Paul Kurtz

“The Old Man and The Sea” by Ernest Hemingway is a story about an old man named Santiago who has to overcome many obstacles in his time at sea and in life (Hemingway). Despite being a fisherman, Santiago has not caught fish in 84 days and is faced by numerous dilemmas and shortcomings as things seem to always go wrong for him (Hemingway). This paper provides an analysis of the novel by interpreting it as a secular humanist epic. This paper hypothesizes that the character of Santiago is guided by

of all different subjects. My mother said that I was always asking “why?” in order to find clarity as a child. I believe that this kind of skepticism lives in all human beings, and that a healthy dose of skepticism is a good thing. According to Paul Kurtz, “A skeptic is one who is willing to question any knowledge claim, asking for clarity in definition, consistency in logic and adequacy of evidence.” With that being said to what extent does clarity in definition, consistency in logic, and adequacy

exhortation, stating that the thoughts a person fills their head with will bleed into the type of lives they live, proves true in both the stories Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, and Mountains Beyond Mountains, by Tracy Kidder. Kurtz, the idol in Heart of Darkness, and Paul Farmer, the hero in Mountains Beyond Mountains, adapt this formula in paradoxical fashions. Kurtz’s adaptation is to exploit the misfortunate that he comes into contact with, the natives of the African Congo,

In Paul Kurtz’s Fears of the Apocalypse: The Escape from Reason, he explains that “the fixation on apocalypse grows out of fear of the unknown, and it is fed by hope of redemption” (1). Written a year before the new millennium, Kurtz writes about how different types of doomsday prophecies such as the secular, religious, or New Age have predicted the world’s fate. Although each prophecy has their own tale of how and when the world will end, they can all agree that the new millennium is the end for

The Quest for Truth in Heart of Darkness       Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is set in Africa's Congo region, and his descriptions of that place are stark yet full of the wonder of discovery as well as the shock that comes from uncovering ugly truths. Conrad was purposefully vague in his setting for Heart of Darkness; he never actually named the destination to which Marlow journeyed. This may be because Heart of Darkness was more an inner journey than a journey between places.  Conrad juxtaposed

Marlow and Kurtz represent foils driven by the wilderness. In Heart of Darkness, Marlow and Kurtz have many similarities. Perhaps the most apparent and literal similarity is the likeness of their journeys. Both men journey farther and farther into the African jungle. Kurtz, however, is driven to

Paul Kurtz, died in October 2012, was a philosopher and one of the founders of the modern skeptical movement, who embodied the principle of skepticism as thoughtful inquiry. The term “skepticism” simply means “thoughtful”, which is far from modern misconceptions of the words, connotation as meaning “cynical” and “nihilism”. From the title, could I gather that Kurtz was trying to demonstrate skeptics to be mere critical thinkers who are determined to learn the truth? Does it depend on adequate evidence

The Crippling Bodies Bodies, corpses, and graves are all symbols of illness and death in literature. Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Natasha Trethewey’s Native Guard include bodies to represent a lacking of vitality for humanity. In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad uses bodies to symbolize the inferiority of those that are believed to be lower class. Conrad demonstrates how imperialism affects the bodies of the inferior natives in Congo Africa. Trethewey uses Native Guard to describe her

Racism in Heart of Darkness        Heart of Darkness is a social commentary on imperialism, but the characters and symbols in the book have a meaning for both the psychological and cultural aspects of Marlow’s journey.  Within the framework of Marlow’s psychedelic experience is an exploration of the views the European man holds of the African man. These views express the conflict between the civilized and the savage, the modern and the primordial, the individual and the collective, the moral

the cries of the natives seeing the steamer amidst a brief fog lift (Conrad 44). "Poor fool! He had no restraint, no restraint . . .a tree swayed by the wind," speaks Marlow of a slain helmsman amidst an attack by tribal savages (Conrad 52). "Mr. Kurtz lacked restraint in the gratification of his various lusts," says Marlow a few moments after he tells of his first glimpse of