Genealogy

When grounded upon Raymond Williams’ concept of the dominant society and the perpetual flux between filtering residual and emergent cultures, the existence of the novel by such definitions are placed into that of the former. Novels represent a notion of residual culture that has been deeply absorbed within the current superstructure as “they contribute to the effective dominant culture and are a central articulation of it” (Williams 1434), while creating more production for the base through…

In feminist philosopher Judith Butler’s 1990 book Gender Trouble, she states “There is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender; identity is performatively constituted by the very “expressions” of gender that are said to be its results” (p. 25). This essay will explore how Lea Anderson’s Perfect Moment (1992) (a film adaption of the stage piece Birthday (1992), directed by Margaret Williams) reveals these expressions to show the social construct of gender within our hegemonic…

Looking back at my original interview questions, it is somewhat amazing to realize how much I have learned regarding Jesus of Nazareth and the times in which he lived in. It is extremely apparent that the original thoughts and ideas I had about Jesus were based on predominantly Western evangelical concepts and culture. As the course moved forward, these ideas shifted to a more historical and accurate perspective. Overall, the information and assignments provided within this class allow for one,…

Nietzsche characterized Europe in late nineteenth century as nihilistic, and even considered the late twentieth century to be even more so. He generalizes that we no longer need a God, that a God doesn 't give us meaning and purpose to our lives. Our lives are simply meaningless and lack the capacity to become anything new. Nietzsche stressed that without a sole purpose of living, we would create a new world built on weakness and comfort. He also foresaw that nihilism might lead to radical…

Though the story of the Flood precedes it, the poet references the story of Cain first. Grendel, the monster that plagues Herot, is claimed to have been “born of Cain” (Raffel 6). Biblically, Cain became the original murderer by killing his brother Abel. He was subsequently banished by God for his crime; cursed to walk the earth alone. This is significant because Cain is considered to be a great source of evil. Being that Cain was human; Grendel must have been human in some small way. Yet, the…

Schopenhauer and Nietzsche on Compassion Many different interpretations of the word compassion exist. For me, compassion involves a deep feeling of sympathy and sorrow for another human being or animal who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a wish to help them. Although it is strongly related to altruism and empathy, compassion is something different - it is an immense feeling of ‘suffering’ together and then doing something about it. However, in the history of philosophy, compassion was…

This is an evidence that there was a Moabites link in the chain of his genealogy. King David, the seventh son of Jesse, was the great grandson of Boaz and Ruth. The significance of the book of Ruth is that Boaz took Ruth the Gentile into the David’s ancestry and the line of the messiah as Ruth passes into that line she representatively…

the world and the heavens. We can argue dualistically that sensory information is not a unmitigated necessity when making a claim about an omniscient creator. In defense of the teleological argument we as humans tend to have a longing for purpose. Genealogy has become a popular outlet for people to find themselves, what purpose do they have, what caused them to be here. Is there a higher purpose? If so, what is it, why, and who caused it. Without a creator this whole premise is a subsequent…

unpleasantness, humans tend to twist reality in their minds; we invent false identities or masks because we don’t like a certain aspect of ourselves. Our new identities serve as tools to perfect our current flaws. The minister learned of his new genealogy literally seconds before proclaiming that he…

In accordance with the above covenant, Islam Khan confirmed Raja Pratapaditya in all his possessions and granted to him the revenue of the districts of Sripur and Bikrampur in lieu of his allowance’ (ibid.: 28-29). Again, another set of gifts were bestowed upon the Raja which included ‘a khilat, a sword, a bejeweled sword belt, a bejeweled camphor-stand, five high bred Iraqi and Turkish horses, one male elephant, two female elephants, and an imperial kettle drum’ (ibid.). But the Raja did not…