Adam Bede Example Of Literary Realism English Literature Essay

Adam Bede Example Of Literary Realism English Literature Essay Adam Bede is written by George Eliot, whose real name was Mary Ann Evans, and it was published in 1859. It was published with a pseudonymous, even if she was a well published and highly respected scholar of that period. The novel has remained in print from that time and is used in university studies of 19th century English Literature.  [1]  When we talk about realism, we mean the mode of writing that gives the impression of recording or reflectingfaithfully an actual way of life. The term refers, most of the times confusingly, both to a literary method and to a more general attitude. But what it interests us here, is the literary method which is based on detailed accuracy of description (i.e. Verisimilitude- which is very important in this period).  [2]   Adam Bede is believed that it is one of the best examples of literary realism in England and English literature. Realism, as we said above, has to do with recording the life exactly as it is. So, writers do not have to imagine characters and plots that could fit in the real world. Furthermore, realists (and here George Eliot) focus more on the characters than on the plot. Aslo, realist literature appeared in England in 1840 and remained for about fifty years. It had many differences from the previous movement, Romanticism, and people in the beginning found it difficult to deal with the new idea of Realism and its meaning. In Adam Bede George Eliot creates the false illusion of a steady and immemorial rural world. We can say that it is a realistic novel, first of all, because of the manifesto on realism in Chapter 17 and because of the plentifully observed details, which are really important in a realist novel. It also charts the consequences of moral action. The world of Adam Bede is immemorial and the village that George Eliot had chosen for her book is really very difficult to change, rather than a city, and many of the conditions of change would come from the outside (e.g. From cities). If fiction has to have the kind of validity that implied by the scientific word experiment, as a means of discovering what really would happen in certain circumstances and not what one might wish to happen, the novelists imagination must at least be as rigorously disciplined as the scientists observation. So, George Eliot must first of all, establish that the world in which the events of the novel take place, really is the world in which we live in, governed by the same natural laws that govern human existence in the world we know. If she did not convince us of this, we could hardly take her findings seriously. And we can recognize in a novel, the real world we live in à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ as we recognize people and places we know à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ not so much by their measurable extent of problems as by a whole range of variable impressions that we are often hardly aware of noticing.  [3]   The first requirment for a true fiction is the hard presence of a recognizably real world, and as we can see in many points George Eliot supplies it throught the novel. For example, when she describes the workshop of carpenter (Adams wprkshop), she tries to give us the sense of how difficult it is this work, by the use of details and descriptions. Also, in the description of the dairy in which Hetty Sorrel makes butter, we have a symphony in colours and textures. These details, make us feel like we watch the whole scene and smell the fresh butter. Adam Bede offers the radical contrast of a world shaped through and through by moral judgement and moral evaluation. Technique is that which selects among the multitude of possible qualities, organizes them in the finite world of the novel, and holds them in a shape that can catch the light of our own awareness, which without shapes to fall upon, is ignorant. Technique is like the convex or concave surface of the spoon, and the different turnings ans inclinations to which it is liable. Technique lengthens or foreshortens, and while the rudimentary relationships of common experience remain still recognizable, it reveals astonishing bulges of significance, magnifies certain parts of the anatomy of life, of whose potentialities we had perhaps not been aware, humbles others. So, the massively slow movement of Adam Bede is one such shape making technique. It is true that we are generally persuaded of the actual slow movement of rural life, and it is rural life à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ the life of villagers, tenant farmers à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ that George Eliot describes.  [4]   Actually, as we can see up to now, George Eliot uses many descriptions, many images and many details in order to succeed her purpose: to write a realistic novel. She also uses facts from common people who live in the country-side and they are much more sensitive to the changes of life. Of course George Eliot has done very well her job and we continue. Ian Adams article, The Structure of Realisms in Adam Bede mentions these: Whatever traps for the unwary lie in the term realism, few would quarrel over its appropriateness for Adam Bede. The characters in the novel are ordinary in either social class or native endowment and frequently in both, its tragic action grows out of a commonplace seduction, and its setting is humble and representatively agrarian. Perhaps, even more important is the treatment of these subjects: there is a high degree of consistency and historical accuracy in details of time and place, the background is richly and minutely crowded with particulars, and the account of characters motives always stresses ordinary causes, rationally explicable. He also mention that: The distinction between realism of subject and realism of procedure is an important one. Both kinds of realism exist in Adam Bede, as they do in most realistic novels, detailed presentation tending to go hand in hand with the selection of commonplace an d usually unfamiliar and unconventional subject. Realism of subject in the novel has perhaps had the most thorough treatment, particularly in discussion of the rustic background and the unheroic nature of the central characters. Ian Adam believes that Adam Bede is really a realist novel.  [5]   Another key of the realistic novel of Adam Bede is the description of the natural beauty of Englishs countryside, especially in scenes of sadness or evil. For example, when Hetty tries to find Captain Donnithorne, the countryside is very luxurious and the day is beautiful . Many people would think that this appearance of the day, represents also the beauty of Hetty; the outside,but also the outside beauty. But George Eliot here, tries to mislead us and she encourages us to look beyond the surface of people and things to their deeper characteristics. So, Eliot as we can see, tries to pass to the readers some messages about the people in the real life and she wants to make her readers more conscious. In Adam Bede George Eliot also tries to represent the life of the 19th century in England and especially in the countryside. As we can see from the novel, people faced many difficulties and the community was pretty strict. Even if some people were good some times they had to become evil and face the real life and the problems. George Eliot was also very careful about the use of language. She used the every-day language of that period in order to make the novel more persuasive about it realistic style. An example of the difficulties that people faced in the society of 19th century is the life of Adam. Adam is a hard man who learns, first through the death of his father and then through the suffering of an inferior being whom he loves, sympathy towards weakness. But what the idea of Adam represents in ones mind is not such a development, but something much more static. What it remains to the readers about him, are the qualities that he has from the first, summed up in his words to Arthur. (Ive seen pretty clear, ever since I could cast up a sum, as you can never do whats wrong without breeding sin and trouble more than you can ever see (Chapter 16) ). As we can see, Adam is a massive representation of the central Eliotic belief, but his dramatic existence, his learning through suffering, even his suffering itself, are by comparison notional.  [6]   As it mentioned in many books, the story of Adam Bede was actually the representation of the real life of George Eliot. In the beginning when people learned about that were a bit confused and afraid. It was pretty hard for them to believe that everything or pretty everything that was written in Adam Bede was in reality the life of George Eliot. This clue, could show us why the novel had so many details and descriptions. Also, because at first, the book was published anonymously, most of the readers believed that it was written by a man. Finally, to sum up, we could say that Adam Bede is one of the first realist book in England. It represents reality in many different ways, using many descriptions, a lot of details,use of everyday language, representations of landscapes full of colours and smell. Using the right methods and techniques George Eliot managed to write a realist novel which flurried not only because it was the story of the real life of George Eliot, but also because it was from the first novels with a realist context and it was pretty difficult for the readers of that period to understand it and understand its meaning. Unfortunately, there were many who fight George Eliot and Adam Bede but when the years pasted, they understood the value of this novel and they used it also in university studies. Only from this decision we can see how important was this novel for English Literature and more specific, about the Realist Literature of England.

Management Art or Science Essay

The concept of management is universal and very old. That is why different views have been expressed about its nature by different writers from time to time. The continuous and rapid development of management principles and practices in organization has changed the nature of management. The main points of view about the nature of management are given below: Management as an Art, Science or Both A lot of controversy arises whether management is an art or science or both. It is said that the management is the oldest of arts and youngest of science. This explains the changing nature of management. But to have an exact answer to this question, it is necessary to understand both these aspects separately and combinedly, as given below: Management as an Art: Art refers to the way of doing specific things; it indicates how an object can be achieved. In the words of George R. Terry, â€Å"Art is bringing about of a desired result through the application of skill.† Art is, thus, skilful application of knowledge which entirely depends on the inherent capacity of a person which comes from within a person and is learned from practice and experience. In this sense, management is certainly an art as a manager uses his skill, knowledge and experience in solving various problems, both complicated and non-complicated that arise in the working of his enterprise successful. In the words of Ernest Dale, â€Å"Management is considered as an art rather than science mainly because managerial skill is a personnel possession and is intuitive.† Management as a Science: Science may be described as a systematized body of knowledge based on proper findings and exact principles and is capable of verification. It is a reservoir of fundamental truths and its findings apply safely in all the situations. In this sense, management is a science as it has also developed some systematized knowledge. Like other sciences, management has also developed certain principles, laws, generalization, which are universal in nature and are applicable wherever the efforts of the people are to be coordinated. But management is not as exact science as other physical sciences like physic, chemistry, biology, astronomy etc. The main reason for the inexactness of science of management is that it deals with the people and it is very difficult to predict their behavior accurately. In this way, management falls in the area of ‘social sciences’. Thus, it is a social science. Conclusion- Management is an Art and Science Both From the above study, we conclude that management is an art and science both. According to American Society of Mechanical Engineers. â€Å"Management is the art and science of preparing, organizing and directing human efforts to control the forces and utilize the material of nature for the benefit of men. â€Å"Thus, it has now been accepted that management is an art as well as science. It has the elements of both arts and science. In the words of Dean Stanley, â€Å"Management is a mixture of an art an science – the present ratio is about 80% art and 20% science.†

The Civil War On America - 945 Words

The Civil War was a big moment in history. Many Americans know what it is and have come to appreciate it. The Civil war made big changes to America and society. Although things are not perfect in America today, the Civil War effected society in a big way and changed many people over a period of time. Thus, America was made a better place as a whole and improved drastically. The war started in 1861 and ended in 1865. The Civil war was fought for many reasons and numerous factors caused the war. For example, around this time period Northern, or free states had many differences between Southern, or slave states. This included â€Å"the power of the national government to prohibit slavery in the territories that had not yet become states†2 When Abraham Lincoln became President in 1860 he pledged to the people that he would keep slavery out of the territories. In turn, seven slave states that were in the deep South seceded, or separated from, the nation and made a new nation widel y known as the Confederate States of America.Many Northerners chose not to take the secession seriously and failed to recognize that the Southern states were authentic about what they were doing. Though other people did not seem to care too much, Abraham Lincoln did. He gave his First Inaugural speech to a broken nation in March of 1861, the year the war started. One of the first things that Lincoln said in his speech was that â€Å"Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the SouthernShow MoreRelatedThe Civil War Of America1816 Words   |  8 Pagesyears America has gained the reputation of being the â€Å"land of the free and the home of the brave.† But how did america become acquainted with these titles? America gained its reputation from undergoing several wars and social discrepancies. It is very ironic though that America can be seen as the land of the free when the early citizens of the country thrived off the enslavement of an entire race of people. One major war that questioned the idea of freedom and enslavement, was the civil war. ThisRead MoreThe Civil War Of America1854 Words   |  8 PagesThe Civil War    The American Civil War was a civil war fought from 1861 to 1865 to determine the survival of the Union or independence for the Confederacy. Among the 34 states in 1861, seven Southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America. The Confederacy, the South, included eleven states. The states that remained loyal to the United States and did not declare secession were known as the Union or the North. 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In fact, the 10th Amendment of the Constitution left all power not otherwise designated a federal issue, as belonging to the states. Lincoln’s predecessor, President James Buchanan, who was in office when theRead MoreCivil War Was A Tragic War For America2001 Words   |  9 Pagesthe Civil War started. While most of the battles were fought in Virginia and Tennessee, the Civil War was fought in thousands of places. Some of the places other than Virginia and Tennessee included the following: Pennsylvania, Texas, New Mexico and the Florida coast (â€Å"Civil War Facts†). The last battle was fought at Palmito Ranch, Texas, on May 13, 1895, but the end of the war was on April 9, 1865 when Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederate army to Ulysses S. Grant. While the Civil War was aRead MoreCause Of The Civil War On America1290 Words   |  6 Pages1301 Professor Harris December 3, 2015 Causes of the Civil War Lasting from 1861-1865 The Civil war: one of the most bloodiest and alienated wars in the American History has had a tremendous impact on our past society, and modern as well. In the early 1800’s the United States accomplished harmony, alliance, and unification, eventually causing sectionalism to flourish. This controversy led to the famous bloody war, known as the Civil war. While the south wanted to separate, and become one, theRead MoreThe Civil War And The Confederate States Of America Essay1700 Words   |  7 PagesThe American Civil War is a civil war between 1861 and 1865 involving the United States or (the Union) and the Confederate States of America (â€Å"the Confederacy†), led by Jefferson Davis, consisting of eleven southern slave states that had seceded from the United States. The Union included all abolitionist states and five borderline slave states and was headed by Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party. The latter was opposed to the expansion of sla very in the territories held by the United StatesRead MoreThe Reconstruction of America after the Civil War1078 Words   |  4 PagesThe Civil War left a country divided not only by property lines and borders but by beliefs as well. Not just religious beliefs, moral beliefs also. It left both sides, north and south struggling, trying to figure out what their next move towards reuniting the divided America was going to be. The period following the end of the Civil War would become known as the â€Å"Reconstruction Era.† An era that raised just as many questions as it did answers. A reconstruction of America that seems to carry on manyRead MoreAmerica s Second Civil War704 Words   |  3 Pageskilled the man responsible for America s second civil war. Roderick Ryder. Ryder was making a run for his escape chopper, and Blackwood ordered me to stop him. He got in the helicopter, and with my VKS Vykhlop Sniper Rifle I managed to pick off the pilot. While Ryder was crawling out, I kicked him in the face and put one in between his eyes. A day later were packing to go home and I m told that my wife was captured by the notorious Ko Gue Gang. I save America, and this is how it pays me backsRead MoreThe Civil War : America s Most Memorable War957 Words   |  4 PagesThe Civil War is America’s most memorable war that took place in 1861- 1865. This war was fought over that facts of which the United States would become a confederate with its own states, or all united under a government that promised that every person was created equally. Which meant that there wouldn’t be any more slavery allowed unless a serious crime was committed that person would become a slave to the government by law. When this law was passed the whole south of America went hysterical because

The Individual and Society in the Communist Manifesto Essay

The Individual and Society in the Communist Manifesto The end of 19th century, Western Society was changing physically, philosophically, economically, and politically. It was an influential and critical time in that the Industrial Revolution created a new class. Many contemporary observers realized the dramatic changes in society. Among these were Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels who observed the conditions of the working man, or the proletariat, and saw a change in how goods and wealth were distributed. In their Communist Manifesto, they described their observations of the inequalities between the emerging wealthy middle class and the proletariat as well as the condition of the proletariat. They argued that the proletariat was†¦show more content†¦As the economy grew, it allowed for the expansion of a new class. In essence, they concluded that the bourgeoisie was the result of industrial capitalism. According to historian Neil Harding, â€Å"[the bourgeoisie] was a class that had been formed by the expropriation of the p easants through the spread of large scale capitalist farming and by the extinction of the artisans and handicraftsmen through the dominance of large-scale manufacture and the wholesale introduction of machinery†.3 As a result, the newfound wealth allowed this emerging class to accommodate and produce more goods. Therefore, this change in production required that the goods be produced in mass quantities. The production of the mass quantities, however, required a mass proletariat. They became the backbone of the economy. Workers in the factories toiled long hours at minimum wages to satisfy the growing needs and demands of the markets. The poor conditions and the inequality in the distribution of goods, however, prompted the proletariat to begin to demand a fair share of the results. It became clear that the bourgeoisie had, â€Å"stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto honoured and looked up to with reverent awe. It had converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science, into its paid wage labourers†. 4 Workers were relegated to the bottom of the social pyramid.Show MoreRelated The United States Constitution Compared to the Communist Manifesto840 Words   |  4 PagesConstitution Compared to the Communist Manifesto Both the Communist Manifesto and the United States Constitution share some common ideas. They are documents that strive for ideas that in opposition to one another. The Communist Manifesto and The Constitution of the United States both include what the relationship between an individual and society should be about. Karl Marx and Frederick Engels wrote the Communist Manifesto. Marx and Engels talked about in the Communist Manifesto what they thought toRead MoreEssay about The Role of the Individual in Candide1148 Words   |  5 Pagesworld the roles of the individual and of society are completely abstract. As the world changes and develops, the roles of the individual and society change to meet the needs of the people. Voltaires Candide which involves France during the Age of Enlightment Marx Engels Communist Manifesto which involves Germany around 1848 both discuss the roles of the individual and of society in different ways. In both pieces of literature what is expected of th e individuals and of society is very different fromRead MoreThe Manifesto Of The Communist Party Essay1526 Words   |  7 PagesIntroduction: The Manifesto of the Communist party is a book written in 1847, by a group of radical workers part the â€Å"Communist League.† Including the radical workers, the group comprised of Karl Marx, and Friedrich Engels. 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The majorityRead MoreThe Development Of The Communist Manifesto In The European1083 Words   |  5 PagesThe development of the communist manifesto in the European region has led to the influencing of the different structures present in the area. The communist manifesto has resulted in the formation of holy alliances in the European region. It is due to the effects of the Manifesto that Marx developed the journal to address the issue. The importance of this journal is to highlight the sociological problems that have resulted from the manifesto. The fact that the manifesto has been highlighted by theRead More The Manifesto of the Communist Party Essay1346 Words   |  6 PagesThe Manifesto of the Communist Party Drafted in 1848 by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, the â€Å"Manifesto of the Communist Party† outlines the views, tendencies, and aims of the communist party through the so-called philosophy of historical materialism (Distante). These views were expressed throughout four distinct sections of the â€Å"Manifesto of the Communist Party.† The first section describes the relationship between the bourgeois and the proletarians. The next section depicts theRead MoreThe Influence of the Communist Manifesto on the Development of Industrial Capitalism1249 Words   |  5 Pages The Communist Manifesto left a tremendous impact on a society that was rapidly becoming industrialized, and its effects can even be seen on the dominating economic system of the twenty-first century. In the later nineteenth century, however, industrial capitalism was on the brink of ruin. â€Å"On many occasions during the past century, Marxists have thought that capitalism was down for the count . . . 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Once Marx got older, he moved to London England where he progressed his ideas and even collaborate with Friedrich Engels with whom he published numerous works. Marx’s most well known piece of work is The Communist Manifesto, which discusses his theories about society, economi cs and politics , together known as Marxism. Through this pamphlet, it highlightsRead More The Death of Communism828 Words   |  4 PagesThe Death of Communism The United States longest and bloodiest war was the Vietnam War, which was fought from 1959 until 1975.(Communist Manifesto 1) In this war 57,685 Americans were killed, and their were over 2 million Vietnamese deaths.(Communist Manifesto 3) One of the main causes of the war was a commonly held American belief called the Domino Theory. This theory stated that if the U.S. allowed one country to fall to communism, those around it would fall, and then those around it, eventually

A Womans Work Poem Explication - 711 Words

A Mother’s Work ENG/125 March 6, 2013 A Mother’s Work A liquid takes the form of the container into which it is poured. Similarly, an artist chooses a medium for painting or sculpture, and a poet chooses a form. This aesthetic should complement the artist’s overall theme. In the case of â€Å"Woman’s Work† by Julia Alvarez, the chosen form is a villanelle. This form is very restrictive and repetitive, often used to express some sort of obsessiveness. Alvarez slightly modifies the traditional structure of the villanelle repetition and rhyme scheme by using a lot of feminine rhymes and repeating lines in spirit but not necessarily in law. In much the same way, the rigid repetitiveness of housework done by the author’s mother is the†¦show more content†¦790). As her mother’s â€Å"masterpiece,† she now sees how the repetition and practice of keeping house is not oppressive, but expressive. In the same way that a villanelle is able to express powerful emotions with its repetitivenes s, so is the â€Å"housewife† able to impress upon her family the degree of her love and devotion to their well-being. In the final stanza Alvarez expresses her frustration, her amazement, and finally her acceptance of herShow MoreRelated An Explication of She Walks in Beauty Essay680 Words   |  3 PagesAn Explication of She Walks in Beauty Many Romantic poets embrace the concept of self -expression through the use of imagination to convey their personal visions of love and life. The power of emotion is evident in Lord Byrons poems. It can be possible that light can be emitted through the darkness of night. In his poem, She Walks In Beauty, Lord Byron epitomizes the balance between two opposing forces. The two forces involved are the darkness and the light at work in a womans beautyRead MoreEssay on Collection of Poems by Various Authors3882 Words   |  16 PagesCollection of Poems by Various Authors Poet Biography, Edgar Allan Poe The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe Mamie by Carl Sandburg Explication, Mamie by Carl Sandburg Two Strangers Breakfast by Carl Sandburg Mag by Carl Sandburg Explications of Two Strangers Breakfast and Mag by Carl Sandburg Reasons Why by Langston Hughes Explication of Reasons Why by Langston Hughes The Faces of Our Youth by Franklin Delano Roosevelt Enjoyment, Explication, The Faces of Our Youth by FranklinRead MoreBusiness and Management2600 Words   |  11 Pagesthe modality in which you attend class. If you have recently changed modalities, read the policies governing your current class modality. Course Materials Barnet, S., Cain, W.E., Burto, W. (2011). Literature for composition: Essays, stories, poems, and plays (9th ed.). New York, NY: Longman. All electronic materials are available on the student website. |Week One: Elements of Literature—Stories Read MoreHow Fa Has the Use of English Language Enriched or Disrupted Life and Culture in Mauritius15928 Words   |  64 PagesDickenson’s poem â€Å"Because I could not stop for Death† details the events the narrator experiences after dying. In the poem, the narrator is driven around in a horse-drawn carriage to several places, including a schoolyard, a field of wheat, and a house sunken in the ground. However, a deeper reading of the poem reveals the poet’s uncertainty of whether there is or is not an afterlife. The events she describes are of course fictional and unknowable, but the multiple changes in pacing of the poem, as wellRead More The Death of the ‘Authorlessness Theory’? Essay6470 Words   |  26 PagesBarthes’ claim that â€Å"The birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author†? (172). Even if â€Å"it is language which speaks, not the author† (168), an author is responsible for the creation of a unique sequence of words in a novel, a poem or an article. The canvas on which freeplaying signifiers paint themselves seems so vast to Barthes that â€Å"the writer can only imitate a gesture that is always anterior, never original† (170). His claim, when taken at face value, is equivalent to saying

Historical Development of Continental Philosophy’s Existentialism Free Essays

Historical development of Continental philosophy’s existentialism and phenomenology as a response to Hegelian idealism Absolute Idealism left distinct marks on many facets of Western culture. True, science was indifferent to it, and common sense was perhaps stupefied by it, but the greatest political movement of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries— Marxism—was to a significant degree an outgrowth of Absolute Idealism. (Bertrand Russell remarked someplace that Marx was nothing more than Hegel mixed with British economic theory. We will write a custom essay sample on Historical Development of Continental Philosophy’s Existentialism or any similar topic only for you Order Now Nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature, theology, and even art felt an influence. The Romantic composers of the nineteenth century, for example, with their fondness for expanded form, vast orchestras, complex scores and soaring melodies, searched for the all-encompassing musical statement. In doing so, they mirrored the efforts of the metaphysicians; whose vast and imposing systems were sources of inspiration to many artists and composers. As we have said, much of what happened in philosophy after Hegel was in response to Hegel. This response took different forms in English-speaking countries and on the European continent—so different that philosophy in the twentieth century was split into two traditions or, as we might say nowadays, two â€Å"conversations. † So-called analytic philosophy and its offshoots became the predominant tradition of philosophy in England and eventually in the United States. The response to Hegelian idealism on the European continent was quite different however; and is known (at least in English-speaking countries) as Continental philosophy. Mean while, the United States developed its own brand of philosophy—called pragmatism—but ultimately analytic philosophy became firmly entrenched in the United States as well. Within Continental philosophy may be found various identifiable schools of philosophical thought: existentialism, phenomenology, hermeneutics, deconstruction, and critical theory. Two influential schools were existentialism and phenomenology, and we will begin this chapter with them. Both existentialism and phenomenology have their roots in the nineteenth century, and many of their themes can be traced back to Socrates and even to the pre- Socratics. Each school of thought has influenced the other to such an extent that two of the most famous and influential Continental philosophers of this century, Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) and Jean-Paul Sartre (1905 –1980), are important figures in both movements, although Heidegger is primarily a phenomenologist and Sartre primarily an existentialist. Some of the main themes of existentialism are traditional and academic philosophy is sterile and remote from the concerns of real life. Philosophy must focus on the individual in her or his confrontation with the world. The world is irrational (or, in any event, beyond total comprehending or accurate conceptualizing through philosophy). The world is absurd, in the sense that no ultimate explanation can be given for why it is the way it is. Senselessness, emptiness, triviality, separation, and inability to communicate pervade human existence. Giving birth to anxiety, dread, self-doubt, and despair as well as the individual confronts as the most important fact of human existence, the necessity to choose how he or she is to live within this absurd and irrational world. Now, many of these themes had already been introduced by those brooding thinkers of the nineteenth century, Arthur Schopenhauer (see previous chapter), Soren Kierkegaard, and Friedrich Nietzsche. All three had a strong distaste for the optimistic idealism of Hegel—and for metaphysical systems in general. Such philosophy, they thought, ignored the human predicament. For all three the universe, including its human inhabitants, is seldom rational, and philosophical systems that seek to make everything seem rational are just futile attempts to overcome pessimism and despair. This impressive-sounding word denotes the philosophy that grew out of the work of Edmund Husserl (1859–1938). In brief, phenomenology interests itself in the essential structures found within the stream of conscious experience—the stream of phenomena—as these structures manifest themselves independently of the assumptions and presuppositions of science. Phenomenology, much more than existentialism, has been a product of philosophers rather than of artists and writers. But like existentialism, phenomenology has had enormous impact outside philosophical circles. It has been especially influential in theology, the social and political sciences, and psychology and psychoanalysis. Phenomenology is a movement of thinkers who have a variety of interests and points of view; phenomenology itself finds its antecedents in Kant and Hegel (though the movement regarded itself as anything but Hegelian). Kant, in the Critique of Pure Reason, argued that all objective knowledge is based on phenomena, the data received in sensory experience. In Hegel’s Phenomenology of Mind, beings are treated as phenomena or objects for a consciousness. The world beyond experience, the â€Å"real† world assumed by natural science, is a world concerning which much is unknown and doubtful. But the world-in-experience, the world of pure phenomena, can be explored without the same limitations or uncertainties. How to cite Historical Development of Continental Philosophy’s Existentialism, Essay examples

Judy Almighty free essay sample

â€Å"There is no substitute for a good night’s sleep,† says Judy on this morning, while wagging a finger at my coffee cup and scoping the circles under my eyes. â€Å"Nor is there one for a good Baldacci.† At this I think, Isn’t that the truth, for I’m not one to ever turn down a hardbound thriller, or an inviting bed in a quiet room. But can she blame me for skimping on sleep when there lay an unfinished Wide Sargasso Sea by my bedside the night before? Judy is a woman with silvery hair and fingernails resembling talons, polished in graffiti-like airbrushed designs—â€Å"The better to turn pages with, my dear,† she cackled upon my noticing them. I found her at the reference desk of a neighboring city’s library last winter, and my literary life has since been revamped. At the time I sought to make richer my study of the piano and violin with biographies of classical composers, so we started from Nonfiction. We will write a custom essay sample on Judy Almighty or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page She led me to sections of Handel and Mendelssohn and, after she had spouted, for solid minutes, facts and opinions on those men’s musical contributions, I inferred that she had read these books before. â€Å"Of course,† Judy shrugged, â€Å"because what else is there to do but read for an old lady like myself?† As it turns out, I will be perpetually inspired by this particular old lady. As I began frequenting her end of the reference desk for guidance in the following months, my suspicion was confirmed that Judy could tell me the ending to any book in the library worth reading. Since the day in 1994 when I read my first little book sitting on Dad’s lap, I have not been able to keep my nose out of the things. Now I can read fast and long, and with decent retention; what is more, I have outgrown my love for Are You My Mother? and There’s a Wocket in my Pocket, and have gathered the courage to dip my toes into the oceans that are new genres and topics. I have found that there aren’t many experiences more gratifying than having one more story under your belt, or a little more knowledge of a certain history, or the addition of a couple words to one’s vocabulary by the end of a couple hundred pages. I have also realized that my zeal for literature isn’t common enough, and I feel lucky to have stumbled upon a dear soul like Judy’s. That wizened little lady pulls me toward the Mystery rows now, and selects a copy of Absolute Power. â€Å"We didn’t have authors like Baldacci when I was your age,† she says in her acquired small, sparkly librarian whisper; I can’t help thinking: if there were writers like David Baldacci, and Dan Brown, and these other recent ones which Judy adores so ardently, if she had always read as much as she does nowadays, that her head might have exploded by now from the magnitude of her knowledge. And I am thankful. I’m thankful that she is here for me at this time in my life, at an age when it is so critical for a person’s fervor for reading and writing to be fueled with the most stimulating works of literature. I am thankful to have met the woman I’ve been striving to become much later on†¦not because of her dazzling acrylic fingertips or her silver hair, or even because of her wit so sharp that it seems misplaced within such a slow-moving, creaking body. It is Judy’s own fulfillment of my lifelong goal that makes her my hero: that is, my goal to have learned as much as possible by the end of my days about whatever made it into a book—whatever people before me have deemed valuable enough to write down and publish. I want to know everything, just like Judy knows everything. I will always remember her wisdom.