...Friedrich Nietzsche is a famous philosopher whose works have made him one of Germanys most profound scholars to-date as well as an interesting character in the history of philosophical thought. Nietzsche was well known for challenging Christianity as well other monotheistic religions for their apparent suppression of the poor and the working classes. In the context of the 1800’s, the philosophical movement of the enlightenment was helping Europeans move away from structural monarchy and the Roman Catholic Church by use of reasoning. (Anderson, 2007, p510). Being raised in a Catholic household, his Grandfather and father were both pastors who encouraged a young Friedrich down a religious route. However, at the age of 14 he surprised them all after he decided he was not going to confirm as a catholic (Hill, 2007, p6). One major contribution of work by Nietzsche is his concept of the death of God. This came as a reaction to the Enlightenment era- understanding reason to reject the Church in favour of liberty. Probably his most famous contribution to philosophy (Nietzsche, 1882/2006, p90) ‘God is dead’ uses a parable of a madman accusing the atheists of killing God without realising. He calls this...
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...Survey of Theology By John Kohler Whitley October 5, 2014 Introduction Friedrich Nietzsche believed God is dead, and he has based his theology around these three words. Why does he believe God is dead? Friedrich Nietzsche could have called his theology God does not exist and easily conveyed his message. Nietzsche purposefully chose these three words to send a message to the Christian faith. Since the beginning of time the existence of God has been questioned. Science has attempted to provide humanity with an explanation for human origin and has failed. Atheists argue that God does not exist and do not really offer any strong counter argument to the contrary. Muslims, Jews, and Christians each claim they serve the one supreme Creator of the universe. Who is right and who is wrong? If God is dead, why is religion alive and well? This paper will attempt to answer these questions by providing examples and counter examples. By taking a closer look at the life of Friedrich Nietzsche, his beliefs, morals and values, one will find that he does not possess any evidence that God is dead. Friedrich Nietzsche The life of Friedrich Nietzsche started out rather sadly. Nietzsche’s father, Karl Ludwig Nietzsche, developed a problem in the brain that caused him to die at the young age of 36. Karl was a Lutheran pastor who developed a medical condition called encephalomalacia. Friedrich Nietzsche was five years old when his father passed away. Shortly after, about six months later, his...
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...Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (/ˈniːtʃə/[2] German: [ˈfʁiːdʁɪç ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈniːt͡sʃə]; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philologist, philosopher,cultural critic, poet and composer. He wrote several critical texts on religion, morality, contemporary culture, philosophy and science, displaying a fondness for metaphor, irony and aphorism. Nietzsche's key ideas include the Apollonian/Dionysian dichotomy, perspectivism, the Will to Power, the "death of God", the Übermensch and eternal recurrence. One of the key tenets of his philosophy is the concept of "life-affirmation," which embraces the realities of the world in which we live over the idea of a world beyond. It further champions the creative powers of the individual to strive beyond social, cultural, and moral contexts.[3]Nietzsche's attitude towards religion and morality was marked with atheism, psychologism and historism; he considered them to be human creations loaded with the error of confusing cause and effect.[4] His radical questioning of the value and objectivity of truth has been the focus of extensive commentary, and his influence remains substantial, particularly in the continental philosophical schools of existentialism, postmodernism, and post-structuralism. His ideas of individual overcoming and transcendence beyond structure and context have had a profound impact on late-twentieth and early-twenty-first century thinkers, who have used these concepts as points of departure in the development of their philosophies...
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...Roman Sanchez Intro to Philosophy Professor. Connolly 12.10.14 The Four Great Errors Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher who played a major role in contemporary intellectual development. In his work “Twilight of Idols”, Nietzche points out the four great errors which we constantly use to misinterpret reality and create false reasons that we believe show us the world in a more clearer light. The four great errors consist of mistaking cause and effect, false causality, imaginary causes, and the error of free will. Here I will go more into depth on Nietzsche’s four great errors. The first error is mistaking the cause and effect, or in other words mistaking the effect as the cause. An error that is the most recent and yet the most ancient habit of humankind, as Nietzsche says. Nietzsche goes as far as calling it the most dangerous of the four errors and refers to it as “the real corruption of reason.” (Nietzsche qtd. in Classics of Philosophy 1060) (Religion and morality actually use this error in its teachings. Religion and morality follow a similar formula that proceeds as follows: “Do this and that, refrain from this and that – and then you will be happy! And if you don’t…” (Nietzsche qtd. in Classics of Philosophy 1060) It goes on to imply that straying from this ideal would lead to negative consequences. An example of how cause and effect are misconstrued is that man is destroyed by vices such as adultery or alcoholism. If a man who has lost everything but continues...
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...is often considered his magnum opus, exploring many of the ideas that Nietzsche had earlier mentioned in works like “The Gay Science,” and “Beyond Good and Evil.” Nietzsche reveals his thoughts on many matters through the character of Zarathustra, a philosopher beyond mankind. One of the most famous parables that Zarathustra utters is “God is dead,” and through these words, Nietzsche exposes the historical context in which he lived, the idea of mankind superseding God as a supreme being, and the resulting fear of nihilism that derives from that trend (Nietzsche, 1999, p. 3). Ultimately, these words do not reveal Nietzsche to be an atheist but rather reflect the position of the author in regards...
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...(A) 1.On the Genealogy of Morality is a philosophical treatise by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, first published in 1887, and is also a follow-up to Beyond Good and Evil. , a book previously written by Nietzsche. 2. This book is composed of a preface and three additional sections which discuss the ways in which our views of morality have changed. He goes through history and gives a timeline of how morality has changed up until the time of when the book was written. One major point of Nietzsche is that there is a difference between a thing and its meaning. He argues that things don’t have an inherent meaning, and that the meaning of those things have changed over time. In the books he connects this concept with or view of morality, and in particular to good and evil. Thus he arrives at a conclusion that there isn’t any objective and inherent truth to morality. He concludes the one can only have a true understanding of things only when we realize that the meaning of certain things has changed overtime. In this book he explains this in further detail with his “will to power” perspective. (3) Outline- Prologue 1) Good and Evil, Good and Bad A) Faulty Explanations of Morality B) Meaning of Good C) Change in language - Change in power D) Jews as Priestly class - Revaluation of values E) Lambs and Birds of Prey F) Slave Morality - Justice -Christian Hatred2 Guilt, Bad Conscience, and Related Matters A) Promises -human predictability B) Guilt C) Suffering ...
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...state was not to erase religion from public life but that the church would not determine governing laws and the laws would also not determine church doctrine: the Founders encouraged religion, as they believed religion was an essential and vital part of the new nation (Spalding, p. 312, 2008). The Founders acknowledged the importance of religion in our country. Even when they thought their homes were being barraged and overrun, they took the time to start their important meeting with a prayer, and as John Adams put it in his letter to Abigail, he had never seen a “greater effect upon an audience” (Novak, p. 306, 2008). Novak further notes that The Founders formed a covenant with God, pledging their fidelity to Him, and asking Him to protect their liberty, and solidifying this covenant by asking Americans to set aside a day for prayer and fasting (Novak, pp. 306-307, 2008). The Founders saw religion as guidance to morality. They also believed in God’s providence and saw Him as the author of liberty. Dreisbach notes that today, the “separation of church and state” or the “wall of separation” is frequently used to separate religion from private life and thus encourage a private religion and a strictly secular state, and a philosophy “intolerant of religious influences in the public square” (p. 320, 2008). This notion is altered from that of the Founders. Spalding states that what the separation of church and state does is free religion, allowing religion to provide an independent...
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...“What I tell you three times is true.” (Lewis Carroll) Might this formula – or a more sophisticated version of it – actually determine what we believe to be true? Repetition is our way of learning knowledge. Repetition is drilling something to memory, reinforcing the idea in our heads. It is the key to reflexive use (use without conscious thought). Your mind “learns” by repetition and reinforcement. Repetition and its effects on what we believe to be true, play a major role in the way that we accumulate general knowledge. The formula implies that repetition is equal to truth, when really repetition is just repetition. Repetition does not make a statement the truth. But a statement, if repeated often enough, can come to be accepted as truth. This leads us to the question whether a lie can be accepted as truth. From the standpoint of logic, the number of times an incorrect fact is repeated is irrelevant. It is still false. But research has shown that a statement, even an incorrect fact, if repeated often enough, can be accepted as truth. This paper will examine several research studies, influencing variables, and examples from everyday life to identify this occurrence. In addition to this, the possible effects of repetition will be discussed as well. One of the simplest ways to show how repetition causes a statement to be accepted as truth is gossip. First, someone tells a friend a statement, which can be true or false. This friend tells another friend, who tells another...
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...What is our purpose of life? Where did we come from? What makes us who we are? These are just some questions that are frequently asked in our society. Is there a right or wrong answer? I don’t think we will ever know. There are many different beliefs, such as existentialist philosophies, scientific, and religious. Each one has a different answer to those questions. Some of the first true existentialist thinkers were a man named Soren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche. They both challenged he foundations of Christianity and traditional morality. “Nietzsche was interested in the enhancement of individual and cultural health, and believed in life, creativity, power, and the realities of the world we live in, rather than those situated in a world beyond” (Nietzsche 1). I feel that he was right, many people get caught up in what is going to happen in the future that they miss out on present. Why live a life if all a person is going to worry about is the unknown? “Kierkegaard said that is it especially important for people to have a meaningful existence. And meaning, he said, comes from whether or not people sense that their lives have a permanent significance. The problem is, though, that most people believe that their lives have importance only temporarily” (Kierkegaard 1). I agree with this completely, I feel without having meaning in life we would have nothing to live for. Many people believe that our purpose of life is already chosen for us. I on the other hand don’t agree...
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...|eliminating Kant’s “things-in-themselves” (external reality) and making the self, or the ego, the ultimate reality. Fichte | |maintained that the world is created by an absolute ego, which is conscious first of itself and only later of non-self, or the | |otherness of the world. The human will, a partial manifestation of self, gives human beings freedom to act. Friedrich Wilhelm | |Joseph von Schelling moved still further toward absolute idealism by construing objects or things as the works of the | |imagination and Nature as an all-embracing being, spiritual in character. Schelling became the leading philosopher of the | |movement known as romanticism, which in contrast to the Enlightenment placed its faith in feeling and the creative imagination | |rather than in reason. The romantic view of the divinity of nature influenced the American transcendentalist movement, led by | |poet and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson. | |C | |1 | | | |Hegel ...
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...Exam #2 1. Bettina von Arnim was a prominent female figure in Germany during the Romanticism Era. Von Arnim was best known for her writings that had a connection to social issues in society, involving women and oppression. Von Arnim was friends with Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe for a period of time. Von Arnim, who was known for many novels and essays, wrote on topics involving social and political reform, which appealed to many groups of oppressed people, such as women and Jews. Although she had a husband and seven children, Bettina von Arnim was vocal in rejecting the exclusivity of traditional gender roles in 19th century Germany, through her literary works. Von Arnim’s most famous work is called Goethe’s Correspondence with a Child, a fiction based on her relationship with Goethe. The story depicts her as a child, who sits on Goethe’s character’s lap, and how her gender affects the relationship they had. One of her other works, Gritta, was an alternative view of the typical “male saves female archetype”. In the novel, the female plays the role of the hero. In her later life, after her husband died, she began to publish more and more works, including some by her husband. Her husband’s death was a significant event in von Arnim’s life. When von Arnim became a widow, she published a large amount of works such as autobiographies and fiction based on social equality and gender equality. Von Arnim was a benefactor of the ideas of...
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...Islam and Christianity are two of the largest and fastest growing religions that have impacted the livelihood of billions of people around the world. Their philosophies and teaching has established a bridge of cooperation and dialogue that has been recognized in both government and society. Both of these religions were discovered in the Middle-Eastern and they are considered as the Abrahamic religion. Even thought both religion share common ground of being monotheistic religion of believing the existence of one God, yet their tradition and mythology is what sets them apart. Islam is a religion that teaches in order for one to gain peace of mind with the universe and humanity he/she must submit to God and follow his rules. On the other hand,...
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...also needs to be simplistic enough for anyone to participate in it, yet regimented and rational enough to promote intellectual growth. For where would the world of fine art be without thinker such as Plato and Socrates? Where would today’s perception of western religion be without critical thinkers such as Aquines? The most important thing I’ve come to learn about critical thinking is that without it we would have been robbed of this world’s greatest philosophers. Second by extension historically individual critical thinkers always have had a certain amount influence when it comes to social norms. Some of the more popular ones have their own principles that have been applied to movement and religions. Individuals like Lenin and Karl Marx heavily inspired the communist movement, while the Nazi party was heavily inspired by the works of Friedrich Nietzsche. For all we know the events of World War II could have played out completely different if these philosophers (also known as critical thinkers) were never born?! Who’s to say the communist party would not have bothered to oppose Hitler if it wasn’t for their opposing philosophical stances. As I mention earlier these critical thinkers have also in many cases defined religion. An example, my personal favorite, Jesus Christ. While many questioned his exist because of what many perceive as lack of historical evidence, he is by many accredited as the father of ethical...
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...Samantha B. Gula Introduction / Summary of Postmodernism Postmodernism is the belief that: (1) Most theoretical concepts are defined by their role in the conjectured theoretical network. (A subset are 'operationally' defined by a fairly direct tie to observations.) (2) The theoretical network is incomplete. (3) It follows that theoretical concepts are 'open', or what logicians call 'partially interpreted'. Research continues precisely because they are open; the research task is to 'close' them, although never completely. The current Postmodern belief is that a correct description of Reality is impossible. This extreme skepticism, of which Friedrich Nietzsche, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn are particularly famous, assumes that; a) All truth is limited, approximate, and is constantly evolving (Nietzsche, Kuhn, Popper). b) No theory can ever be proved true - we can only show that a theory is false (Popper). c) No theory can ever explain all things consistently (Godel's incompleteness theorem). d) There is always a separation between our mind & ideas of things and the thing in itself (Kant). e) Physical reality is not deterministic (Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics, Bohr). f) Science concepts are mental constructs (logical positivism, Mach, Carnap). g) Metaphysics is empty of content. h) Thus absolute and certain truth that explains all things is unobtainable. As Taborsky writes of Postmodern philosophy; .. the Mediated concept of...
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...INTRODUCTION The plays and prefaces of Bernard Shaw deal with many and diverse themes. At least four, however, concern themselves with evolutionary themes and ideas: Man and Superman, Back to Methusalah, The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles, and Far-fetched Fables. In Man and Superman, especially the third act, the preface, and The Revolutionist's Handbook and Pocket Companion, Shaw touches on two main themes: the pursuit of man by woman and the direction of evolution, which Shaw sees as leading towards the development of the mind and brain. In Back to Methusalah, Shaw carries forward his vision of evolution as proceeding in the direction of mental development but introduces a seemingly new idea in the last play of the cycle, the antithesis of mind and body. Shaw's dualism receives its most explicit statement in the last play of the cycle although there may be indications of it in the earlier plays. The mind-body antithesis, however, derives as a philosophical problem from Descartes,1 although the antithesis also appeared in the Manichean and Gnostic heresies, the spirit, or mind, being regarded as good and the body as evil. Although the antithesis of body and mind makes its first open appearance in the Methusalah cycle, it is present, at least as an implicit assumption in Man and Superman. Don Juan continually expresses his longing for the life of contemplation, a life which is to be achieved at the expense of the body. We will deal with the presence of the mind body antithesis...
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