Sophocles’ play Antigone, and Martin Luther king Jr’s Letter from Birmingham Jail analyze the underlying truth concerning their moral situations tied in with the legal systems of their times. Antigone was faced with whether to follow her heart and go against her very own uncle, while King himself did not face any personal dilemmas but was providing the intended audience a choice, either to side with his methods or fall in to the power of their faulty legal system. In this paper, I will argue how both pieces face different moral and legal dilemmas in their own unique way which ultimately questions the jurisdictions set forth by those in power. Does law reflect morality? In this short play, Antigone is faced with the choice to either bury Polynecies
What is Wisdom? According to the Merriam Webster dictionary the definition of Wisdom is the ability to discern inner qualities and relationships. The author of Leave Better Than Found, Taylor Jansen, shares the lessons he has learned throughout his life. After surviving cancer he decided to write a book sharing his experiences in life. He believes we all can “live a life of purpose, significatiance, and happiness”.
Wisdom is a trait many people desire, but wisdom is gained through self-experience and cannot be taught. In the novel, Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse the protagonist Siddhartha identifies he can only learn from himself, when he converses with Gotama and discovers his teachings have flaws. “You have learned nothing through teachings, and so I think, O Illustrious One, that nobody finds salvation through teachings. (Hesse 27)” This is the pivotal moment for Siddhartha, from this moment forward, he knows to follow his own path in order to achieve Nirvana.
Wisdom is not simply knowledge but rather knowledge gained through personal experience and growth and then, in turn, applied back into the person’s life in a
The third literary device Edwards uses in his sermon is similes. With similes, Edwards is making comparisons between different things, linking them with the words “as” or “like” an example of this is “That God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire (…).” This can be interpreted as the way God holds humans over the pits of hell, just as humans would hold a loathsome creature over fire. Using this comparison, Edwards makes his audience think about their own action and about Gods immense power over them.
Richard Taylor talks about life and whether or not it has meaning. Even though he addresses that the question “does life have meaning?” is perplexing, he does say it is important to arrive at a noteworthy answer. He goes into answering it by bringing up and observing the ancient myth of Sisyphus, a king who was destined by the Greek gods to roll a stone to the top of a hill just to see it roll back down. This will happen again and again till he faces death. This is a clear representation of a meaningless life according to Taylor.
Examining one’s life can bring many joys. There are many things that give people the idea that their lives are meaningful. These ideas could be the pursuit of pleasure and happiness, entertainment, sports, power and money, possessions and security, being famous and success, meeting other people, knowledge and every other thing that can give the smallest amount of happiness to the person. In the apology Plato describes Socrates’ venture to question people would were wise and content with their wisdom, but when they asked a series of questions to test their wisdom they were revealed not to be wise and were now upset. The flaw in that was that these people did not examine what had happened to them and did not learn from it.
The significance with the first teaching and the unexamined life quote go hand in hand. By questioning and looking at things through the way he wants to live his life he is at harmony with himself. By examining people, places, or questions he is living a life to which brings him peace. Socrates didn’t have the riches or wasn’t high up on the totem pull in Athens. What he did have though was the happiness and knowledge he thought to be enough for a life worth
He despised the words of wisdom (from the gods) which could have saved him. The god’s punishment brought him wisdom. Confusing Reality And Wisdom
Ecclesiastes is an example of the wisdom literature. It is referred to as a skeptical wisdom due to examining how far Jewish philosophers had drifted from orthodox theology in the post-Exilic period (Tullock and McEntire, 2012). Like Job, it is a drawn-out treatment of a subject and must be interpreted as a whole. Ecclesiastes often challenges traditional wisdom teachings by focusing on the tensions of human existence. The book expresses the skeptical and pessimistic feelings of a man who had tried everything.
Here is another example to support my point. “Athenians, I got this reputation thanks to a certain kind of wisdom I have. What kind of wisdom, you ask. Just a human sort of wisdom, I’d say; and I may really be wise in this respect.” (Lines 24-26)
“…if I disobeyed the oracle because I was afraid of death: then I should be fancying that I was wise when I was not wise. For this fear of death is indeed the pretence of wisdom, and not real wisdom, being the appearance of the unknown: since no one knows whether death, which they in their fear apprehend to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good” (Apology, 29a-29b). This potent statement not only highlights Socrates’ wisdom, it effectively makes use of his belief that he is wise because he knows nothing. By saying that he knows nothing of the afterlife, it gives him the reason to illustrate to his audience that he cannot fear what he does not know.
In the Republic, Cephalus claims he does not mind getting older because he is content with himself and with his character. Cephalus claims that it is not old age that people dread, it instead the content of their character. Cephalus acknowledges that most of his peers will not agree with his statement because they feel that a lot is lost as you age, such as sex and excitement. However, if someone is unhappy being old they would have also been unhappy being young, the issue is not the age and is instead the individual’s inability to be content. Cephalus acknowledges that his wealth allows him more of an ability to be content than he would be if he was poor, but claims that a poor person can also be happy.
Thomas Jefferson wrote, ''Determine never to be idle... It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.” In this quote Jefferson perfectly sums up life. Life and time should not be wasted by inactivity but instead should be spent with/on productivity. The purpose of life is to live and to be industrious.
Wisdom is not only to have deep knowledge and rests at the experience but also not to realize wise oneself and not to commit amiss things.
