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The relevance of epistemology
The relevance of epistemology
Essays on epictetus enchiridion
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Puritans believed that God chose a few people for salvation and that schools should be teaching reading, writing and arithmetic. This sermon was spoken by Jonathan Edwards where he spoke out to his congregation in Massachusetts. Jonathan Edwards made it clear that the non-believers of God would be sent to the fiery pits of hell. Jonathan Edwards uses Rhetorical Appeals, Tone, and Figurative Language to expose his attitude towards “sinners” as not worthy in the eyes of God. Jonathan Edwards applies Rhetorical Appeals with pathos, logos, and ethos to develop fear in the audience.
In real life we make our own decisions, and some of those decisions lead to bad outcomes, even though we don’t blame ourselves for many of our mistakes, we are to blame. In Greek Mythology, humans make many important decisions in their life, many of them lead to horrible endings. In the journey of Odysseus, he made many choices throughout his journey that eventually led to the death of all his crew members. In other stories from mythology like the stories of Theseus and Icarus, they made decisions that led them and their loved ones to life threatening situations. Even Zeus once stated “My word, how mortals take the gods to task!
Epictetus, Stoic Philosopher, became well known because of his great impacts on Roman understanding. “Stoicism is the belief that the individual is wholly responsible for his or her interpretations of circumstance and that all of life is natural and normal in spite of one's impressions” (Mark). With his teaching methods and loyal followers, his knowledge continued through years and years after his death. Even to today, Epictetus has made a mark on the people's self-understanding. Like many others, Epictetus was born in a lower class family.
For some people their identity is molded by society. People fear being different and being looked down upon, so they present themselves as a person who is socially acceptable. Other people do not worry about society’s opinion and present themselves as what their characteristics show them to be. Sinha Gunjan from Psychology Today states that, “DNA and life experience conspire to mold our personalities”. That
The only thing you sometimes have control over is perspective. You don't have control over your situation. But you have a choice about how you view it” (Pine, n.d.). This quote demonstrates how a person’s perspective could change all aspects of their situation, whether good or bad.
In this section, Epictetus builds upon his prevailing idea of accepting the inevitable when he discusses what one must do with their will to avoid and obtain. Epictetus states that, "... he who fails to get what he wills is unfortunate, and he who does not escape what he wills to avoid is miserable.... Therefore let your will to avoid have no concern with what is not in man's power.... But for the moment you must utterly avoid the will to get...."
Really, the question is: are external influences more important that internal? Many people will agree that external influences are more important in making people who they are because external influences shape your attributes and point of view, when humans are born there is more bad than good inside you and you can only change by divine intervention. So, how is it that external influences shape people? Interestingly characteristics and attributes are determined by external influences because of the way our parents raise us, for example, if your parents always overemphasized the importance of education you will hold it in high esteem and therefore when choices arise you will choose education over having fun.
Some may argue and say that situations and environments can control the individual. On one hand, this is true; however, most individuals can control themselves in the environment in most cases. This evidence supports my counterargument because an individual can control his or herself when it comes to different changes in the situation or environment. This evidence refutes the argument because an individual is in control of the situations and
Not knowing how to control our pride and judging others will lead to destruction. So always practice the habit to be kind, listen more and accept our mistakes, in this way we will be loved by people and we will have a delightful
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once said, “All the knowledge I posses everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own”. This quote clearly states the thoughts of a Romantic/Transcendentalist. Emerson, from “Self-Reliance”, and Peter Weir, from the movie, “Dead Poets Society”, are both Romantics/ Transcendentalists. They both believe in people thinking for themselves and their surroundings. Two philosophies that are present in both the story and in the movie, were celebrating the spirit of the individual, and that people are inherently good and should follow their own beliefs.
Epictetus was a philosopher known for Stoicism. Stoicism is a Greek philosophy that teaches people to develop self-control and fortitude as to not have bad emotions. Many believe Epictetus was born in the 50s C.E., approximately in 55 C.E., in Hierapolis in Phrygia (modern day Turkey) and died approximately in 135 C.E. There have been no sources or records of his real name. Epictetus was born to a slave mother and therefore became a slave himself to his master Epaphroditus. There are no records of Epictetus marrying or having any children and most sources believe he lived to an old age.
Epictetus I really feel that quote is deep I will explain on that topic later on in the paper. He was really ahead of his time. I chose Epictetus because he stated facts in my opinion, also he was a slave, and he stands on what he believes. I feel like as a result of his stoic philosophy teaching that his thoughts live on even in today era. Let me elaborate with the slave accusations.
In his Letter to Menoeceus, Epicurus discusses pleasure and desire and the human need to seek out pleasure. Epicurus explores the different kinds of desire and how they affect happiness. Happiness is the main goal. And happiness, is the maximization of pleasure. According to Epicurus there are three categories of desire that lead to pleasure.
Another would be that it is foolish to want those close to you – family, friends, etc, - to live forever because that’s not up to you and as stated in the quote above, it’s foolish to want things that aren’t yours to be yours because that’s impossible. He gives example in his sixteenth rule that when a person is mourning, it’s not what had happened, but rather his/her judgment of what has happened, so the best approach is to not mourning it inwardly, or applying feeling/judgment to it. So nothing beyond our own opinions belong to us, and because we can control our opinions, we can apply his reasoning that’ll supposedly lead to achieving peace of mind in life. This is because in his thinking, reason is good, and irrationality is bad, and to be intolerable of the rational – things out of your control – is irrational. Another part of human finitude that he gives way to improve upon is lack of self-discipline.
Introduction The purpose of this essay is to investigate the women’s role in Classical Greece society and literature (5th/4th century b.C.). Therefore, I decided to discuss and analyse one of the most controversial comedies of that time, “Lysistrata” by Aristophanes. This text shows how women, sick of their submissive and powerless position in the political scenario of Athens and Sparta, come on the scene and, through a smart stratagem, achieve their expected result.