To what extent have philosophers maintained their legitimacy by recreating god (religion), through universalizing moral principals?

Rowan J-P

To what extent have philosophers maintained their legitimacy by recreating god (religion), through universalizing moral principals? 

Religion has always been a conjoining force, throughout every civilisation. Giving peoples a moral code to live by, and a reason to follow the moral code. But what happens when as Nietzsche famously states, “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him”? How do we, as he suggests, recreate god? Philosophers have always tried to do so through moral philosophy, but to what extent have they been successful?

The problem with moral philosophy, compared to god, is that with god there is a definite reason why we should follow the code and this can be a bit blurry with non-religious philosophy. As Ivan Dostoevsky states, “if god does not exist, everything is permissible”.  Religion creates obedience in people of faith because god is all seeing. There is nothing you can get away with unnoticed because god sees all. Because of this and as Dostoevsky would believe, moral philosophy does not and cannot truly define what is moral and what is not. Leaving us believing that there is no way that philosophers could have recreated god and religion, but surely, with so many people today with no faith in god there must be an alternative. As the faith in god and religion diminished, moral philosophers have developed many moral codes to replace it. The likes of Plato and other modern philosophers center their code on the self, making morality subjective. The challenge with this is that we lose a social center that religion provided. Two ways in which moral phiolosophers have answered these questions are Kant’s absolutism and Mill’s utilitarianism.

Kant turns to human nature and reason to answer this. He believes that humans are by nature rational beings and that through our rationality we have created rules for ourselves, following his theory of how we organize ourselves. He tackles the question left unanswered with the death of god, why should one be moral, by saying that as we are all rational beings so we have the same moral laws. For Kant, when acting upon our morals our rationality will let us see whether the moral is universal or simply our desire. He argues that if we do not do this then the moral code will fall apart completely and that again, being rational beings we will all follow this code. Here he provides a reason why.

Unlike Kant, utilitarianism does not view humans as rational beings but passionate and fueled by desires. The first writer on the subject of utilitarianism goes as far as to say that we look for pleasure in everything. This ties into the philosophy in that, to be moral is to do what makes the most people happy. The outcome is what makes something moral. Humans, striving for happiness, have good reason to be moral if being moral makes you happy. This view goes further into Nietzsche’s believes in that it creates us into gods, making ourselves and everyone around us the reason to be moral.

These two philosophies answers Nietzsche’s question that follows his first statement. “How shall we comfort ourselves” and are an example of philosophers successfully replacing god and religion. They provide a moral law and a reason to follow that many find more grounded in themselves than religion today. God is dead but we have replaced him.                                                           ````````````````````````````````````````````````

Siddhartha Question #1

Siddhartha is a revered young man and son of a Brahim. He holds himself very highly and the people around him encourage this. Since a young age he has been thinking critically and engaging in contemplating and has come much further in his spirituality than most, even at such a young age. His father was very proud of him because of this and had an expectation for him to become a Brahmin himself. His mother saw him to be beautiful, strong. All of this, as well as the loyalty and love of his friend Govinda makes him very sure of himself and allow him to focus on other things but he realizes he needs more, thus encouraging him go on his journey. The confidence given to him from the love and admiration of the people around him are what makes him able to leave and search for inspiration.

#2

Once Siddhartha leaves home and commences his journey, he finds several teachings that make him realize that he needs to find his way on his own. While with the Samanas, he says to Govinda ,“ Soon Govinda, your friend will leave this path of the samanas, which he has followed with you for such a long time. I suffer from thirst, O Govinda, and my thirst has not lessened on this long samanas path.” Pg 18.

Again, once Siddhartha spends time learning the doctrine of the Buddha, he is left with the same thirst and realizes that he has to find his own truth. The teachings of others haven’t brought him closer to nirvana and he decides he needs to do it on his own. Govinda decides not to come with him but stay with the Buddha, leaving Siddhartha alone and free to search himself. He comes to believe that such knowledge comes to one in different ways and cannot be taught. 

Rowan Jones-Pardy

October 29^th

Comp Civ.

1 A. The Images above are representations of Greek civilisation. To what extent do they depict “authentic community,” and the “essence” or “Golden Age” of civilisation?

For western civilisations today, the ideal that we strive for is one of democracy and power, freedom of the people and a strong economy. The Golden Age of Greece (500-300 BC) was possibly the best example of this. The pictures shown represent the three of the most important parts of Greek culture: battle, their self-expression and the gods and their view of the perfect human body.

The image of the shield represents the mythology and legend surrounding war, the glory that many strained themselves to obtain and the battles that were fought during this time. Greek mythology is centered heavily around battle and adventure

The image of the shield or armour shows the Greek as a powerful civilisation, something all civilisations strive to be. Throughout Greek mythology and legend we hear tell of battles and adventures fought by humans. They take great pride in conquest. Examples of this are Homers tales of Troy and Odysseus’ journey. Furthermore, in a lot of these stories we encounter the idea of the “superhuman”, an ideal that Nietzsche coined as something people in our modern civilisations should aim for. During the golden ages of Greece, their gods certainly weren’t dead but they still managed the reach an ideal we strive for today. Thirdly, the Persian wars were a time of great triumph for the Greeks, defeating the much larger Persian army. As Herodotus said, the Greeks won because they were fighting with nothing to lose and because they were free men. His thesis that the Greeks must survive and keep at bay the Persians because the Greeks were civilised and the Persians barbaric and that the Greeks did win shows how this period was the golden age of civilization because it proves that they were a powerful yet free civilisation.

Art is a large part of every civilisation and during the golden age of the Greeks their artistic concepts grew exponentially. A few of Greeks greatest gifts to humanity came out of this. Including pottery and other art forms such as theatre. Pottery became more delicate and sophisticated along with the art of them as well. The perspective changed and became more life like. Such development could only happen in a prospering civilisation with the space for self-expression 

The ideal form of the human body was something that the Greeks were very interested in. You can see this is in the art and particularly statues of this time. The development of contrapossa and gestural poses in statues made by the likes of Polykleitus are all of men and woman in their perfect physical condition, fit and functioning perfectly. The development of contrapossa shows an advanced understanding of the human body, how it balances and moves. It is important to have this knowledge because it allows for the beginning of physical improvement and arguably part of the reason why Greeks were so successful in wars. On top of that, they used math to understand this.  A civilization where math is used to explain, especially in 500 B.C., truly most be extraordinary.  Socrates and his ideal of the spirit counter posed the ideal body.  He says that one most focus on the quality of soul more than that of the body, showing a balanced civilisation. They both bring humans forward, working on peace of mind and truth with physical perfection, as well as seeking explanations from science as well as the gods.

Ancient Greek was a place of many discoveries and advances in all fields of life, setting the stage for our civilisations today. It is truly a credit to the civilisation that the ancient Greeks developed, that their democracy allowed for so much development and progression of thought as well as all other aspects of life. Were we to live there today we would be shocked at how developed it really was and perhaps our idea of how far we’ve come would be altered.