Being and Nothingness

John Donne crafts an anti-love poem of warning by expressing all the same immediate sentiments of love and longing while also subverting the original love poem genre through drunken expression. This is why no word better encapsulates the overall tone and intention of the poem than “drunk” in the first stanza: “The general balm th ' hydroptic earth hath drunk” (6). The word holds an immense amount of weight as it rests heavy on the tongue. This aforementioned heftiness correlates to the enormity…

thought and talk about what-is, but not what-is-not. However, to assert that nothingness does not exist and is not true, Parmenides had to argue the following: There is no generation or destruction, everything that exists always has and always would exist, there is no change, no movement, and no plurality—there is only the one (Parmenides B8). The criteria Parmenides puts forth seem to support the non-existence of nothingness, however, he gives rise to dissent from other philosophers when he…

year, the forces of Mom and Anthony took aim at each other, rousing their armies to pillage and salt the earth of their opponent. I, of course, had my wonderful castle in no man’s land. Oh, how I loved no man’s land. How I love no man’s land. I loved being between forces, never forced to pick one or the other, even though the choice was clear as day. Clear as glass, I suppose would be the better simile. Did I have an army? A guard? Any defense? No. Did I pay? I suppose. But perhaps it’s better…

The function of philosophical tools to philosophical discourse is the same as experimentation to the natural sciences: a method of inquiry into assertions about their respective domains. In Plato’s Apology, Socrates’ argument uses philosophical tools like constructive horned dilemmas, thought experiments, reductio ad absurdum, and analogy to questionably argue that his death would instantiate a beneficial outcome for himself. While Socrates’ rhetorical flourish precedes his reputation, he fails…

I learned something new about a book that I had no idea had a deeper meaning. The movie Groundhog Day has bigger meaning then I imagined. When the movie first starts off it with the main character Phil who belittles people and has a God complex. This was great start to the movie gave us a clear insight into Phil’s life and how he treats other people. Phils way of acting in the beginning reminded me of attitude meursault had in opening of his story evil and uncaring. When Phil goes to…

great nothingness that envelopes our tiny planet is beckoning me. Maybe it’s nothing. Maybe it’s a fool’s hallucination, the manifestation of a child’s dream. Maybe it is a call that was meant to be answered by men and women far greater than I’ll ever be. Maybe the signal got lost on it’s way to find Earth’s next great hero and instead it found me. Maybe all this romantic language is me trying to find some meaning in what does not exist. But maybe, just maybe, it isn’t. Maybe my heart is being…

Then the Earth came from the nothingness. The Earth gave birth to the sky. Then she married him and they had many children. Their children overthrew the sky and ruled the world. Soon they had children who overthrew them. They are known the gods. The gods have lots of misunderstandings…

The Escape of the Freeway in Didion 's Play it As it Lays The absence or termination of life or existence provokes an act of escape. Escape from a life of nothingness can be both a healing mechanism and the discovery of purpose in an individuals life. Maria Wyeth 's intensity of denial and passivity devour every single one of her actions throughout Joan Didion 's Play It As It Lays. It seems as if nothing really gives genuine meaning in Maria 's life, however, something she does possess is…

believing in Christianity. As the narrator explains, ”The thin child had an intuition of wickedness as she felt what she spoke sucked into a cotton-wool cloud of nothingness”(Byatt 11). She feels wicked for going against the stuff that was taught fto her saying that it was necessary to be good. She refers to Christianity as a cloud of nothingness because this religion offers no imagination and way to interpret the story in her own way. Because she lives in wartime during WW2, she knows that…

Parmenides of Elea came into being during the time of the Pre-Socratics, however he would argue that he never actually came into being. He would also argue that he never perished from being. As Parmenides would have it, he still exists, and he will always exist, for nothing can be created or destroyed, because change is impossible. It seems illogical to conclude that Parmenides from the Pre-Socratics era exists, when we bear witness to birth and death on a regular occurrence. However,…