Philosophical Concept Of Friendship

Philosophical Concept Of Friendship I would like to discuss in this paper the concept of friendship and its significance in our life. The concept of friendship has old roots and Aristotle defined it many centuries ago. I think we should think about this notion through the historical perspective and also connect it with our todays reality. I would like to present in this several definitions of friendship and they will reflect different eras of humankind existence. According to modern definition of a friend we can say that it is defined as one joined to another in intimacy and mutual benevolence independently of sexual or family love. (Yager, 2002) But according to Aristotle this term is much deeper and is used in broader frames. According to Hardie Aristotle regards less intimate bonds as friendships as well as the intimate relationship in the modern definition. Relationships between husband and wife, father and son, neighbors, business partners, team members, members of a political party, teacher and student, etc. would all be viewed as friendships in Aristotles eyes. (Hardie, 1968) Using previous definitions as example and basing on the we could determine that first of all, the word friendship has not one, but several different meanings. And it is normal not only in our time, because it was normal also many years ago. If to be exact in our calculations, something about two thousand years ago it was found by Aristotle, who actually tried to define the different types of friendship and to select among them true friendship. He distinguishes mainly friendship based on the interest and friendship of the noble, which alone deserves the right to be present. Therefore, even in ancient Greece, the relations linking the two businesspersons were seen not as a friendship, but as interest in the success of the common cause. If to be strict in our judgments and taking into account Aristotles thoughts we should mention that, the friendship between politicians will be also often seen as a way to succeed in politics. (Kraut, 1989) Thus, if we briefly list the most common meanin g of that word, we see that in most cases the word friendship has little in common with our notion of a real friend. We know that there are three main features of friendship and among them are recognition of being in this relationship; mutuality of the relationship; wanting the best for another person. But there are several types of friendship that should not be mixed with each other. Each type show one side of peoples relationships and sometimes it is easily to confuse it with friendship. Friendship is valued it in different religions in its own way and we should look at them attentively. For example we see that this notion really variously interprets in Judaism, Christianity, or Islam, but its has the same essence in general understanding. For example, in Christianity, friendship is secondary to the universal love of agape; in Judaism, friendship is secondary to the love of family, but in Islamic teaching friendship is a force that promotes the identification that does not value things, and horizons of its existence in the world. I mean that friendship is a high level of personal morality and to be a friend is honorable status in Islam. According to Islamic teaching people should know that people around them are divided into three categories: for strangers, the familiar and friends. I would like to present the next information in the form of advice taking from Islam, because this from of presentation will allow to plunge into the question of friendship with more details. First of all, at a meeting with strangers do not interfere in their conversation; do not listen to empty talk, especially if there used bad words. Try a smaller meet with them, and when they meet you try to advice them in a friendly manner to pay their attention to their bad deeds. According to people familiar to you beware as you can. Do not look at them with arrogance, because among them may be those who are best for you. Do not look at them with servility because of their wealth, because it would adversely affect you most. Do not use your faith for the sake of getting from them any benefit. In this case, they will not respect you. If they are hostile to you, then do not answer them the same way. Do not deceive yourself, if you exalt. Do not be surprised if people are on the side to talk to you about something bad. If you ask these people to help and they will help you, then do not forget to thank them for that and thank Allah the Almighty. In the event that your request does not c omply, do not be offended. Accept excuses and do not be a deceiver himself. You should keep track of the faults of others. If you find some familiars generosity, respect and love, thank God, Who created them that love you. According to Lewis, if you meet some damage on their part, try to stop them, because most people who are sowing injury, will try to settle with you even for small condemnation of their actions. (Lewis, 1974) Many of them are well-disposed mind, and soul like wolves. Do not rely on the friendship of those who have not experienced, as it should. Moreover, let your opinion of people will be good. As for your friends, then they should have five qualities: intelligence, high morals, piety, honesty, indifference to the pleasures of this life. No friends with those who have low morals. These cannot restrain himself nor anger, nor in their pleasures. Thinking about my own life experience, I would like to explain what I understand under the world friendship, taking into account my own life and all situations that occurred with me. Intuitively, the word friendship gives me an idea of profound, honest, pursuing a trust and candour. Empirical studies also show that the vast majority of people understand a friendship exactly in this way. In my opinion based on my research of the notion friendship, I could say that a friend is a person who is a pleasure to do good to another, and who believes that the other feels for him the same feelings. I believe that Friendship is necessary to everyone, even to those who denied it. In my opinion little child, and old man, rich and busy person all of them need friends, and amount of such people is possibly to enumerate for a long time. Friendship based on common interests, mutual support, understanding and, most importantly, on trust. When people have no necessity to talk about something, they just do not make sense to communicate. A friend is a very important person in our lives. Sometimes I feel that it is necessary for hours someone to talk to, share problems and secrets, disbosom to the best friend. It is rather hard to be alone and have no friends in such moments, because most cherished to share only with a really close and trusted man. Just Friends or familiar as the called in Islamic teaching is impossible to tell very intimate things and ask for advice. In my mysteries and depth of my thoughts, I dedicate only one person my best friend, person whom I trust and whom I love. This person differs from others that we have many difficult situations together and exactly is person was near me and help when it was necessary not only with kind word but also with deed. Thus, based on observed information we could come to the conclusion that a friend, we cannot win in the lottery or just found on the street. Friendship is a very complicated relationship. They do not appear immediately, out of nothing. Any relationship, including friendship, we need to build, and build for a long time. Spread each brick, each stair. This is a hard work to build friendship, find it and then save, not lose. I think that art of friendship is not given to everybody. This is a very fine science. Conceited, vain, and mercantile people cannot be true friends. They love only themselves and in friendship are trying to pull the maximum benefit for themselves. I wan to add in the end of my paper that friendship is very important to me and I have two best friends, I appreciate and respect these two people. They are the most precious thing in my life and I do not want to lose them in any case.

Freedom and Reason In Kant Essay -- Philosophy Philosophical Essays

Freedom and Reason in Kant Morality, Kant says, cannot be regarded as a set of rules which prescribe the means necessary to the achievement of a given end; its rules must be obeyed without consideration of the consequences that will follow from doing so or not. A principle that presupposes a desired object as the determinant of the will cannot give rise to a moral law; that is, the morality of an act of will cannot be determined by the matter or content of the will for when the will is materially determined the question of its morality does not arise. This consideration leads Kant to one of his most important theses. If the moral character of willing is not determined by the content of what is willed, it must be determined by the form:" If a rational being can think of his maxims as universal laws, he can do so only by considering them as principles which contain the determining ground of the will because of their form and not because of their matter". Therefore, the morality of a maxim is determined by its functioning as a universal law, applicable as a general rule to every rational agent. Since a moral will must be so in virtue of its form alone, the will must be capable of a purely formal determination; that is, it must be possible for a man to act in a certain way for the sole reason that willing in this way is prescribed by a universal law, no matter what the empirical results will be. A will to which moral considerations apply must be, in the strictest sense, a free will, one that can function independently of the laws of natural causality. The concept of morality, therefore, has to be explained in terms of a universal moral law, and the ability to will in obedience to such a law leads us to postulate the freedom. The freedom which Kant is talking about, is not only a negative freedom consisting in the absence of constraint by empirical causes, it is also a positive freedom which consists in the ability to make acts of will in accordance with the moral law, for no other reason than that they are in accordance with it. Freedom, in this sense, corresponds to Autonomy of the will and its absence ( any situation in which the will is determined by external causes ) is called Heteronomy. In obeying the moral law for the sake of the law alone, the will is autonomous because it is obeying a law which it imposes on itself. .. ...e person, as Reason, as belonging to the intellectual world, is not affected by the laws of Determinism: he is free. This is Kant's proof of Freedom. Is it satisfactory? Later on, in the "Critics of Practical Reason", Kant does not attempt to deduce synthetically Morality from Freedom, as he tried to do in the Grounding by stating that Freedom was the necessary condition for Morality, but he assumes the moral law as a "fact of the reason" from which he infers Freedom. There have been critics blaming Kant of a sort of vicious circle, because he seemed to demonstrate Freedom by means of deduction from Morality and then to show the possibility of the Categorical Imperative deducing it from Freedom. Kant answers that there is no vicious circle because in the ontological order Freedom is the condition for Morality ( it is not possible to follow the duty for the duty if you are not free), but in the order of our knowledge, the moral law is the requirement for Freedom ( we would not consider ourselves free, if we did not think of ourselves as subject to the moral law). Freedom is the ratio essendi of the moral law, but the moral law is the ratio cognoscendi of Freedom. Freedom and Reason In Kant Essay -- Philosophy Philosophical Essays Freedom and Reason in Kant Morality, Kant says, cannot be regarded as a set of rules which prescribe the means necessary to the achievement of a given end; its rules must be obeyed without consideration of the consequences that will follow from doing so or not. A principle that presupposes a desired object as the determinant of the will cannot give rise to a moral law; that is, the morality of an act of will cannot be determined by the matter or content of the will for when the will is materially determined the question of its morality does not arise. This consideration leads Kant to one of his most important theses. If the moral character of willing is not determined by the content of what is willed, it must be determined by the form:" If a rational being can think of his maxims as universal laws, he can do so only by considering them as principles which contain the determining ground of the will because of their form and not because of their matter". Therefore, the morality of a maxim is determined by its functioning as a universal law, applicable as a general rule to every rational agent. Since a moral will must be so in virtue of its form alone, the will must be capable of a purely formal determination; that is, it must be possible for a man to act in a certain way for the sole reason that willing in this way is prescribed by a universal law, no matter what the empirical results will be. A will to which moral considerations apply must be, in the strictest sense, a free will, one that can function independently of the laws of natural causality. The concept of morality, therefore, has to be explained in terms of a universal moral law, and the ability to will in obedience to such a law leads us to postulate the freedom. The freedom which Kant is talking about, is not only a negative freedom consisting in the absence of constraint by empirical causes, it is also a positive freedom which consists in the ability to make acts of will in accordance with the moral law, for no other reason than that they are in accordance with it. Freedom, in this sense, corresponds to Autonomy of the will and its absence ( any situation in which the will is determined by external causes ) is called Heteronomy. In obeying the moral law for the sake of the law alone, the will is autonomous because it is obeying a law which it imposes on itself. .. ...e person, as Reason, as belonging to the intellectual world, is not affected by the laws of Determinism: he is free. This is Kant's proof of Freedom. Is it satisfactory? Later on, in the "Critics of Practical Reason", Kant does not attempt to deduce synthetically Morality from Freedom, as he tried to do in the Grounding by stating that Freedom was the necessary condition for Morality, but he assumes the moral law as a "fact of the reason" from which he infers Freedom. There have been critics blaming Kant of a sort of vicious circle, because he seemed to demonstrate Freedom by means of deduction from Morality and then to show the possibility of the Categorical Imperative deducing it from Freedom. Kant answers that there is no vicious circle because in the ontological order Freedom is the condition for Morality ( it is not possible to follow the duty for the duty if you are not free), but in the order of our knowledge, the moral law is the requirement for Freedom ( we would not consider ourselves free, if we did not think of ourselves as subject to the moral law). Freedom is the ratio essendi of the moral law, but the moral law is the ratio cognoscendi of Freedom.

Semiotic Analysis

2012 Unit Profile Unit Code Unit Title Provider Unit Type Level of Study EFTSL Delivery Method SGY110 Australian and Global Society Macquarie University UGRD Undergraduate Level 1 0. 125 Fully Online Unit Overview Commence your studies of society by learning about the sociological framework and establish skills for life. You will be introduced to many of the ways in which sociologists think about the most intimate aspects of life – such as sexuality, the family and gender – as well as to larger and often impersonal structural features, such as social class, the labour market and social policy.You will also have the opportunity to use social research techniques such as interviews and observation in the real world, as well as to uncover the secrets often hidden in other sources of information and data. Topics 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. What is sociology? History of sociology and key ideas What is a social fact?Australian families Gender, language and dominatio n The life course – growing up in the 21st century Religion and social change Media, race and ethnicity Class and inequality Work, employment and society Crime and society Globalisation: the world as social context Learning Outcomes At the completion of this unit students will: 1. be familiar with the key sociological concepts as they are applied to the study of Australian society 2. be aware of existing patterns of social structure and the processes and nature of change currently taking place 3. ave developed a broad understanding of the nature and methods of social science 4. be able to use basic social research skills to undertake some types of original, primary research under supervision. Page 1 2012 Unit Profile Assessment – Non-Invigilated Exam – Take Home Exam (30%) Online Discussion (15%) Report1 – Investigative Report (40%) Report2 – Thematic Activity Report (15%) Textbooks Prerequisites Special Requirements This unit does not have a presc ribed textbook(s). – Broadband access Page 2

John Milton s Poetry And Sonnets - 1083 Words

John Milton was a great poet during the English Civil War. He was not really discovered until Charles II was in charge and called to restore and rule in France. Milton lost his eyesight in 1651. He had been married a few times, his first wife passed away in 1652, and his second wife passed away in 1658 shortly after child birth. Most people believe his poem, â€Å"Methought I Saw My Late Espoused Saint† was for his beloved second wife, due to the fact that he was blind and never saw her face and her passing after childbirth. Milton’s poetry/sonnets are different from any other. He involves Politics and Religion. In his sonnets he will start them off one way, and then with the last two lines throw a twist on it. This is one reason Milton is famous. As stated above, Milton does interesting stuff with his work. Each sonnet has fourteen lines, just like a Shakespearean sonnet, but the rhyme scheme is different. Milton uses what is called a Petrarchan (or â€Å"Italian†) sonnet. It is composed of eight lines (octave) followed by another six lines (sestet). The octave part of his sonnet has a rhyme scheme of ABBAABBA, and the last six are CDCDCD. The thing with Milton though is he throws in a turning point in his sonnet, also known as a â€Å"volta.† The turning point for his sonnets is at lines thirteen and fourteen. These sonnets are written in iambic pentameter, alternating every other syllable. Milton also throws in a curve ball on the meter, causing a shift in theShow MoreRelatedCritical Analysis of Jonh Miltons Sonnet 8 1310 Words   |  6 PagesMilton returned to England about 1641 when the political and religious affairs were very disturbing to many. He started to apply his work in practice for that one great work like Paradise Lost when penning the Sonnets. Not every sonnet is identical but they can be difficult in interpretation, styles, word use, and so forth. 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