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“Plato’s Dream” is a short story written in 1756 by the French philosopher and satirist François-Marie Arouet who published under the name of Voltaire. This text is considered as one of the first work of the genre of science fiction. In this story, Voltaire explained the doctrine taught by Plato to his disciples. It is about Demiurgos, the creator of the infinite space, who wanted to test the geniuses of his supreme creatures. He gave each one a small piece of material to settle. Demogorgon, one of them received the earth. He worked on it and arranged it as well as we have it today. Because of the magnificence job he did, he believed he would receive the utmost praise from his brothers; instead, he was sarcasm and criticism because of his imperfection. Not only the work of Demogorgon had that note, but all of them found something to reproach about each other’s work. It was a chaos among them; finally, the eternal Demiurgos required peace; he analyzed their work and he found good and bad because they have a lot of knowledge and imperfection at the same time. He concluded and stated that he is the only one who can create perfection and has the power to give immortality. This story from Voltaire is a sharp philosophical criticism of religious doctrine, what he considered as a dream. He is known as a deist, which is a belief or doctrine that asserts the existence of a god and its influence in the creation of the universe, without relying on sacred texts or dependent of a revealed religion. “Plato’s Dream,” portrays the dogmatism character of religion, pleads for principles base on moral and concepts generally acceptable by everyone, and denounces what organized religions see as divine revelation and holy books, is none other than the...
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...o assured of God. It does not sponsor a blind belief in God in the darkness of its mysteries.
Works Cited
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Voltaire. “Plato’s Dream.” Trans. Literature a World of Writing: Stories, Poems, Plays, and Essays. Ed. David L. Pike and Ana M. Acosta. Boston: Pearson (2011). 429-430. Print.
Religion has been a controversial topic among philosophers and in this paper I am focusing
Kant, Immanuel, and Mary J. Gregor. The Metaphysics of Morals. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1996. Print.
Peterson, Michael - Hasker, Reichenbach and Basinger. Philosophy of Religion - Selected Readings, Fourth Edition. 2010. Oxford University Press, NY.
Hume, David. "Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion." Hume's Dialogues. St. Anselm's College, 2006. Web. 09 Apr. 2014.
Boston: Pearson, 2013. 1396-1506. Print. The. Sophocles. “Oedipus the King” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig; G. E. M. Anscombe, P.M.S. Hacker and Joachim Schulte (eds. and trans.). Philosophical Investigations. 4th edition, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. Print.
Religion and morality exist together in parallel according to Alan Keyes. Alan Dershowitz stated that if religion and morality are not separated, it could have negative discourse. James Fowler followed Piaget, Kohlberg, and Erickson when selecting the stages to his development of faith across the life span. These three men all selected different ways to look at religio...
The "Oedipus the King." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing, Compact Edition, Interactive Edition. 5th ed.
Arthur, John, and Scalet, Steven, eds. Morality and Moral Controversies: Readings in Moral, Social, and Political Philosophy. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. Eighth Edition, 2009.
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Voltaire, Francois-Marie Arouet de. “Candide.” The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Gen. ed. Martin Puchner. Shoter 3rd ed. Vol. 2. New York: Norton, 2013. 100-59. Print.
Sophocles. "Oedipus the King." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 7th ed. New York: Longman, 1999. 1902.
The purpose of this paper is to argue for the idea that even without a God, there can be a basis for morality. The structure of my argument will proceed as follows. I will begin my paper with the background information of the idea that without a God, specifically the Christian God, there is no moral basis. After detailing this false belief, I will go on to explain why it is indeed untrue due to various reasons. I will bring forth the conflicting views of St. Thomas Aquinas and the natural law theory before countering the arguments brought up by them.
Harman, G. (2000). Is there a single true morality?. Explaining value and other essays in moral philosophy (pp. 77-99). Oxford: Clarendon Press ;.
When considering morality, worthy to note first is that similar to Christian ethics, morality also embodies a specifically Christian distinction. Studying a master theologian such as St. Thomas Aquinas and gathering modern perspectives from James Keenan, S. J. and David Cloutier serve to build a foundation of the high goal of Christian morality. Morality is a primary goal of the faith community, because it is the vehicle for reaching human fulfillment and happiness. Therefore, great value can be placed on foundations of Christian morality such as the breakdown of law from Aquinas, the cultivation of virtues, the role of conscience in achieving morality, and the subject of sin described by Keenan.