The Human Being and Living The Good Life Essay Example for Free

The Human Being and Living The Good Life Essay This paper contains the different definitions of what it means to be a human being and living a good life. In this paper we will take a look at Hobbes and Augustine’s definition of the human being and the good life. Both of these philosophers give examples of what they think the good life is, and the desires of human nature. In this paper I will talk about Augustine and his thought of how in order to live a good life, one needs to seek God to find true happiness. I will also talk about what being a human being and living the good life means to Hobbes, and his thought of how human equality is the ticket to happiness and the good life. I think Augustine offers a more accurate description of the human being and the good life because I agree that true happiness can’t be found in earthly things. I believe there is much more to life than finding happiness and self-worth in success, money, fame, popularity, and etc. Life chasing after materialistic items won’t bring you happiness because you will always feel like there is something more you want and desire, the materialistic items won’t satisfy you. Augustine’s definition of the human nature is one that is a God-seeker. Augustine agrees with Plato that the human nature has a mind to think and choose. He also believes that human beings have the free will to choose between good and evil. He believes that the human beings search for ultimate fulfillment and happiness. He believes that the good life is a life following God. Augustine believes that the only way to find eternal happiness and live a fulfilled life is following God because human beings are born as natural sinners; only when we find God, the emptiness in our heart is filled with eternal love and happiness. His definition of the good life is not one free of suffering, troubles, or sorrow, but one with faith in God. He believes that the grace of God is what will make u s happy and a relationship with God is true happiness. He believes that when we seek materialistic existence it ultimately leads to despair. He believes that a person that chases materialistic items is one who is selfish, because that person is always thinking about what the world/ another person can do for me; A godly person is one who appreciates the world for who it is and  another person for who he/she is. A godly person finds the life fulfilled. He believes that because human beings are all sinners, chasing after materialistic items will only lead to more sin and addiction, it won’t give us the ultimate satisfaction and fulfillment. Augustine shares his personal experience with us about how he chased after materialistic items and stole for fun, but it was never enough to fulfill him. He talks about his lust and search for love, but he didn’t find true love, fulfillment, or happiness until he found God. Human beings are the same, they chase after fame, money, popularity, success, and material items, but they will always feel the void, emptiness, and unfulfilled. Materialistic happiness is only temporary. Ultimate fulfillment and happiness requires spiritual existence and not tangible existence. Hobbes believes that the definition of human nature is a person who desires happiness. Hobbes believes that happiness is relative to the individual. There is no universal happiness. Hobbes believes that human beings are self-centered, self- preservative, and desire power. Hobbes believed that the state of nature would lead to the state of war because there are no laws in the state of nature, human beings have absolute freedom and the absolute freedom will lead to a constant state of fear. Hobbes believes that human beings are self-centered and self-preservative because they think about themselves before thinking about others. Hobbes believes that the basic components of human nature are competitiveness, diffidence, and glory. We do whatever we can to defend what we have, which makes us diffident. We all seek to have the repetition that others admire, which makes us seeking of glory. Hobbes believes that human equality is the good life. He believes that humans are equal in terms of body and mind. We are equal in body because we all have the ability and strength to kill each other. We are equal in mind because of prudent and practical intelligence (knowledge gained through experience). We all share the ability to learn from experience. That is why for Hobbes, everyone deserves the same rights and all rights. He believes that the only way to reach happiness and the good life is equality because human beings are naturally competitive. If everyone and everything is equal, then the competition will not be there because everyone is getting all the same things and same rights and there is nothing to fight over, so there will be peace. I think Augustine gives a better description of the human being because I agree that chasing after materialistic items can’t fill the empty void that is felt in the heart, only the love and mercy of God can fill that empty void. I believe that God created us and we won’t feel that everlasting love or happiness until we find God again, and I believe that only He can fill that empty void in our hearts. The materialistic items can bring temporary happiness and joy but that happiness and joy will eventually go away, and you feel that emptiness again. I agree that all human beings are born as sinners and we go after materialistic items like money, fame, popularity, success, love, and etc., and even when we do have all those materialistic items, we always want more. Human beings are selfish and enough never seems to exist in our vocabulary. I can speak from my personal experience because I desire for money, success, love, fame, and popularity as well. Even though I have a part-time job and I’m making enough money for me to spend on food, daily necessities, clothes, entertainment, and enjoyment, it still doesn’t seem enough. I always want to make more money, because to me there is no such thing as too much money. I desire for success because being successful means you can make lots of money and get lots of fame and popularity. I like to feel loved, whether it is by friends, family, or a significant other. Like Augustine, I realized that all these materialistic items brings me temporary joy, happiness, and fulfillment but it doesn’t last because it still doesn’t feel like it’s enough to make me feel satisfied. It wasn’t until one of my friends starting bringing me to church, and I learned about God and the love and mercy He has shown us and given us; it was then that I realized that I need God in my life. After finding God and accepting Him, I felt the emptiness in my heart that I tried to fill with materialistic items and temporary happiness, was finally filled with eternal happiness and fulfillment. I knew that the good life and living a life following God didn’t mean that I wouldn’t be facing trouble or that life was going to be easy, that I wasn’t going to face trials, temptations, or sufferings, but I knew that a life following God meant happiness and faith and trust that God will be there for me no matter what. Having that faith in Him made me fill fulfilled. I also began looking at things differently, instead of thinking about myself and the things I can get from money, fame, popularity, or success, I began thinking about how I can give to others and society with  the success or money or fame I have or will have. I began to think of the things I can do for others or for society, instead of what others or the society can do for me. I became more selfless i nstead of being selfish. Even though my life isn’t perfect and I still face sufferings and trails daily, I feel fulfilled because I have God in my life; and I wasn’t able to feel this way or find this happiness when chasing after the materialistic goods. That is why I believe Augustine’s definition is an accurate one. We can spend our entire life searching for happiness and we can have all the money in the world, or all the fame and popularity in the world, and we can feel loved by our significant others and family members and friends, but we will still feel unhappy, empty, lonely, or something is missing. God alone can fill that emptiness and loneliness, no one or nothing else can fill it. That is why I believe that even though following God may not be perfect and easy, that everlasting happiness and eternal love is worth it. Hobbes is right that the human beings desire happiness and is selfish and competitive and want popularity. However, I disagree that there is no universal happiness. There is universal happiness for whoever finds God. I believe that because we were all born as sinners, accepting God as our savior and knowing that He loves us even after all the sin we commit, we’ve committed, and we will commit, will makes us feel loved and accepted by our Heavenly Father. That is the fulfillment we need. We can find everlasting love and eternal happiness in our Heavenly Father. That is why I believe that in order to have a good life, one has to seek God and live for and through Him.

Tupac :: essays research papers

Shakur and Wallace are known as two of the greatest rap artists of all time. Both of these men were murdered in the past 6 years. After the death of Shakur, there was a lot of controversy about who had killed him and if he was really dead or not. He was killed in 1996 so the talk had stopped for many years until last month. Before I get into the new findings, I’ll give you some background information. Wallace and Shakur were once good friends and then became enemies. Both men would rap mean, nasty stuff about each other and Shakur even claimed to have slept with Wallace’s wife, Faith Evans. Wallace was an East coast rapper and best friends with Sean "P. Diddy" Combs. They were both affiliated with Bad Boy Entertainment, which had close ties to the Crips gang. Tupac came to be associated with the West Coast rappers and Death Row Records. Death Row was owned by Marion "Suge" Knight, a former NFL player and a guy who was always up to no good. Suge Knight and Tupac were both members of the â€Å"Bloods† gang. This gang happened to be archrivals of the Crips. One night in Las Vegas in 1996, Tupac was in town for a Mike Tyson fight. After the fight, he and his friends beat up a Crip by the name of Orlando Anderson in a hotel lobby. Anderson had recently taken part in assault up one of Tupac's bodyguards. After the beating Anderson and his Crip friends quickly planned to get revenge on Shakur. This is where everything began to get interesting. In a new report from the L.A. Times, it says that the Notorious BIG himself was in Las Vegas at the time and was most involved in Tupac's death. The report also says that the murder weapon was supplied Christopher Wallace who agreed to pay the Crips $1 million to kill Shakur. In the article it says, "he didn't just want Shakur dead. He wanted the satisfaction of knowing the fatal bullet came from his gun." This gun was a .40-caliber Glock pistol that Biggie reportedly handed over to the Crips in a Vegas hotel room. The day after the article ran, Wallace’s family said that he was not even in Las Vegas at the time. Another report also said that a friend claims that he and Biggie were in Teaneck, N.

Bias in Historical Description Essay

The article reviewed was Behan McCullagh’s Bias in Historical Description, Interpretation, and Explanation in which he gave a brief but thorough outlook on the manner to which historical accounts are peppered with biased analysis and his opinion on how historians would be able to diminish, if not fully obliterate, from the nature of recounting past events. Why History is Biased McCullagh started of his piece by constructing four reasons as to why he thought that historical writings are mainly biased. His first reason was that he believed historians misinterpreted evidences without properly asserting the truth about its justification. His second reason was that information may already have been omitted by historians in compiling such past accounts that cater to make their views balanced. The third reason was that he deems general description of any historical information may include certain facts that are possibly false due to the uncertainty of most available sources. Lastly, his fourth reason was in reference to causal explanations, concisely described in the article as events that substantially modify the likelihood of the event, which are usually focused on a few important causes that renders a misleading point of view in the reader’s comprehension of the process of events (McCullagh, 2000). McCullagh voiced out that historians who often make mistakes in incorporating biases in their interpretations are typically motivated rather than accidental. He also noted difference between personal and cultural biases, delineating that the latter is far more difficult to be rectified than the other as it is ingrained, yet maintaining that historians must still try to do away with personal bias. He then goes on to further illustrate the concept of bias in historical accounts (McCullagh, 2000). The concept of Bias in Historical Accounts: McCullagh elucidated on the point that historians choose subjects which are of interests to them, inevitably providing a more partial basis to their interpretation of historical information. Consequently, historians are said to be products of their environment or culture, which will naturally hold general notions about the past. Thus, written accounts by historians are subjected to the availability of information gathered and on the decisions made through constant debates on what gets included and what should be disregarded. Such process is said to most likely offer misleading descriptions of historical accounts that have a particular cause (McCullagh, 2000). However, McCullagh has held that preconceived notions about a historical subject that are not biased could be observed in occurrences that involves transformation within a country’s economy as well as social structures. Biases are only attached when selective causes are highlighted while others of equal importance are disregarded (McCullagh, 2000). The perception of biases in constructing history should be avoided as according to McCullagh it provides a deceptive account of the historical subject which may cause misunderstandings and unnecessary negative consequences in conflict-driven situations. McCullagh presented three reasons as to why there are some who think that there is no way to evade the prospect of bias in historical accounts. First was that the interests of historians are automatically considered in determining the historical importance of a subject, the information extracted and the word preferences to use. The second was that preconceptions of historians and their contemporaries have biased point of views and the third one is the reiterated thought that historians have ingrained cultural beliefs and principles (McCullagh, 2000). Overcoming Personal Bias: McCullagh presented his opinion on how historians could be able to avoid injecting biases in interpreting historical data. He stated that historians should be committed to standards of rational thinking that would bring about a justified description of the past. One way to impose this is through peer reviews so as to motivate historians to follow certain acceptable guidelines in rational inquiry. The role of the historian is an important factor in maintaining social responsibility and creating a fair account of historical events (McCullagh, 2000). He denotes that multiplicity in perspectives is another way to produce rational historical inquiry as it presents different views of witnesses which melds relevant information into one account (McCullagh, 2000). McCullagh also pondered upon the notion that for people to prevail over biases, historians must accept that historiography is limited within itself and that the end of the discipline should also be considered in interpreting the past in a postmodern view (McCullagh, 2000). Reference: McCullagh, C. B. 2000. â€Å"Bias in Historical Description, Interpretation, and Explanation. † History & Theory 39(1): 39 – 66.

Why Is Not Student Loan Forgiveness - 1161 Words

Student loan forgiveness remains such a vital topic to many individuals because the exorbitant costs of post-secondary education require a majority of students to take on debt in order to simply improve themselves and advance intellectually. Thousands of students are graduating college every year, each with several thousands of dollars in debt. This area is important to research because it will provide insight into the futures of all college students immersed in the deep debt that appears to consistently accompany a quality education. Finances are important to many college students, especially when it is hard to receive scholarships to cover schooling expenses. When going through college, students stress about the amount of debt that they acquire throughout their post-secondary schooling and learning about the potential to have these debts forgiven is monumental. In order to be able to afford the future, it is important to understand the amount of loan debt and the possibility for debt forgiveness to be able to proceed through life. This essay seeks to address the question of whether or not student loan forgiveness is currently adequate for assisting graduates in need of financial assistance. The subject of student loan forgiveness tends to warrant strong opinions from many about whether or not they should occur. In many circumstances, student loans should be forgiven, or at least partially forgiven, and the process to do so should be heavily revised in order to make thisShow MoreRelatedStudent Debt Is Tough And Federal Loan865 Words   |  4 PagesThe qualifications for the program are tough and federal loan forgiveness only applies to federal Direct Loans, not private student loans. 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