In the book of Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, we discover that humans feel as though they were created to conquer and rule the world and every species in it. However, God never meant for man to travel aimlessly throughout earth on their own accordance. By his refusal to give us all the knowledge and wisdom that would be needed to govern the earth, he made it necessary for us to seek him for guidance in order to fulfill his desire. As we continue to possess an attitude of superiority, our way of life will destroy the world. Traveling down this road, we will bring civilization to destruction and calamity with our dominance, greed, and selfishness that will eliminate all species including ourselves.…
YES I will argue that being dead will not be bad for the person who dies. I will do so by first constructing the Epicurean approach to the badness of the state of death with several minor clarifications, before highlighting the inadequacies of standard anti-Epicurean arguments operating with counterfactual theories of harm in refuting Epicurus when his argument is interpreted within the parameter of death as a state. Additionally, as Epicureanism’s break with commonsense values is often what motivates the search for a metaphysics compatible with the morality of killing, I aim to reduce the inclination of those who desire to countenance Epicurus in a revisionist manner by reconciling commonsense values- most notably, the morality of killing-…
Already humans have mined most of the rich mineral deposits on Earth. They have also increased the extinction rate of species…
Why would someone want to live forever? Bernard Williams, a philosopher and an author wrote the essay titled “The Makropulos Case: Reflection on the Tedium of Immortality”. In his essay he discusses how death is not necessarily evil, like some people think. In order to structure his argument, he includes both Epicurus’ and Lucretuis point of view that humans overthink the state of being dead. He agrees with both philosophers that being dead isn’t bad, but Williams believes that Lucretuis is somewhat contradicting himself because Lucretuis cares about experience, but is saying that living a shorter life is better than living a longer life when it should be the other way around.…
The view of happiness as well as the role that pleasures and desires play in achieving happiness can be seen throughout Western philosophy. Detailing a hypothetical dinner conversation between Aristotle, Epicurus, Hobbes, and Epictetus, will such an understanding be described. In such an account, I will be detailing: what issue/s each guest would raise; what thesis would each defend, and how each would respond to the other; as well as who is most likely to disagree with whom and on which points, and who, on the other hand, might find allies or sympathizers. Each philosopher defines/views happiness differently. Aristotle defines happiness as an activity of the soul in accordance to virtue and reason.…
He believes that death annihilates identity and identity ends when the body ends. Human are necessarily mortal; even if they’re put back together after death, it would not be the same because the only thing that makes an individual themselves is the unity of the identity and body. When the connection of these two break, there is no putting them back together. Epicurus has the notion that “good and bad consists of sense-experience” (164). Death is the annihilation of those experiences.…
Susan Wolfs “The Meaning in Life and Why It Matters” is a short book of Essays containing commentaries by Robert Adams and John Kothe, and Wolfs responses to their commentary. Throughout the book Wolf focuses on 3 views to talk about when thinking about life, and objectively why it matters for it to be important. Those 3 views are the Fulfillment view, the Larger-than-oneself view, and the Bipartite view. After explaining these views Wolf then gives her interpretation on her own crafted view called the Fitting Fulfillment view. After Wolf explains these views, Adams and Kothe set up counter arguments to her view and the other views.…
Influence of Aldous Huxley in Brave New World: Horror of Hedonism Throughout history one great philosophical question that has mankind has struggled with is the question on the purpose of life. A primary answer for this question provided by different philosophers throughout history is the hedonism. The notion that the purpose of life is to be as happy as possible, so, therefore, individuals should live to fulfill their maximum net happiness while avoiding stress and suffering at all cause, because happiness and pleasure are the greatest good and fulfillment, and pain and suffering are the greatest evil. However, the validation of this notion is completely discredited by Aldous Huxley in his utopian world of his novel: Brave New World.…
What is the good life? Many philosophers believe that they know what a good life is, what it consists of and how the good life can be reached. Lucretius, a Roman philosopher who followed the idea of Epicureanism, believed that simple pleasures and avoiding pain is happiness which leads to the good life opposed to Epictetus, a Greek philosopher who followed the idea of Stoicism, believed that one should never desire or seek pleasure whatsoever. Although Epicureanism may sound similar to Epictetus, the founder of this system of philosophy was actually Epicurus, who was Lucretius' role model. His philosophy "proposed that the ultimate goal of human life was happiness, and that the greatest good was to seek modest pleasures in order to attain a…
So, according to Epicurus, religion only instills fear and pain obstructing them of happiness. In broad sense, Epicurus was a hedonist. He believed that the pleasure is the highest good. But Epicurean hedonism was a little different than just vulgar hedonism.…
The ethical theories of both Aristotle and Epictetus, laid out in their books the Nicomachean Ethics and the Enchiridion, respectively, offer humanity insight into the most effective ways to achieve happiness and to exhibit virtue. Aristotle’s approach to happiness is that it must be looked at as the end to a means not as a means to an end. He feels that happiness should be viewed as the highest good within life. Although Epictetus agrees that happiness is the highest attainable good, he believes that the source of humanity’s misery is people’s inability to differentiate between what they can control and what they cannot. While both philosopher’s theories emphasize the importance of happiness and virtue in a person’s life, Epictetus’ view…
Ethics is the standards of right and wrong that advise what humans must do. Epicurus is one of the philosophers who taught about these ethics. Epicurus believed that the purpose of life was to attain pleasure. He believed that by attaining pleasure, one can live a good, happy life. Although this was his view on life, other philosophers such as his contemporary, Aristotle, had different views of what the purpose of life was.…
In the “Letter to Menoeceus”, Epicurus argues that pleasure is the only essential good that people seek. He argues that pleasure is the only thing that people should pursue for its own sake. In this paper, I will make that the argument that pleasure or pain’s absence are not the only things worth pursuing for their own sake. Epicurus—a psychological hedonist—argues that “the end of all our actions is to be free of pain and fear” (Epicurus, par. 6). To summarize his argument, he states that pleasure is the ultimate result of all of our actions.…
He also said that death couldn’t be good or bad because those feelings only comes through conscious and real thoughts. This is the main reason I do not agree with Epicures. I believe that death is bad for us because of the fact that we cannot experience…
The idea of existentialism is believed to have been founded by a Danish philosopher named Søren Kierkegaard, who lived from 1813 to 1855. Although Kierkegaard was a religious man, existentialism became a more atheistic worldview as the philosophy further developed in the 20th century. There are many variations of existentialism, but the main idea of it is that human lives has “no meaning unless people give them meaning.” To elaborate, existentialists say that although life itself originally has no absolute answer, humans are free to choose or create their own meaning to life, without being swayed or forced by the voices and ways of society and religion. This is an intriguing worldview, as it not only supposedly answers some of the biggest questions…