Four Noble Truths

1 Knowledge of the outside world is something we can only attain through our senses. Unfortunately, we can easily fall for illusions. Descartes explains in his First Meditation that he cannot trust his senses to obtain knowledge of the external world because they have deceived him before ( Descartes, 1 ). The major deception of the senses is dreaming. So dreams falter the true knowledge we obtain through our senses. The argument of lacking trust in senses due to dreams is commonly viewed…

In Oedipus the King, Sophocles emphasizes the eyesight of all of the characters; he draws the readers to consider both the literal ability of sight and sight of the truth. While enraged, Oedipus insults the blind prophet Teiresias, saying, "[Truth] has no strength for you because you are blind in mind and ears as well as your eyes" (370-372). Later, it becomes clear that Oedipus himself has been the blind one, in all senses. This focus on eyesight leads us to wonder why Oedipus thought blinding…

Guiltiness of Father Flynn in Doubt Being accused of child molestation can have devastating effects on someone's life even if the accusation is false. In Doubt: A Parable by John Patrick Shanley, a priest is forced to deal with these accusations from his own co-workers. No hard evidence is given by the author and the reader is left to determine if Father Flynn is guilty or not. Based on the evidence John Patrick Shanley gives in his play, Doubt: A Parable, I conclude that Father Flynn is guilty…

The Allegory of the Cave is a hypothesis put into perspective by Plato, regarding human awareness. In the short story a group of prisoners have been confined in a cavern ever since birth with no knowledge of the outside world. They are chained facing a wall unable to turn their heads. While a fire behind them gives off a faint light. Sometimes people pass by carrying figures of animals and other objects that cast shadows on the wall. The prisoners believe that the shadows are real and they begin…

need my first attention?” At this point, the King sent out the town criers to announce to the wise people of the kingdom. To my point of view according to the story, this first thing I observed was that the King was the ruler of the kingdom and had four groups of wise people who had come to explain and interpret the three questions according to their knowledge but they failed because the king was not convinced enough about their answers and opinion about what the right time was for every…

Timelessness Elegance is timeless. Absolute beauty is timeless. Eternity is a term used to express the concept of something that has no end and/or no beginning. God has no beginning or end. He is outside the realm of time. Eternity is not something that can be absolutely related to God. God is even beyond eternity. God is timeless rather than being eternally in time or being beyond time. Time was simply created by God as a limited part of His creation for accommodating the workings of His…

The movie I chose for this paper was, The Matrix. While watching this movie not only did the special effects and fight scenes interest me and make me think it was a good movie, but, additionally I noticed a lot of philosophical parallels. It's easy to see that The Matrix is based off of Plato's allegory, the cave. The cave is about a prison that people are trapped in and can't get out, they are seeing these images and shadows in front of them, but they are not aware that the real images are…

As time passes, knowledge becomes more complex and philosophers start to develop different theories regarding how people come about this knowledge. There is a distinct difference between both Rationalism and Empiricism and both Descartes and Locke have found ways to discredit and support both views. Descartes argument towards Rationalism is much stronger than Hume's argument towards Empiricism. There is quite the distinction between both empiricism and rationalism. The major difference…

“But when it comes to human beings, the only type of cause that matters is final cause, the purpose. What a person had in mind. Once you understand what people really want, you can't hate them anymore. You can fear them, but you can't hate them, because you can always find the same desires in your own heart” (271). In Orson Scott Card’s, Speaker for the Dead, we are met yet again with Ender Wiggin, on a foreign planet, with foreign people, a new foreign alien species, and one he has carried with…

Of the several divergent cultural characteristics discussed in the textbook, I will describe three: individualist vs collectivist, direct vs indirect, and uncertainty-accepting vs uncertainty-rejecting. individualist vs collectivist In an Individualist culture, the focus is on being independent and self-reliant. Individualist culture also values individual members and thus focuses on human rights. A collectivist culture focuses on the common good of the group over the individual. In a…