This survey conducted upon 11-14 year olds (Millennials) asked them 4 simple philosophical questions; What is Death? What are their views on war? What is Democracy? What characteristics define a human? In this survey, there were 53 responses. Survey dates were November 3rd and 4th. The participants are in the 7th and 8th Grade Latin classes of Mr. Di Giulio. The rest of the paper will examine their results and compare their reasonings against Ancient Greek Philosophers.
With the first question asking, What is Death? The question is a strong one and the answers can be nihilistic or religious. Most of the students answered with a familiar answer, death is when your life ends, when the soul exits the body, or organs have stopped and the majority of cells have died. But to most Philosophers, death is considered the worst evil. Sophocles is contrary to that belief, as he believes that the worst evil is that of when one wishes to die, but cannot (Written in his play,
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43.4% (23 Votes) of the surveyors chose con, 28.3% (15 Votes) for neither, 22.6% (12 Votes) for other (Other as in both or no opinion) and 5.7% (3 Votes) for pro. With nearly half of the population choosing Con, we can take the results of the vote to be Con. The majority think that war is a large disagreement between different countries that result in a lost of thousands of lives and a large debt. A large part of that is true but they have the meaning and Philosophy wrong though. As quoted by Aristotle (The most famous man is the world,) “We make war that we may live in peace.” which means that war is an effort to make peace. What the participants got right is that war is evil and bloody,“War never takes a wicked man by chance, the good man always.” -Sophocles, Philoctetes, “The objects at stake in a war against the barbarians are nothing less than our country, our life, our habits, our freedom, and all such blessings.” -Demosthenes,
2. What is the meaning and significance of death in light of the Christian narrative?
Once a mind has reached a level of imagination, people will start to think for themselves and begin to acquire a high curiosity of what is seen with the naked eye. With the Athenian democracy promoting a development of intellect, philosophers and philosophy began to emerge along with their ideas and share it to the world. In the Article, “Ancient Greek Culture and Civilization,” the author states, “The Philosophers-Socrates, Plato and Aristotle contributed to the way of thinking,human life, and science.” Ancient Greece philosophy fixated on the attitude of question and reasoning. Philosophy had an important significance on modern science and modern day philosophy. The three main philosophers of Greece were Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. They contributed to the expansion of medieval scientists and
The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” (Mark Twain). This quote from the famous American writer is the basis for what became one of the hardest ideas to comprehend, death. Death has always been a complex term, causing one to struggle with what the true definition is. It is also hard to wrap your mind around what does it truly mean to die. These are the questions we long for the answer. Whether we acknowledge it or not, death has always been feared by many. Death remains an impossible question, one that has been unexplained since beginning of time. Even though dying is a natural, we as a human race still fear it. What can be done to defeat this never-ending battle? According to Montaigne’s “To Philosophize is to Learn to Die” and Cory Taylor’s “Questions for Me About Dying” we can overcome this by living to the fullest, living with no regrets, living a legacy, and lastly not fearing the inevitable. If you want to conquer the question of life, live in the moment.
I see the pros and cons to each side, and find value within each point. However, looking at the grand scheme of things, I believe war is necessary. Yes, it is violent and gruesome and many innocent lives are lost, but is there a better way? I believe if there was a better way to solve the conflicts many wars are fought over, that this method would be already implemented. The fact is that war works, and has worked for centuries. Take for example arguably the most important war in all of American history. The revolutionary war freed us from Great Britain. Without that very war, we as a nation may still be under British rule and control, and all of history would have been altered. This is not to say that I am a supporter of involvement in specific wars, just a supporter of war in general. I do not believe that each conflict between a nation is means for a war to be fought, but only in the case where peaceful disputes and efforts have failed. My overall view lies similar to Tim O’Brien’s view as he stated in his novel. “It was my view then, and still is, that you don't make war without knowing why. Knowledge of course, is always imperfect, but it seemed to me that when a nation goes to war it must have reasonable confidence in the justice and imperative of its cause. You can't fix your mistakes. Once people are dead, you can't make them undead” (O’Brien 38). There is a time and a place for war.
Death is the most inevitable and unknown aspect of life. It is unescapable, and by most of today’s population, it is feared in the utmost regard. Our materialistic views and constant desertion of religious ideals has forced our society to view death as an ultimate end. Socrates and St. Augustine’s views on death differ from many views on the subject in 2017, however, for their time, these men had the power to influence a plethora of individuals with their theories. For Socrates, death should never be feared and should be considered a blessing if our souls were to ascend to heaven, or death could be an extensive slumber without any dreaming whatsoever. With
Socrates is believed to be one of the greatest philosophers of all time and he is credited as being the founder of western philosophy. This paper will explain some of his views to the most fundamental questions of today’s age. These questions will include topics about morality, the human condition, solution, and death. After Socrates’ views on these topics are explained, a critique will be done on his answers. I will start out by explaining exactly who Socrates is, and the time that he lived in. To start out, we will first examine Socrates’ view on morality.
Discuss the components of a mature understanding of death, and what factors may lead to, contribute to, or affect its development.
In Phaedo and the The Odyssey, the main characters, Socrates and Odysseus, provide examples of different lifestyles. When conversing with his followers for the last time, Socrates’s thoughts demonstrate his views on the life of a philosopher. Comparatively, Odysseus lives the life of an epic hero aiming to return home. In their respective stories, both characters confront death, either their own or another character’s. Due to the developments in Phaedo and The Odyssey, I will argue that people's views of the afterlife stand as the main determination for how they believe they should live their lives.
King Creon puts his own laws above the gods laws and Sophocles shows how this story reflects his religious belief.King Creon makes a law about if anyone tries to give Polyneices a proper funeral and if the people touch him they will be killed. If the King does not go through with the punishment, people will think he is weak and they will take advantage of him. The King niece Antigone was caught prepping her brother for burial and the King tries to help her get out of trouble but, she testified for committing the crime. He knows the rules of the gods and that all people are to have a proper burial so their souls can reach the after world.
Death is something that many people fear and many people face. Most people do not know exactly when they are going to die, but being given a sort of idea of that can change the way someone thinks and acts drastically. Death is in escapable. Everyone must die eventually, some young, like my friend in fifth grade who passed from being in an ATV accident, and others old, such as my 15 year old cat who recently passed.
Death is something that everyone has to eventually face it one day. The conception of death changes across the life span, as it is mention in the book “Discovering the life span” by Robert Feldman. Defining death is a complex process, which is determining at which point does the life ends. There are different stages of death such as functional death, brain death, infant and childhood deaths, and death in adolescence, death in young adulthood, death in middle adulthood and death in late adulthood. Death education term refers to different educational activities and various experiences related to death, bereavement, grief and affection for people who are being affected by death.
The intent of this paper is to write about a class experience of the shadow of death, and reflect upon the readings, discussions and personal stories that have emotionally impressed me. Terms such as euthanasia, suicide and death rituals were discussed during the lectures in class leaving me with a sense of loss. The many beliefs and world vies, that may differ from the American culture, were considered, which I found to be enlightening. The examination of various concepts such as practicality, wisdom and humor were presented and illustrated in “Understanding dying, death, & bereavement” written by Leming and Dickinson (2011).
After reading Sophocles play “Antigone,” it wasn’t hard to see the connection I made with the daring character Antigone. Antigone is a great heroin, yet a tragedy. It is the story of a brave woman who fights for justice from her uncle, Creon. This will allow you to learn more about the characters and what they represent, it also introduces you to the way the characters act, and who they are. The way this story can impact you is beyond your own knowledge. It will open your eyes to what used to be and now, it will show you the differences that we can come to learn.
Since the beginning of the human’s existence, there have been so many great different concepts from various philosophers that have shaped the structure, knowledge and behaviors that we still exercise in our current world. Philosophy as the fundamental nature of knowledge has contributed to the development of our thoughts and the structure of our societies. Many great philosophers left the presence of their idea implanted in our world for the rest of human life. One central leader that contributed in the philosophical views of ideas, realism and morality of life was the greatest philosopher of all time “Aristotle”. This essay will focus on two of Aristotle’s major impact on today’s society. These two great essays are, “The Politics” and “The Nicomachean Ethics”. Aristotle influenced by previous work from his professor the great philosopher Plato developed ideas of moralities, virtues and ethics of how man should best live, how can we find the truth also how can we explain the world around us. Throughout history there have been many philosophers who have tried to shape the world with their philosophical concepts to make an action a universal law of morality that gives us options to choose a freely moral or legal alternative rather than another one. The concepts revealed by Aristotle’s work have inculcated the way we actually behave and apply ethics to our everyday duties that would lead us to the supreme good “Eudaimonia” ‘Human Flourishing’, happiness. All theories
Throughout the history of the world, philosophy has been at the forefront of the human search for knowledge, but there is no other philosophy like ancient Greek philosophy. Ancient Greek philosophy roughly began in the sixth century BCE and continued on up until ancient Greece became apart of the Roman Empire. The great Greek philosophers of the time, like Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle focused their study of philosophy in subjects like political philosophy, ethics, metaphysics, ontology, logic, biology, and rhetoric to name a few. Even today many philosophers agree that ancient Greek philosophy has influenced much of today’s Western culture. Among the broad subject of ancient Greek philosophy there were many sub-forms of Greek philosophy like the Pre-Socratic philosophy, which involves the Milesian school, and Pythagoreanism, and classical Greek philosophy, which involves Socrates’, Plato’s, and Aristotle’s teachings; and then there was sophism and the sophists. Who are the sophists and why/how are their teachings relevant with the rest of ancient Greek philosophy?