The Illusion of the Good Essay

Wisdom, courage, moderation and justice are four essential virtues the ideal state must be built upon, as explained by Socrates in Plato’s Republic. Throughout the eight books of Socratic dialogue the ideal state and ideas of justice are debated, on both individual and state levels. The guidelines for a perfect state and how it will come about are thoroughly described. Socrates covers every aspect of political life and how it should work stating that “until power and philosophy entirely coincide… cities will have no rest form evils” . In Plato’s Republic Socrates emphasizes the superiority of the philosopher and their abilities to rule as kings above others. He believes that they are best suited to rule as a result of their pure souls and

Famed Brazilian football player Pele (full name Edson Arantes do Nascimento) once said that “Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” In a related topic, Geoff Colvin — a senior editor of Fortune Magazine — published an article titled What It Takes to be Great on October 30th, 2006. Here, Colvin wrote about how the most talented people got into their position, which was not by talent. Instead, they had gotten there through deliberate practice, a form of practice where one improves themselves by going beyond what their abilities are at to get better. On a similar note, Colvin had written the article likely to disprove the concept of natural talent and to encourage his readers to go forth and chase their dreams of greatness as evidenced by paragraph 24: “The critical reality is that we are not hostage to some naturally given level of talent… the striking, liberating news is that greatness [is not] reserved for a small few who — gifted with natural talent — were born

Moreover, although philosopher kings make the objectively correct decision for a state, it is clear that they do not take into account morality as Plato “proposes to rusticate” part of a population, so a philosopher king could start a city from the beginning (Cornford 209). Morality is an important and necessary

Popularized by the comedic duo of MythBusters, the act of “debunking” has become increasingly sought-after. Debunking requires looking at the subject in a new “light” and offering a different perspective that could provide evidence to expose the falseness of, or “debunk,” a previously held belief. When faced with a topic that emanates ambivalent feelings, the option to gaze upon the topic in a new perspective seems rather enticing. Particularly, if faced with a topic on women, when the writer is a woman, mixed feelings often arise from the situation. It is easy, and much too common, to hear what a woman is. It much more rare to find someone expanding upon an adequate depiction of what women are. The difference lingering prevalently between ‘is’ and ‘are’ can be linked to how broad or abstract the explanation can be. ‘Is’ can be concrete and offer one perspective, as it is the 3rd person singular present of be. ‘Are’ contains a more diverse definition, existing as the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person plural present of be. It can be said that one would much rather hear that women are being depicted through not only secondary sources, or “window viewers,” but primary sources as well. It is much more believable and valid when the definition comes from a woman who has experienced being within that gender. Therefore, perhaps abstract in explanation, there is reason to believe that more attention should be paid to the ‘are’s’ on the topic of women. Andrew Stott uses multiple examples and

According to Plato, the average person lacks the knowledge and mastery of emotions necessary to make informed and rational decisions about various government laws and practices. He thinks that the general public is driven by its own self-interest in the world and therefore cannot act in a politically smart manner. Plato infers that letting these people, who are guided by emotion and ignorant to procedures of the government, run the State or democracy is a bad idea altogether. He decides that only the philosopher kings, whose main goal is to help maintain good for the entire community, should be allowed to rule a government. And he goes on to imply that the rulers need not be tempted by living simply to improve their own lives, rather they continue working to benefit everyone.

Lewis Carroll was a professor of logic, writing among his well known works of fiction, treatises on the subject of logic and even a textbook, Symbolic Logic. “It is the function of logic to classify and formulate fallacious forms of argument as well as valid ones.” (Burks 367) So is it some of the functions of Carroll’s tales of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Presenting different puzzles, riddles, or what appears to be on the surface nonsense, Carroll in these books present many questions of logic and indirectly their solutions, challenging the ability of the reader to believe what has been presented. All his nonsensical puzzles can be either proved or disproved using some

This is a well written essay, each paragraph has a clear topic sentence to keep the text organized and the author supported with evidence on every claim that were made. However, I think the author needs to add a little more of what is happening in the shows. For example, briefly summarizing the stories would be better for the reader if the readers have not watched any of the

In subsections 10-17 Moore discusses that good is a complex whole, and that good purely does not exist at all. Moore claims that we can come up with a definition of the term good, but than we would

In Plato’s perfect state, each class develops its due virtues, and still traders’ and soldiers’ will accept the supremacy of the philosophers to achieve harmony in the functioning of all parts of the state which is an important condition of justice. Justice is a necessary condition of human

Doug Stephens’ The Retail Revival highlights the fundamental challenges that today’s executives and entrepreneurs must manage to not only succeed but to continue to exist as “the fat and lazy era in consumerism is giving way to a lean, creative and inspired age” (Stephens 228). As large companies, digital giants, and e-commerce businesses become larger and larger, one may come to think that the day and age for retail is over. However, Stephens strongly disagrees with this notion and instead holds the belief that retail is entering an even more exciting and honest era.

Hannah hadn’t left the board, she waited there, staring at the picture of Mr Syler. She had crossed a line, she knew that. She should take it down. If her boss found it there? It would be her job. Would he recognise it? Still she didn’t click the delete button, even though her mouse hovered over it temptingly. How much was her job worth really? Was it worth stepping away from this? Closing it all down and pretending it never existed. Letting yet another man delude himself with his fantasies. Her inbox, new but for an hour or so, was suddenly filling with messages. But she wasn’t interested, not in fantasy, not in indulgence. She has no desire to be a matriarch, whispering deliriously twisted tales into the waiting minds, eager for

Plato’s view of division of labour is divided into three types of peoples’ task in life which are workers as farmers, military type and guardians. Actually, the ruling task of Plato’s Republic is the guardian’s responsible who had achieved the greatest wisdom or knowledge of good. Due to that, Plato claims that “philosopher must become kings or those now who called kings must genuinely and adequately philosophise’’ (Nussbaum1998, p.18). However, people argue about the reasons that the philosopher should rule the city, while the philosophers prefer to gain knowledge instead of power, thus they don’t seek this authority. Therefore, the argument should alter to why the philosophers are the best ruler to govern people. Indeed, Plato states

Something that appears to be ‘good’ can actually be full of malice and evil, where as those that appear to be malicious can in turn, be virtuous.

Aristotle and Plato are famous for their many works in the philosophical field. Specifically, the Republic by Plato and Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle seem to be their most popular works. In these works they discuss things that are needed to achieve the “good life” both on an individual level and on a societal level. There is some variance between what the two philosophers think can create the “good life.” They explore the concepts of eudaimonia, virtue, and soul with the same end result of happiness for all. Through analysis of each philosophers work, we can see that both Plato’s definition of the “good life” and his method to achieve it is far superior to Aristotle’s. Furthermore, this concept of the “good life” is best supported through democratic form of government.

Far away, on the border of both France and Switzerland, lies the massive CERN Accelerator Complex. This series of particle accelerators increases the momentum of packets of nuclei to almost light speed, then collides them. It collects the debris of the resulting destruction in hopes of finding the basic building blocks of matter. This is a basic overview of what happens at CERN, but when examined more closely, this process becomes far more difficult and complicated. How does this “Atom Smasher” work? How is it built? Most importantly, how do the thousands of euros poured into this costly research benefit the practical world?