What Arendt is inherently saying about Eichmann when she states that he acted out of sheer thoughtlessness is that he is not thinking or what can also be said is that he suffers from lack of thought. Eichmann was thoughtful as an administrator to which it’s true that he could deal with lots of complicated details, but overall to her, Eichmann is not thinking. For Arendt, thinking involves on the spot judgment and the ability to take another’s viewpoint into consideration. This is something that she thinks Eichmann lacks. For instance, in her book she states that this is a flaw where he, Eichmann, cannot take another fellow’s point of view and her example is in relation to when he was working in Vienna.
Not that life is bad, but that the physical pleasures and physical reality are less than divine. The best conditions include those that are free from distraction. While the ascetic priest is essentially denying life, he is actually preserving the life that he cherishes so much. The ascetic priest desires power and believes that “this life is an illusion”. Nietzsche says, in his second essay, the primary objection to ascetic ideals is that ascetic priests must deny the value of this life; he portrays it as a link to the next life, rather than appreciating life as an end in itself.
Yet another way Epictetus suggests for staying content can be seen when he speaks of how you treat your own morals when one is around others: “Never call yourself a philosopher, nor talk a great deal among the unlearned about theorems, but act conformably to them. Thus, at an entertainment, don't talk how persons ought to eat, but eat as you ought. For remember that in this manner Socrates also universally avoided all ostentation” (46). Once again Epictetus stresses commitment, but in this instance he appears to be saying that one should be committed to following their own philosophy instead of trying to teach their philosophy to others. When he uses the metaphor of being at an “entertainment”, he speaks of simply eating as you feel one is supposed to eat and not lecturing others on how people in general should eat.
This is because Transcendentalists believe the only way to find peace is by being self- reliant. This opinion is repeated in Thoreau’s, “Civil Disobedience Part 1”: “All machines have their friction; and possibly this does enough good to counterbalance the evil… I say, let us not have such a machine any longer” (4). The “friction” Thoreau talks of represents the lack of self-manning that becomes present in society when machines are brought in. This would be an important issue to Transcendentalists as self-manning is key to living life. When the author voices his
Socrates lived as an independent man. he did not want to go under any category. He was not paid for his "irony" and maieutics. Therefore he was not a sophist, as being a sophist was having a profession. Socrates was genuinely worried about why the young men were so disappointing.
Lao Tzu was another great philosopher around the time of Confucius who had a different take on life. Although he is attributed with the writing of Tao-Te Ching, he rarely wrote his ideas down because he wanted his philosophy to be passed on in a natural way, to live life with goodness, serenity, and respect, and feared that if it were to be written down it would become an official doctrine of which people followed, rather than a natural occurrence. He had no code on which one should behave, because he believed that good should be governed by instinct and conscience. Both Confucius and Lao Tzu strived to spread good and virtue to the people, but each had different ideas and methods on how to do so. Confucius preached to act with virtue, while Lao Tzu wanted people to have virtue without necessarily presenting it.
An example of principle of non-contradiction would be something such as a still wind, how can the wind be moving but still at the same time. St Augustine baffled philosophers during his time however; on the other hand, his theories did not challenge or convey the ideas of preceding philosophers. The act of doubting unveils the idea of being capable to doubt, which makes you human because you can doubt. Sense of perception permits us to distinguish how something is actually based on how it appears. An example would be a stick in the water the stick appears bent at the time the stick hits the water if we leave room for the thought than we make no error.
He goes on to say that few have broken from societies’ chains and fewer still because of our inability to “cultivate our minds”(601). Kant then moves on to the use of reasoning, of which he says there are two types: public and private reasoning. Private use of one’s reasoning is doing something mandatory, while public “must always be free”(601). After this he goes on to say that religion tends to “keep all further enlightenment away from the human race forever”. (602) He moves on to the subject of ruling shortly thereafter, in which he thinks a ruler’s duty is “not to prescribe anything to human beings in religious matters but to leave them complete freedom”(603) and so, the ruler “is himself enlightened”(603).
The genuine definition of individualism, however, is not the issue of debate. Instead, it is the level of importance placed upon individuality and the roll that individualism should assume in society. Various opinions have been presented on this topic over the course of the term. The weakness of Emerson’s argument is that in his essay, “Self-Reliance”, is that he stresses the role of the individualism to an unreasonable degree. Emerson takes the stance that in order to live life to the fullest, one should reject the rules forced upon the individual by
Mo-tzu presented a very well thought of argument against music . This can be seen when he stated Although the body knows they are comfortable , the mouth knows they are gratifying , the eyes know they are delightful , and the ears know they are pleasing , yet they are found not to be in accordance with the deeds of the sage-kings of antiquity and not to contribute to the benefits of the people at present (Par .1 , Book VIII , Chapter XXXII In saying this , he implied that music did not have anything to do with the greatness and success of the sage-kings . that it did not fulfill the basic needs , unlike the boats and the carts that were built from the same contribution of the ancient citizens . It slowed production by wasting labor on things