Plotinus on The One and the Good
In Ennead VI, 9, Plotinus discusses the nature of The One with respect to goodness, and particularly the supreme concept of goodness, which he calls the Good. The One is a model for the highest virtue or principle; however, we find that it is difficult to characterize The One in such a way because Plotinus explains that it supercedes all description that we attribute to it. While Plotinus’ account of The One is an interesting argument that develops somewhat logically, in the end, it becomes difficult to reconcile the lack of qualities of The One with Plotinus’ claim that it is the cause of existence.
In his passage on The One and the Good, Plotinus begins by saying that The One is not an intellective existence, meaning that it does not think. He then states that The One does not exhibit any sort of motion because it predates motion and thought as well. This is important to the development of the rest of Plotinus’ philosophy because it provides the context that The One existed before both thought and material objects. The reason for the latter is because motion is fundamental to matter and The One existed before motion.
Plotinus continues and states that The One is not in a state of ignorance despite its lack of knowledge or thought. The reason for this is because ignorance requires knowledge to be ignorant of, and The One existed before knowledge. “Ignorance presupposes a dual relationship: one does not know another. But The One, in its aloneness, can neither know nor be ignorant of anything.” The One exists, therefore, effectively at a time before time existed. The only way to characterize The One’s state at that point is that it existed...
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...ast sound instantly passed between the future and the past, it only existed in the future which was when we heard it. Therefore, even if the present has no time value, it is a reference point for all time that has passed.
Augustine’s conflict between people being able to measure time and the difficulty in doing so is understandable because of his perspective on the present. He claims sensibly that the present moment has no overall value, but that doesn’t mean that in it we can’t assign points in time that pass and compare them. His conclusion arises because he doesn’t consider the possibility that time of something in the past still has value in the future as long as the difference between its start and end points are known. It is not surprising that he excludes this possibility, however, because he believes that time in the past is immeasurable.
Augustine begins by debating whether baptized believers of God are indeed sinful or sinless. He says that when one is living in the world they are sinful but if one is baptized into the faith of Christ then their sins are washed clean. Augustine says that once one is born of God they begin to not have sin in their life. But they would have had sin from their past life because a new life begins at baptism. So if one was to say they did not say that they had sin they would be lying and not telling the truth. Therefore here lies the conundrum, Augustine faced.
Book 10 pursues Augustine’s analysis of memory and the temptation of the senses which has been a mystical concept to him throughout his life. He focuses on the idea that memory is an unconscious knowledge, an idea that he created based on the Platonic notion that “learning is actually the process of the soul remembering what it already knew and forgot upon taking the human form.” Augustine begins Book 10 with expressing his love for God and saying, “When I love God, what do I love?” He does not connect God with the five physical senses, but rather with intangible senses. He claims that in order to sense God, he must reflect into his soul. Augustine says that this is not something practiced among inanimate objects or “beasts” but yet they owe God for their existence. Augustine does not associate God with the “life of the body,” referencing his physical senses, but rather says that he considers there being another power that gives him the ability to live in ...
their praises to God would not be so meaningful. For Augustine, it is free will
...e’s theory relies upon his belief that because there is no creator, human beings have no essence, and so they are “left alone, without excuse” and “born without reason.” He says that people realize this “the moment you lose the illusion of being eternal.” Similarly, White too admits to Black that he has always hated life and that when he realized that religion was just a “guise,” his hatred turned into boredom (138). White’s skepticism about life and God echoes throughout the play and through the suicidal choice that White makes even before the dialogue begins. Comparably, Father Vincent Minceli voices similar concerns about Sartre, concluding that Sartre’s philosophy leads directly to despair and suicide. McCarthy’s comparison of White and Sartre is remarkable, as both are not only atheists, but also convey life’s useless nature through using synonymous phrases.
Augustine was born in Tagaste (modern Souk Ahras, Algeria) in 354 and died almost seventy-six years later in Hippo Regius (modern Annaba) on the Mediterranean coast sixty miles away. In the years between he lived out a career that seems to moderns to bridge the gap between ancient pagan Rome and the Christian middle ages. But to Augustine, as to his contemporaries, that gap separated real people and places they knew, not whole imaginary ages of past and future. He lived as we do, in the present, full of uncertainty.
The term biometrics is commonly known as the field of development of statistical and mathematical methods applicable to data analysis problems in the biological sciences. Though, even more recently it has taken on a whole new definition. Biometrics is an amazing new topic referring to “the emerging field of technology devoted to the identification of individuals using biological traits, based on retinal or iris scanning, fingerprints, or face recognition”. Biometrics has already begun using applications that range from attendance tracking with a time clock to security checkpoints with a large volume of people. The growing field of biometrics has really been put on the map by two things, the technological advances made within the last 20 years, and the growing risk of security and terrorism among people all over the world. In this paper I will focus on: the growing field of biometrics, why it is important to our future, how the United States government has played a role in its development and use, the risks involved, the implications on public privacy, and further recommendations received from all over the science and technology field.
Osiris stories is a good example of all aspect, the way he died and transfer, the resurrection, the Family conflict, power, love, judgment, birth. A god of the earth and vegetation, Osiris symbolized in his death the yearly drought and in his miraculous rebirth the periodic flooding of the Nile and the growth of grain. He was a god-king who was believed to have given Egypt civilization. Osiris was the first child of Nut and Geb, and therefore the brother of Seth, Nephthys, and Isis. He was married to his sister, Isis. He was also the father of Horus and
This paper will outline specific points in Saint Augustine’s Confessions that highlight religious views following the fall of Rome. Though Augustines views on religion may not reflect that of most people in his time period, it still gives valuable insight into how many, namely Neoplatonists,, viewed God and his teachings.
During Augustine lifetime, he thinks about everything in his life. Further, he also tries to make sense of his
Biometrics is described as the use of human physical features to verify identity and has been in use since the beginning of recorded history. Only recently, biometrics has been used in today’s high-tech society for the prevention of identity theft. In this paper, we will be understanding biometrics, exploring the history of biometrics, examples of today’s current technology and where biometrics are expected to go in the future.
In an attempted to defend the church, Augustine traced the history of two cities or states from the beginning of the world. The two cities had two main focuses. One was the city that was earth-like. In this city people were seen to
In this article, Cavadini delves into Augustine’s idea of ideology and solidarity. He begins by bringing the reader back to book 9 of the Confessions and says that we were invited to reflect on the eternal life of the saints (93). Augustine wants to use imagination to explore what eternity will be like and what one will do there. Cavadini explains how Augustine wants to explore the possibilities of eternity, and he posits a possibility that “The bodily eye might be able to see something immaterial directly,” in other words, we will be able to see God face to face (94). This possibility has no conclusive evidence, but there are many prophetic scripture texts that points to this idea. Augustine analyzes the book of Job and the Gospel of Luke to show passages about man being able to see God.
Augustine answered this question with even more, somewhat perplexing, philosophy. Using rules of time he stated that because God is eternal he is not in the realm of time therefore our time does not exist at God’s level. This is to say that a person has free reign over their choices and actions because “they are nothing more than features of our limited minds” 6 and God’s knowledge of what person will do has no control over their choices or even their moral duty. Augustine was able to use philosophy to support and answer many of the deepest questions within the Christian
Sartre goes on to describe the views of an existentialist. An existentialist “states that if God does not exist, there is at least one being in whom existence precedes essence, a being whose existence comes before its essence, a being who exists before he can be defined by any concept of it” (Sartre 22). This quote explains that god is the being(s) who existed before classification, but spiritually empowered the world known today.
“The term -information security- means protecting information and information systems from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction” (United States Code, 2008). In order to ensure the identity of who is trying to access the information, the concept of “Biometric Technology” has been developed in the last years. This essay will start explaining this concept and the characteristics of its development through the time. Then, the essay will offer a brief explanation of biometric systems operation and a description of different biometric systems developed until now. Finally, this research analyzes the current and future applications and the issues that surround it.