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As my close friend and I were walking down the street we passed by a bookstore and decided to go in and take a look. As we were in the store we saw this man that stuck out like a sore thumb, heads were turning from every person he walked passed. One of the most intriguing things about this gentleman is that he seemed to care less about all of the eyes honed in on him, and he was carefully observing all of his surrounding, taking everything in. This man was stationed at the philosophical section of the store and was reading One The Nature of Things by Lucretius. This man was dressed in a plain blue button down shirt, a pair of jeans that were completely worn and weathered. His shoes were plain tennis shoes that had holes in the toes and his hair was long, in a tangled mess. He looked as if he hadn’t taken a shower in weeks, and he was very skinny looking as if he hadn’t had a good meal in a while either. Our first original takes of this man was that he was homeless and did not have the money to afford food or clothes, and didn’t have any access to a shower. As we made our way throughout the store my friends eyes remained fixed on this man and she remarked “I feel so bad for him, we should take him out for lunch or something.” Regardless of what I would have said she had her mind made up that she was going to help this man out and take him to grab some food. After we were finished roaming the store my friend approached the man and claimed that she wanted to take him over to the local café. At first the gentleman kindly declined my friends offer, but after a while of persistence she finally convinced him that it would be of no inconvenience to us if he joined us.
Although the walk to the café was a very short...
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...d’s point be? They also believe that nothing created God and nothing will be able to destroy him, I cannot wrap my head around the idea that God could exist without a creator. I also understand the negativity towards conforming to society, but I think that sometimes conformity is necessary to a certain degree. If an Epicurean existed in today’s world it would be nearly impossible for them to make any “real” friends with out a slight conformity to society, yet they stress the importance of friendships to happiness; so either way it would result in a loss in either conformity or happiness. I feel that in today’s society a true Epicurean cannot exist, but there could be a person extremely similar. Because society has undergone great change since Epicureanism was popular it would need slight change to allow for Epicureans to be present in today’s world.
Eighner's autobiographical essay not only shows the degradation homeless people indure, but his personal snobbery of those around him
contrast the God of Epictetus, and the God of Augustine, and in the end, my stand will
Ignorance and vanity can be good, in small amounts, but too much can lead to very unwelcome consequences. Connie, a teenage girl who can’t get enough of herself, learned this the hard way when a strange man by the name of Arnold Friend arrives at her house with the intent of taking her on a ‘date’. Instead of calling the police or locking herself in, like common sense would imagine, Connie uneasily greets Arnold from her door when he gets out of his car, instantly letting her vanity and ignorance get the best of her. Joyce Carol Oates shocks the reader with the twist ending in her short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” in which after hearing Arnold’s threat towards her family, Connie hands herself over to Arnold allowing him
...on the homeless community. I previously held preconceived notions that the homeless consisted of people who were either unable to connect and form relationships with others or didn’t desire to do so. Yet, I observed most everyone greeting one another and reminiscing with those who have been absent from the community for a while, as well as, expressing concern for those missing. I recognized that the homeless may live in a non-traditional way, but they have established their own communities and are successful in forming and maintaining cohesive relationships.
She uses a string full of rhetorical questions throughout her article, as well, to make us contemplate whether people do deeds out of compassion, fear, or something else. She uses rhetorical questions such as “Was it fear or compassion that motivated that gift?”(6), “...what compels this woman to feed this man? Pity? Care? Compassion? Or does she simply want to rid her shop of his troublesome presence?”(9), and “Could it be that the homeless, like those ancients, are reminding us of our common humanity?”(14). These questions make the audience think and contemplate why these people did these acts of kindness. Ascher includes some of these rhetorical questions at the end of both of the narratives to force the readers to quickly analyze the situation and decide what the motivation was. As a result, I can conclude that one woman did it out of fear while the other did it out of compassion; therefore, this proves that people are not born compassionate, but they develop the quality later on in life. This is more effective instead of just expressing how she personally feels about each
As said before, this is an unanswerable question, but to find a few conclusions it would be essential to look back at what Epicurus thought of what was life all about and to look back at what Gramsci meant about be a partisan. Equally important, is to look back at how these two philosophies influenced literature and art, by reading Sartre's thoughts on the engaged writer and by recalling to our minds some i...
In short, this is a story of a random meeting of two strangers, and an attraction or feeling that is overlooked and ignored. A man describes a lady such that you could only envision in your dreams, of stunning beauty and overwhelming confidence of which encounters of the opposite sex occur not so very often. The mans attraction is met by a possible interest by the lady, but only a couple flirtatious gestures are exchanged as the two cross paths for the first time and very possible the last.
“Once upon a time in a far away land” in every imagination, is the start of how a prince and a princess live happily ever after. The fairy tales come to mind when thinking about princes, how charming, intelligent admiring, and many more characteristics that the “idyllic” prince has in many minds like my own. The question is simply asked, “What makes the idyllic prince?” most of us think of someone who has high quality and very first class. Niccolo Machiavelli describes an ideal prince as someone who is in control and dominant. The ideal prince should understand warfare and statecraft. Machiavelli was born in Florence Italy in 1496. He served as an administrator and a diplomat in the Florence Republic, and was imprisoned at various points of his career. One of his notable positions was serving as a political advisor to the Borgia family. He knew many political leaders of Italy, particularly Cesare Borgia, who he wrote The Prince about. Machiavelli judges Gilgamesh as a prince based on his behavior, qualities, and characteristics that Machiavelli describes in The Prince and the behavio...
Now that's done. Epicurius's argument is essentially that there is no point at which we are harmed by death, and therefore death is not bad. Specifically, he formulates his argument in the following way:
...Epicureans and Stoics] offered a conception of the world and human nature which drew its support from empirical observations, reason and a recognition that all men have common needs” (6). Though both views opposed each other in various ways, they both provided man with a way to live and to care for oneself.
The Epicurean theory essentially encompasses the thought that we as humans, have a natural instinct to seek pleasure and avoid pain and that this instinct in and of itself is what will ultimately cause us to achieve happiness and the ‘good life’. Pleasure is considered a feeling of satisfaction, joy and overall contentment with a particular situation or state of being. While pain as the polar opposite, being a feeling of immense physical or mental discomfort/distress.
On a cold night in December, Linda, a cutthroat investment banker, was walking home late at night from her luxurious office in Houston, Texas. The night was Christmas Eve, but Linda had to work late to finish up a big deal she was closing. It was lightly snowing outside, and as Linda liked snow, she decided walking the short distance to her apartment rather than driving would be relaxing. Her husband and two children were eagerly awaiting her arrival to spend Christmas Eve together as a family. As Linda was walking, she began to have the strange feeling that someone was following her. As she looked behind her, there was one man walking a few hundred feet back on the otherwise empty sidewalk. This frightened Linda a little, and she quickened her pace slightly. The man followed suit, increasing the speed at which he was following the nervous woman. Linda wasn’t quite sure what to do; this had never happened to her before. She turned around a second time, and felt a wave of horror pass over her as she saw the mans face, dark and fierce. She also saw something in his gloved right hand, long, silver, and shining dully in the dim streetlights. Linda knew that the object was indeed a knife, and now realized that she was in serious trouble. As she rounded a street corner, she began to sprint. The mysterious man rounded the corner, looking down, and saw a pair of high heels laying in the middle of the sidewalk. As he looked up, he saw Linda running as fast as she could, her bare feet kicking up snow. The man took off after her, furious that he had let her gain so much distance between them. Linda tried to open her purse in order to use
As a worldview, Stoicism is a philosophical approach to help people to cope with times of great stress and troubles. In order to give comfort to humanity, the Stoics agree with the Pantheistic view that God and nature are not separate. Instead, the two forces are one. By believing that God is nature, humans have a sense of security because nature, like God, is recognized as rational and perfect. The perfection of nature is explained through the Divine, or natural, Law. This law gives everything in nature a predetermined plan that defines the future based on past evens (cause and effect). Because the goal for everything in nature is to fulfill its plan, the reason for all that happens in nature is because it is a part of the plan. It is apparent that, because this law is of God, it must be good. The Divine Law is also universal. Everything on the planet has a plan that has already been determined. There are no exceptions or limitations to the natural law. The world in the Stoics’ eyes is flawless, equal, and rational.
Epictetus was a philosopher that was born in 50 C.E.and died in 130 C.E., Epictetus was famous for his strong belief in self discipline. Unlike fellow philosopher Epicurus Epictetus does not believe that matter is the most important thing in the universe and that people should try to fulfill their pleasures. Epictetus believes that the most important thing in the universe is God. He believes that people should live their entire lives understanding where they stand in the cosmic universe. As stated in the book Great Traditions In Ethics Epictetus believes “That we are first to learn that there is a god; and that his providence directs the whole” (Denise, White, &
...the demands of others on society. Epicureanism teaches that free will is in fact the only thing that matters in life, for if a person does not have free will and freedom of their mind, and then what does the person have. Epicureanism, I do believe, helps the people of the world to see that they could fight back when they are doing something they do not want to do. The quotes from Epicurus are powerful and should not be taken lightly. If a person really dissects the quotes and sayings of Epicurus, they do make a great deal of sense. They provide a sense of life and happiness, which is a defining factor in Epicureanism. Thus, this philosophy is very important to all mankind.