WORDSWORTH= claimed imagination as his supreme gift. Imagination refers to his accurate, faithful and loving observation of nature. He used “imagination” as a synonym of “intuition”. COLERIDGE=considered two kinds of imagination: primary imagination (connected with human perceptions and the individual power to produce images, is the ability to perceive the elements of the world giving chaos a certain order, everybody has “primary imagination”); secondary imagination that is voluntary and used consciously, it’s useful to re-create reality. NATURE: BLAKE=realistic, not a source of inspiration.
He means that if the venture needs you to be anyone else but yourself, it will lead to no good. This reveals to me that Thoreau believes strongly in the individual, being yourself, and seeking your own path. This quote is also applicable to modern life because many ventures nowadays require you to conform for some purpose. The second aphorism I remembered is “Our life is frittered away by detail...Simplicity, simplicity.” Thoreau means that our focus and attention to detail now in society and culture do nothing but to waste our lives away needlessly. He believes simplicity is the better choice.
Thoreau’s claim and assumptions are found in the freedom he finds being bound to no one and to no institutions, just like nature. Thoreau takes spiritual pleasure in being alone, which makes him feel that he could be anywhere. “I have, as it were, my own sun and moon and stars, and a little world all to myself” (Thoreau 380). Nature supports Thoreau's isolation from others because it prevents him from ever really being alone. The company of animals, plants, and the elements is an inexhaustible source of spiritual nourishment for him.
Buddhists achieved their end path after all suffering was endured and one has come in control of every action and thought, only then could the ultimate happiness and paradise in nirvana be reached. Daoists searched for the first cause of the universe to which all souls belonged to, came from, and could return to after the ultimate control and balance was reached. Daoism and Buddhism were intrinsically similar in many ways. Mainly because of a lack of concern for politics, government, and earthly ordering of people at a socially significant level, both religions' main focus and teaching was the balance and harmony for all people in a natural way and in one's own mind. Their afterlife, so to speak, was different in the belief that individual happiness and peace was the end path for Buddhists, while Daoists wanted to remain and become once again to the continuity of the universe and all life and not as human
The poem “Upon wedlock and death of children” written by Edward Taylor. In his poem he describe that death is a natural process and compare it with different aspects of nature. Edward Taylor in his poem, Upon wedlock, and death of Children expresses his gratitude to God on his children birth and does not complain on their death. “Whether thou get’st them green, or lets them seed” meaning that its up to the Lord to decide about a person’s fate. He uses iambic pentameter as the mechanics and his thought flow in an orderly fashion, rhyming at every alternate lines.
This further reinforces that we have no choice or influence on our lives and the events that happen, so therefore God will know the ethical decisions we will make as he has already predestined them in our lives. Hard determinism is the teaching that denies humanity has free will and believes that all actions have a prior cause. It removes moral responsibility for our actions. Hard determinists would therefore agree with the statement above, and will believe that God does infact know what ethical decisions we will make as he has already perceived it. This idea links to predestination in the fact that it believes everything in the universe- even human action- has a cause which precedes it.
On the other hand its weakness is that human can affect it in other aspects besides deathless and birth less nature but in definition they do not recognize that. Prominence over human welfare and determinative nature regarding human experience –since both deal with human then they can be combined. The strength is that it when we put our lives according to the sacred we are likely to live a life free of problem associated to ungodliness. On the other hand it is important to perceive the true reality that underlies our religion .If we don’t do so we are likely to suffer and destroy what is already positive about our religion hence suffering. In that case religion will be the dividing factor instead of a bonding factor as it should
Though this essay wears the mask of ecocentrism, its truest nature lies with that of the anthropocentric, and each of these divisions is purely benefited and experienced by man. The medicinal qualities of basking in the magnificence of nature are almost that of a commodity, as this is something humans are serviced with. He says: “To the body and mind which have been cramped by noxious work or company, nature is medicinal and restores their tone. The tradesman, the attorney comes out of the din and craft of the street, and sees the sky and the woods, and is a man again” (Par 2). Emerson explains that any man, tradesman or even attorney, can retreat from his work and once he sees the sky and woods, his humanity is returned.
Conserving Natural Happiness In Paul Bloom's essay titled, "Natural Happiness", Bloom believes that, "We thrive in the presence of nature and suffer in its absence" and that "Real natural habitats provide significant sources of pleasure for modern humans" which should make the preservation of the natural world important to us (679). According to Bloom, nature's positive impacts should be enough reason for conservation and that technology shouldn't outweigh natures existence. I believe that nature is important to our happiness, but unfortunately we take it for granted and progressively live our lives engaged in technology pushing us to forget the powerful healings of "natural happiness". Paul Bloom's purpose for writing his essay is to argue that the pleasure nature provides to humans is a significant reason for its preservation. His argument is apparent in the first paragraph when he says, "Few people need convincing that the destruction of rain forests, mass extinction of species, and the melting of ice sheets in Greenland would all be very bad things" (677).
He rationalized that this was accomplished, through human intellect. The wit of man was the imagination that was employed in finding better ways to use nature and therefore he commended the creativity of technological advances. For example, he advocates using the river to turn the wheel of a saw mill and man’s creation of the railroad. Additionally, Emerson supports the usage of the elements: water, fire, wind, and earth. These serve us day by day and cost us nothing.