..."Ultimately, all human beings share core universal values, and apparent differences are merely variances of practices or interpretation." The Pursuit of Universal Shared Values Throughout the twentieth century, philosophers have struggled to understand the nature of human morality, namely, the underlying values that form it. Which factors form the basis of our conception of what is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’—‘good’ and ‘bad’? Do we all share certain values, or some approach, that helps us come about our moral judgments? Is there a universal ‘good’ and ‘bad’? This is really the crux of it, is it not? This essay will present the argument that the pursuit of human happiness—or at least perceived happiness—is the only value that can be considered universal amongst all human beings, and that the differences and conflicts between us stem from different interpretation’s of happiness and the means that should be taken toward its actualization. That is to say that something is ‘good’ to the extent to which it enables perceived happiness, or, disables a lack of perceived happiness. The universality of this value will be suggested to extend to all sentient beings, regardless of human intelligence and the capacity to reason. This essay’s thesis is in agreement with the proposed statement that, “ultimately, all human beings share core universal values, and apparent differences are merely variances of practices or interpretation,” however not to the extent that the ideas of philosophers John...
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...are many concepts that are associated with the true meaning of being human. This is a topic that that is very susceptible to debate because most people will have their own opinions on what it means, to them, to be human. When asked this question I try to think of universal concepts or factors in which everyone can agree on. It is hard not to involve religion and science when determining an answer for this topic but, in my opinion, there are mutual concepts that can be used to describe humanity from a religious or scientific point of view. The Bible tells of how God created Adam and Eve and that they were the first humans on Earth. The Bible basically states that God created humans and that humans are simply a product of God. At least, that’s the religious aspect of humanity. Then there is science which explains how humans evolved from ape-like creatures which was all part of evolution that was caused by the “Big Bang” 13.7 billion years ago. Whatever the case may be, the Bible or the “Big Bang”, there are still many concepts that can be used to define humans. Being born from your human mother does not mean you are in fact human. One concept cannot explain humanity because being human is more complex than just one simple notion. I believe the three most important concepts that define what it means to be human are knowledge, ethics, and history. Knowledge is an essential characteristic of the human race because it is the reason why humanity is advanced as it is today...
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...find the answers to the following questions, what is freedom? How free is the individual within a society? How much of human behavior is determined by environment and genetics? (M.U.S.E, 2010). In my perspective, freedom is the ability for a human being to act as desired, in other words having self-determination and no restrains. In society, individual’s rights are protected by the first amendment of the constitution, which gives freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly, and so on. However, there are laws that humans must abide by to prevent consequences. Human behavior has been influenced by the environment and genetics to a certain degree, however, every individual is a unique mind or as I call “a different world”, it all depends on an individual perspectives and reactions to certain circumstances. Socrates: What is the definition of determinism? Grislen: Determinism consist that every event has a cause; therefore if human actions are to be considered events, then, all choices made are determined by cause and not free will. Nothing in life is predetermined, the choices we make in life is the only one that can alter our future. Socrates: What is the definition of free will? Grislen: The philosophical term of “free will” consists of the capacity of humans to choose from a course of actions among various alternatives. Humans act as desired, therefore we have self-determination and no restrains. All humans acting with free will must also assume full...
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...GENERAL INPUTS CHAPTER 3: THE HUMAN PERSON In the context there is a phrase that says "it is essentially difficult to define man," yes, thats true because man is the most complex form of being created by God. Man has its own style of manipulating things according to what he want to do. It is essentially difficult to define man. This perspective aims to revisit and challenge, in all humility , our perception of human nature; and the possibility of achieving a productive society through the actualization of a person's highest potential. Eddie Babor discussed in his book “The Human Person, Not Real But Existing” that the human person have several characteristics, among which are the following: rational, free, unique, social being, and sexual. Considering the characteristics, and their definitions, given above, it can be deduced that a human person is the ultimate expression of the Supreme Being that has the freedom, capacity and ability to reason, reflect and relate to his co-existence. Maslow‟s theory pointed out that a person must satisfy first the other lower needs before he can actually realize his self worth and potential. Accordingly, when lower needs are unmet, the person cannot fully devote himself to fulfilling his potentials. He theorized that self - actualization is the driving force of human personality. Thus, a person cannot appreciate intellectual and aesthetic learning when the person is hungry and his safety is difficult to obtain. Furthermore, every...
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...judgments. Quality judgments are evaluations that we humans make relative to our own experience as human beings. Hot is what is hot to us. Far is what is far to us. Good is what is good to us. Evil is what is bad to us. Good and evil are quality judgments that we make relative to ourselves and our experiences here on Earth. But if good and evil are quality judgments, what's the quantity being judged? And what's the phenomena being quantified? At a glance I would say that the quantity that good and evil qualify is morality. Good and evil are moral evaluations, so morality is the scale being used to quantify the phenomena. And if morality is a scale we are using to quantify a phenomenon, then the phenomena would by definition be human behavior, as morality applies only to human behavior. Or to view it from the other way round, there is a perceived phenomenon that we define as human behavior. We measure the range of that behavior using morality as our scale, and we qualify this range of morality as being good or evil depending upon how it affects us experientially. So essentially, then, good and evil are quality judgments passed by ourselves, relative to ourselves, about ourselves. Some of us are really not going to like this idea: that good and evil are quality judgments passed by us, on us, about how our own behavior affects us. They aren't going to like it because the concept of God is being left out the event. For some reason, human beings don't wish to admit that when we judge...
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...The world of nature is colourful and bright and human ingenuity cannot hope to match it. Right from the sky above to the sea below, nature abounds in the richness of colour. The human eye and the human mind respond to this world of colour and identify themselves with it. When a person is cheerful and bright we refer to him as a 'colourful personality', similarly the different colours are used to indicate human moods and attitudes: blue is associated with depression, white is likened with serenity, green with jealousy and red with rage. Colour is also used to relieve tension. Psychologists have investigated the effect of colour on the working ability of workers and have come to the conclusion that certain colours are more conducive to Positive thinking than others. The power of colours cannot be denied, more so, as it is the soul instance of life on earth. Although sight and the human brain has helped in identifying colours and their delights, it's interesting to note what colours mean to us in totality. The power of colours and their meanings has been enlisted below. RED: More than half the globe loves this colour. We sure agree. Red is the second-most favorite colour on earth. Be it the Ferrari red or a svelte red dress, red is an intense colour, and defines many emotions and moods. The most important being, the colour of love, passion, seduction, and desire. It also defines enthusiasm, power, and heat. This colour also represents anger, violence, and aggression. Red...
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...Context Prompt: Our relationships with others help us to define who we are. Our identity is what we perceive ourselves to be as well as how others view us. One’s identity is therefore an essential element in defining themselves. For that reason, it is especially important that we are comfortable with our identity. As individuals, people have unique characteristics and personalities as well as belonging to groups that influence such factors as their lives go on. Although great emphasis is put on creating ones identity alone, a number of factors such as ones appearance, society, environment, religion and race can shape our identities thus help us to define who we are. It is also believed that our genetic makeup has a large role in determining who we are. Our identity can be considerably shaped by our appearance. Physical appearance is the first, and often most important, and most lasting impression others get of us. Society will create different assumptions about others based on simple factors such as ones fashion and ones physical qualities. As a result, many will adjust their identities to be accepted by society. For example, people tailoring their personal appearance to fit what they want others to see them as. An individual who dresses very formally is likely to want others to view them as high class or wealthy. Although, factors such as height and skin colour cannot be so easily altered and depends on ones genetics. The effects of appearance on our identity can be...
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...Austin West English 101 Mr. Tessaro 11 November 2012 Identiwho? Identity. It defines who we are. But what are we? And what defines identity? Are we measured solely by our given names? Or is there a much deeper, more mystical sense of ourselves imposed by the word? We all have a name bestowed upon us at birth. Some have a first and last name, while others have three or more. Do names give us power? Throughout history many noble families, including bloodlines that ran through monarchies and even that of Indian tribes, had inherited leadership. Whenever the current leader was no longer able to rule, the position was handed down to his oldest living successor. Names were obviously of great importance then. However, there were times in history where only one name was given or deemed necessary. Perhaps names are not a badge of power, but rather a personal identifier to simply set one apart from rest. Occupation is often one of the first things to come up in a conversation. Following name exchanges, people generally want to know what the other person does for a living. Why is that of importance? It must have some bearing on how people are viewed. Oftentimes, lower-waged occupations are looked down upon (BNZ). This is because the person is considered “not good enough” to work as anything better. Where as a janitor might be seen as dirty, lowly, uneducated trash; a doctor would be seen as highly intelligent, healthy, and sophisticated. People would want...
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...seized on this concept and it became central in his overall theory of human nature. In his book “The ego and the id” he discusses this theory of instincts at length. Freud[1962] in his discussion of the two classes of instincts states that the first class is the sexual instincts or Eros. This is a "...selfpreservative instinct,..."(P30). On the other hand there is the death instinct whose task it is to, "...lead organic life back into the inanimate state;..."(P30). He is thus entering into the field of the philosophy of opposites. Human nature, life and the universe is unerringly a collection of opposites. The answer to the question, “Is it possible to have something that does not have an opposite?” begs unending cognition. Hyams(1998) notes this in her article on dissociation. She says that the world is full of polarities - good/bad, inhaling/exhaling, high/low and so on. In addition the is yin/yang, protons/electrons, left/right, black/white, matter/anti-matter and so on endlessly. Does something exist that does not have an opposite? I am yet to think of one. As soon as one defines ‘x’, then ‘not x’ is immediately defined as well. However that is for the philosophers to conjugate over. THEORY OF OPPOSITES Freud’s theory of these two instincts certainly is a theory of opposites. One problem with such theories is that they can become static. One discusses what is a manifestation of Eros (the life instinct) and what is a manifestation of Thanatos (the death instinct). Eros = love,...
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...examining the relationship between the two and how it is connected to religion. In addition to the how, we will also be looking closely at why evil and imagination are affected based on religion and beliefs. To start we first need to understand what imagination is and why the connection between religion and human imagination is so significant. Merriam Webster defines imagination as; "The act of power of forming a mental image or something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality; a creation of the mind." The key is that what is imagined is generated from within, rather than perceived on input from without. Imagination is one of human’s most unique abilities, its what make us who we are and leads to the creations of tomorrow. Whether those be new world technologies, or famous works of art, nothing is made without first having the forethought and creativity behind it. This is one of many reasons why imagination is so vital to human culture. Since the beginning of history evil and our imagination go hand and hand, they always have and likely always will. We simply cannot have one without the other and as long as there are humans alive and thinking there will be evil around the corner. Understanding what imagination is now we can take a deeper look on the context and history of evil. As with many branches of evil, the topic of imagination and evil stem indirectly from religion. Just as each religion has its own unique identity and definition of...
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...underscoring the importance of exchange transactions. In order for us to take an in depth look at the idea of gift giving and the relationships involved in such a ceremonial transaction we must first look at the people that are involved in the transaction. Not only must we look that the people but we must also focus on the affiliation between people and the actual object itself. Carrier himself states in his essay; “Gifts and Commodities” that “Clearly there is much more in our relationship to objects than sheer utility” (Carrier, 1995. 1), and thus proving to us that there we have a much more intimate relationship with material objects than we first imagined. This bond is deep enough that we even need material objects to define who we are sometimes, for example if a punk rocker claims to be a punk rocker he must dress according to the social image of a punk rocker and from there we can assume that person’s identity and personality as a punk rocker. Carrier says himself that “The corollary is that objects signify status identity and so constitute a claim to status-group membership on the part of those who have them” (Carrier, 1995. 2). Another major concept that is involved with both the relationship between humans and material objects and with the ceremonial act of gift giving is reciprocity. It shows us and defines to us the strength of the bond between people and material objects. It goes without a doubt that humans have a natural affiliation with objects as we all have a material...
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...imaginary Socrates and me. A series of questions will be discussed to describe determinism and free will. FREE WILL OR DETERMINISM 3 Socrates: What is your definition of determinism? Ashley: Determinism is the thought that each event is caused by something. Since human actions could be looked at as an event then each choice is because of a cause. Socrates: So, if every event is based on a cause then we do not have free will. Ashley: I don’t believe human action is an event, I feel like we all make our own decisions and our fate is determined by our decisions. Socrates: What is your definition of free will? Ashley: Free will is to act without the confinement of fate. This is acting at one’s own concern. Socrates: Is it not true that we all have our own fate? Ashley: I believe that our fate lies in our own hands. It is up to us to decide how we live our lives. Socrates: Do you feel that every event has an explanatory cause? Ashley: I do not feel that way. Some things just can’t be explained and we will never know why some things happen. Socrates: Is it not true that everything happens for a reason? Ashley: I think that everything happens because of the decision that we made. Whether good or bad things happen we made the decision to do it. FREE WILL OR DETERMINISM 4 Socrates: How would you define event? Ashley: I feel that an event is something that is planned. Events are usually something that is done for a social occasion. Socrates: Has there...
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...socrates: What is the definition of determinism? me: The belief that everything that happens to us is the result of something beyond our control. Everything we do is laid out befor we do it. Socrates: What is the definition of free will? me: The ability of a person to choose from different options. We consciously and intentionally perfom every action that we do and have every choice to alter our futures however we want it. Socrates: Do you agree that every event has an explanatory cause? me: Sometimes Socrates: How do you define event? me: Things that happen. Socrates: Are things that happen free will? me: sometimes Socrates: How do you define explanatory cause? me: That there is a cause for all events. Socrates: Do you believe that all events have causes? me: Yes. Socrates: Do you agree that every human choice or event has an explanatory cause? me: No. Socrates: How do you define human choice? How do you definite human event? Are they different? me: A human choice is when a person has options and chooses one of them. A human event is a something that happens in a human’s life. Yes. Socrates: Do you agree that to have an explanatory cause is to not be free? me: No. Socrates: How do you define free? me: Having the freedom to make choices in one’s life. Socrates: Do you think that free will and determinism can coexist in any way? me: Yes. Socrates: me: Socrates: Is it possible to have external determinism and internal free...
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...Truth--its definition, its pursuit, its discovery--is central to much of human intellectual activity. One place we look for clues about what is true is in the trends of the community. We may attempt to find it in religion or cultural beliefs, for example, that we have learned from a community that shares these beliefs. We know the earth is round or that war is bad because everyone knows it. Pierce’s statement praises this way of knowing, suggesting that community, whatever that community may be, is a key to the search for truth. This suggestion is tied to the idea of a body of human knowledge, the idea that the human race progresses as each community member adds to the world’s knowledge, relying on what others have concluded is true and then building on it with his or her own new knowledge. Thus, knowledge is a group pursuit, closely tied to community. There are many types of communities. The whole human race may be thought of as a knowledge community. The smaller group of all scientists is often referred to as the scientific community. Even a ToK class is a kind of community. Depending on what truth we seek, we may tie it to the community of the whole world or to a smaller community that reflects a focus on a particular area of knowledge. For example, although a Catholic may tie his or her theological knowledge to the leadings of the Catholic community, he or she probably does not tie them to the theological knowledge of the world community, or even of the western world. Whatever...
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...Trouble with Wilderness”, “As late as the eighteenth century, the most common usage of the word ‘wilderness’ in the English language referred to landscapes that generally carried adjectives far different from the ones they attract today. To be a wilderness then was to be ‘deserted,’ ‘savage,’ ‘desolate,’ ‘barren’—in short, a ‘waste,’ the word’s nearest synonym” (Cronon 165). To most people today wilderness is a place untouched by humans and home to nature and the sublime. William Cronon claims that we should view wilderness as part of us and everything around us. The wilderness is a place unaltered by humans, these places are disappearing and we need to protect them. William Cronon’s “The Trouble with Wilderness” presents an interesting view on what wilderness is. His view is completely different from both the old definition and the current definition. He says, “It is not the things we label as wilderness that are the problem, but rather what we ourselves mean when we use the label” (Cronon 174). Cronon doesn’t believe that the things we currently define as wilderness shouldn’t be called wilderness, but he believes that there is a problem with only recognizing certain places to be wilderness. In his essay Cronon says, “If wild nature is the only thing worth saving, and if our mere presence destroys it, then the sole solution to our own unnaturalness, the only way to protect sacred wilderness from profane humanity, would seem to be suicide. It is not a proposition that seems likely...
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