Friedrich Wieck

Reason is not necessarily the means to the better life, or towards procuring ‘the good,’ from the view of these latter thinkers. It seems that Nietzsche would problematize the allegory of the den, in this respect, to no end. From a Nietzschean perspective, the relativity of our values, and the ways they merely reflect the power dynamics and social and political undercurrents of our age, begs the question of their effect on our reason (Nietzsche, 1989, p.46-47). The supposed ‘good’ or ‘moral…

The Upper Class vs. The Lower Class: A Marxist Reading of Comus In 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published The Communist Manifesto, which stems from Marxist ideas. John Milton published A Masque Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634 [Comus], in 1637; a mere 3 years after its first performance for the Earl of Bridgewater. Over 200 years pass after Milton’s publication of this court masque, until the emergence of Communism as a political platform. Although Marxism was invented several decades…

According to section 15 of the first essay On the Genealogy of Morals by Friedrich Nietzsche, he starts out by saying, “If faith in what? In love of what? In hope of what?---The weak people---some day or other they too intend to be strong there is no doubt of that, some day their kingdom” too shall come---they term it “the kingdom of God,” of course, as aforesaid: for one is so very humble in all things” (Nietzsche, 1989, p. 48). I think he ask these questions to get his audience to truly…

Heinrich Marx was born on 5 May 1818 in Germany, when Europe was going through rapid social changes after the Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution. His interest in philosophy was greatly influenced by a German philosopher, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, when he read about his works at University. Subsequently, he gained understanding from the materialistic ideas of Ludwig Feuerbach and further developed them into his own sociological theories. Marx discovered that the society was…

Why is responsibility such a significant theme in An Inspector Calls? In An Inspector Calls, the central theme is responsibility. Priestley uses the Inspector as a representative to voice his opinions on the main theme and the idea of socialism. Throughout the play, he presents each character with a role of responsibility and tries to make them aware, through the Inspector, that they are all guilty of Eva's death. The Inspector wants The Birlings to share their responsibility; Priestley's focus…

John Steinbeck was a communist during the Great Depression. Communism is the idea that the working class shall rise up, in order to establish a society of all people equal in wealth and power. Steinbeck wrote the book Of Mice and Men. Of Mice and Men takes place in the Salinas River Valley, California. The story follows the journey of two ranch hands during the great depression. Ranch hands are people who move ranch to ranch working during the season to help ranches. In his novel, Of Mice and…

Monika Pareek Professor Chandra British Literature (Early 20th Century) 6th October 2015 Nihilism and the Idea of Darkness in Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness was written more than a century ago and was first published in 1899. In much the same way as in the novel, where Marlow could observe that almost all the blank spots on the map had been filled, the world at the end of the 20th century had all but been explored. The 19th century was coming to an end and the French…

Ryan Harter Essay I “We are unknown to ourselves...We have never looked at ourselves," says Nietzsche in the prologue to On the Genealogy of Morals. In order to understand ourselves, we need to examine at our values--how we acquired them, and the legitimacy, or value, of that original acquisition. Nietzsche thinks that we can find the foundations of our moral beliefs if we can develop an accurate genealogy. There's a history of ideas about what's good and what isn't good, and by tracking that…

First let us dissect Nietzsche view of the will to power. As with Schopenhauer Nietzsche sees all things are based off of our primal will. Everything that is, is caused by this will. There are some key difference between Schopenhauer’s view of the will and Nietzsche’s view of the will. The topic is quite large and deserves its own thesis but the basics are that Schopenhauer’s view of will lead him to believe that the best way to exist is to give up, that your existence is solely suffering.…

The process of putting two disparate philosophers in dialogue with each other, in an attempt to reconcile their views, is an old philosophical tradition. Early Christians grappled with making platonic theory and catholic doctrine compatible. The great scholars of Bagdad worked to let Aristotle and the Quran stand side by side. While it may seem like such attempts are simply efforts to “have cake and eat it too”, there is much to be learned from evaluating a text in light of what may at first…