Socrates Argument That Virtue Is Wisdom Philosophy Essay

Socrates Argument That Virtue Is Wisdom Philosophy Essay Socrates claimed that virtue is knowledge. He identifies that two terms as being identical (Reshotko, 2006). Virtue is knowledge and knowledge is virtue. There are two claims which help make sense on the claim of Socrates that knowledge is virtue. These are those which relate to the understanding of what is good and how it gives people advantage, and what is evil and how creates harm to people. The default perception of people is to always go for that which they believe will give them an advantage and not cause any harm. It is therefore not knowledge alone but that which is knowledge of the good. Knowledge is therefore necessary for one to be able to live their lives in virtue. Humans have the freedom to do whatever they want. It is present to the extent that a person takes control of his life, makes decisions of his own and lives his life in whatever way he wants to. The presence of freedom gives one also the freedom to choose which he bases on his thoughts. When we have the knowledge of things and awareness of the things around us, we can choose what we think is right or beneficial for us. Knowledge gives us the freedom to choose which is right and wrong, which is bad and good. And by this knowledge and the exercise of our freedoms, we choose those which are good and beneficial, giving us lives living in virtue. An examination of things that benefit humans are given in the discussion; and these things are health, strength, beauty and wealth. These are the things that humans consider as beneficial, yet such is not absolute since these are also things that can harm humans. They are viewed as good if it leads to happiness and viewed as bad if it leads to harm (Reshotko, 2006). These are different types of human experiences since most peopleà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s lives are caught in things that have little or no importance to those that are of extreme importance. These experiences are viewed differently from people to people. Same way as these experiences are looked at as bad or good. Say for instance, you taste coffee. We feel the enjoyment there but such is not lasting and may only be for a few seconds or minutes. However pleasant such a taste or experience may be, it is in no way a significant part of every personà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s lives. Something that is valuable for only a few minutes is not really valuable and does not deserve serious concern. There are qualities of the soul and these are moderation, justice, courage, intelligence, memory, munificence, and all such things. Humans think and act toward things which they deem are good for them. Religion as a particular part of humansà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ lives can be very influential in providing people with what is right and wrong and also with an image of how they view themselves and others. The fact of one being virtuous comes from the fact of knowing something as being good or bad. Knowledge of someone in choosing what is right or wrong, bad or good necessarily arises from the fact also that one is living a life that is virtuous. Many examples of living in virtuous state could be given. These virtuous instances are all anchored on beauty or seeing something good in what they do. The painter who paints something beautiful lives in the eternity of that beauty in his painting. The scientist who devotes his life to finding meaning in things lives in the eternity of that meaning. The mother who gives herself to take care of her family with love is an instance where that is what is perceived as good and thus choice to do that comes from that knowledge. We admire heroes, for instance, and all those who have lived their lives in high ideals. We sense meaning in the lives of these people. This shows that to desire beautiful things is to desire good things (Denise, et al, 2007). It is true that there are some people also who desire bad things. The reason may be because they believe such are good things or the reason could be because they desire such things to be good even if they are aware that they are not. But those who desire good things have not lived for the sake of satisfactions and pleasures which are in passing only but they have lost themselves in values, living in virtue through knowledge, which will always be remembered forever. Society provides man with a language and ways of expressing oneself and it is in terms of that language that man is able to communicate and assert his values, desires and ideals. Through this, we can see whether a person is living life in virtue or not. We cannot delve into his unconscious and what he thinks, but such is acted out into reality by what we see. If we see someone is virtuous, such therefore comes from knowledge of what is good and what is bad. But the argument is not to the extent that it is all knowledge that is needed for one to have virtue. Practical knowledge is being referred to in this case. As Socrates put it, to know the good is to know how to live well, how to bring it about that oneà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s soul properly cared for (Denise, et al, 2007). Knowledge is necessary but not what is all important. Thus, as Socrates correctly argued, knowledge is virtue and virtue is knowledge. They co-exist and depend on each other. One is not what it is if not for the othe r. Knowledge comes from the fact of being virtuous. Virtue arises from the fact of knowing what is good and evil

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Robert rice Ms. Hoeb English 12 March 14, 2014 Homeless and Unemployment There is a nexus that exists within the homeless community. This nexus relates between having the essential resources to get a job and the need for a job to buy essentials that deem a person reliable. The government and businesses are the only ones in a situation to break this vicious cycle. To not have these things causes a serious barrier for the homeless. This barrier(s) can themselves lead to other problems not related to employment. These problems may include susceptibility to disease and weather due to lack of housing, malnutrition, and insecurity. The question is: How can our government, businesses and communities help the homeless, who want to get off the streets, get a job? This nexus has corrupted many attempts to leave the wandering life behind. Although it is true that many homeless want to remain on the streets there is about half who want a better life and job. â€Å"To bring these people back into the labor force offers no question those in a very short time†¦ additional income will far exceed the cost ...

Paper on Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos”

There is a bed in Seattle which is nestled in North America on the spinning Earth led by the Sun around the Milky Way, a speck of cosmic dust floating in the Universe. On this bed Carl Sagan died of an obscure disease for which there is no cure. Carl Sagan is a celebrated writer and astronomer, but most remembered for his writings. Like Galileo he brought the beauty of science to the people. He is the writer of ‘Cosmos', an award winning television mini-series that brought the wonders of astronomy into the home. His last and final work was a collection of his essays; Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death on the Brink of the Millennium. . Sagan wrote with a sense of awe, humility and reverence of nature. This book is an expression of Sagan's passions for the things around. The book is so varied in topic that it is difficult at times to find a unifying factor. Nor does the book reach any sort of conclusion as to the direction of man and things around him. In this we can understand the true sadness of Sagan's death, he was a child who was overwhelmed by the beauty of the universe around him and had not the time needed to express all of it in words. The book is split into three parts; â€Å"The Power and Beauty of Quantification†, â€Å"What are the Conservatives Conserving? † and â€Å"Where Hearts and Minds Collide†. In the first section Sagan begins by teaches the reader about large numbers and what innovations in the past allowed us to use them. Sagan moves slowly and tactfully building the readers understanding of these basic concepts of large numbers and exponents, then applies them to such problems as exponential growth of populations, radioactive decay and nuclear chain reactions. . He exposes scientific concepts like a traditional narrative. Building ‘the story' to the questions he would most like answered concerning the nature of the universe and extraterrestrial (intelligent or otherwise) life. There is only a slight deviation coherence of this section where Sagan-or the editors- decide to delve into the nature of man's war instinct and whether or not it is good to suppress it or nurture it. Sagan feels that thousands of years of a hunter/gatherer society will not be offset by relatively few years of a sedentary existence. Despite this Sagan maintains an optimistic outlook on humanities destiny, a trend that runs the course of the book. Overall this section is fairly light and enjoyable to read, the concepts early in the section will not overwhelm the reader. Upon finishing the section one is left with a sense of satisfaction, not the confusion associated by the jargon riddled books that plague this genre. In our day, that is today, there are more scientists than there ever was in the past. Tomorrow will bring more still. Scientists by nature are disruptive creatures, there favourite pastime is pacing in back and forth in their laboratories creating theories as to how the clockwork of the universe ticks. Others scientists spend their time trying to disprove each others theories. In doing so changing the nature the universe-there could be nothing more disruptive than that. What then do we do when two scientists, or, two separate herds of them disagree on a theory. We could have them strap on safety goggles, have them butt heads like mountain goats, last scientist standing is correct. Though this sounds amusing, in some circumstances it is not any better than some of systems that exists to test the validity of a theory. A theory by definition can never be proven or become fact, except for mathematical ones. The Scientific method requires of us to perform tedious experiments and to keep concise observations as a means of strengthening a theory This is the inherent problem. If two contradicting theories are both sound then which one do we accept, and to compound the problem; what if the theories were predicting if life on this planet would end in the next year, decade or century. Choosing one over the other now becomes very personal, and scientists might try to resolve their problems with attacks on each others character, each will accuse the other of scare-mongering or being too conservative. This only breeds paranoia and hate for science in the minds of the public. The issues are ozone levels, greenhouse gases, fish stocks and whatever is being leached into your backyard. Sagan address' this issue in the second part of his book. This by far being the strongest and most important part because it affects the each life on our planet. It is interesting that Sagan in his final chapter of this part â€Å"Religion and Science: An Alliance† that Sagan comes to the conclusion that Science and Religion can together work through this problem; Science being the antithesis of Religion, but both-for now- are committed to helping humanity prevail. The third and final part is mixed bag of topics from Americas cold war with Russia, America war with itself, a new view on abortion, morality and Sagan's top three advances in twentieth century existence. Each essay only begins to discuss topics of enormous depth. Sagan in the style that is prevalent throughout the book keeps them all very readable and thought provoking. The essays define so well aspects of the Twentieth century that one gets the feeling that some of them will find their way into the anthologies of the future. In many ways this book is loosely held together. Individual parts hold some unity but the book as a whole does not. This may be because the book was published after Sagans death, lack of matieral or and editors blunder. This should not detract the reader from the importance of this book. In 1994 I spent one month in the country of my ancestors, India. Immediatley I marveled at the advancements in my rural village in the period between a prior visit. Televisions had become widespread, satellites were attached to a quarter of the homes and telephones were now as common as curry. Night fell on my humble village. The nights are pitch black, there are no lamps to illuminate the streets. A problem quickly arises; if you don't know every back alley, every tiny claustrophobic cobble stone street, every pseudo-dead end path (paths that seem to dead ends but if you walk through a Hobbit hole like door, you emerge on to another tiny cobblestone street), you are quickly lost. On top of all of this, the streets are roamed by stray dogs. Attempting to walk across the village, as I did without a flashlight(they attract bandits) is daunting; frightening on the most primitive of levels. To my relief I have learned that since my visit street lamps have been installed in heavily traveled areas. As a western observer I overlooked the technological necessity of my village. By ‘my village' I mean then millions of rural villages in the dozens of countries around the world. All the gadgets that these villages will acquire will not make up for the basic security that a simple low pressure sodium street lamp will provide. These small centers will have to be built up from the ground up with their specific needs in mind. Sadly this has been overlooked by the western ‘guardians' of civilization, the dozens of failed hydroelectric, infrastructure and aid projects are a testament to that. Another sad fact is that our Eastern brothers are fed some of same 500 channel universes that are numbing western man's mind. All the eastern man receives is the ugly consumerism that is the foundation of western man's existence. The need is in education. As the technological need for both these men is distinct so too is their need of education. The western nations feel that democracy is what all nations must have to be fair and right and just and pious. Western man takes a zealous position and feels that democracy should not be strived for but imposed. Overlooking the fact that a successful democracy requires a certain level of education by its people. An education that eastern man does not have. They only man who gains is the western man because he has his thumb firmly over the squirming eastern man's head. Conversely, as the west becomes changed by technology it too will need a new kind of education. Not a kind of education that is provided in the halls of higher education but a kind for the average man. The need for this education is to remedy the phenomenon of scientific myth. Scientific myths are the conceptions that a mass population has as to the limits and powers of science. These myths are most expressed in the realms of pseudo science, advertisements, media and most importantly industry. As I write there is a debate over whether or not genetically altered food is safe or not. Both sides are armed with their infantry of experts and spin doctors. Whether there is real danger in the food is almost not a question anymore, rather this issue is that of public relations. The con side could easily win by playing to the fears of the public, by painting a picture of a Jurassic Garden, where asparagus is more deadly than killer bees. It does not matter which theory is right, the public will not be accepting when it is afraid, no amount of RNA, DNA,G,A,T,C,X Y and Zed will change that. This is where people like Carl Sagan fit in. The power of his writing is its ability to teach the average man of the wonders around him in and easy to understand, non-confrontational manner. From this education we will learn to be critical of science and not shun it. The real progress for both western and eastern man will happen on a personal level and education is its vehicle. We do not judge the progress of a society by measuring the height of their buildings, the strength of their telescopes or grace of their athletes. We measure progress by looking at the individual.

Analysis On Current Phase And Opportunities Of Red Bull...

MARKETING AUDIT This phase provides analysis on current phase and opportunities of Red Bull using Situation analysis and SWOT analysis (see appendix 2). Authoritative writers like Kotler (1977), define marketing audit as an instrument to judge an organization’s overall commitment to a market orientation. Marketing audit helps in increasing the profitability of the company (Kotler, 1999). INTERNAL ANALYSIS i. The Company The organization s inside investigation manages the organization s assessment goals, procedure, and capacities (Wikipedia, 2013). This assists the company to show the quality of its plan of action, whether there are ranges for development and how well the organization fits the outer environment. The Red Bull†¦show more content†¦It has seen a 60% rise in volume sales over 2007-2012 in parallel with a 64% rise in volume sales during the same period (Price, 2012). The combined value of sports and red bull sales in 2012 was around  £1.2 billion and red bull accounted for over 80% of this figure at around  £1.0 billion (Price, 2012). Red bull has outstanding performance as of 2013 in terms of sales, revenues, productivity and operating profits. These positive results can be attributed to the outstanding sales in the red bull market shown on the tab 2.0 below. These outstanding sales happened as a result of efficient cost management and the on-going brand investment; Red Bull Market (Countries) Sales in percentage (%) India +55% Japan +32% Turkey +18% Scandinavia +16% Russia +13% Brazil +12% Also, Red Bull uses buzz promoting methodology as its principle advertising procedure. Its piece of the pie deals and request builds each year and deals are required to continue ascending in the up and coming year. The greater part of Red Bull‟s deals originate from circulating nations like Middle East, Far East, Europe and USA. Despite the fact that the interest for Red Bull has expanded, the company‟s piece of the overall industry in USA for instance has gone down from 75% in 1998 to 47% today (Robin, 2010). Because of that, Red Bull‟s mission for development is focusing on the centerShow MoreRelatedRed Bull Management: Marketing, Competitors, Target Audience, Challenges, and Factors2066 Words   |  9 Pages Index 1. Introduction 2. Red bull marketing strategy 3. Red bull competitors 4. Red bull audience target 5. Red Bull challenges faced by the management decision strategy 6. Red bull internal and external factors 7. Conclusion (Devi 2011) Introduction It increases endurance, accelerates the ability of concentration and reaction rate, gives more energy and improves mood. 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