Seneca 's Letter On Liberal And Vocational Studies

In William Cronon’s essay “Only Connect… The Goals of a Liberal Arts Education,” he mentions the qualities or values that a student who was immersed in the foundation of a liberal arts education should have gained. These qualities range from the ability to comprehend what one is reading to more advanced ideas such as one’s ability to ‘nurture and empower people around them’. Cronon doesn’t explicitly say that one only gains these skills through a liberal education, but he does hint that these skills do set liberally educated pupils apart. Right before he lists the qualities he asks the question “How does one recognize liberally educated people?” (Cronon 4). Hinting towards the idea that these skills distinguish such people from those who did not receive such schooling. Although I do agree with the concept that a liberal arts education provides a route for gaining such qualities, I cannot accept the notion that a liberal arts education is the only way one can gain these important life skills because many people are born with these qualities or learn them in multiple different way that are not related to a college degree.

In the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments, Elizabeth Stanton writes of many grievances against women by men. The three most grievous are:

He uses the works of Homer’s Odyssey to demonstrate that by studying poetry, “By the examples of Ulysses, how I am to love my country, my wife, my father, and how even after suffering shipwreck I am to sail toward these ends.” (Seneca 24). In this quote a liberal arts education is teaching an individual how to love everyone even in the midst of hardship. Diligence has to be incorporated in this in order to accomplish the goal. An individual has to have the diligence to understand the poetry and how to relate it to their own actions. The individual also has to use diligence to actually accomplish the goals of loving their country, wife, and father during times of

The usage of the word that he likes the most based on his article is its relation to a Greek word that means free. He explains how he believes that having liberal arts education is freeing. In this form I agree with him. A liberal arts education is more versatile. I can take whatever I want and chose. If I went to Massachusetts Institute of Technology for example I would be imprisoned to doing those specific courses and the path that they set me on. At a liberal arts college I can take a business class one hour and the art history and appreciation for the finer arts where you can’t do that just anywhere. As he moves forward in his article however that is where I start to disagree. He makes a list of values that people who have had a liberal arts education possess. Values such as they listen and hear, that they detect logic and fully hear what you have to say. I have known many people who have that value and have not had a liberal arts education. They read and they understand, they can read any type of article you hand them whether its sports or arts or business they can read and understand it all. This is false my uncle who did not have

The Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments is very similar to the Declaration of Independence. This is because they are both lists of problems written by people who wanted to change something about the United States. The Declaration of Independence was explaining to the British government why the United States colonists wanted their independence from their government. The Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments is a list of the problems women have with the way that they are being treated. Both of these were written to try and make a change for the better. The first of the line in the Declaration of Sentiments is “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal”. While the first line in the Declaration of Independence

In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle understands virtue is a disposition that issues correct choice. In this essay, we are given the task to explain what Aristotle means by choice, which is in turn show that choice is not wishes, opinion, nor desire. Rather, Aristotle believes choice involves desire. So, I will explain concisely why correct choice is not a tendency to opine the correct thing to do rather correct choice is an intimate coordination between our rational and desiring faculties. Thus, controlling and coordinating what we desire and why we desire something. Ultimately, leading the agent to what the right thing they should do, full stop, regardless of numerous alternatives.

Me and my classmates were in English class and the teacher gave us article to read title "Why We Need the Liberal Arts" by Joseph R. Urgo from The Baltimore sun. This article was about how our nation brightest nation students, contemplating the dedication of four years to the highest level of cognitive and how the student are being told not to do four years of college that is useful in the the world by there parents and elder people. Also why it is so important to use the liberal arts in the world.

Socrates believed the possession of virtue was a highly valued characteristic. Although Socrates gives no clear definition of virtue it can be inferred that he is referring to the moral responsibility to do the right thing despite your own personal interest. According to Socrates, an ideal leader should be virtuous in their decisions in order to create a society founded on justice. To Machiavelli it is more important to act like you

According to Aristotle, intellectual virtues belong in the ‘rational’ fragment of the soul and moral virtues lie in the ‘irrational’ measure of the soul However, they are both dependant on reason. Although Aristotle recognised many virtues, he was an advocate for the notion of the existence of only four cardinal virtues. His proposal proved to be popular in the society that he lived in, being acknowledged by Plato and other bodies. The four cardinal virtues are: courage, a virtue which ensures control in the interest of goodness, temperance, a virtue which diminishes wants and desires by limiting them to reason, justice, the only virtue that consists of expressing care for other beings. A human that possesses the virtue of justice has the ability to practise this virtue on other human beings and not solely on themselves. The final and one of the most important virtues is prudence, a logical virtue of practical reason by which we separate the good and the methods of achieving it. Aristotle accentuates that virtues are pragmatic skills and hence experience guides us towards becoming more dexterous in avoiding deficiency. Although familiarity with the vices as extremes supports us in our aspiration for the mean, the wider connotations of the doctrine is that only through experience will we as humans come to know the right pretences and

Born of different stations, languages and creeds, Epictetus and Seneca are Roman philosophers who externally appear to be very different. Epictetus was born to a slave mother, sold as a slave himself and spent the majority of his youth as a slave in Rome. Seneca was born into money; he became tutor to a boy named Nero who later acquired position of Emperor of Rome in 54 A.D. Though these two men seem to be from very different worlds, they have a shared purpose in studying philosophy. The purpose of their writings was to teach people how to live well. Though they had a shared purpose, they suggested its achievement through different means. Epictetus professed an ‘expect the worst so you wont be disappointed when it happens’

Upon laying a foundation regarding the importance of knowledge, Cicero proceeds to expound the practicality of wisdom for the political man, which pertains to promoting community through the application of justice.

In the Republic of Plato, the philosopher Socrates lays out his notion of the good, and draws the conclusion that virtue must be attained before one can be good. For Socrates there are two kinds of virtue; collective and individual. Collective virtue is virtue as whole, or the virtues of the city. Individual virtue pertains to the individual himself, and concerns the acts that the individual does, and concerns the individual’s soul. For Socrates, the relationship between individual and collective virtue is that they are the same, as the virtues of the collective parallel those of the Individual. This conclusion can be reached as both the city and the soul deal with the four main virtues of wisdom, courage, moderation, and justice.

In this paragraph, I am going to elaborate on why I agree with Seneca’s reasoning and how it has helped me. After analyzing Seneca’s main arguments on ethics and reflecting on past events in which I reacted in an irrational manner, I have come to the conclusion that I exhibit destructive emotions predominantly when I desire something beyond my control. In Nassim Taleb’s “Fooled By Randomness,” one of the chapters is titled “If your so smart, why aren’t you rich?” It is a constant reminder to myself that acquiring prosperity has more to do with luck than one’s work ethic, but a strong work ethic does help. In mathematics, there is a simulation which can help show the sequence of sample paths that result from a random event. Taleb describes the Monte Carlo Simulation as, “One sets conditions believed to resemble the ones that prevail in reality, and launches a collection of simulations around possible event” (Taleb 43). These alternative sample paths illustrate all the potential outcomes, rather than only one, the one which plays out in history. Why is this important? It is relevant because it is something Seneca implicitly eluded to 2000 years ago; rather than solely focusing on the event that occurred, known as survivorship bias, they looked at the whole picture. They understood that adversity and luck were products of randomness. Therefore, they realized it was irrational to become dependent on such a thing, dependence breeds anxiety and other destructive emotions. A

Aristotle wrote the first book ever written about ethics titles “The Nicomachean Ethics,” and it is still one of the greatest and most influential. Its purpose is to teach us to be virtuous rather than to understand what virtue is. (Aristotle, 2009)

One of the last major philosophers of Virtue Ethics was Plutarch who advocated virtue but disagreed with Epicurus because he believed there was no true pleasure. At this same time, between 400 B.C.- 40 B.C. Stoic philosophers such Cicero, who combined the philosophies of Aristotle and Plato, developed his idea on ethics and how everyone has a duty and should imitate virtue for others. He said duty has two points which are to achieve the Supreme Good, and follow the rules for daily living. Cicero was a strong believer in rationality incorporated Plato’s Cardinal Virtues into his three rules of conduct: master desires through reason, know true value of goals and be moderate in actions and lifestyle.