The value of Philosophy is, in fact, to be sought largely in its uncertainty.
The man who has no tincture of Philosophy goes through life imprisoned in the
prejudices derived from common sense, from the habitual beliefs of his age or
his nation, and from the convictions which have grown up in his mind without the
co-operation of his deliberate reason. Bertrand Russell, The Problems of
Philosophy.
Philosophy is commonly thought of as an activity reserved for Oxbridge high-
brows; or a sort of intellectual table-tennis indulged in by the Ancient Greeks
to while the time away before television came along. Russell suggests that it
may actually serve a purpose for everyone.
In the first line, Russell is clearly contrasting his own belief in the inherent
uncertainty of philosophy with the attitude of those people who dedicate their
lives to a search for the "right" theory, in an attempt to understand the
"truth" about human nature. He argues that, were a philosopher to write the
perfect, unanswerable theory, the solution to life, the universe and everything,
then philosophy would itself become responsible for inducing the very mental
laziness which it should help us to avoid.
Disagreement and debate between the adherents of rival theories is, moreover,
essential to the health of philosophy. Just as many major advances of science
are catalysed by war, so the great intellectual insights are sparked by
discussion. If there were universal agreement on one philosophical theory, then
all further thought would be rendered useless. (See p.319, Small World by David
Lodge: "…what matters in the field of critical practice is not truth but
difference. If everybody were convinced by your arguments, they would have to do
the same as you and then there would be no satisfaction in doing it.")
Russell talks of three different factors involved in the formation of prejudice.
Each is considered in detail below.
The first type of prejudice is derived from common sense. This is interesting:
it appears that Russell is suggesting that common sense is to be avoided. The
Concise Oxford Dictionary defines common sense as "sound, practical sense,
especially in everyday matters". In theory, any sound sense is to be welcomed,
where appropriate; the distinction to be made here is between applying common
sense to mundane problems, which Russell would certainly not advise against, and
taking it out of context as a set of rules which can be followed without any
further thought, no matter what the circumstances. For example, if you are
feeling hungry, and you are holding a biscuit, then a philosophical debate is
not required to reach the conclusion that you eat the biscuit: it's common sense.
Towards the middle of the play Hale has begun to see that abigail is out for vengeance than actually finding witches. “Only this consider: the world goes mad, and it profit nothing you should lay the cause to the vengeance of a little girl” (Miller 74). Hale has now realized that the Devil may be at work in Salem but if he is it is not on Abigail and the girls. Once the girls but mainly Abigail accuse Elizabeth Proctor most people especially John Proctor and Reverend Hale begin putting two and two together that these girls are out for blood and not revealing who is conspiring with the
After Hale acknowledges his flaw, his character changes to a minister who wants to save the lives of the false accusations, so he goes against the “flawless” court. After Danforth accused John Proctor of witchcraft and sent him to jail, Hale “denounce[d] these proceedings” (120). Danforth had said that a person is either with the court or against it, and Reverend Hale chose to go against it although he was a faithful minister. Also, he tried to save John proctor’s life by asking Elizabeth to make John confess because Hale had signed seventy two death warrants and regretted it. The reason that Hale gave to Elizabeth to save Proctor’s life was that “life is God’s most precious gift” (132). At this point Reverend Hale wanted to bring justice to the court even if Proctor had to make a false
While questioning John and Elizabeth Proctor at their house, John asks Hale if he is seriously believing the word of several children, and if he has ever considered the possibility that citizens are only confessing to witchcraft to avoid being hanged. Reverend Hale responds, “I have I have indeed. [It is his own suspicion, but he resists it]”(69). This is a key moment in the development of John Hale’s character, it illustrates that he may be starting to doubt the authenticity of the witch trials. It is also foreshadows his eventual decision to criticize the court and his own past judgements. During this portion of the play, Reverend Hale struggles with doing the right thing and following his
Hale takes this job to a personal level when the the crisis takes a turn for the worse. He pleads with the people convicted of witchcraft to confess. He feels he is responsible for their lives because his purpose was to rid the town of witchcraft, not innocent lives. He beholds himself a failure when he cannot convince the accused to confess. His well justified pride is broken. He came into this village like a bride groom to his beloved, bearing gifts of high religion; the very crowns of holy law I brought, and what I touched with my bright confidence, it died; and where I turned the eye of my great faith, blood flowed up. He urges Elizabeth not ot let her pride interfere with her duty as a wife, as it did with his own duty.
He says that the declaring of a new nation was a “great deliverance,” comparing it to the group led by Moses out of Egypt. He does this to further support why he likes the original ideals of the Americans, since they follow great examples from religions most audience members follow and can get behind. By planting early images of religion, he can later create a religious appeal to the audience.
government. He said the people had an absolute right, to rebel against any government that
As a word analyst, I found three words from the story, “All the Troubles of the World” by Isaac Asimov, that are significant to the theme and the understanding of the story. The first word is “tendril”. A tendril is a tread-like organ of climbing plants that grow in spirals and help the plant climb its way up. The word is used in the sentence, “Multivac…had reached out tendrils into every city and town on Earth” (pg 263). The author refers the view range of Multivac to a tendril because the ability of tendrils to climb up just about anything is similar to the capability of the Multivac to reach and oversee every man on Earth. The second word is “subconscious”. Subconscious means existing or operating in the mind beneath or beyond consciousness.
world today because we are the freest." He declared that his way of being free, lays in his
As Reverend John Hale is not a resident of Salem, he approaches the accusations and rumors without any prior opinion. Hale is introduced as extremely arrogant and proud with his goal being “light, goodness and its preservation”(Miller 34). This phrasing strengthens his role as a man of God, but this is not actually displayed in his personality until later. He is very book smart and this leads to some signs of immaturity. This is shown in Act I when Parris questions why the devil would come to Salem. “Why would he [the devil] choose this house to strike?”(39) In response Hale says, “It is the best the Devil wants, and who is better than the minister?”(39) This shows he enjoys the position better than he does its purpose. He is also very eager.
This dream of forming and maintaining a utopian society was immortalized in two novels dealing with the same basic ideas, 1984 by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Both of these novels deal with the lives of main characters that inadvertently become subversives in a totalitarian government. These two books differ greatly however with the manner in which the government controls the population and the strictness of the measures taken to maintain this stability. This essay with compare and contrast the message and tone of each novel as well as consider whether the utopia is a positive or negative one.
Because he is forced to accept that his beliefs have been messed with and realizes that he has sent people to their deaths, he loses faith in the law and questions his faith in God. Arthur Miller put many events into the story and tells about Hale’s mindset. In the middle of Act I, Hale comes and what he is called by the townspeople “The truth seeker”. Hale is called upon to determine what sort of witchcraft is going on. Hale arrives admired by the people who wants him to calm this nonsense of witchcraft down. He understands he being led toward the conclusion of witchcraft by the town’s wrong doings. He also begins to see a weakness in the position of the townspeople of Salem and tries to not let common things be the support for his
In the beginning of The Crucible Reverend Hale is originally called down to Salem to look over Betty--Reverend Parris’ daughter-- for signs of the Devil. Hale is convinced the Devil is in Salem. When Hale is observing Betty, he seems to suspect the Devil is around. When asked if ridding Betty of the Devils influence will harm her, he says, “I cannot tell. If she is truly in the Devil’s grip we may have to rip and tear to get her free.”(Act 1, pg 154, line 800) showing his suspicion is growing. Finally, he confirms his suspicions and tries to wake Betty. He believes the Devil is near and Betty has been the victim of witchcraft. Also, when he is trying to get Tituba to
“Great Constitutional Charter under which you are assembled” and “no seperate views, nor party animosities, will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over this great assemblage” are two powerful concepts that basically states that they are bound by the constitution and that he will not be swayed by other factions or prejudices.
The conversations that Hale has demonstrate the evolution of his mindset. In Act II, Hale is traveling around the town, going house-to-house, searching for accused women to warn them that their names have been mentioned in the court. Soon, Hale finds himself standing at the Proctor home. At this moment, Hale sees a different perspective on the entire situation.
There are a number of differences between the book and movie adaptation of Frankenstein. The first evident difference is that, in the book, the novel gets some books and learns on his own to read and write from them .Comparably, in the movie adaptation, the monster learned from watching the De Lacy family and how they communicated to each other. The book goes in great detain to explain the monsters education and how the books helped whereas, in the movie, little is shared of how fast the monster acquired education. The monsters education is reflected best in the book compared to the movie. In addition to this, the monsters appearance is very different in the movie compared to how he is described in the book. In the book, the creature taught himself how to read and write from the classic literature the Prometheus and Milton’s Paradise Lost, where he learnt to speak very clearly. In the movie, the creature is inarticulate.