In Lewis Thomas' book The Medusa and the Snail we can observe a passage with great insight into the human condition. With it we can determine the value of being wrong and mistakes. He makes a stellar case on the power of making mistakes and deriving new axioms of thought or progress. By virtue of us being man we can draw whole new conclusions and even better ourselves. Lewis Thomas in this passage defines our greatest strength as beings and defines it in very clear understanding. Lewis Thomas is absolutely right in his ideas of the power of being wrong. The first way by which we can see wrongness benefiting us is by giving us new realms of thought, and actually turning bottoms of failure into peaks of innovation. For example, guitar amplifiers
Humans embrace great potential and power. Plenty use this capability in order to achieve greatness, not knowing the strength they have can easily cause destruction. This power is depicted in day to day life through actions and words. However, real strength is found in what is not said or done. Every action has a consequence, including the act of inertia. In Laura Van Den Berg’s short story, Antarctica, she uses geography, quest, and symbolism to demonstrate the idea that the refusal of knowledge results in turmoil regret.
we fail to see the harm that we are doing, and will continue to do if we do not
Mowat's own change of thinking, we see that it is possible for humans to correct
What more is the point of learning and understanding human history than obtaining the knowledge and structure between what is right and what is wrong? We continuously believe that we as humans have the ability and intellect to learn from the lessons taught in our past in order to enrich our future. In comparison to the time frame that is human history the one hundred year period of time we discussed in the second halve of this semester is nothing but a slight blimp on the map that we have traversed. Yet, throughout our recent readings we can easily assimilate into the idea that although time may pass, and that we may attempt to learn from our history it is simply in human nature to repeat the mistakes that we have
Many fatal consequences, caused by illogical reactions to problematic situations, can be avoided through a few easy, simple and “common sense” steps. In the essay “Deadly Mind Traps” author Jeff Wise writes to the everyday man and woman. Mr. Wise in his essay explains how the average person can make deadly mistakes even though logically they make little sense. Wise, offers multiple key terms to help the reader better understand his reasoning for his thesis. As well as, Wise produces multiple examples for the reader to connect the key terms to real life situations. Moreover, Wise not only gives key terms and examples to support his thesis he also gives examples of how to stay out of those situations. Wise from his essay demonstrates that his reader is an everyday person by using words such as we, us, you and our. And he uses everyday simplified words and terms which suggest inclusion instead of exclusion.
There is always change In the world that either changes the world in a good way or may go bad. When it comes to technology it is always the creator that makes technology good or bad. In the book Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the main character Victor Frankenstein creates a creature using galvanism, but as soon as he completes his life long dream he sees how horrid the creature is and abandons it to live and face the outside world alone. This causes the creature to become Victors worst nightmare. It was Victors actions that caused the chaos, because of his misusage of science and actions.
One of the many brilliant things Ben Franklin once said was, “Well done is better than well said.” Being a pioneer of electricity, the inventor of bifocals, and one of the founding fathers of the United State’s constitution, Franklin knew more than a little about changing society and history for the better. The ideals of this successful man are parallel to the ideas of John Ruskin, who describes that as a society, “What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do.” This is outlook is accurate because, quite simply, there is a higher impact when something is done compared to when something is simply just thought.
First, the meditator begins by noting that as a youth he held numerous false opinions, and that all the beliefs that he had held subsequently developed into other opinions whose validity are doubtful. In order to develop firm and lasting beliefs that could have a momentous impact, he realizes that he must start anew. In order to accomplish this endeavor, he utilizes Descartes’ philosophical methodology, known hyperbolic do...
that we as a culture already understand: humans are imperfect. Our errancy precludes us from being
Descartes was a philosopher who seemed to discard anything which was not absolutely certain and focused on what was known. In Meditation two of Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes is doubtful of everything, as he believes that if there is any doubt for something then it must not exist. With this in mind he begins to doubt his own existence but realizes that he is unable to doubt it. Descartes believes that there is a deceiver that is powerful which deceives him. Thus if something is deceiving him, Descartes believes that he must exist in order to be deceived. As result, in determining what he really is, Descartes comes to the conclusion that he is a thinking thing, and makes the point that being able to have thoughts or to be deceived, requires one to be thinking and if one is thinking then by default you must exist. In this paper I will talk about what Descartes knows he is, the powers he possesses, and the ways he can know.
Descartes explored the different relationships that exist between the senses, the imagination, and the understanding and while he cleared them, one thing still needs to be brought to light. It is only through calling into question and doubting our judgments ( brought to us by sense perception) that we avoid error, “ but since everyday pressures don’t always allow us to pause and check so carefully, it must be admitted that human life is vulnerable to error about particular things, and we must acknowledge that weakness of our nature” ( 35).
wrongs don't make a right' is a very appropriate sayingto use in the issue of
I now realize that there a variety of ways of thinking, and it is up to me to decide whether or not I want to follow and believe the theories and ways of thinking. If I were to summarize this class into one sentence or statement, I would say that my eyes have been opened to the vast world of profound intellects. The key topics that have been discussed in this paper include an explanation of my epistemological stance and where my roots originated, an exploration of my views and the textbooks views on reality and freedom, a discussion on where God is placed in my world and life, an description on how I make appropriate ethical decisions, an analysis on my greatest influencers in my life, an elucidation on how I observe life and purpose in life, and an overview on how this class has assisted me in life. In reflection, I now realize where I fit inside this world, and I often reflect and ponder the knowledge that I have attained throughout my time in this class and in many other classes previous to this one. Philosophy has broken the mental barriers that I have placed in front of my ways of thinking, and I can see that there is so much more to learn in this
In Fukuyama’s essay over Transhumanism, he describes this idea as the “most dangerous idea.” Transhumanism is the growth of humans through science and technology in every possible aspect of life. While this idea sounds beneficial, Fukuyama argues, “Our good characteristics are intimately connected to our bad ones.” The author emphasizes the how important our bad characteristics and complex minds to suggest these make humans complete. Without our faults, we would lose basic feelings of love, pain, exclusiveness, and even loyalty. The authors appeal to the readers looks as if, without the “bad” nothing would oppose, and compare to the “good.” In emphasizing the contrasts of human nature, the author creates a clear understanding of how these contrasts work with each other. For example, pain hurts but it is not bad to feel pain because it lets us know something is wrong with us. Fukuyama’s line of reasoning explains the importance of mortality in a way of putting life and humans into perspective on a much smaller scale.
Fukuyama shows through his excerpt that transhumanism can have many negative effects like worsened inequality but Baileys essay shows what good Transhumanism can do for our world. Transhumanism is a large debate because of the views Bailey and Fukuyama portray. The idea of “perfect” sounds tempting to any individual with an insecurity or two, but transhumanism is still up for a very large