Notion Essays

  • Silence and the Notion of the Commons

    571 Words  | 2 Pages

    The title of this essay “Silence and the Notion of the Commons” gives the same idea of people as programmable and unprogrammable similar to the idea seen in the Matrix. Whereas programmable people, who are the commons, are the people inside the matrix they are also known as the sheep, the people that believe in everything they are told. The unprogrammable people, who are the silence, are the people outside of the matrix. Ursula Franklin uses a variety of techniques in order for the audience to fully

  • A Notion of Zero in the Philosophy of Aristotle

    2038 Words  | 5 Pages

    A Notion of Zero in the Philosophy of Aristotle ABSTRACT: This article shows that Aristotle created the first notion of a zero in the history of human thought. Since this notion stood in evident contradiction to the basic principles of his metaphysics and logic, he rejected it. The origin and development of mathematical symbols was closely connected with the development of mathematics itself and development of philosophy. It resulted from the fact that philosophy provided the motivation for

  • Response to Movie Ethnic Notions

    700 Words  | 2 Pages

    Response to Movie "Ethnic Notions" The movie 'Ethnic Notions' describes different ways in which African-Americans were presented during the 19th and 20th centuries. It traces and presents the evolution of the rooted stereotypes which have created prejudice towards African-Americans. This documentary movie is narrated to take the spectator back to the antebellum roots of African-American stereotypical names such as boy, girl, auntie, uncle, Sprinkling Sambo, Mammy Yams, the Salt and Pepper Shakers

  • Richard Nixon And The Notion Of Presidential Power

    1681 Words  | 4 Pages

    Richard Nixon and the Notion of Presidential Power "Actions which otherwise would be unconstitutional, could become lawful if undertaken for the purpose of preserving the Constitution and the Nation." The idea that certain actions are not illegal if used to preserve the best interests of a nation has drawn sharp criticism from the time of Lincoln through today. Presidents of the United States do take a solemn oath in which they promise to “ . . . preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of

  • The Notion of a Double in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights

    1164 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Notion of a Double in Wuthering Heights Brontë's Wuthering Heights is the captivating tale of two families and the relationships that develop between them.  The narrator, Mr. Lockwood, relates the story as told to him by Ellen, the housekeeper.  The novel contains an excellent illustration of the doppel-ganger, the notion of a double.  Generally, this concept is applied to specific characters, as in Poe's William Wilson.  However, the concept appears in Wuthering Heights in two different ways

  • Notions of Selflessness in Sartrean Existentialism and Theravadin Buddhism

    4179 Words  | 9 Pages

    Notions of Selflessness in Sartrean Existentialism and Theravadin Buddhism ABSTRACT: In this essay I examine the relationship between Sartre's phenomenological description of the "self" as expressed in his early work (especially Being and Nothingness) and elements to be found in some approaches to Buddhism. The vast enormity of this task will be obvious to anyone who is aware of the numerous schools and traditions through which the religion of Buddhism has manifested itself. In order to be brief

  • Jean-Paul Sartre - Problems with the Notion of Bad Faith

    4319 Words  | 9 Pages

    Jean-Paul Sartre - Problems with the Notion of Bad Faith In Being and Nothingness, Jean-Paul Sartre presents the notion of "bad faith." Sartre is a source of some controversy, when considering this concept the following questions arise. "Of what philosophical value is this notion? Why should I attend to what one commentator rightly labels Sartre's 'Teutonically metaphysical prose' (Stevenson, p. 253), in order to drag out some meaning from a work so obviously influenced by Heidegger? Is

  • Kipling’s Notions of Race in Plain Tales from the Hills

    2160 Words  | 5 Pages

    Kipling’s Notions of Race in Plain Tales from the Hills "No other Western writer has ever known India as Kipling knew it" "nobody can teach you British India better than Rudyard Kipling" "There will always be plenty in Kipling that I will find difficult to forgive; but there is also enough truth in these stories to make them impossible to ignore". Salman Rushdie, "Kipling", from Imaginary Homelands, London: Granta Books, 1991, 74-80. It may be discerned from the quotes displayed above

  • Prufrock and Modernist notion of trivial things completeing themselves

    610 Words  | 2 Pages

    wanted to show. The modernist society had forced many others into a life just like Prufrock lead. Unable to find true joy in any activity, everyone is subjected to trivial pursuits, shallow goals, and no pleasurable experiences. It was created by the notion that the things that you can’t explain or want to know should just be avoided. If one person couldn’t figure them out, then it was impossible for all. And therefore, society should just give up and come to the realization that the time of great thinking

  • John Steinbeck's East of Eden - Confused Notions of Good and Evil

    1080 Words  | 3 Pages

    Confused Notions of Good and Evil in East of Eden East of Eden is an epic novel about individual ethics - whether men and women have the power to choose between good and evil. East of Eden, to be polite, it is not Steinbeck's best novel. Not by a long shot. Steinbeck had wrestled with a moral question and lost. It was as though he had been thinking about life, but not too deeply. "East of Eden" was a third-rate best seller, the story of two American families over three generations, seven decades

  • Gender-Based Notions of Homoerotic Love: Sappho and Plato’s Symposium

    1707 Words  | 4 Pages

    Gender-Based Notions of Homoerotic Love: Sappho and Plato’s Symposium The poetry of Sappho, and the speeches in Plato’s Symposium both deal primarily with homoerotic love, although Sappho, one of the only female poets in Ancient Greece, speaks from the female perspective, while Plato’s work focuses on the nature of this love between men. There are several fundamental elements that are common to both perspectives, including similar ideals of youth and beauty, and the idea of desire as integral

  • Divinity, Sexuality and the Self in Whitman’s Song of Myself

    1237 Words  | 3 Pages

    soul and the badness of the flesh still remain a significant notion in contemporary thought.  Even Whitman's literary predecessor, Emerson, chose to distinctly differentiate the soul from all nature.  Whitman, however, chooses to reevaluate that relationship. His exploration of human sensuality, particularly human sexuality, is the tool with which he integrates the spirit with the flesh. Key to this integration is Whitman's notion of the ability of the sexual self to define itself. This self-definition

  • Animality and Darkness in Othello

    1043 Words  | 3 Pages

    light, 'thou flaming minister', 'thy former light'. Further, if one views beauty and light in this context as heavenly then the animality and darkness can be seen to correspond to that which is secular, a notion which Othello communicates in the opening speech of the final scene, placing earthly notions of justice against... ... middle of paper ... ...scene and the misogynistic views of such as Iago, 'How if she be black and witty'' with the later scene of Act IV Scne iii and Desdemona's refusal to

  • When the Scientist turns Philosopher

    3148 Words  | 7 Pages

    paper examines how such fundamental notions as causality and determinism have undergone changes as a direct result of empirical discoveries. Although such notions are often regarded as metaphysical or a priori concepts, experimental discoveries at the beginning of this century—radioactive decay, blackbody radiation and spontaneous emission—led to a direct questioning of the notions of causality and determinism. Experimental evidence suggests that these two notions must be separated. Causality and indeterminism

  • A Puzzle of Sovereignity

    3456 Words  | 7 Pages

    A Puzzle of Sovereignity ABSTRACT: National sovereignty presents a puzzle. On the one hand, this notion continues to figure importantly in our descriptions of global political change. On the other hand, factors such as the accelerating pace of international economic integration seem to have made the notion anachronistic. This paper is an attempt to resolve this puzzle. Distinguishing between internal sovereignty or supremacy and external sovereignty or independence, I investigate whether some

  • Data Collection

    1146 Words  | 3 Pages

    The topics featured in Gandy’s article focuses on the notion of “racially coded data” (1) and how the data is translated into information that may or may not be put to the greatest use. Meaning that targeting certain races with a number of issues with the intention of aiding them, May actually cause more harm than help. He tries to argues that “racial statistics have not only come to represent the distribution of life chances in ways that continue to place African Americans down the bottom of the

  • Representationalism and Antirepresentationalism - Kant, Davidson and Rorty

    7472 Words  | 15 Pages

    Representationalism and Antirepresentationalism - Kant, Davidson and Rorty (1) ABSTRACT: The notions of representationalism and antirepresentationalism are introduced and used in contemporary philosophical discussions by Richard Rorty to describe his and the neopragmatists' attitude toward traditional problems of epistemology. Rorty means that the history of philosophy shows that there are no final answers to the traditional questions about knowledge, truth, and representation; consequently, they

  • Canada -- the Problematics of National Identity

    696 Words  | 2 Pages

    Canada -- the Problematics of National Identity There has always been a problem for Canada with the definition of its national identity. In fact, it would almost be fair to say that an unease about the lack of such a collective identity is what defines Canadians the best. This page briefly considers some of the causes of this situation, and then goes on to consider some broad themes which might be described as distinctively and characteristically Canadian. Obviously, this is a very tricky area

  • Persistence: Endurantist vs. Perdurantist

    673 Words  | 2 Pages

    The notion of Persistence gives way to several predominant theories; of which, attempt to account for many possible questions that arise from it. As in most cases of debate, when more than one account of such is held to be true, there will clearly be much disagreement. Two views that claim to account accurately for persistence that remain widely known are , that of an endurantist (Threeist) and that of a perdurantist (Twoist). The endurantist will hold that objects are wholly present at all times

  • Free Yellow Wallpaper Essays - Schizophrenia in The Yellow Wallpaper

    1225 Words  | 3 Pages

    follow what notions that were considered "cool". Though I doubt that "cool" was the word used to describe these notions they were still there in some form or another. One of the greatest farces ever committed in the name of these popular perceptions was medicine. At that time, medicine that was on the cutting edge seem to have always involved some sort of noxious chemical or a typically atrocious diet. Not to mention the fact that ninety-nine percent of the doctors were men. Women's notions were immediately