Paradoxes

The fool represents the excitement and joyful in my life. This archetype really captures what I am on the outside to other people. “The goal of the Fool/Jester is perhaps the wisest goal of all, which is just to enjoy life as it is, with all its paradoxes and dilemmas.” I would always try to live my life to the fullest and not think about all the duties and responsibilities in the real life. I would notice that I consistently be the one to make up plans for new adventures and always try to…

In the poems “Death Be Not Proud” by John Donne, along with “Because I Could Not Stop for Death,” and “I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died” both written by Emily Dickinson, the theme of death captures the reader’s attention. In “Death Be Not Proud,” the poet argues with death and claims that in the end, after death itself dies, we live eternally in heaven. Both “blank” and “blank” are written from a different perspective. Dickinson writes in the first person and the deceased narrator reminisces on…

data.' In this seminal quote, medicine practically implores you to question authority and challenge what is accepted scientifically, the prospect of which sets my mind racing. My curiosity surrounding medicine lead me to discover one of its many paradoxes: It is both a science and an art. This 'art' that I have come to learn…

The reading for this week comes from William Cronon’s book Uncommon Ground. Throughout the passage, Cronon argues that our modern view of wilderness is paradoxically flawed, but due to the historical effects of the sublime and the frontier that emerged at the end of the 19th century, the adoration of wilderness has become ingrained in our culture. These ideologies have imprinted man-made moral values and cultural symbols on wilderness. Cronon asserts that this romanticism of nature currently…

from John Donne's Holy Sonnets. The persona in Holy Sonnets speaks to God and demands Him to treat him so violently− he's been deprived of God's attention to the point that he craves for it with incredible intensity. The persona himself is fond of paradoxes and double meanings as revealed in the line: "Except you enthrall me, never shall be free, / Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me." The persona wishes to be liberated but at the same time ravished into spiritual chastity. On the other hand,…

the process of searching for meaning and purpose. The challenge of creating meaning and continuing to build your identity is the personal responsibility of every individual. Existential Therapy focuses on contextually exploring challenges and paradoxes of human experiences. Humans continually change and transform. The approach emphasizes freedom to choose what we make of our circumstances. The intention is to live authentically and deliberately, in harmony with their ideals, priorities, and…

“Let him that would move the world first move himself,” said Socrates. This is just one of the new and radical ideologies that Socrates attempted to show the city of Athens in his teaching. Over the course of this month, our class has been discussing those teachings and how profound and deep they really were. Socrates demonstrated that he was the wisest man mainly by exposing flaws in democracy, using Socratic questioning, and finding inconsistencies with opinion and morality. According to…

Freedom is Slavery “Indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,” (Bellamy) is heard everyday in the Pledge of Allegiance. We recite this daily, yet do we really know what it means? Most do what is expected, stand up and recite this pledge. But really it seems as empty space is simply coming out of everyone's mouths. Not all people know the purpose, yet we recite the pledge of allegiance everyday. It seems as its purpose is to embed a sense of patriotism within all of us, especially the young…

workplace. Paradoxical thinking is “thinking that transcends the contradictions and recognizes that two seemingly opposite conditions can be simultaneously true” (Quinn, Faerman, Thompson, McGrath, & Bright, 2015). This style of thinking deals with paradoxes and uncertainty that otherwise would make people uncomfortable and unable to move past their comfort zone. To me, paradoxical thinking requires one to think out of the box, be innovative, and be courageous enough to break down barriers so…

In this paper, I will argue that the paradoxes Oliver Sacks mentions in his essay "The Mind's Eye" have only one purpose, that is, to show us the complex working of the brain and its ability to overcome disability. The paradoxes are made an integral part of the essay because each paradox mentioned shows us how the human brain can adapt, find creative and ingenious ways to cope with physical losses and disorders, and that how powerful the power of language actually is. In his essay, Sacks…