Life’s Tapestry: Memory, Time, and Western Expectations
Amputated. What does all that that person has accumulated mean? I do not mean material possessions, the transmission assets which regulate the civil codes. I refer to the repertoire of experiences that each of us treasures: these ways of seeing, of viewing the world, to act upon it.
Each of us is, of course, the son of his time, but we are not merely a case comparable to the rest of our contemporaries. Each of us is unique, and with the death of each one disappears what no one else can resume. Death
Read MorePhilosophical Quotes and Glossary of Terms
Philosophical Quotes
We must follow the argument wherever it leads (Socrates)
Love is desire for the perpetual possession of the good (Plato)
Life is long if you know how to live it (Seneca)
The truth is the whole (G.W.F. Hegel)
He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how (Friedrich Nietzsche)
The limits of my language are the limits of my reality (Ludwig Wittgenstein)
A theory that explains everything, explains nothing (Karl R. Popper)
It is better for rulers to be feared than loved (Niccolo Machiavelli)
Read MoreDescartes’ Philosophy: Reason, Doubt, and Certainty
Descartes’ Rationalist Philosophy
The Quest for Certainty Through Reason
Descartes’s philosophy rests on the principle that there is a unique foundation, a conclusion adopted ultimately: the existence of a unique reason. He is convinced that everything can be known. In fact, in his Discourse on Method, he goes so far as to say that ultimately there is nothing so obscure that we cannot shed light upon it. Therefore, Descartes asks how we can reach that knowledge and concludes that we can only be sure
Read MoreThe Power Dynamics of Humanity and Nature
Second, even if you can afford it, these things are really more powerful than you. If I
make a payment, you have power over me, and that leads me! Third, these three forms of technology can be used against them: bomb airplanes, radios
for propaganda, and contraceptives that deny the existence or cause selective breeding. Therefore, the power of man over nature is the power of some over others in these three ways.
Item #3: The Reconfiguration of Humanity by Some Human Beings
What they really meant
19th Century Southern Literature: Themes and Forms
The Forms of 19th Century Southern Literature
The important literature of the 19th century South took four basic forms:
- Nature lyrics on the Southern landscape.
- Collections of framed sketches of backwoods character types.
- Episodic novels or linked sketches on the model of the epic historical romance.
- Romantic-satiric narrations of idyllic plantation life.
Supposed Southern Qualities
Among his supposed Southern qualities are:
- A high formalism of prose style.
- An idealization of women.
- A scorn of democracy and
Understanding Morality: Key Concepts and Ethical Theories
An emergency involuntary impulse drives us to perform an action. Simple feelings are positive or negative attitudes towards others. Right reason allows us to use our intelligence to anticipate the consequences of our actions. Willpower is how we make decisions and effectively carry them out. Personal practice is the kind of person we are. Temperament is the psychological component of personality. Character is typical of the way we think and act. Self is the image we have of ourselves. Socialization
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