Caleb Woodard Professor Brooks, Professor Callard Paradoxes 05/16/24 Fortune and the End of History The Fortune Misfortune paradox is a problem posed by Saul Smilansky, pointing out a difficulty in how we define fortune. The paradox concerns how seemingly misfortunate events can lead to ultimately fortunate circumstances, and vice versa. I believe that an event should be considered a fortune or a misfortune based on its eventual results, rather than immediate ones. While there are some concerns to be raised about this view when the logic is taken to its extremes, I believe my view nevertheless continues to be the most accurate way of referring to fortunes. The Fortunate Misfortune Paradox rests on how seemingly bad events can lead to good outcomes, …show more content…
Few would deny this, her life during those early years was obviously worse than had she not had the condition. The Momentist would wish to stop here, perhaps arguing that it is more practical to consider just the immediate consequences of an event. For everyday purposes of the term, it may suffice to say that Abigail’s condition is a misfortune. I would push back on this. While there are some real practical concerns with my view, concerns I will explore in detail shortly, it simply doesn’t feel completely accurate to say that Abigail’s condition is a misfortune, given the eventual results her condition leads to. Her condition may make her life worse over the short term, but over the long term her life is better. For the sake of this example, we will say that the good of her swimming success “outweighs” the bad of her hard childhood. It seems then that Abigail’s life has overall improved as a result of her condition. As uncomfortable as it may be to call the suffering Abigail experienced as a child a fortune, I believe it to be the most strictly accurate label. Why then could the Momentist claim the Eventualist view is …show more content…
If Abigail spent the rest of her life miserable in a wheelchair, it seems that her swimming success ultimately brought her more pain than joy. Her swimming career would become a misfortune, and the conditions that drove her to that career doubly so. This pattern can be followed further. Perhaps after a time of misery, Abigail decides to make the most of her circumstances and becomes a celebrated motivational speaker and author, writing about her tumultuous life and the importance of overcoming her misfortunes. Perhaps she meets the love of her life at a book signing, and goes on to live a very happy and satisfying life as a result of all of the ups and downs that brought her thus far. All of her earlier misfortunes swapped, and became fortunes again. I will leave Abigail’s life here, but one can easily imagine swapping her life, making her life miserable again. The Momentist’s point here is that if we consider a circumstance fortunate or misfortune only after learning its ultimate results, it seems that we may need to wait a while for everything to
Wilson also demonstrates that not all individuals follow one path in life. That when one comes to the end of one road, a rebirth may be necessary to continue down another road, such as Martha Pentecost and Herald Loomis had to discover. Wilson also shows the reader that acceptance of the death of an old life can lead to illumination, rebirth, and the possibility of love in ones new life.
...year people start to question the rules, fight the odds, and face death. It is a strange phenomenon that tributes or lottery “winners” have to endure, from battling to the death with someone the tributes could have known forever to killing your own mother with stones previously gathered by others. Every year rituals and ceremonies change, little by little traditions conform to what is thought to be socially acceptable but all it takes is the downfall of one generation for society to crumble which leaves me to question about: could this be my future?
During the course of life, one must experience different changes or actions that will mold us into the person we will become. It could be as little as receiving the 1st "F" on a test or the passing away of a loved one and they all add up to some kind of importance. Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare has Hamlet, the protagonist, struggling through life to find his true self and strives to get hold of his spot in life. However, he is always inhibited to seek vengeance for his father's unlawful death.
...hese characters we better and more pure, bad things would might have not happened to them like they did. In this situation, cosmic irony is used to show how someone’s fate can be decided by the life decisions they make. It was only destiny that brought the Misfit and the family together.
Everyone has a moment in history which belongs particularly to him. It is the moment when his emotions achieve their most powerful sway over him, and afterward when you say to this person "the world today" or "life" or "reality" he will assume that you mean this moment, even if it is fifty years past. The world, through his unleashed emotions, imprinted itself upon him, and he carries the stamp of that passing moment forever. (32)
Nagel, Thomas. "Moral Luck." Reason and Responsibility, 9th edition. Joel Feinberg, ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1996: 515-521.
The French Revolution was a time when many people sacrificed their lives for their beliefs. As the French Revolution moved on, more people joined the movement and risked their lives. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is set during this time. Many people who sacrificed their lives for the Revolution felt like it was their fate to do this. This idea of fate is described many times in Dickens’ novel to magnify the story. The theme of fate is prevalent in the novel through the lives of many characters. This theme is used to show how a person is unable to escape their fate because it is already decided. The metaphors and symbols in the novel are greatly used to contribute to the theme of fate through the symbols of knitting, the fountain and water, and the wine.
What if there was a man who could see into the future? He could predict the fate of not only the ones closet to him, but the fate of the world. Nostradamus was a highly educated man in the medical field. But when tragedy struck him hard, he led a life of solitude. This is the time when he made most of his predictions. Nostradamus was a profit who not only predicted many events throughout history, but also helped put a stop to the plague that devastated Southern France during the 16th century.
Before misfortune had tainted my mind, and changed its bright visions of extensive usefulness into gloomy and narrow reflections upon self. […] by insensible steps to my after tale of misery: for when I would account to myself for the birth of that passion, which afterwards ruled my destiny. (Shelly 21)
The quote suggests that unfortunate events happen not because of destiny but because of the fault in characters. The three main teenage characters in this book suffer from a fate, which has in no way been caused by their actions but rather their destiny. Unlike the other characters Augustus fights to not let his destiny impact his choices, he strives to be seen as more than his illness. Augustus goes through the same struggles as any normal teenager and also the struggles of a cancer patient. Though his fate won the battle, till his death he fought being defined by his illness.
In Man's Fate, Andre Malraux examines the compelling forces that lead individuals to join a greater cause. Forced into a life of contempt, Ch'en portrays the man of action in the early phases of the Chinese Revolution. He dedicates himself to the communist cause. It is something greater than himself, a phenomenal concept that he has fused into. It is something for which he will give his life. How did this devotion come about? A combination of his personality, his interior life, as well as society's influence, molded him into a terrorist. Ch'en is self-destructive; he is controlled by his religion of terrorism and his fascination with death. He is representative of the dedicated soldier who begins as a "sacrificial priest" (4) and ends as a martyr. After all, the ideologies of communism and terrorism were practically a religion to those involved in the revolution.
In return, lead to her imprisonment with suicidal thoughts. The loss of willingness to embrace her uncertain future brought a “possibility of being done with life.” Her hopelessness that was caused by the overwhelming odds of the uncertain future leads to a contemplation of desperate consciousness that affects the way she views her worth, and the purpose of her
ABSTRACT: In contemporary literary culture there is a widespread belief that ironies and paradoxes are closely akin. This is due to the importance that is given to the use of language in contemporary estimations of literature. Ironies and paradoxes seem to embody the sorts of a linguistic rebellion, innovation, deviation, and play, that have throughout this century become the dominant criteria of literary value. The association of irony with paradox, and of both with literature, is often ascribed to the New Criticism, and more specifically to Cleanth Brooks. Brooks, however, used the two terms in a manner that was unconventional, even eccentric, and that differed significantly from their use in figurative theory. I therefore examine irony and paradox as verbal figures, noting their characteristic features and criteria, and, in particular, how they differ from one another (for instance, a paradox means exactly what it says whereas an irony does not). I argue that irony and paradox — as understood by Brooks — have important affinities with irony and paradox as figures, but that they must be regarded as quite distinct, both in figurative theory and in Brooks’ extended sense.
things in their lives were going to happen regardless. Fate played an important part in the literature of the
Some people say that everyone has a destiny in life. That each and everyone of us has a purpose, a reasoning to be alive. Sometimes certain events occur in life that have people questioning “Why me?”. It truly troubled people to wonder why things would happen to them or even why things didn’t happen to them. In Medieval times, people came up with the idea of fate.