Ron Jadia.docx

Term Paper in Introduction to Philosophy to the Human Person

Submitted by: Ron Jadia

Submitted to: Mr. Rhyan A. Bolivar

Foreword This paper is intended for students who want to learn about philosophy of some philosophers. May this paper helped you to become a better citizens of this world.

Recommendations I recommend this paper to all of those who love philosophy. Also, I recommend this to those who wants to learn philosophy as a way to be a better person. May this book help you a lot.

Introduction I think philosophy is important for two main reasons: (1) it can help improve critical thinking skills and (2) it’s a good way to know certain things. Even so, much more can be said— especially considering each specific thing philosophy can teach us. Many things it can teach us are important for various other reasons. There are many people who question the importance of philosophy (such as Lawrence Krauss), and I suspect that the main reason that they are unconvinced is because they don’t think philosophy can make progress or provide us with knowledge. Consider that at one point Krauss said, “[Science progresses and philosophy doesn’t.”1 What is philosophy? It is the attempt to reason well about certain traditional domains of study: logic (the study of good reasoning), epistemology (the study of knowledge), metaphysics (the study of reality), and ethics (the study of morality). Just like science, some philosophy is better than others, and a lot of philosophy done by amateurs misses the mark so badly that it is often better described as something else entirely.

René Descartes (1596–1650) A French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist, Descartes was born in France but spent 20 years of his life in the Dutch Republic. As a member of the Dutch States Army, then as the Prince of Orange and subsequently as Stadtholder (a position of national leadership in the Dutch Republic), Descartes wielded considerable intellectual influence over the period known as the Dutch Golden Age. He often distinguished himself by refuting or attempting to undo the ideas of those that came before him.

Well we’ve always been told that the thoughts are divine. Of course they are, I sure agree to the thought. But are they the only things that matter? 

We sure think of a lot of things, if all the thoughts would matter, it would be a perfect pandemonium with so much to process and come to a conclusion with. But are they the only things that matter. Isn’t it what we do about it which matters?

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Many a time I have seen people suffering around. It moves me, makes me feel I must do something to bring it to an end. But shamefully enough, that has been the extent of my thoughts. I haven’t pushed myself much to make it happen. The thought makes me feel better, gives me a gratification that I am a good man. But am I? If thought alone would matter, I would most certainly be.

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Knowledge is a beautiful thing. Even more beautiful is action! Thoughts make a difference internally but what we do about the thoughts is what makes the actual difference. It is never the thought alone, it is action that makes the difference.

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Agreed that neither has an independent existence, the thought leads to action providing a causal effect. But action is something which brings it all into balance. Mere thought alone never suffices.

Or like Rene Descartes says, we all have a beautiful mind, the question is how much we use it?!

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 82) A Boston-born writer, philosopher, and poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson is the father of the transcendentalist movement. This was a distinctly American philosophical orientation that rejected the pressures imposed by society, materialism, and organized religion in favor of the ideals of individualism, freedom, and a personal emphasis on the soul’s relationship with the surrounding natural world. Though not explicitly a “naturalist” himself, Emerson’s ideals were taken up by this 20th century movement. He was also seen as a key figure in the American romantic movement.

Self-trust is the first secret of success. Full wise is that can himself know. The self is the silent eternal witness, a light which no power can extinguish, whose attributes are truth and beauty, peace and wisdom, our true being which we do not perceive on account of the cloud of ignorance which covers our eyes. The self is the essence of this universe, the essence of all souls, He is the essence of your own life, nay, 'Thou art that. We can experience the Aatman as the Chetan Tatv (Conscious Being) easily only in the human body. Only a prayer is needed from us. An awakened soul is never touched by earthly things. When we have a very high fever we are delirious and everything is distorted. So with the fever of the world. It makes us lose our sense of proportion. The great thing is to have faith in oneself, even before faith in God.

Michel Foucault (1926-1984) Historian, social theorist, and philosopher Michel Foucault, born in the riverfront city of Poiltiers, France, dedicated much of his teaching and writing to the examination of power and knowledge and their connection to social control. Though often identified as a postmodernist, Foucault preferred to think of himself as a critic of modernity. His service as an international diplomat on behalf of France also influenced his understanding of social constructs throughout history and how they have served to enforce racial, religious, and sexual inequality. His ideals have been particularly embraced by progressive movements, and he allied with many during his lifetime. Active in movements against racism, human rights abuses, prisoner abuses, and marginalization of the mentally ill, he is often cited as a major influence in movements for social justice, human rights, and feminism. More broadly speaking, his examination of power and social control has had a direct influence on the studies of sociology, communications, and political science. In its function, the power to punish is not essentially different from that of curing or educating.

In broad terms, Foucault uses the birth of the prison in particular, and the history of punishment more generally as a way of understanding society. In some sense, the book is Foucault’s attempt to solve a puzzle, how in “less than a century… the entire economy of punishment was redistributed” (p. 7). How the “penal style” of spectacle and torture came to be replaced by one centering on surveillance and the prison. Thus, the book centers on tracing the relatively abrupt emergence of “a new theory of law and crime, a new moral or political justification of the right to punish” (p. 7). But more provocatively, Foucault concludes that these changes in the “right to punish” have implications which extend far beyond the penal system. In short, the birth of the prison marks the birth of the “disciplinary society” (p. 216). Again and again Foucault’s analysis links discipline and individualization. “Discipline ‘makes’ individuals” (p. 170). “The disciplines function increasingly as techniques for making useful individuals” (p. 211). By discipline, Foucault is referring to an anatomy of power, a technology

of power (p. 215), a unitary technique which maximizes the body’s useful force while reducing its “political” force at the least cost (p. 221). Not only is the disciplinary society about individualizing, it is also about textualizing. At the center of the disciplinary society is an “uninterrupted work of writing,” “an immense police text,” “a complex documentary organization” (p. 197, 214). “This turning of real lives into writing is… a procedure of objectification and subjection” (p. 192). Thus, to understand the disciplinary, we must understand the individual, and the textual, and vice versa. If I am reading him correctly, Foucault is suggesting that the disciplinary, the individual and the textual are all linked.

REFERENCES: http://www.joelgehman.com/2009/07/foucault-discipline-and-punish/ https://inspire99.com/its-not-just-enough-to-have-a-good-mind-the-main-thing-is-to-use-it-well/ https://www.speakingtree.in/blog/self-trust-is-the-first-secret-of-success https://athensinsiders.com/the-top-10-ancient-greek-philosophers/