...Helen Fonzy English 223: American Literature Ms. Reed Interpretive Writings on Quotes from Thomas Paine 9:00 /10.00 Time Makes Converse than Reason Thomas Paine, one of our Founding Fathers by virtue of having written "Common Sense," lost many friends and made many enemies with "The Age of Reason. “Paine called himself a Deist, by which he meant that he believed in one God, the Creator of the universe, and in no other, including Son and Holy Ghost. Paine believed that, in order to know God, a person needed to study creation. Creation was the only true word of God, the Bible and all other sacred texts being the work of men, and not at all the word of God. In fact, Paine thought that the Bible, being false, was an impediment to knowing God. The second part of "The Age of Reason" is a book-by-book dismantling of the Bible by its own internal logic. While his own logic is not always perfectly rigorous, he definitely makes an excellent case against the Bible being the word of God. Paine's point of view is that of many in the scientific eighteenth century. By our standards, he was still a little too anthropocentric, in that he thought that creation was meant as a teaching tool for Man's rational mind. He virtually instigated the American Revolution and the break from the shackles of religious slavery. Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, and many others were Deists who believed the human mind needn't suffer from the dogma of the day nor unscientific, supernatural...
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...MLK Letter From Birmingham Jail Rhetorical Analysis- w/ focus on Ethos “...we are now confronted by a series of demonstrations by some of our Negro citizens, directed and led in part by outsiders…” In this quote, from the third paragraph of the letter written by eight Alabama clergymen, the term outsiders is used. Early on, this creates a label for Martin Luther King, outsider. Throughout his Letter From Birmingham Jail, King is able appeal to ethos in order to refute his title of “outsider” and generate a connection with his audiences, the clergymen and the people of America. King is able to do such a thing by alluding to multiple passages from the Bible as well as the figures it contains, which is done so that he may identify with the clergymen. When not speaking in reference to the Bible, King makes allusions and references to specific points and people in American history, which allows him to connect to his larger audience, the people of America. By demonstrating his practical wisdom, through the use of allusion, King attempts to strengthen his character with a visible appeal to ethos. King alludes to the Bible multiple times throughout his Letter From Birmingham Jail. These allusions are notable in paragraph three, where king refers to the biblical figures “Jesus Christ” and “the Apostle Paul.” The context in which these two are used is to reiterate the story of Paul leaving Tarsus, which King also mentions, to spread the word of Christ. In paragraph...
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...and do overlap. In moral domains, we are not concerned to give a mathematical, experimentally based theory of ethics or justice, but we are concerned with the general order of nature and how human life is nestled in and depends on that order. For example, life (& its preservation) depends on observing the necessities and limitations of nature, how we are dependent on food, shelter, parents and a community and the satisfying of other natural needs for life to exist, continue and prosper. The most prominent philosophers & political thinkers in this line of thought include the following: ancient - Plato, Aristotle, & later Cicero & other Roman statesmen; medieval - St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas & other thinkers in the Judeo-Christian tradition; modern - John Locke, & of course Thomas Jefferson & the “founding fathers” of the American republic. According to almost all of these authors, the natural order ultimately depends upon a first ordering principle that established the relation between man and nature. That first principle is commonly referred to as God or Creator, as indicated, for example, in the opening of Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. One line of reasoning introduced by Plato is based on the law of the Division of Labor. This law holds that given our natural needs, it is most efficient, effective & conducive to our flourishing for each of us to specialize by developing our skills & talents, and exchange the product of our labors with one another for the...
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...and do overlap. In moral domains, we are not concerned to give a mathematical, experimentally based theory of ethics or justice, but we are concerned with the general order of nature and how human life is nestled in and depends on that order. For example, life (& its preservation) depends on observing the necessities and limitations of nature, how we are dependent on food, shelter, parents and a community and the satisfying of other natural needs for life to exist, continue and prosper. The most prominent philosophers & political thinkers in this line of thought include the following: ancient - Plato, Aristotle, & later Cicero & other Roman statesmen; medieval - St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas & other thinkers in the Judeo-Christian tradition; modern - John Locke, & of course Thomas Jefferson & the “founding fathers” of the American republic. According to almost all of these authors, the natural order ultimately depends upon a first ordering principle that established the relation between man and nature. That first principle is commonly referred to as God or Creator, as indicated, for example, in the opening of Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. One line of reasoning introduced by Plato is based on the law of the Division of Labor. This law holds that given our natural needs, it is most efficient, effective & conducive to our flourishing for each of us to specialize by developing our skills & talents, and exchange the product of our labors with one another for the...
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...Most people generally accept that as a country, America was founded on religions principals. Many of the writings of the founding fathers, including our own Declaration of Independence, include religious doctrine as not only the partial justification for our separation from mother England but also as a part of the vision of how our new nation would be successful. Over time, our society and culture have changed so that today, even though people claim to be religious, religion is certainly not as main stream in our culture as it once was. By better understanding our society in colonial America, how the denominational makeup of churchgoers has changed, how our legal system has both protected and not protected religion’s presence in our daily lives, the influence of different organizations and social movements on religious practices and perceptions, the change in how Christians are perceived and finally the changes in the message that the church is preaching the reader will be able to understand not only how America has changed but also how contemporary Christian leaders and organizations are trying to remain relevant and consistent with God’s word. Colonial America & Our Founding Fathers From the settling of our nation to the Revolutionary War, religion was much more a part of mainstream society. The pervasive nature of religion had an impact on those who led the fight for our freedom. The period of history leading up to the Revolutionary War is commonly referred to as the...
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...and do overlap. In moral domains, we are not concerned to give a mathematical, experimentally based theory of ethics or justice, but we are concerned with the general order of nature and how human life is nestled in and depends on that order. For example, life (& its preservation) depends on observing the necessities and limitations of nature, how we are dependent on food, shelter, parents and a community and the satisfying of other natural needs for life to exist, continue and prosper. The most prominent philosophers & political thinkers in this line of thought include the following: ancient - Plato, Aristotle, & later Cicero & other Roman statesmen; medieval - St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas & other thinkers in the Judeo-Christian tradition; modern - John Locke, & of course Thomas Jefferson & the “founding fathers” of the American republic. According to almost all of these authors, the natural order ultimately depends upon a first ordering principle that established the relation between man and nature. That first principle is commonly referred to as God or Creator, as indicated, for example, in the opening of Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. One line of reasoning introduced by Plato is based on the law of the Division of Labor. This law holds that given our natural needs, it is most efficient, effective & conducive to our flourishing for each of us to specialize by developing our skills & talents, and exchange the product of our labors with one another for the...
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...Letter from a Birmingham Jail Analysis Ethos is author’s reputation, credentials and trustworthiness in an argument. King first establishes ethos in his letter through addressing the audience as "fellow clergymen." It lays out a warming and trustworthy tone that, despite his leadership, brings him onto familiar levels with the audience. In the second paragraph, King mentions “I have the honor of serving as president of Southern Christian Leadership conference". Through this, he has establishes his credibility to a greater extent. Through the first ten paragraphs King uses history to set up his credibility. He quotes Bible verses and stories, which reveals him as a knowledgeable man of God. King states “so I am compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to Macedonian call for aid." While establishing his virtuous nature, he also demonstrates his wisdom. He does so by quoting from historical figures such as Socrates, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and many other well-known leaders and reformers. He also shows a knowledge of the laws. His core argument focuses on the justice, which is a God given right that he and his people were not receiving. This idea is supported through the use of historical situations and court cases that are relevant to his argument. This allows the clergymen to understand better from where King’s argument grows. Pathos is a part of argument which touches the emotions of the reader. Martin...
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... Dec 8, 2015 Language and Its Power "Thanks to words, we have been able to rise above the brutes; but thanks to words we have often sunk to the level of the demons" (Huxley, pg). This quote means that depending on how they are used, words have the power to set people apart from one another. For example, Martin Luther King Jr. with his famous 'I Have a Dream' speech. However Huxley is also saying that words have the power to allow people to the level of the 'oppressors'.This is seen in Gloria Naylor's essay "The Meaning of a Word". I am also a believer of this doctrine. “Words start wars and end them"(Roy Williams, Web). A little over 50 years ago Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and delivered one of the memorable and influential speeches in history. During this time period, there were many civil rights movements occuring throughout the entire nation. The majority of African Americans in the U.S.A. especially in the south were faced with racial discrimination and Jim Crow Laws which allowed the legal segregation of black and white people even though "All men are created equal" (Thomas Jefferson, Web). These 'Laws' meant that colored people could not use the same bathrooms, parks, educational systems, bus stations and could not even use the same churches as whites and had to sit in the back of the buses while whites sat in the front. In 1955 an African American...
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...on real details but rather on crude passions driven by extensively broadcasted distortions regarding the use and misuse of guns. Additionally, most people have the same opinion that gun-related injuries or death of unintended person should by no means tolerated, although there is a wide range of opinions on what the course of action to take in an attempt to obtain a proper solution. So in the interest of clarifying this subject of which is right and proper, whether it is the Private ownership of guns or the prohibitions of guns (or if the answer lies somewhere in the middle) is truly right for the country; enter the debate. As to reasons in support of pro-guns ownership for private citizens, comes from one of the founding fathers Thomas Jefferson (n.d.) who eloquently stated “The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." He also said," No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.” This belief was not his alone but that of all the founding fathers. This belief was so strong that this intent of private ownership of guns was second only to the freedom of religion and speech, and was incorporated into the Bill of Rights in the country’s Constitution. The 2nd Amendment of the Constitution State (1791)”A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a Free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” However, there...
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...History of the United States I AMH 1010 CRN 10800, December 1, 2014 Wood, Gordon. The Radicalism of the American Revolution. Vintage Books, a Division of Random House, Inc., New York, 1991 Gordon Wood describes the American Revolution as a journey from paternal colonialism to an egalitarian democracy. His contention is that the American Revolution does not seem to have the same kinds of causes that Revolutions usually display. There were no big social wrongs, no class conflict, no severe poverty, or gross inequitable distribution of wealth. Wood claims our revolution was not about independence as most history books claim but about the radical transformation of the American society. Monarchy In this section the author describes the structure of colonial America in the 1750s and 1760s. In colonial society, authority and liberty flowed from the structure of personal relationships. Society was held together by networks of personal loyalties, obligations and dependencies. In this hierarchical society, the elite or aristocrats ruled. The aristocrats (also called gentlemen) used their wealth and their hereditary advantages to keep the common people as dependents. The aristocrats lived a life of leisure which meant that they were not expected to labor. Their income was supposed to come from their landed estates. They used these landed estates to control the issuance of government offices and created laws that would keep their estates in the family. Most estates were passed on to...
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...Senior Research Project: Is the right to bear arms ethical? Lucas Van Duyn Senior Seminar: Business Ethics Dr. Jewe July 31, 2012 Introduction to the Project: In the United States, research into firearms and violent crime is fraught with difficulties, associated with limited data on gun ownership and use, firearms markets, and aggregation of crime data. Research studies into gun violence have primarily taken one of two approaches: case-control studies and social ecology. Gun ownership is usually determined through surveys, proxy variables, and sometimes with production and import figures. In statistical analysis of homicides and other types of crime, which are rare events, these data tend to have poison distributions, which also presents methodological challenges to researchers. (Just Facts, 2010) Americans own an estimated 270 million firearms, approximately 90 guns for every 100 people. In 2009, guns took the lives of 31,347 Americans in homicides, suicides and unintentional shootings. This is the equivalent of more than 85 deaths each day and more than three deaths each hour. 66,769 Americans were treated in hospital emergency departments for non-fatal gunshot wounds in 2009. Firearms were the third-leading cause of injury-related deaths nationwide in 2009, following poisoning and motor vehicle accidents. Between 1955 and 1975, the Vietnam War killed over 58,000 American soldiers – less than the number of civilians killed with guns in the U.S. in an average...
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...Overview: The US government currently has over $16.4 trillion in debt and spends 40% more than the revenue it collects per year. This continues to be a highly debated topic within our legislative and executive branches of government. One reason the Federal Government’s major entitlement programs are difficult to control is the way they are designed. A second is that current budgeting process ignores long-term impacts of short-term expansions. A third is that these programs are not subject to regular review, like the other annual discretionary programs are. The means that Congress rarely evaluates the costs and effectiveness of entitlements except when it is proposing to expand them. Costs of healthcare continuing to rise, funding numerous war campaigns, and a broken tax system are all contributing to the widening deficit in the budget. It is quite clear that sacrifices must be made. The question remains: where do we begin? Background: Alexander Hamilton, the first Treasury Secretary, set up federal debt to pay off debt incurred by the Revolutionary War. Until the Great Depression in 1933, federal debt was used only to fund wars. In 1933, President Roosevelt began spending and raised the federal debt to around 40% of the GDP. From that point on, the federal debt has ranged from 122% of the GPD following WWII, to 50% of the GDP during the Cold War to the current value of 99.4% as presidential policies and goals changed (see Figure 1). During the end of the Clinton administration...
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...Week 9 Research Paper COM/156 August 11, 2013 Week 9 Research Paper “Marijuana is the finest anti-nausea medication known to science, and our leaders have lied about this consistently. [Arresting people for] medical marijuana is the most hideous example of government interference in the private lives of individuals. It’s an outrage within an outrage within an outrage”. Peter McWilliams Author and Advocate for Medical Marijuana Medical Marijuana has found its place once again as the medical plant that is recognized for its healing potential and properties. How the Government has suppressed its positive potential and healing powers for over 25 years. With the help from many patients, loved ones, research departments and advocate groups to get the Government’s attention to see and understand that the terminally ill and the sick should not be treated as common criminals. They are only trying to find some peace and serenity in their last days. The struggle and fight that has been going on for the last 25 years against the Government. The people were finally heard, with the legalization of Medical Marijuana. The Government wants to regulate everything for their own best interest, the positive effect of decriminalizing marijuana for the terminally ill and the positive economic benefits for our community. Cannabis Sativa, Marijuana, Weed, Herb, Mary Jane these are just a few names that this little 5 leaf...
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...Advanced Placement English Language and Composition Advanced Placement English III First Six Weeks – Introductory Activities: ▪ Class rules, expectations, procedures ▪ Students review patterns of writing, which they will imitate throughout the course: reflection, narration and description, critical analysis, comparison and contrast, problem and solution, and persuasion and argument. ▪ Students review annotation acronyms, how to do a close reading, literary elements and rhetorical devices. Students also review the SOAPSTONE (subject, occasion, audience, purpose, speaker, tone, organization, narrative style and evidence) strategy for use in analyzing prose and visual texts along with three of the five cannons of rhetoric: invention, arrangement and style. ▪ Students learn the format of the AP test, essay rubric and essay structure. ▪ Students take a full-length AP test for comparison purposes in the spring. Reading: The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne Writing: Answer the following question in one paragraph. Use quotes from the novel as evidence. Some readers believe that the elaborate decoration that Hester embroiders on the scarlet letter indicates her rejection of the community’s view of her act. Do you agree or disagree? Explain your position using evidence from the text. (test grade) Writing: Write a well-developed essay addressing the following prompt. Document all sources using MLA citation. Compare Hester to a modern...
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...Week 9 Research Paper Medical Marijuana COM/156 August 11, 2013 Medical Marijuana ~“Marijuana is the finest anti-nausea medication known to science, and our leaders have lied about this consistently. [Arresting people for] medical marijuana is the most hideous example of government interference in the private lives of individuals. It’s an outrage within an outrage within an outrage”~ ~Peter McWilliams~ Author and Advocate for Medical Marijuana Medical Marijuana has found its place once again as the medical plant that is recognized for its healing potential and properties. How the Government has suppressed its positive potential and healing powers for over 25 years. With the help frommany patients, loved ones, research departments and advocate groups, to get the Government’s attention to see and understand that the terminally ill, and the sick should not be treated as common criminals. They are only trying to find some peace and serenity, in their last days. The struggle and fight that has been going on for the last 25 years against the Government. The people were finally heard, with the legalization of Medical Marijuana. The Government wants to regulate everything for their best interest, the positive effect of decriminalizing marijuana for the terminally ill, and the positive economic benefits for our community. Cannabis Sativa, Marijuana, Weed, Herb, Mary Jane these are just a few names that this little 5 leaf plant goes by. How could this...
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