflection of reality divides that include opposite categories of the hidden and the visible (Al-Ghazali, 2008). The visible reality can be said to be the whole world while the hidden reality is all about God (Montada, 2001). In the process of acquiring knowledge concerning God, one has to employ the reflection that entirely relies on the analogy that is related to the hidden reality. Various arguments have shown that God is the crater as the controller of everything hence God alone needs to be worshiped. The rational viewpoint concerning the acts of the human beings that they should act an objective value that can determine the resulting blame or praise on earth and after death. The human beings have a moral obligation that can include offering prayer to God. Al-Ghazali urged for the need for reconciling at times of conflicts where many Muslim theologians seemed to support the rationalist tendencies. However, seem to have the perception that God sits on the throne as He is the controller of everything on earth. According to the Muslim theologians, the soul of human beings undergoes temperament that can include imbalances through other people influence and the desire for constant training and discipline. Human has the potential of developing their rationality through the acquisition of virtuous character (Montada, 2001). However, education, religion, literature are expected to assists in the process of realizing the potential of the human beings. The Islamic law and anti-rationalism have the contribution on the human rationality especially on the normative judgment concerning the human actions. God has unchanging and eternal knowledge concerning the various events in life where God created every event. The role of God in controlling and making things happen in the world can be seen through miracles that show the extraordinary actions of God making Him the true cause in the world. The third one is that 3. What is Descartes’s conception of the material world? How does this conception relate to the story of the wax in the second Meditation? Descartes stressed the use of sense in the process of acquiring knowledge rather than relying on pure rationalists. Rationalism was considered as one of the major ways of attaining knowledge where Descartes was spurring the society to ensure proper examination of the traditions. The reasoning is considered as the native gift of the human beings that can ensure true knowledge is gleaned through applying methodical reasoning but not in books. Every human being is said to possess some element of reasoning even during the most difficult times. Besides, people are said to have a good sense that entails the ability to differentiate the truth from fiction where the failure to follow the right path of thoughts results in failure to realize the truth (Carriero, 2008). Descartes considered himself a thinker who was improved by his method of reasoning. Forming a long chain of the process of reasoning can be crucial in eliminating the possible problems (Descartes, 2013). Descartes provided his prove to the contemporary theologians about the existence of God and the common immortality of the soul of the human beings. The explicit concerns related to the religious matters have no reflection on losing interest for pursuing scientific goals. Through the sharp differentiation of mind from the body Descartes was determined to provide a different arena for churches while at the same time ensuring scientists their freedom. This was merely aimed at eliminating the interference of religious leaders in the scientific matters and ensure the promotion of the material world exploration. Through reasoning, Descartes was trying to put the necessary efforts of ensuring that there was the transition from the metaphysical reality foundations to the existence of dependent lesser beings (Descartes, 2013). According to Descartes, a dreamer cannot be in a position to connect his dreams with the past ideas; hence, a man can possibly be deceived by sleep. Doubting is sometimes legitimate in the sensory perceptions, where not all dreams can be considered real as they are part of personal imaginations. However, everything appears to be true even under strict conditions of universal doubt where the truth does not rely on the external environment. Descartes adopted a strategy that avoided the bad intellectual behaviors on both the powerful and the indigenous. He made use of dreaming doubts aiming at making mediator suspend the faith in external world situation provided by senses. The mediator can be able to gain the necessary understanding concerning existence of Supreme Being where the connection of the new senses with the world and mind is instated. Through the use of methodological doubt put the mediator away from senses perception to embrace the metaphysical truth hence providing the means for the mediator to avoid engagement with misleading theories (Carriero, 2008). The dreaming doubt is mainly geared towards drawing the mediators away from the naïve understanding concerning knowledge. According to Descartes, anyone who wishes to achieve knowledge to level that s above the normal level has to feel ashamed of taking ordinary ways of talking with the basis of doubts. Descartes supported the argument that sensory appearances might fail to provide the reliable information concerning the external environment. References Al-Ghazali, L. E. (2008). Did Al-Ghazali Deny Causality?. Studia Islamica, (47), 83-120. Buddha. (2008). Mahayana Buddhism: the doctrinal foundations. Routledge. Carriero, J. (2008). Between two worlds: a reading of Descartes's Meditations. Princeton University Press. Collins, S. (1994). What are Buddhists doing when they deny the self?.Religion and Practical Reason: New Essays in the Comparative Philosophy of Religions, 59-86. Descartes, R. (2013). René Descartes: Meditations on first philosophy: With selections from the objections and replies. Cambridge University Press. Montada, J. P. (2001). Reason and Reasoning in Ibn Ḥazm of Cordova (d. 1064). Studia islamica, (92), 165-185. Read More