From the viewpoint of Melville scholar Lawrence Cleveland, the character of Captain Ahab, the sole master of the whaling ship the Pequod, "lost his leg to Moby Dick" which makes him "the victim of an attack by a vicious animal" ("Captain Ahab," Int Continue Reading...
Dante's Inferno And The Heroic Quest Like Homer's "The Odyssey," and "The Iliad," Dante's "The Inferno" begins with a kind of god's eye view of the world. However, rather than the gods looking down and squabbling about the morality of humans they se Continue Reading...
Though the Monster tries to refrain from interfering; "What chiefly struck me was the gentle manners of these people, and I longed to join them, but dared not…[remembering] too well the treatment I had suffered the night before from the barbar Continue Reading...
This notion and the memory of flight, Young concludes, endure in the tradition of the contemporary African. We find it, for instance, in the writings of Toni Morrison, Edwidge Danticat, and Nella Larson as replica of the folkloric tradition that dev Continue Reading...
Grief Process for Africans, The Tutsi Tribe Grief process for Africans, the Tutsis tribe Death is certain to human existence. Different cultures and communities in the world have different perceptions towards death, believes about life after death Continue Reading...
Phantoms in the Brain Based on the cases presented in the book, do you believe that we have specialized neural circuitry that exists solely to moderate religious experiences? What do you think this area is for? How do you explain the religiosity of Continue Reading...
Ethics On the surface, both ethical relativism and ethical egotism are appealing theories. The ethical relativist avoids many of the problems that arise from encounters with different moral codes, and can help to eliminate some of the culture clashe Continue Reading...
It is accepting Jesus as the Son of God or even a spiritual figure that many cannot grasp. In this regard, history can be interpreted as too narrow for an understanding of Jesus. In fact, history is often interpreted as too narrow for religious or s Continue Reading...
Philosophy The cosmological disagreement can take many forms, but it works with the basis since the cosmos (universe) exists, there must be a God. How can the information that the universe exist point to any other conclusion than that the universe e Continue Reading...
Emptiness, as we also find in some Hindu philosophies like Advaita, is the eternal emptiness that is beyond dualism and which is rich with possibilities that far exceed the dualities of the ordinary world. In most Buddhist schools of thought we unde Continue Reading...
Testaments to Truth Roman Catholicism and Mormonism Compared There are many varieties of Christianity, some of them very old, and some of them of quite recent origin. The Roman Catholic Church boasts an uninterrupted existence of two thousand years Continue Reading...
Philosophy (general) In sections 37 thru 45 of the Monadology Leibniz offers three different proofs of the existence of God. Explore the way in which each of these proofs is derived from the 'two great principles' introduced immediately before. The Continue Reading...
Robert Nozick in his book The Examined Life considers in one chapter "The Nature of God, the Nature of Faith," a major philosophical issue that has been addressed through history by many philosophers. Nozick himself cites Descartes in his introductio Continue Reading...
Descartes Discourse IV For centuries, humans have wondered about certain basic paradigms of the universe -- how do we know what we know? Is there truth? Is there a God? How can we prove that? While we know that this basic question has been debated f Continue Reading...
In 300 BC, Jews were again exiled to Egypt by Ptolemy. His capture of Jerusalem led to the deportation of thousands of individuals to Egypt, and still others left of their own accord. Those that were left were often assigned to Ptolemy's garrison, Continue Reading...
philosopher Rene Descartes can be regarded as the supreme rationalist. Descartes believed that only through our rational minds could we fully know God and find evidence of God. Empirical knowledge was not sufficient justification to prove the existe Continue Reading...
The first five books were separated from the whole about 400 B.C. As the Pentateuch. Jean Astruc in the eighteenth century noted that the Pentateuch is based on even earlier sources. The two chief sources have since been identified in Genesis on the Continue Reading...
Faith: Philosophy Paul Tillich Paul Tillich was one of the most famous theologians of the 20th century. He represented the 20th century movement called neo-orthodoxy. Most of Tillich's work is represented in a series of transcribed lectures. Tillic Continue Reading...
Phantom Limbs When we ask ourselves what is knowledge (as we do when we are engaged in the process of philosophy) we are effectively asking what is our relationship with the world. V.S. Ramachandran - as is the norm for philosophers - asks the quest Continue Reading...
Angelology, or the study of angels, has been a topic of human fascination since the dawn of time. There are several perspectives from which angels can be viewed. Many are skeptical about their existence, since they cannot be physically perceived with Continue Reading...
After considering the particular language of Philippians 2:5, it becomes clear that one may read this clause as containing either no verbs, a single repeated verb, or a verb and a noun referring to related concepts. In all likelihood, the most accu Continue Reading...
If he had love, he had no pot in which to plant it. And so it stayed trapped in his mind, separate from any object -- for Kant insisted on the gulf between faith and reason. If one had to accept certain truths on the authority of the one revealing t Continue Reading...
e., God). Marx and Engel saw it as something that is fantastical -- a fantastical reflection of the minds of men (Marx & Engel p 161). Buddhadasa writes that the Buddha believed in the reality of a spiritual existence, yet he refused to interpre Continue Reading...
McCloskey responds to this by asking "might not God have very easily so have arranged the world and biased man to virtue that men always freely chose what is right?" But in that case, humans would not have genuine free will. And God is justified, Ev Continue Reading...
Mind-Based Identity: A Problem Impossible to Ignore One of the most basic questions of human existence is essentially "What am I?" Although humans have known in varying degrees throughout recorded history that they are biological beings, there has Continue Reading...
Socrates, "The unexamined life is not worth living (rdg.uk)." It is for this reason that a critical examination of our most fundamental beliefs about truth and reality whether right or wrong becomes an important undertaking (rdg.uk). The examination Continue Reading...
Life After Death Introduction classical point of departure in defining Death seems to be Life itself. Death is perceived either as a cessation of Life - or as a "transit area," on the way to a continuation of Life by other means. While the former pr Continue Reading...
Generosity is the main characteristic of a Christian society. Along with that, Christians should be obedient to God and respectful toward government. The family would become a matter of great importance. Christians would not live luxurious lives whi Continue Reading...
160). Furthermore, Aquinas considers all people as being creations of God and parts of a whole that God represents. God's perfection has been passed on to its creations and thus all humans are perfect in their nature. Aquinas is obsessed with demon Continue Reading...
), and the five gross elements which are said to proceed from the five subtle elements (ether or space from sound, air from touch, fire from sight, water from taste, earth from smell). (68) Nature is further divided into three essential gunas, sattva Continue Reading...
This also contrasts sharply with idealistic notions within strict doctrines of the Orthodox faith suggesting that faith and God are defined and not subject to interpretation. One may look into themselves to find compassion and strength, but those qu Continue Reading...
Moral Philosophy Ethical Theories on Animals. The treatment of animals has historically evolved along with human beings' changing views of them. A number of theories trace this changing treatment to the Judeo-Christian-Islamic times when people exer Continue Reading...
Origin Jesus said that God created human beings (Matt. 19:4) and they should worship and obey Him wholly and also love their neighbors, much as they love themselves (Matt. 22: 37-39). He also taught that human beings have immaterial souls that live Continue Reading...
Judaic, Greek, and Roman origin myths, and indeed, those who believe the former is representative of some divinely-inspired message would likely take offense at the notion that their god's story is suspiciously similar to the stories of other, mutua Continue Reading...
Theology Definition In How to Think Theologically, Howard Stone and James Duke argue that theology works with a distinct template and epistemology or theory of knowledge, as do history, sociology and physics. Each theologian will have a distinctive Continue Reading...
This method of presentation attracted several immediate attacks from enemies within the church even before a reaction from the Chinese. Sometime after 1610, one critic, Father Longobardo, said that even with all the references to that of a supreme Continue Reading...
Promethean myth holds a very strong hold upon the literature of the romantic era, a collected era of the rekindling of the ideas and ideals of classical antiquity. Though within each evolving age there is the incorporation of propriety and modernity Continue Reading...
Science and Religion Seek the Same Thing Science is the study of how the human race comprehends the world around them, while religion is what they apply to translate their study on the never-ending belief. There is a radical distinction between the Continue Reading...
pious is what all the gods love, the opposite, what all the gods hate, is the impious." How does Socrates react to this definition? Why is this not an adequate definition, and why does it fail to reveal the form? Socrates is not satisfied with Euth Continue Reading...
