Reconciliation of Opposites in Emerson's Fate

How do you, the reader believe that nature acts regarding mankind? As much as mankind seems to idolize and romanticize nature, sooner or later, we must realize our own naiveté and acknowledge nature as a wild and lethal force independent of man. The truth is that nature has no more regard for man than we might have for a particularly annoying bug. According to Jack London, Nature demands perfection, and anything less deserves death. However, in “The White Heron,” nature is benevolent and peaceful, and you can clearly see the departure from the past ways of the puritans and a clear transition to a blend of romanticism and naturalism form a cohesive and entertaining short story.

The nature of the setting was the only remedy for his internal torment, at least momentarily. While immersed in its beauty, Victor and his creation escaped worldly problems and entered a supernatural bliss. In short, Shelley presents nature as very powerful. It has the power to put the humanity back into man when the unnatural world has stripped him of his moral fiber. In comparison to the pure beauty of nature, the unnatural acts of man are far more emphasized; therefore, the reader is clearly aware of man’s faults and their repercussions.

In fact Frankenstein once described him as a being "formed in the 'very poetry of nature '"(Shelley, 208). Further showing that Shelley is for nature is that Clerval is positively described as “perfectly humane” and “made the doing good the end and aim of his soaring ambition.”(Shelley, 39). Clerval being described as humane shows that nature is what Shelley considers the standard for humanity. Nature is normal and the ideal. The science portrayed in this book never reached any human positively as did nature.

And Quine’s remark is true of Ockham as well, in so far as he asserted that a universal is nothing but a particular thought in the mind. Yet thoughts, even if particular, are not exactly concrete, and they do abstract, according to Ockham, in a way that Roscelin’s flapping vocal cords do not. I won’t be able to defend Ockham’s nominalism by refuting all of the many versions of the competition one by one. What I propose to do instead is set it up in relation to the celebrated exchange between Bertrand Russell and P. F. Strawson. In this exchange, Russell and Strawson were trying to figure out how a sentence can be meaningful even when the thing the subject of the sentence refers to does not exist.

In this paper I will argue that Roderick Chisholm gives a correct solution to the problem of the criterion. The philosophical problem with criterion is that we cannot know the extent of knowledge without knowing criteria, and vice versa. Chisholm approaches the problem of criterion by saying that in order to know whether things are as they seem to be we must have a procedure for recognizing things that are true from things that are false. He then states that to know if the procedure is a good one, we have to know if it really recognizes things that are true from things that are false. From that we cannot know whether it really does succeed unless we already know what things are true and what things are false.

In the case of a world ruled by Chaos, evil is a non-existent word or value, rather. The system upon which a person’s actions are judged also disappears leaving nothing but an instinct for natural survival as basic and primary as the life within the forests which we tear down to build our houses. Ethics is a wide field of philosophical study to which the core of every question within falls to one side of a blurred line. On the right, is good; the value which is popularly believed to be the correct alignment for which a person should live their life according to. On the left, is evil; that which is the cause of most human misery, and prevents peace on earth.

In this essay I will be examining the logical impasse of not being able to attain certain knowledge without accepting the certainty of his sense of reason the meditator faces in meditations on first philosophy and discuss possible interpretations of the text that would explain the meditator’s use of circular argument. The meditator’s endeavor in Rene Descartes’ meditations on first philosophy is introduced through a biographical account, with which any reader can relate. Realizing how in the past he had “accepted many false claims as true” and “how everything [he] had later constructed on top of those falsehoods was doubtful”, he feels the need to “tear everything down completely and begin from the most basic foundations”. His objective is to establish a body of knowledge which is absolutely certain. To achieve this objective, the mediator takes two stages in meditations on first philosophy.

This presupposition leads, through the malicious demon argument, to solipsism. By casting doubt on the causal model of perception it is possible to complete the Method of Doubt free of this presupposition. References Descartes, R. (1641) Meditations on First Philosophy translated by Veitch, J. (Everyman 1912) Russell, B. (1946) A History of Western Philosophy (Unwin) Williams, B.

Freedom according to Kant is will independent from foreign will and therefore reason should guide to individual principles independent of outside influences. Still everything relates back to an attempt to achieve a high morality, however for Luther this idea goes completely against spiritual righteousness, for him we are seemingly free through our spiritual righteousness and moral acts which are determined by God and he alone.

Life and death are natural things, but Victor thinks that he can “break through” them and create life. He alone would be the person to “pour a torrent of light into their dark world,” as if he was God, ruling over all of the world. This shows Victor’s lack of respect towards life and how he intends to overcome the boundaries set by nature. Unlike the Romantic who revered and honored nature, Victor wants to use it for his own gain. He expects “happy” and “excellent natures” to obey him, and he doesn’t dwell upon the consequences of his actions.