Idealism

were back home on the farm on the west coast of Cape Breton” (Penguin Random House). Along the lines of the story, the protagonist awakens to a bigger picture of life outside his own small world as he steps his way up from ignorance to knowledge, idealism to realism and selfishness to selflessness. The narrator comes to see himself as a precious part of the world,…

a time when there was a resurgence of literary romanticism which surpassed and overshadowed the realistic movement. Hoping to sway the public from what he felt were unrealistic notions of optimism, he penned Editha in an effort to criticize the idealism of the day which counteracted the realism in which he believed. The titular character in Johnson’ Editha is a naïve young girl who fails to see the reality of war and the consequences that potentially await for the man she loves when she…

before us dead, more worthless than dust. Brutus was a stoic judge and the best friend of Julius Caesar, further demonstrating his high status and his nobility. His grievous death was caused by his dire desire for honor and his extraordinary view of idealism. Cassius, one of Brutus’ dearest friends, was aware of Brutus’ tragic flaw, his weakness for honor and his idealistic view of people. With his venomous and manipulative tongue, Cassius convinced Brutus to join the conspiracy and kill Julius…

The mind-brain problem, previously called the mind body problem was initially conceptualised by Descartes following his work on the metaphysical aspects of the soul during the 17th century. Descartes described the mind and brain in his book the Meditations on First Philosophy; "But what then am I? A thing that thinks. What is that? A thing that doubts, understands, affirms, denies, wills, refuses, and which also imagines and senses.” Descartes proposed that the mind and body are separate and…

from high standing to a disaster because of a character flaw. In Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar and Brutus go through this during the course of the play. Julius Caesar’s flaw of arrogance and dynastic ambition, Brutus’s rigid idealism, poor judgements, and naivety are the tragic flaws that ultimately lead to their downfalls. In this play, Julius Caesar’s tragic flaw is arrogance and his dynastic ambition. He believed that he was superior…

most creative period in the history of the world. A play called Antigone by Sophocles’, reflects the cultural values and characteristics of the Golden Age. The Golden Age of Greece featured civic pride in the society, a firm belief of realism and idealism, and a strong, tenacious patriarchal system and these qualities are shown in Antigone. Initially, with the victorious defeat of the Persian wars, Athens cultivated a sense of pride, euphoria, and chauvinism among the community. In fact, the…

In Diplomacy, Henry Kissinger asserted that it is, “above all to the drumbeat of Wilsonian idealism that American foreign policy has marched since his watershed presidency, and continues to march to this day.” Accordingly, Kissinger recognized that in Wilson’s approach America was, “inseparable from the security of all the rest of mankind,” and that the country inherently maintained the responsibility to, “oppose aggression everywhere.” Altruistic in nature, and guided by the recognition that,…

diplomat, wanted to avoid Soviet expansion. Kennan writes his, “Kennan Telegram,” in which he writes about his creation of the policy of “containment.” Kennan’s idealism of containment becomes the keystone of American Cold War policies such as the “Truman Doctrine,” “The Marshall Plan,” and the “NSC-68.” The “Kennan Telegram” leads its idealism of containment by the creation of the “Truman Doctrine.” In Part 1 of the telegram, it concludes that the Soviet strategy regarding dealing with the…

assassination of Caesar and takes his own life. By the end of the book Julius Caesar and a majority of the conspirators are dead. Throughout Julius Caesar the ongoing theme of idealism is represented though the three appeals; logos, ethos, and pathos. Pathos was one of the literary devices that delineates the theme of idealism. Pathos can be seen during the speech…

Dilthey broke down worldviews into three different categories, religious, poetic and metaphysical which was further broken down into naturalism, idealism of freedom and objective idealism. One who practices naturalism might have a different worldview than an idealist because they think all things come from natural properties where one who practices idealism may have a worldview that suggests supernatural or unrealistic causes. Which brings me to when Sire states “..and brought to mind only when…