The Ethical Implications Of Fictive Imaginings

THESIS: In Jonathan Edwards' "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" vivid imagery is utilized through ethos, logos, and pathos in an attemt to sway the acts of sinners to be morally correct."

    Using imagery, Larson is able to paint vivid illustrations to shed light on the existence of both good and evil

Indirect realists often ask us to consider hallucination and perceptual illusions. In hallucinations, you see something, but nothing which exists. In illusions, you see something, but not as it really is e.g. a straight stick in water appears bent. In each case, what you see, they claim, is a mental thing, an appearance, a ‘sense-datum’. We can then say that what we perceive ‘immediately’ is the appearance, which has secondary qualities; and that it is by enquiries@alevelphilosophy.co.uk © Michael Lacewing perceiving the appearance that we perceive the physical object, which has only primary qualities. So we see the appearance of the vase, which is a mental thing which really is red; and this way, we indirectly see the vase, which is a physical

Imagination is an intrinsic part of the human experience. It has the power to mold reality by defining the limits of possibility and affecting perception. Both Alan White and Irving Singer examine aspects of this power in their respective works The Language of Imagination and Feeling and Imagination. White delineates how imagination is a necessary precursor to possibility (White 179) while Singer primarily illustrates imagination's effect on human relationships, such as love (Singer 29-48). Despite their different focuses, White and Singer demonstrate the impact that imagination has on human perceptions of reality. Jean-Pierre Jeunet's film Amelie explores this facet of imagination: the film

was not only meant for the imagination, but for the moral mind as well. In

In the short story “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien imagine is the most important word because it creates many emotions amongst the soldiers, and also gives them a release from the reality of war. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is deeply in love with Martha causing him to frequently have flash backs or visualize that he is in a different place with her and not at war, which creates difficulties between him and the rest of his soldiers. Cross uses his daydreaming of Martha and different scenarios as a release from the terrors of war. The soldier’s imaginations cause them to over think and feel troublesome about many things whether it is battle, or love. Without the use of imagination there would be a lack of

Not going to lie, but I put an immense amount of trust into other’s experiences and allow them to dictate my own. I have travelled to different places for the sole purpose of “reliving” another person’s experience only to be disappointed when I get there. The ideas expressed in Walker Percy’s, “The Loss of the Creature” parallel my adventures towards misfortune. As Percy Walker writes in his essay, “The thing as it is, has been appropriated by the symbolic complex which has already been formed in the sightseer’s mind” (Percy 472). Percy argues that having preconceived notions about places or ideas, creates a “symbolic complex” in our minds. I have always been told that Disney World Florida is “The most magical place in the world.” I

“The Loss of the Creature” is an anecdotal essay by the American Southern philosopher Walker Percy. Percy has a different view of life and expresses his views distinctively through his writing. Throughout the essay, he emphasized on the effects of having prepackaged or preconceived notions about the world and people around us can determine how an individual sees the world. These notions, which can come from social or societal expectations, can lead to symbolic complexes in an individual’s mind, leading to the false appreciation and gratification. In order to demonstrate his point, Percy uses hypothetical characters in theoretical situations to prove how people use symbolic complexes to measure up to their expectations.

“The Loss of the Creature” is an anecdotal essay by the American Southern philosopher Walker Percy. Percy has a different view of life and expresses his views distinctively through his writing. Throughout the essay, he emphasized on the effects of having prepackaged or preconceived notions about the world and people around can determine how an individual sees the world. These notions, which can come from social or societal expectations, can lead to symbolic complexes in an individual’s mind, leading to the false appreciation and gratification. An overarching theme throughout the essay is that one’s pre-formed expectations and can lead to the loss of the essence behind it. In order to demonstrate his point; Percy uses hypothetical characters in theoretical situations to prove how people can truly experience something if they get rid of all social biases and prejudices, and neglecting what they heard about it.

“It Isn’t pretty…But Is It Art?” is an article written by Diana Mack, an affiliate scholar at the New York-based Institute for American Values. Mack talks about some public disputes that revolved around popular works of literary and art such as the Harry Potter and Picardo Venus, as well as her opinions that center around “the question of what makes a good work of art.” Mack explains that art works carrying “a serious tone of death, hate…and…evil” but not carrying “publicly reflect(ed) community standards of taste, decency, and respect for religious faith” are constantly criticized and sometimes banned. Clearly felt throughout the article through her tone and statements, Mack’s main point is that individuals should not reject or criticize an art work that seem “alien and unappealing.”

Philippa Foot finds trouble with the arguments of Kant, who said that it was necessary to distinguish moral judgments from hypothetical imperatives. Although this may have become an unquestionable truth, Foot says that this is a misunderstanding.

In “Morality as a System of Hypothetical Imperatives”, Philippa Foot argues against Immanuel Kant, that morality exists in hypothetical imperatives rather than categorical imperatives. For Kant, categorical imperatives alone serve as moral commands, and it would be impossible for a moral system to be based on hypothetical imperatives because such imperatives serve as means to ends and result from maxims that cannot be universalized into perfect duties. Despite this, Foot holds that acting on many hypothetical imperatives can be morally praiseworthy and can even serve as the basis of moral judgments. Although I agree with Foot that hypothetical imperatives can have moral worth, in this paper, I will argue that a morality based on the purposes that hypothetical imperatives are directed toward appears to be circular. To do this, I will explain Foot’s theory of how morality is known and binds. Then, I will argue that this theory is insufficient to explain the moral purpose that hypothetical imperatives must be directed toward, thus begging the question of what is the moral basis of the purpose directed toward in the hypothetical imperative.

One way humans gain pleasure is to believe in things that are not true. However, happiness conceived as a result of deception of one’s own mind is a fleeting emotion; Bierce communicated this to the reader by abruptly ending Farquhar’s fantasy mere moments after he made contact with his wife. In writing “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”, it is suggested that while these desires of freedom are initially harmless, individuals should not become so enthralled in their fantasies as to develop ignorance to situations that occur in their life. As individuals with the same inclination to exclude ourselves from the real world, one should be careful as to not become like Farquhar, whose abrupt death was a grim reminder of people’s often fruitless desires of escape.

The term ‘imagination’, in turn, is used originally used by Mills (1959) (rather than ‘perspective’), because the concept also fits with cultural and literary understanding. It seeks to combine some of the qualities of art that it prizes (capturing and expressing the needs of the individual), and some qualities already in literature (presenting the social norms that shape individuals), with a “social and historical reality”, a “big picture in which... [individuals] can understand themselves” (Mills, 1959: 20). In this way it hopes to blend “the scientific and the humanistic” (Mills, 1959: 16) to form a comprehensive basis for the study of the social sciences.

Silently, my senses begin to abandon their rationale…who is to say then what is real? The world that we live in, the reality, which we are a part of, is small and thus limited. That is why, in his infinite capacity for potential improvement, man created fantasy. Fantasy is BIG! To a certain extent it is more imaginative, more exciting, and more fun. Fantasy is like a lake where man throws all his ideas and dreams, and then he dives on in from the springboard of imagination. So, jump in to the lake. Why not? Just make sure that when you jump in to the lake you know how to get back from where you came from. Because, no matter how big a fantasy is, to the point that it somehow changes our perception of what is