Throughout many centuries philosophers have tried to explain the nature of reality and the order that exists within the universe around us. The purpose of this paper is to first trace the developments that led up to modernity. Next I will react to the claim made by Fredrick Nietzsche that “God is dead” from a Biblical perspective.
Philosophers have attempted to answer that question of what reality is and how to answer the questions that everyone faced. The first philosopher Thales held that water was the source of life and death. This is how the earliest philosophers explained the cycle of life and death that they saw happening all around them. Heraclitus later thought that fire was the prime element, and Democritus believed it to be atoms.
Pythagerous once said that, “reality isn’t captured in the physical world, it lies in the mind.” He thought that everything could be found in numbers. Pariminides simply explained that true reality was found in “the one.” Plato then added the spiritual realm to the equation of true reality. For Plato, true reality existed in the spiritual realm, and the reality that is empirically observed is only a shadow of the spiritual reality. Life’s goal was to escape the physical reality and enter into spiritual reality, although the spiritual realm could be known about through the use of reason. He added that life was bad because it prohibited the soul from reaching the spiritual level, and death was good because it allowed the soul to escape the body.
Aristotle tried to fix the gaps left by Plato’s assessment of reality by saying that the dual nature of reality was to be explained by form and matter. Plato said that achieving form was the goal of matter. Matter was potential; form was fullness of being. Form and matter existed in pure form only in the ideal world; they could never be completely isolated. Everything existed in some sort of cycle that continually went on between form and matter. Life was good only because it was moving closer toward form. Death was bad because it was moving toward matter and the end of the cycle.
Augustine picked up where Plato left off and incorporated his ideas into Christianity. He claimed God was found in the spiritual world, and one could enter that realm by thinking God...
... middle of paper ...
...n emphasis on the self, and created two different realms in which we could discover truth about the external world. Nietzsche claimed that to know God you would need to find Him through logic. Since the only way to find God was through the modern world was through logic, there was no need for a god in our culture. The only thing we are left with from Nietzsche’s perspective is the will to power. He even went as far as to say that Jews and Christians made up God just so they would feel better about themselves. I believe Nietzsche’s statement to be true. Our society today is based on the individual rather than the community. Now the culture we live in today is said to be “post-modern.” Post modernity is not just relativistic; it is simply a critical response to modernity. As Christians, we must attempt to answer the questions post-modern thinkers are asking from a Biblical response. The best option is not to become part of it, but to transform. Isn’t that what Paul wrote about to the church at Rome? We shouldn’t just buy into the consumer mentality of the day; we must seek to be salt and light in an ever-changing culture.
God may well be dead but Nietzsche’s assessment of the pitfalls of our new arbiter of value provides a staunch critique against which we must measure our morality. The question though remains as to whether we can ever accept a plurality of values within a given polity, whilst it may solve the philosophical problem of linking categories such as ‘Truth’ and ‘Purity’ can any aggregation of humans ever produce an agreement that is anything but slavish or self interested or vain or resigned or gloomily enthusiastic or an act of despair or each individually? God may well be dead but Nietzsche is right when he says that his shadow remains over us and, for the moment, there seems no way we can cast our own light on that shadow and overcome his legacy.
Majority of these people also happen to be the one’s who do not engage in physical activity and do not consider their health a top priority. These individuals have the preconceived idea that students should be spending more time in classes, such as, math, science, literacy, and history. These individuals basically assume that these are the only classes that matter and are going to help children with their future career. The people who do not support physical education are oblivious to all the beneficial skills that this class teaches children. Additionally, some parents think that physical education activities can be done outside of school, and that students will become too exhausted to concentrate on schoolwork. An article titled “The Pros and Cons of Mandatory Gym Classes in Public Schools”, expresses that a large amount of physical education programs are not benefiting students because they are unorganized(Mueller, 1). This leads students and adults to believe that they would almost be better off without physical education class, and given more time for other studies. Furthermore, the article mentioned that students who spent more time being active in gym class, were less likely to be active after school. This worries parents because they might be paying an excessive
One of the main points of Plato’s philosophy was that he believed that people should not so easily trust their senses. In “The Allegory of the Cave”, Plato argues that what we perceive of the world through our sense does not give us the entire picture of what is really there. He states that what we can see is only shadows of what is true, but since we are born believing what we see, we don’t know that there is anything missing at all. Plato believed that in the “knowable realm”, the form of the good, the ultimate truth, is the last thing that we can see, which requires more effort that simply perceiving it. This ultimate truth can only be found through being able to not only perceive, but to be dragged out of the cave, or to be able to think. He likely believed this because through education, he felt that there was an ordering occurring in the mind that allowed for thoughts to become more focused, and clearer. As these thoughts became clearer, s...
This paper examines the issues associated to the disengagement of students in the health and physical education domain. Typically traditional curriculums have shown to foster anxiety and create undesirable competition amongst students through fitness testing. It is critical to understand the reasons behind the issues of why students are disengaging in the participation of physical education, as the sedentary behavior is becoming a major factor in the obesity epidemic.
Meanwhile, Aristotle's hylomorphism is necessary here, however, in that he would like to be able to explain how living things are generated and change and grow. “For Aristotle this is the matter. Matter can take on new forms some of which are accidental while some our essential”. It is clear from this quote that Aristotle means something very different by his use of Forms. While Plato believed Forms were universal truths that can only be truly known to the immortal soul, Aristotle believed the Forms to be fully knowable through investigation unlike Plato's theory, “which sees individual things in this world as somehow participating in the unchanging world of the Forms, has difficult with explaining how thing...
There have been many different outlooks and theories on how sleep deprivation can affect health. Sleep deprivation is when a person cannot sleep, and does not have enough sleep. This is also known as ‘wakefulness’ (sleep.2014) and not having enough sleep; ‘lack of sleep’. This literature review will cover four main concepts of sleep deprivation. The key ideas in this paper would be the research done and how many hours a person is supposed to sleep, some disorders and what loss of sleep will do to a person.
Getting adequate amount of sleep is the basic requirements of every individual. Proper sleep will enable us to function properly and perform our daily activities without feeling lethargic. Sleep is also considered a luxury which you can enjoy after a stressful and hectic day. If you will take proper sleep your body organs will relax and next day they will work properly to fulfil your needs. This is essential to relax your body every day because life is getting tougher with every coming day.
Plato: For today’s class Aristotle and I are going to discuss our ideas on the Theory of Form
He argues that non-physical forms or ideas represent the most accurate reality. There exists a fundamental opposition between in the world like the object as a concrete, sensible object and the idea or concept of the objects. Forms are typically universal concepts. The world of appearance corresponds to the body. The world of truth corresponds with the soul. According to Plato, for any conceivable thing or property there is a corresponding Form, a perfect example of that or property is a tree, house, mountain, man, woman, Table and Chair, would all be examples of existing abstract perfect Ideas. Plato says that true and reliable knowledge rests only with those who can comprehend the true reality behind the world of everyday experience. In order to perceive the world of the Forms, individuals must undergo a difficult
Triple bottom line is defined as “a corporation’s ultimate success or health can and should be measured not just by the traditional financial bottom line, but also by its social/ethical and environmental performance” (Norman and MacDonald, 2003). There are many advantages when it comes to being a triple bottom line corporation. While incorporating the triple bottom line, you are also incorporating sustainability you’re your business. Therefore, becoming a triple bottom line corporation means it is one step higher towards helping save the planet. Becoming sustainable is cost efficient. Although it may cost a significant amount of money to convert, it will pay itself off in the long run. Additionally, it will help reduce expenses while saving
Firstly, Plato's concept of reality contrasts with Aristotle's concept. Plato's theory of ideal forms claims that a perfect world exists beyond the world around us. Our world contains forms imperfectly copied from the ideal forms in the world beyond. In contrast, Aristotle's theory of the natural world states that our world is reality. Aristotle thought the world consists of natural forms, not necessarily ideal or imperfect. Our senses can correctly perceive the natural forms. Basically, reality became a debate between Plato's two worlds and Aristotle's single world reality.
According to Plato, his Theory of Forms states perfection only lives in the realm of thought. There only exists one of every ideal and the rest is just a copy. This one creation is called a form, the most flawless representation of an idea. In the physical world everything is a copy of these forms and all copies are imperfect. Plato believed in two worlds; the intelligible world and the illusionistic world. The intelligible world is where everything is unchanging and eternal. We can only grasp the intelligible world with our mind. It is the world of ideas and not senses. A place where there are perfect forms of the things we know on Earth. According to Plato everything in the world we live in is an illusion. All objects are only shadows of their true forms. His theory further states every group of objects that have the same defying properties must have an ideal form. For example, in the class of wine glasses there must be one in particular that is the ideal wine glass. All others would fall under this ideal form.
Aristotle and Plato were both great thinkers but their views on realty were different. Plato viewed realty as taking place in the mind but Aristotle viewed realty is tangible. Even though Aristotle termed reality as concrete, he stated that reality does not make sense or exist until the mind process it. Therefore truth is dependent upon a person’s mind and external factors.
He believes that the soul takes shelter within the body. The three parts are all located in three different areas: reason is in the mind, spirited is in the heart, and desire is in the stomach. Reason is what controls the whole soul (Plato p. 49). The mind tells the body what to do, how to feel, what to say. The mind controls our appetites and decides who to honor according to memories about those people or events. The spirit is in the heart, the heart is what shows us how we feel about others. The stomach is desire as we crave to have certain possessions such as food or other physical materials in life. If what Plato is saying is any truth, than the argument presented that our soul is our life and our body is nothing but what carries our soul, is therefore false and unsupported by this idea of the mind, heart and stomach. Then so, our thought that Plato’s idea that we can make ourselves alive, is fairly reasonable and true. This is because it is more understandable to say that the reason why our souls are what makes us alive is because our souls are physically made of three parts that control the way we live. Our body is now not only what carries life for us, but what allows us to keep it. Our soul is different from the body because it represents life, but it is our body that allows our lives to
Aristotle argued and disagreed with Plato’s views of the self and soul being a separate from the body. Aristotle’s view is that all humans have a soul, yet they cannot be separate from the body in which they reside. To him, there are four sections of the soul; the desiderative and vegetative parts on the irrational side are used to help one find what they are needing and the calculative and scientific parts on the rational side are