Voltaire's brahmin
In this piece of text written by Voltaire, he struggles with ideas surrounding the conflicting idea of being happy and ignorant, or chance living in misery with having a lot of knowledge. He compares two neighbors, the Brahmin who is overwhelmed by knowledge and confusion with a lack of happiness and purpose, and the other neighbor who is completely ignorant, but at the same time quite happy. This brings up the question of should we want to be ignorant or knowledgeable? This is a tough question to answer, because like we talked in our philosophy class, there are some terrible things that happened in the world like the Holocaust and war that also bring a layer of sadness as you discover how there are many evil things in the world. But also living and believing that the world is perfect is also not a way we desire to live. This also incorporates the issue of censorship and how this plays into how much knowledge people are accessible to. I think that there are things that are necessary to know even if they make the world seem a little darker. I think that there are also things to become more knowledgeable on as you get older and are able to comprehend more of your surroundings and characteristics of the world and people. Voltaire's writing showed his inner thoughts and conflict on the matter while also encouraging his future readers to struggle with this concept as well.
Rousseau's social contract
In Rousseau's social contract, specifically the portion we reviewed in our class, he discussed his totalitarian ideas, loyalty to the state, and freedom from relationships. The freedom from relationships he was promoting was referencing family, friends, church, and the workplace. He talked about what we would be if we were stripped of all of those relationships as well. His totalitarian ideas surprised me when he brought that up because he was promoting loyalty of the state over relationships with family. His ideas inspired tortuous leaders such as Mussolini, Hitler, Mao, and more. All of these people forced the population that they controlled to be loyal to the state over the closest to them. This brings to mind the Reign of Terror where family members would rat out other family members and make them be beheaded all in the name of the state. All of these people read Rousseau and were inspired by the concepts he wrote about, compared to leaders here in America who all read Voltaire. This also points to differences between the two philosophers and how they influenced leaders of today. Rousseau was a very logical and thoughtful philosopher who encouraged totalitarian ideas and influenced the importance of relationships within his social contract.
BEAUTY, what is it?
Beauty is something that is getting increasingly more difficult to define. It is becoming more and more important in our culture today that everyone is looked at equally and there is no division within body shape, size, race, and so much more. So it is becoming increasingly more offensive when you say one person is beautiful or pretty without saying that the person next to them is also. It is important that we strive for equality and recognize people's differences with respect. It is also important that we aren't intently offensive. I think that everyone was created and intricately designed perfectly in God's image which is inheritanly beautiful while also diverse. But, it is difficult then to determine a standard of beauty. Is it perhaps easier to define beauty with inanimate objects rather than people? Do we even have a "right" to judge people by appearance or say that one is pretty and one isn't? I think that it should be up to the Creator and what He has to say about it, we, as humans, cannot control one outcome or another.
I think inanimate objects such as things like, pieces of art, scenery, flowers, and more are easier to put into a category. We can say that a weed is ugly and a rose is beauty, but we cannot say that one person is beautiful and one is not. With art for example, a beautiful piece can be a painting what was full of effort, skill, intricacy, and thoughtfulness. A piece by Michelangelo would be considered beautiful, but a 5 year olds drawing would not be defined as beautiful. Would the parents of the child be proud and think it could be beautiful? Possibly yes, but this would mean that we have more than just one definition of beauty, or examples of beauty is up to the person judging. Could many people be called pretty or beautiful and there be multiple meanings? Could one person be considered the standard of beauty and the other is indeed beautiful but in some other way?
This would mean that people as a whole have not agreed on one, set in stone, standard of beauty. It has become more of an opinion, but an opinion less shared. Since the standard of beauty might vary for many different people, this could mean that beauty has one definition but how people, nature, and other things fit into that definition might vary. Could possibly our standard of beauty depend on or be defined on the examples we give it? Do we really know what beauty is or do we just give examples to attempt to explain it to another?
This would mean that people as a whole have not agreed on one, set in stone, standard of beauty. It has become more of an opinion, but an opinion less shared. Since the standard of beauty might vary for many different people, this could mean that beauty has one definition but how people, nature, and other things fit into that definition might vary. Could possibly our standard of beauty depend on or be defined on the examples we give it? Do we really know what beauty is or do we just give examples to attempt to explain it to another?