Chap. 1. What is apathy? Before inspecting the root causes and solutions to the problem of apathy, a uniform definition of apathy must be obtained to be used throughout this thesis. In the Oxford English Dictionary, the word apathy is defined as: lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern. The usage of the word apathy can be traced back to 17th century France, and then still further back to the ancient greek word apathēs, which meant without feeling. As the dictionary makes clear, the concept of apathy has many meanings, but the common link may be summarised as a lack of interest in a certain subject. Although the subject could vary from gardening to engineering, this dissertation thesis will focus on apathy in relation to politics. Having defined apathy, the crucial question is to decide whether apathy has either a positive or negative impact on society. The answer depends, in part at least, on one’s view of human nature. In ancient Athens, Aristotle declared that ‘man is a political animal’, meaning by this that a full human existence demanded active participation in the public life of the agora. Apathy in this respect would mean being condemned to a subhuman existence. For Christian thinkers of the Medieval Age, by contrast, the highest good is outside politics, being the purely personal quest for religious salvation. From this standpoint, political apathy might well be a desirable thing, since politics is merely a distraction from religion. In the early
Writer, Elie Wiesel in his metaphorical speech “The perils of Indifference” argues that the future will never know the agony of the Holocaust and they will never understand the tragedy of the horrific terror in Germany. Wiesel wants people to not let this happen but at the time many modern genocides that are occurring and people shouldn’t be focused on just the Holocaust, they should focus on making this world a better place; moreover, Wiesel expresses his thoughts about all the genocides that has happen throughout the years. He develops his message through in an horrifying event that took place 54 years ago the day “ The perils of Indifference” was published. Wiesel illustrates the indifferences of good vs evil. He develops this message
Human beings possess several virtues that differentiate them from other creatures and can use them in ways that represent their perceptions of social order. Surprisingly, Oscar Wilde believes that disobedience is an original virtue of every human and that it is responsible for progress and development. While Wilde’s claim is not entirely accurate, it is largely valid as evidenced by the recent events across the world, including the US, that have led to positive outcomes in spite of being termed and perceived as acts of disobedience.
Elie Wiesel questions and asks that even though people see photos, are aware and feel empathy for what is what is occurring around the world, why don’t they just do something? “Does it mean that we have learned from the past? Does it mean that society has changed? Has the human being become less indifferent and more human? Have we really learned from our experiences” (Perils of Indifference)? Though that the holocaust has supposedly taught the world the responsibility of prevent, have we all really learned that? He also wanted to convey that indifference is worse than any other feeling such as hate. “Yet, for the person who is indifferent, his or her neighbor are of no consequence. And, therefore, their lives are meaningless. Their hidden or even visible anguish is of no interest. Indifference reduces the other to an abstraction” (Perils of Indifference). Indifference is when solicitude is missing which indicates that there is a lack of awareness. Elie believes indifference is worse than hate because it implies that someone’s suffering isn’t worth rumination and consideration. The inhumanity that was put upon the Jews could have been stopped if people cared enough to take action against the Germans. Both messages are relevant and matter because they
For this week’s assignment, I decided to analyze “The Perils of Indifference” by Elie Wiesel, and “The Children’s Era” by Margaret Sanger.
The Perils of Indifference is a speech by Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor. He gives this speech at President Bill Clinton’s Millennium Lecture, fifty-four years after the Americans liberated Wiesel. He talks about his feelings towards an indifference, and explains why no one should ever be indifferent. In his speech, The Perils of Indifference, Elie Wiesel effectively convinces his audience that indifference is worse than anger or hate through rhetorical appeals, repetition, parallelism, rhetorical questions and juxtaposition.
Indifference means not caring. According to Google, indifference means, lack of interest, concern, or sympathy. Unimportance. The novel Night by, Elie Wiesel, shows many ideas of indifference. The quote on the front cover, “A slim volume of terrifying power”- The New York Times, touches me because it is just one man's story out of millions that have a story to tell of the terrifying horror that happened to them during that time. Of course, indifference was part of the whole book because it was about the Jews and the Nazi Army did not care about them.
Shifting gears, Wiesel begins to define exactly what indifference is. He first gives the origin of the indifference which means “no difference” and then begins to juxtapose opposing ideas such as “good and evil “, “ cruelty and compassion”, and “ light and darkness” to epitomize his point that indifference is hard to define, because it 's has neither good or bad connotations but rather always
During the Renaissance, the Humanist movement promoted the idea that politics should not have an attachment to religion. Machiavelli,
The author exemplifies the ways that disobedience helps the society and its contribution to furthering the human race but notes on the fact that blind obedience may eventually account for the end of civilization.
Mankind must by this time have acquired positive beliefs as to the effects of some actions on their happiness; and the beliefs which have thus come down are the rules of morality for the multitude, and for the philosopher until he has succeeded in finding better. That philosophers might easily do this, even now, on many subjects; that the received code of ethics is by no means of divine right; and that mankind have still much to learn as to the effects of actions on general happiness, I admit or rather earnestly maintain.
King argues that the decline in voter turnout is attributed to disinterest in politics and presidential candidates. The article goes
As politics and government becomes more complex and involved, more effort is required to keep up with and understand it. As a result, many Americans have lost touch with current events and happenings. Therefore, when election time rolls around, many people lack enough information to develop an educated opinion and support a candidate with their vote, so they just do not vote at all. This lack of information is also related to the belief that one vote will not matter. People believe that their vote will not count, and are therefore following the news less and becoming out of touch with public affairs and politics (Is the System Broken?”). This lack of information is also more strongly apparent among the younger voting population. When interviewed
The purpose of this essay is to outline and evaluate at least three psychological perspectives of human behaviour. The three approaches that will be summarised are humanistic, social learning theory and the Biological approach. They will also be criticised and compared to one another. A brief description on psychology will occur, and there will also be a short summarisation on some key early influences of psychology, from its origins in philosophy.
The word attitude is generally a term used to describe the way we perceive and evaluate the social world around us, the way in which we build a positive or negative
It is said that humanistic psychology was developed upon the limitations of behaviourism. The humanistic approach is often referred to as the “third force” in psychology coming after psychoanalysis and behaviourism; it is an alternative approach to psychology (Maslow, 1968). It offered a more wholesome approach to psychology at the time in comparison to behaviourism and psychoanalysis. This essay will compare and contrast behaviourism and humanistic psychology; it will focus on their contributions to psychological theory and their applications in the real world.