Philosopy of Man Finals

8/13/2019 Philosopy of Man Finals

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Compare Aristotle and Plato's Theory of contemplation?

Aristotles theory

"Happiness," explains Aristotle's claims that theoretical wisdom is the best and

most complete (teleion) human virtue, and that theoretical contemplation is the best andmost complete form of happiness. these are teleological claims about theoretical wisdom

and contemplation as final and complete ends, with practical virtues and activities aiming

to "maximize" contemplation. The precise nature of this teleological relationship is not

always clear but also that achieving intermediate ends is "part of achieving" the final end.

"The Happiest Life," seeks to correct the impression that the completely happy

contemplative life is nothing but a life devoted to completely happy contemplative activity.

In fact, there are many different aspects of the completely happy human life, as a happy

human life, that are not reducible to contemplative activity itself. For instance, because a

theoretically wise contemplator has a complex, incarnate nature, she may become boredwith her contemplation of God. So the happiest life will require the exercise of practical

wisdom to provide the agent with stimulating contemplative alternatives from its own

store of scientific knowledge. As such, even if the activities of practical wisdom and

excellent character are not parts of the highest form of happiness, they are integral,

ongoing parts of the happiest contemplative life, just as theoretical and scientific thought

are integral, ongoing parts of the exercise of the practical virtues. In the happiest life, then,

practical pursuits are not only compatible with theoretical ones, but the distinction

between "practical" and "theoretical" nearly disappears.

Platos theory

Plato thought that through contemplation the soul may ascend to knowledge of

theForm of the Good or other divine Forms.Plotinus as a(neo)Platonic philosopher also

expressed contemplation as the most critical of components for one to reachhenosis.To

Plotinus the highest contemplation was to experience the vision of God, theMonad or the

One. Plotinus describes this experience in his works theEnneads.According to his student

Porphyry, Plotinus stated that he had this experience of God four times.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Form_of_the_Goodhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plotinushttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoplatonismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henosishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monad_(philosophy)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enneadshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enneadshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monad_(philosophy)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henosishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoplatonismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plotinushttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Form_of_the_Good


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What is the Theory of the Golden Mean?

The concept of Aristotle's theory of golden mean is represented in his work called

Nicomachean Ethics, in which Aristotle explains the origin, nature and development of

virtues which are essential for achieving the ultimate goal, happiness (Greek: eudaimonia),

which must be desired for itself. It must not be confused with carnal or material pleasures,although there are many people who consider this to be real happiness, since they are the

most basic form of pleasures. It is a way of life that enables us to live in accordance with

our nature, to improve our character, to better deal with the inevitable hardships of life and

to strive for the good of the whole, not just of the individual.

Aristotle's ethics is strongly teleological, practical, which means that it should be the

action that leads to the realization of the good of the human being as well as the whole. This

end is realized through continuous acting in accordance with virtues which, like happiness,

must be desired for themselves, not for the short term pleasures that can be derived from

them. This is not to say that happiness is void of pleasures, but that pleasures are a natural

effect, not the purpose. In order to act virtuously, we must first acquire virtues, by parental

upbringing, experience and reason. It is very important to develop certain principles in the

early stages of life, for this will profoundly affect the later life. Aristotle's ethics is centered

at a person's character, because by improving it, we also improve our virtues. A person

must have knowledge, he must choose virtues for their own sake and his activities must

originate from a firm and unshakeable character, which represents the conditions for

having virtues. If we behave like this, our happiness will have a positive influence on other

people as well, and will improve their characters.

The golden mean represents a balance between extremes, i.e. vices. For example,

courage is the middle between one extreme of deficiency (cowardness) and the other

extreme of excess (recklessness). A coward would be a warrior who flees from the

battlefield and a reckless warrior would charge at fifty enemy soldiers. This doesn't mean

that the golden mean is the exact arithmetical middle between extremes, but that the

middle depends on the situation. There is no universal middle that would apply to every

situation. Aristotle said, "It's easy to be angry, but to be angry at the right time, for the right

reason, at the right person and in the right intensity must truly be brilliant." Because of the

difficulty the balance in certain situations can represent, constant moral improvement of

the character is crucial for recognizing it. This, however, doesn't imply that Aristotle upheldmoral relativism because he listed certain emotions and actions (hate, envy, jealousy, theft,

murder) as always wrong, regardless of the situation at hand. The golden mean applies

only for virtues, not vices. In some ethical systems, however, murder can be justified in

certain situations, like self-defense.


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The importance of the golden mean is that it re-affirms the balance needed in life. It

remains puzzling how this ancient wisdom, known before Aristotle re-introduced it, (it is

present in the myth of Icarus, in a Doryc saying carved in the front of the temple at Delphi:

"Nothing in Excess," in the teachings of Pythagoras, Socrates and Plato) can be so forgotten

and neglected in the modern society. Today's modern man usually succumbs in the

extreme of excess, which can be seen in the uncontrollable accumulation of material

wealth, food, alcohol, drugs, but he can descend into deficiency as well, like inadequate

attention to education, healthy sport activities, intellectual pursuits, etc. Since Aristotle was

interested in the studying of nature, he, like any great person, quickly realized the

importance of balance in nature and the tremendous effect it has on keeping up so many

forms of life in nature going. Since human beings are from nature, which gives them life,

isn't it reasonable to conclude that humans should also uphold the balance, just like nature?

The problem is that the vast majority of people are unwilling to admit that they are not at

the top of nature, just a part of it. The reason for this are the limits of human perception,

which cannot grasp the complex ways that nature, that vastly intricate and greater system,operates, so they fear it because they don't fully understand it. That's why people invent

god who is primarily concerned with them, because it is their arrogance and pride that

propells their desperate need of wanting to be the center of everything, wanting to know

everything, or at least pretend so. They explain away death, pain, suffering, thus robbing

their lives of its natural aspects, turning it into a bus station to heaven, where they just

keep waiting and waiting for a ride, while doing nothing.

The people in modern society need to overcome their pride and arrogance and look

in nature for guidance, because we all depend on it. Staring into the sky and imagining

ourselves in heaven will not accomplish anything; it is better instead to accept our role in

the world and appreciate the beauty of life, and death, which gives meaning to it. We don't

need "new" and "progressive" ways of life when the ancient wisdom of the world's greatest

thinkers is in front of us, forgotten in the dusty shelves in some crumbling library. The

balance, the golden mean of which Aristotle talked about must be recognized as beneficial

and important, as it is in nature itself.


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Explain, Man's Many Splendored Personality?

Human is like a crown? Why? Same as a crown, human also have gems that representing,

reflecting, radiating him with many splendored aspects and facets of being human - the

physical, intellectual, moral, religious, social, political, economic, emotional, sentient,esthetic, sensual and sexual. Those splendored personalities are gifts given by our creator

that we should to cherish and nurture. At the same time, those aspects were bestowed on

man for the purpose to serve for the betterment and perfection not only for an individual

man but for all humanity. For on the day of final reckoning, God will judge man not

according to his gifts, possessions, positions but according to his works. As we strive for

our existence and destiny which is HAPPINESS, we are also striving for our dignity to be

dignified to make it worthy, because dignification without dignity is baseless. These

existence of ours acquiring knowledge in the first place is called Essentialism that we could

used to act and to develop His gifts for the betterment or add anything to it.

What is Man's Ultimate Destiny?Explain.

There are two possibilities for the origin of life, the theory of evolution and the belief in a

supreme Creator who made all things for a definite purpose.

Those who accept evolution must still wrestle with the fact that in this process something

of a lower level of existence evolves to a higher level of existence. It still does not answer

the mystery of how matter itself came into existence.

Evolution begins after the fact, it does not attempt to explain how something could come

from nothing. Although Scientists don't always agree on the age of the universe, they do allvirtually agree that the universe has an age. It had a definite beginning at some point in

prehistory.

Some find it extremely difficult to believe in a Divine Creator that they have not seen with

their own eyes. Yet could something suddenly come from nothing? That PHYSICAL

MATTER suddenly appeared where there was NO PHYSICAL MATTER, and that LIFE

sprang from NON-LIFE? And not only something from nothing coming into being of itself

simply by chance with no intelligent force involved, -but then must accept that as this

happened it produced perfect order and balance,. . .by itself?!


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Man's potential, for Marx, is a given potential; man is, as it were, the human raw

material which, as such, cannot be changed, just as the brain structure has remained the

same since the dawn of history. Yet, man does change in the course of history; he develops

himself; he transforms himself, he is the product of history; since he makes his history, he is

his own product. History is the history of man's self-realization; it is nothing but the self-

creation of man through the process of his work and his production: "the whole of what is

called world history is nothing but the creation of man by human labor, and the emergence

of nature for man; he therefore has the evident and irrefutable proof of his self-creation, of

his own origins."

Why is man's life a ceaseless quest and striving for happiness?

No matter what the message, mankind is united in conviction that happiness is a very

desirable state. Indeed, all of us, consciously or unconsciously, are motivated in all we do by

our need for happiness. The housewife strives for a clean and orderly house and well-

brought up children so she can be happy with herself. The husband aims to make moremoney so he can be happy. We chase money, health, growth, fame, power, property and

relationships, not for their own sake but for the satisfaction they promise. The creation of

empires and civilizations, the discovery of continents, the waging of wars, the whole ebb

and flow of history is a graphic portrait of man's ceaseless quest for happiness.

Yet, most of us will acknowledge that we don't always feel happy. Oh, yes, winning that

merit scholarship or the coveted promotion, buying a car or losing weight feels great for a

while. But we find that our friends are jealous, or that the promotion means longer working

hours or that the car guzzles petrol, and that our lives haven't been transformed by losing

weight. We are weighed down by a sense of lack. No matter how well life turns out, nothing

seems quite enough. Others seem to have more, or desires keep arising. If nothing else, we

fear for the future. What if something was to happen to our loved ones or to us?

Many of us are content to accept this mixed bag of happiness and sorrow as the human lot.

Within this framework we attempt to maximize our joys and minimize our woes. We excel

in whatever skills we have, spend less than we make, save for a house, take care of our

health, get our children married and keep money aside for old age. At the end of our lives,

we believe that we have lived to the best of our capacity. This is no mean task and deserves

to be richly lauded.

But for a few, this unpredictable, fleeting happiness is not enough. They dare to ask if an

irrefutable, permanent and absolute happiness is not possible. A happiness they can trust.

Perhaps it is this question that moves man towards divinity. For he is attempting to

transcend the very framework of the human condition.


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Philosopy of Man Finals

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