Philosophy In Aristophanes Play The Clouds Philosophy Essay

Philosophy In Aristophanes Play The Clouds Philosophy Essay Aristophanes play The Clouds is a play that is very intricate and in many ways speaks to the nature of mankind. It is a play that makes comments on the thoughts of the time period, predominantly comments towards philosophy. The plot of this story involves a father and his son. The father, Strepsiades, is a wealthy man, but is soon to no longer be a wealthy man if he does not do something about his situation. His situation is primarily that which involves his son. The father is in great debt at the beginning of the story because of the reckless and frivolous nature of the son Phidippides. The father is at a loss at the beginning of the play, not knowing what to do about all his debts. The father then hears about the Thinking shop where people get together and learn the art of argument in relationship to the field of philosophy. The father sees this as a form of hope for his problems. He think that if he can learn the art of persuasive argument he can pull one over on his creditors and come out ahead in the long run. Unfortunately, the father soon finds that he has no gift for learning the art of argument. He is a lost cause at the school and he is deemed too stupid to really be taught this fine art. He then sends his son to the school hoping his son could learn and then argue against the creditors. However, this plan backfires on the father. The son learns to argue incredibly well, he is a natural at it, and he turns his argument towards his father, beating him up and then offering such a logical argument that his father could not complain. However, in the end, when the son claims that he could well argue a reason to beat up his mother, the father becomes enraged and burns down the Thinkery. Aspect I find interesting in Aristophanes The Clouds, is the fact that even though its obvious Aristophanes is preaching to readers a more non-religious message of the importance of truthfulness, civic responsibility, and virtue, the play takes on a religious tone. In doing some background research into why this would be, I discovered that Aristophanes religious undertones could stem from the fact that Athenians were trying to harmonize science and religion. When new scientific theories were starting to surface and be questioned, many people couldnt even consider them without sounding as if they were committing treason against the state. Aristophanes turns to religion in order to remind his audience that both religion and science have to be equally open to questions, critique, and even in Aristophanes case, satire. This suggestion, that certain things need to be equally suceptable to critique and questions can also be seen through the way that Aristophanes suggests there is both a pr oblem with the accepted model of a well-rounded education, and the newer model brought about by such philopophers as the Sophists. Aristophanes saw the danger in not questioning an accepted theory or belief. Despite the fact I agree with Johnson in that Aristophanes may be a staunch defender of old values, Aristophanes saw that if something widely accepted was left unquestioned for too long, it would become idle. Basically, an idea that I believe should be applied more in the world we live in today. A traditionally accepted theory or belief could lose the exact fundamentals and values it was based on. This play has a very obvious shift in tone as Johnston mention in his essay. in the end of his essay, he mentions the ending Aristophanes chooses for The Clouds. I fall into the group that Johnson says, see that this powerful ominous ending as a persuasive possibility. As Johnson says, Aristophanes traps his audience; theyre engaged because of the humor and satircal nature of the beginning of the play. We can laugh at someone, like Socrates, that we have nothing in common with. But as the satire gets closer and closer to us with Strepsiades burning down the Thinkery, it becomes obvious that the audience is no longer laughing at Socrates, with whom we have nothing in common, but rather at the vision of the people we could become if we engage behavior motivated by self-interest. Ironically, as Johnson points out, Aristophanes was correct in his warnings. Athens did fall due to its own self-destruction. I find it interesting and a little bit scary because I believe we could apply this ominous warning to our own nation. We are guilty, just as the Athenians were, of sometimes being too proud of our political independence. I believe wars, like that in Iraq, could lead to our demise. Even more obvious to me is the fact that I definitely believe we are losing sight of our traditional moral virtues. Americans find it so easy to point the finger, and refuse to examine our own beliefs, trying to impose them on others that may not be able to survive our view of what democracy or freedom should be. I find it morally questionable that we centralize our efforts thousands of miles away when we have so many problems that have the potential to be our end looming within the borders of our own country. Strepsiades is pointing forward to much of the self-destructiveness which brought the Athenians, and countless other cultures proud of their values, to grief, Johnson says. I believe many of our leaders and citizens could never forsee a fate like this in America but it is that belief that has the potential to bring us off our self inflicted pedestal. Another interesting point Johnson brings to our attention is his warning in the problem of how do we keep the good will of our children on whom we are going to depend? What is it that keeps children from exerting their superior power to abuse their parents when they dont get their way? I believe that this breakdown of the immediate family is prevalent in our modern-day society. While its a bit different than what Johnson is suggesting, never before in history, has our lack of respect and concern for those who came before us been so obvious. Unfortunately, I cant think of a family who has a sick grandparent or other elder member of their family living in their home. Nursing homes and hospitals have become a place where we can tuck them away so as not to have to forfeit any aspect of our lives in order to help preseve theirs. If we forget and turn a blind eye to traditions formerly viewed as important in our society, we run the risk of as Johnson puts it, being left with a situation in which the only basis for human relationship is power. Power is the basis for all of our accepted laws and behaviors, if that for some reason shifts, so would the laws. Then, as Johnson suggets, a son would be free to harm his parents. Aristophanes does have somewhat of a different view of justice than Socrates. Whereas I believe Aristophanes is concerned more with governmental consequences of actions and adoption of certain beliefs that could be considered treason, Socrates believes that consequences will come not in his lifetime, but rather after his death. In The Apology, Socrates speaks of death as more of an unknown something he cant be afraid of, because he doesnt understand what it means. In Socrates eyes, death has the potential to be something great, as long as a person lives a good and virtuous life. Aristophanes, on the other hand, seems to be more concerned with what his peers and leaders will think of him and do to him and others, if they commit some sort of a crime. Aristophanes paints a potrait of death as more of an end, rather than having the potential to be a beginning. Comedic satire and philosophical dialectic are similar in that they are both practices of arriving at the truth by the exchange of logical (and in the case of satire, funny) arguments. In the dialectic, its by presenting a thesis, developing a contradictory antithesis, and combining and resolving them into a coeherent synthesis, and in satire its by attacking human vice through irony and wit. In the case of Aristophanes, he urges the people of Athens to make changes through his satirical play. This play is essentially can be piece of work which we can applicable to our own world. When we do not take time to check practices and beliefs, we have the potential to lose our value and what we thought important at the beginning. Even though people at that time would have just watched the play and laughed about it, Aristophanes actually aimed for very serious warning. A nation too proud and too sure in its own beliefs and politics has proven through history, never to work. We sometimes dont try or refuse our time to examine our belief and value. If we do not set our moral goals and hopes, one day we can have the same problem as Athenian has suffered. .

Comparison of Federico García Lorcas Poems, Romance de la Pena Negra a

Comparison of Federico Garcà ­a Lorca's Poems, Romance de la Pena Negra and La Aurora Romance de la Pena Negra (Ballad of the Black Sorrow) was written by Lorca on the 30. July 1924 (Catedra:80). It was one of a collection of poems he entitled the Romancero Gitano (Gypsy Ballads) that, when published, was a huge success, among academics and the general public alike, making this book one of his most well known pieces of work. There are many reasons why the poems received such wide acclaim in terms of Lorca’s wider audience: It is clear that the ballad, with its simple, eight-syllable line rhyming structure makes for uncomplicated reading, in addition, the subject matter would have sparked general interest due to the mysterious nature of its gypsy protagonists, who had popularised the flamenco arts at the end of the 19th century, yet inspired a mixture of fear, loathing and admiration in Spain that all Spaniards would have recognised. The universal content of the poems is another reason for their popularity, they are rich in natural imagery, the moon, the sea and the mountains all appear frequently, as do themes of love, sexuality and death, making the poems easily accessible to all readers on a basic level. Critics and academics were just as appreciative of Lorca’s work, in it they were able to recognise his talent for fusion and innovation, for example, he combined the narrative ballad format with the lyrical (Harvard: 32) and harmoniously blended elements from the classics (influences from Greek mythology) (Catedra:79), the folkloric (the use of gypsy lore), and the most modern scientific thought of Freud and his theories regarding dreams and the subconscious. It is important that Lorca would choose the ballad to create h... ...r to give the coins being thrown at the abandoned children, the quality of furious swarms of wasps that, rather than helping, are actually attacking them. The contrasting images deployed by Lorca in these lines convert the traditional good associated with giving money into a form of torture; the money becomes a weapon and the act of giving money a lesson on morality. BIBLIOGRAPHY Carr, Raymond: â€Å"Spain 1808-1975† (2nd ed.) 1982, Oxford University Press/Clarendon Press â€Å"Federico Garcà ­a Lorca Conferencias I†, Alianza Editorial, S.A., Madrid 1984 Gaos, Vicente: â€Å"Antologà ­a del Grupo Poà ©tico de 1927† Ediciones Cà ¡tedra, S.A. 1981 Harvard, Robert G: â€Å"Federico Garcà ­a Lorca Gypsy Ballads – Romancero Gitano†, Aris & Phillips – Warminster – England. Salinas, Pedro: â€Å"Literatura Espaà ±ola Siglo XX† 1970, Alianza Editorial, S.A. Madrid http://witcombe.sbc.edu/modernism/

Mice and Men Injustices Faced

â€Å"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere† Martin Luther King regarding justice. This quote considers the injustice that takes place and its potential impacts. Justice is defined as a quality of being just; fairness and injustice is defined as Lack of fairness or justice. This quote has some relevance and can be related to the issues of justice and injustice which is faced in the book Of Mice of Men. The book is set in the 1900s it takes place on and about a ranch in the Salinas Valley, near the town of Soledad, south of San Francisco. It is about two migrant field workers in California during the Great Depression – George Milton, an intelligent and cynical man; and Lennie Small, an ironically named man of large stature and immense strength but limited mental abilities. They work on a ranch and they hope to one day attain their shared dream of settling down on their own piece of land. Lennie's part of the dream, which he never tires of hearing George describe, is merely to tend to (and touch) soft rabbits on the farm. In the book many characters are faced with injustices ranging from racism to disabilities. You can read also Justice System Position Paper One such characters who is subjected to this is Crooks. In the novel â€Å"Of Mice and Men† John Steinbeck, the author, uses the character of Crooks to represent racism and to symbolise the marginalization of the black community during the setting of the book. The term â€Å"nigger† is referenced in the book a number of times such as being banned from the bunkhouse, only during Christmas â€Å"they let the nigger come in† and in one scene Curley’s wife threatens Crooks that she’ll ‘ get you strung up on a tree so easy It ain’t even funny† showing the injustice that he faces when working at the ranch.

Fall of western roman empire essays

Fall of western roman empire essays The Western Empire fell in the year 476 A.D. Perhaps the premier cause for this decline was a massive economic crisis. The second cause for the decline of the Western Roman Empire was the generals of the military were creating private armies. The third reason for the decline was that the military and government were losing the loyalty of the Roman citizens. The decline initiated as a result of the economic crisis. The empire was over stretched, meaning the empire boundaries were too broad to manage and this was becoming very costly. When the Empire had gotten so big, the government decided to divide it into the East and West Empire. This affected the economy because the empire was running pretty smoothly when it was one, but the division weakened the West and strengthened the East Empire. The West Empire was weakened because the East Empire had the metals and goods and didnt want to share with the West Empire. This crisis made the government raise taxes to pay for the increased cost. When the government had highered the taxes the citizens were starting to purchase fewer goods. When the citizens purchased fewer goods, the businesses had to lay people off. This became a problem when the population was becoming overwhelmed with the unemployed. Instead of spending valuable money on expanding their businesses, the wealthy would spend money on foreign goods from China and Indonesia. The patricians, who were the wealthy citizens, generally owned two houses. They generally spent around six months in each house. When the decline was hitting the cities, the wealthy moved to their rural houses. They brought with them family and plebeians who would act as workers. This caused the population of the cities to drastically decline. The army was being affected by the decline of the population, because the Army was getting fewer people to be recruited to the Army. Also, it was harder to recruit men to be in the Army because they werent...

Cocaine essays

Cocaine essays The topic for my research is the production and distribution of cocaine in South America. South America and especially in the areas of Bolivia, Peru, and Colombia are dominated by cartels that rule the drug trade, and are responsible for over 80% of the production and distribution of cocaine in the world. I choose this topic because I felt it was appropriate to talk about because cocaine dominates the South American economy and The international illicit drug business generates as much as $400 billion in trade annually in according to the United Nations International Drug Control Program. That amounts to 8% of all international trade,(according to United Nations Office for Drug Abuse and Social Consequences of Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking). The question that I am going to focus on is, Is it possible to stop the production of cocaine and the trafficking of this illicit drug out of South America and into United States? For someone who is not familiar with what cocaine is, it is simple the most potent natural stimulant which stems from the Andes Mountain area. There are three stages for the production of cocaine. The first stage for production is extracting coca paste from the plant; these areas for extracting the paste normally are located close to where the coca plant is grown. The second stage is Refining that coca paste into cocaine hydrochloride a lethal concentrate that is diluted with substances such as sugar, or flour before being sold on the street,(Geography Realms, Regions, and concepts,) according to our text book. The final stage is simply trying to get a way for the cocaine to enter areas for distribution and trafficking it onto the streets, wherever that may be. Usually this is a multi step process of delivering the cocaine in large quantities to areas closer to its destination and then broken down into smaller amounts to make easier for it entering the areas for distrib...

Ou are expected to select a company in one of the selected sectors Essay

Ou are expected to select a company in one of the selected sectors defined by the International Standard Industrial Classifica - Essay Example The company appeared on the public listings of Dubai Financial Market in 2005 under ARMX trade shares. Currently, Aramex Inc. employs more than twelve thousand workers across sixty countries with strong world-wide network (Aramex Inc, 2011). Service delivery enterprises are normally anchored on key assumption that management, information and communication technology are important aspects and ingredients which are very crucial for success to be realized. However, all employees are required to embrace the use of information technology since it forms crucial part of a qualified member within any supply chain. This ensures efficient monitoring and delivery of intended goods and services to consumers (Kotler and Keller, 2007). Service deliveries ensure that all members of the society are reached with the intended product or services at the right time. Such companies usually operate on a designed conceptual model taking into account economic, social and political forces that determine reso urce allocation and management within companies from every region. The leadership structure is another important aspect of the supply chain (Mentzer et al, 2001). Critical Analysis of Operations Transformation Process for Products/Services Supply chain of Aramex Inc can be described as the core of the company’s organization’s operational efficiency. ... Aramex Inc. combines use of technology in delivering internationally standardized services that avails comprehensive solutions to requirements within supply chain and logistics. The company enjoys the services of its largest logistics and transportation networks in the world hence providing cost-effective services within the supply chain (Aramex Inc, 2011). Aramex Inc. Partner with Zubair Corporation (Z-Corp) headquartered in Oman for the purposes of offering businesses with integrated services such as warehousing and distribution through every means including sea, air and ground transportation. Z-Corp also offers such services as freight forwarding and customs brokerage to wide range of industries such as telecommunications, military and Information Technology related companies. Aramex Inc. also acquired Berco Express (Pty) Ltd to assist in logistics and transportation issues within South Africa and other regions. The company has significant share of South Africa’s freight an d logistics market and has over fifteen operating branches within South Africa (Aramex Inc, 2011). Aramex’s transportation network covers wide region from Middle-East to United Kingdom through to Caribbean countries. Such land networks are utilized by trucks fitted with Modern GPS-tracking system and also advanced technology involving scheduled services and strategic locations for their various terminal offices (Aramex Inc, 2011). This creates a cost-effective service preferred by most companies as compared to shipping services. The company is involved in receiving shipments from defined points taking charge of all clearance procedures to the delivery points of the products. Aramex Inc is capable of providing different modes of transportation depending on customer requirements. Such means

Consumer Promotions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Consumer Promotions - Essay Example Consumer promotions comprise of activities that aim at enhancing the sales of a given product. This paper seeks to determine the most effective method by delving into the different types of consumer promotions. Sampling is one of the most common methods of consumer promotions. Companies provide free samples to consumers as a way of introducing them to new products in the marketplace (Ogden & Ogden, 2014). Samples offer consumers a chance to consider how much they like a product or something that they would otherwise not buy. For instance, manufacturers of fruit juices can give away free samples at a farmer’s market. Sometimes, sampling can be used as part of a bigger marketing campaign taking place in the radio and local newspapers. According to Tanner and Raymond (2008), coupons are often considered as certificates that entitle their bearer an affirmed saving on the purchase of a given product. Companies distribute these coupons to their consumers through a number of ways. Coupons for the new fruits juice can be mailed, inserted in magazines and newspaper advertisement or enclosed in other products. Winners of these coupons could then win pack of different juices from the manufacturer. Rebates, often referred to as cash refunds, is another effective method of consumer promotion. These can be likened to coupons expect foe the fact that the price reduction occurs after one has made the purchase rather than taking place at the retail shop (Tanner & Raymond, 2008). For this to occur, the consumer sends a given ‘proof of purchase’ to the manufacturer. The manufacturer then ‘refunds the consumer a potion of the purchase price through mail. Rebates can be used in the promotion of the juice products in which consumers that purchase a given number of products are refunded. Price packs refer to flagged offers on product labels or packages that are given to consumers and which allow them to save off the standard price of a product (Yeshin,