The Knowledge of Human Existence Essay Example for Free

The Knowledge of Human Existence Essay Movies provide the audience with a unique experience. Not only do they entertain, they allow the audience to explore their own preconceptions. The most vital preconception that movies allow the viewer to explore and interact with is the definition and formation of knowledge. For centuries man has grasped for the true definition of knowledge. In this struggle many have fought for a unifying definition, this great conflagration of discourse and study did not lead to a unified definition of knowledge. Moreover, it leads to the question that still beats in the hearts of the philosopher and the movie-goer. What can human beings know about the experience of existence? How do we define it? Man’s struggle with the definition of knowledge and how we define existence is a driving force behind the questions asked by philosophers throughout history. From Plato to Descartes, from Aristotle to Kant, the understanding of existence became nearly an obsession of the great philosophical minds. It is this â€Å"obsession† that drives Hugh Jackman’s character, Robert Angier in Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige. In this â€Å"obsession† Angier finds his match with Keanu Reeves’ character, Neo in Andy and Larry Wachowski’s The Matrix, whose transformation from computer hacker to an almost God like position of knowledge, stems from his obsession with defining his existence. While it is the character Neo who is lead or rises to a position where it is possible to fathom the nature of existence, it is the audience whom Christopher Nolan guides to this level in The Prestige. Before an understanding of existence can be examined, it is important to define the role of the audience in Nolan’s The Prestige. While Nolan’s characters are subject to an â€Å"obsession† directed towards the knowledge of each other’s methods, the true character receiving knowledge is the viewer. Cristel Russell in a piece titled, â€Å"Rethinking Television Audience Measures: An Exploration into the Construct of Audience Connectedness,† written for Marketing Letters in 1999 discusses the degrees of connection a television audience has. While Russell’s piece is intentioned for an understanding of the relationship between a television audience and the images on screen in the sense of how to market to the audience, the similarity of the mediums allow for this to be an example for the filmic experience as well. Russell’s study asserts the strength of the connection the audience has, â€Å"viewers often reported that they imitate some of the intangible aspects of their television show, from the lifestyle of the actors to the philosophy portrayed by the character,† (Russell, 1999, p. 401). Russell chooses the word â€Å"their† to suggest a possessive, included, position that the viewer takes with the images portrayed on the screen. It this suggestion of inclusiveness that suggests that the viewer becomes part of â€Å"their,† show. No longer is the viewer simply an audience member; they are a part of the cast chosen by the director and as such they become a necessary medium for explication of â€Å"philosophy† as is suggested by Russell. Nolan’s audience is not simply viewing, they are interacting with the film, and as such they are guided by Nolan to a realization, just as Robert Angier is. While, Angier’s â€Å"obsession† for knowledge is limited by his insatiable desire for revenge, he ascends on a philosophical scale. While this may seem reminiscent of the story of Plato’s cave, where a man trapped is freed by realization that his existence is limited to projections on the wall of his cave, Plato’s example does not serve Angier. It isn’t until his death at the hands of his old enemy that Angier is able to transcend to the realm of knowledge necessary to understand existence. It is in this moment that he realizes that all the tangible evidence of how his rival’s tricks were performed, were not the true illusion. The truth that Angier in his final moments is lead to believe, is that sacrifice is a necessity for perception to become actual existence. In his dying moments Angiers defines his own understanding of his purpose, while the film-maker paints it in a romantic sense, it provides the viewer with the true understanding of individual existence. It is just that. Individual. While shaped by the collective experience, the only thing a human being can say for certain is that their existence is their own, folding too completely into an empirical collective experience is as unfulfilling as life without death. Hence, Angier must die by the end of the film. (Nolan, 2006). Knowledge cannot be limited solely to a scientific explanation of why things are and why things aren’t. John Cottingham’s piece, â€Å"The Question,† from The Meaning of Life provides the seeker of knowledge with an explanation for the limitedness of scientific inquiry. In the piece Cottingham highlights â€Å"religious discourse† throughout time as necessary force for further investigation into the why that creates the human need for knowledge of existence. While â€Å"religious discourse† may not provide an exact answer to what existence is, this is inconsequential as according to Cottingham, â€Å"But its advocates would urge that it none the less assuages the nausea, the ‘nausea’ as Jean-Paul Sartre called it, that we feel in confronting the blank mystery of existence,† (Cottingham, 2003, p. 9). Here Cottingham’s inclusion of â€Å"religious discourse† as essential in understanding the â€Å"blank mystery of existence,† seems to undermine a definition of existence based entirely on science. â€Å"Science† as discussed in Cottingham’s discourse should be understood as empirical knowledge. Based upon Cottingham, this empirical knowledge, the tangible is limited in its ability to assist human beings in their understandings of existence. It is into this gladiatorial arena where Rene Descartes jumps as a opponent of a solely empirical understanding of existence. Rene Descartes provides a rational approach to the problem of understanding existence. Descartes rationalism is based upon his definition of the â€Å"material† of existence. Rather than being bogged down in the definition of â€Å"material,† Descartes comes to the conclusion that, â€Å"Consciousness is the essential property of mind substance,† (Collinson, 2006, p.81). Descartes’ definition of the â€Å"essential property† as espoused in Diane Collinson’s Fifty Major Philosophers opens the door for how human existence is defined. The â€Å"essential property† of existence is not based on tangible experience. Collinson highlights Descartes suggestion that the mind experiences the empirical sense of the body, but not because of direct physical experience, rather that, â€Å"ideas of primary qualities are not derived from sense experience but are innate,† (Collinson, 2006, p 83. ). This idea of â€Å"primary qualities† can be applied to the question of existence as experienced by Neo in The Matrix. Neo’s character ascends from a plateau of empirical existence in the beginning of the film. He does not know that he is actually being deceived, that his definition of existence is a computer created dream state. This dream state although realized to be a manifestation of a computer program, is seen by Neo in his earliest iteration as real. He does not know he lives within a deception, because the computer-generated Matrix  maintains all the â€Å"essential qualities† of existence in Neo’s mind. It is not until he meets Morpheus that what he considers existence is a facade. While he maintained a certain amount of skepticism, Neo’s first iteration as Thomas Anderson does not suffer to greatly from the problems that Descartes mused about in the sense of â€Å"dualism. † Neo before meeting Morpheus is happy to accept his existence just as it is because without the outside of influence of Morpheus’ experience, the Matrix holds up to the ideal of the innate nature of existence. Similarly, the audience of The Prestige is like Neo. They are lead astray from the true realization of existence, in particular the truths revealed at the end of the movie, by Nolan. The audience does not know that there is a form of deception taking place. Sure, there is the acknowledgement that the other characters practice in deception, but as the audience is intertwined into the film as an additional character, they are unable to see the greater deception at play. Like Neo, the viewers of The Prestige must go through further iterations in order to understand that while seemingly â€Å"innate† in the sense of Descartes, that the existence portrayed is not the truth. In both cases, an outside influence contends against the assumed support of the rationalism proposed by Descartes. As Neo is awakened into the real world by Morpheus, he ascends another rung on the ladder to an identifiable definition of what composes existence. As Morpheus instructs Neo in the realities of the computer dominated manifestation he had accepted as existence, he is in fact reflecting what Kenneth Westphal refers to as, â€Å"the Humean objection, that the appearance of physical objects in space and time is a deceptive illusion produced by our imagination,† (Westphal, 2006, p. 781). In this direct reference to David Hume In his piece,† How Does Kant Prove That We Perceive, And Not Merely Imagine, Physical Objects,† written for Review of Metaphysics, Westphal endorses Morpheus’ claim to Neo that his imagined self when inside the Matrix is just as real as Neo in the real world. If Neo dies in the Matrix, even-though his computer generated image is simply a construction of the mind, he also dies outside of the Matrix. The creation of two distinct images of the same person, with equal mortality seems to suggest a dichotomy, that deception and perception are interchangeable. That the tangible and the imagined are one and the same when it comes to defining existence, but this understanding is only reached by a communal understanding of existence. Neo was perfectly fine with accepting his previous understanding of the world and his violent initial reaction to Morpheus’ suggestion, points to this. This notion rather than serving to clarify how existence is determined actually muddles the idea. It almost works to endorse a sense of self-deception. (Wachowski, 1999). The concept of self-deception and the reality of the imagined is examined by through the audience’s viewing of the truth behind Angier’s final downfall in The Prestige Angier buys into the imagined and as a result must be destroyed. The final scenes of the film refer the audience, now so deeply involved in the deception to the introduction by the character, Cutter, â€Å"Now youre looking for the secret but you wont find it, because of course youre not really looking. You dont really want to know. You want to be fooled,† (Nolan, 2006). This suggestion that the viewer doesn’t â€Å"really want to know,† explains the downfall of Angier. He was so hopeless caught up in his desire for revenge that he limited his imagination, he only placed importance on the empirical evidence, that his enemy had been hung. He allowed himself to be deceived. Similarly, the character Cypher in The Matrix, desires to allow himself to be deceived. Rather than endorsing an empirical knowledge of existence in this desire, this â€Å"obsession,† it does quite the opposite. Both Cypher’s desire and Angier’s downfall in contrast to the admirable outcome favored upon Christian Bale’s character, Alfred Borden, endorse the idea that deception is as real as existence. The ability to choose between to two, between the intangible, (elucidated here as deception) and the tangible is the defining notion of human existence. This seems to reinforce a Kantian understanding of existence. Kant’s definition of the human experience while seemingly based in sensory information and in that regard would be subject to the same deceptions of the senses that plagued Rene Descartes. However, Kant’s argument trumps this understanding. Diane Collinson brings forth Kant’s understanding of experience and existence, â€Å"Things-inthemselves cannot be known ‘even if we could bring our intuition to the highest degree of clearness’. They are the non-sensible causes of what we intuit,† (Collinson, 2006, p. 123). Kant’s theory on knowledge, at least in part, suggests that although senses provide humans with a lens to view the world, that this is limited because in truth the perceived â€Å"cannot be known† no matter what level of ascendency the viewer reaches. This first portion of Kant’s definition of the knowledge of human experience is reflected in the downfalls of both Neo and Robert Angier. Both must fall in order to support this theory, but in falling they are able to transcend and realize that they were unable to fathom their experiences. Angier had to have his rival’s mystery elucidated for him. Neo had to die in order to reach a position similar to that of a demi-god where he was no longer limited by the human existence. The agents in The Matrix repeatedly call attention to this by discussing the weak and vileness of the humans they have enslaved. In order to transcend to this level of knowing both characters had to fail. They had to realize that experience and existence cannot be known simply from the sensory or the perception. It requires sacrifice, but the knowledge that comes out of the sacrifice is limited to the individual. Immanuel Kant endorses this assertion of the individual in existence. Moreover it Is in his acceptance of the individual’s lack of ability to discern between perception and the empirical Kant provides an argument against the aforementioned â€Å"Humean objection. † Whereas Hume argued that the knowledge of the physical is a deception produced by the imaginative capacities of the human mind, Kant dispelled this conjecture of Hume’s. This facet of Kantian idealism is reflected in his next contention against the Humean, â€Å"but Kant regarded Hume’s strategy as inadequate since it left the causal principle without any justification. His own account establishes a third class of propositions, one whose propositions, like those stating matters of fact, tell us something about the world and are synthetic rather than analytic but which are also necessary in that they have an a priori element, that is, an element that is not derived from sense perception,† (Collinson, 2006, p. 124). Collinson highlights Kant’s transcendence of Descartes’ and Hume’s positioning of sense perception. By allowing for â€Å"synthetic† propositions or ideas about the world, including that of human existence, Kant opens up a window to air out the farce that perception and the empirical are the measures by which existence is judged. Existence in this sense being â€Å"synthetic† is entirely based upon the individual. The individual, although knowledgeable of the deceptive nature of perceptions can choose to limit their knowledge of existence to those perceptions, as did Robert Angier. Or the individual can create their â€Å"own† synthetic perception of the world, if they understand that they cannot fully understand existence. Both characters ascend the scale of knowledge, but in order to truly understand the purpose of existence, they must fall. It is in this final fall, that both are allowed to finally acknowledge, to finally understand, the truth of their existence. In both movies, the characters, including the character of the audience in The Prestige, are guided to make a choice. The implications of this choice while not entirely revealed to the character upon deciding, reflect their decision to define their own existence. The character just like the human being, chooses what to make of their existence in whatever time and place they reside. It is not a communal definition of existence or an all-encompassing one. The knowledge of what existence is limited solely to the individual. Works Cited Collinson, Diane and Plant, Kathryn. â€Å"Emmanuel Kant (1724-1804). † Fifty Major Philosphers Routledge, 2006, pp. 121-127. Collinson, Diane and Kathryn Plant. â€Å"Rene Descartes (1591-1651),† Fifty Major Philosopher, Routledge, 2006, pp. 79-84. Cottingham, John. â€Å"The Question,† On Meaning of Life, Routledge, 2006, pp. 1-31. Nolan, Christopher (Producer), Nolan, Christopher (Director). (2006). The Prestige [Motion Picture]. United States: Touchstone Pictures. Russell, Cristel Antonia and Puto, Christopher. (Nov 1999). â€Å"Rethinking Television Audience Measures: An Exploration into the Construct of Audience Connectedness. † Marketing Letters 18 (4). Retrieved from: http://www. jstor. org. ezproxy2. lib. depaul. edu/stablett Silver, Joel (Producer), Wachowski, Andy and Larry (Director). (1999). The Matrix [Motion Picture]. United States: Warner Brothers. Westphal, K. R. (2006). HOW DOES KANT PROVE THAT WE PERCEIVE, AND NOT MERELY IMAGINE, PHYSICAL OBJECTS?. Review Of Metaphysics, 59(4), 781-806. Retrieved from: http://web. ebscohost. com. ezproxy2. lib. depaul. edu.

what is a man :: essays research papers

Title of essay: â€Å"What is a man?†: an investigation of this question by Levi and Buchner. Works compared: If This Is a Man and Woyzeck. Introduction In the introduction to my essay, I will mention that Primo says a man is someone who kills, creates or suffers injustice, and that it is not the model of thinking man to wait for his neighbour to die in order to take his piece of bread. I.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It is man who kills Examples will include the passage from If This Is a Man in which a prisoner is killed in front of all the other prisoners in the camp because he took part in a revolt (this occurs in Chapter 16, page 155). Another passage that will be used is when Primo arrives at the camp for the first time and all the women, children, and old men are â€Å"swallowed up by the night† (this occurs in Chapter 1). Another example will be that of the killing of Marie by Woyzeck in scene XXII. II.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It is man who creates injustice Examples will include the passage from If This Is a Man in which we find out that there is a dripping tap in the bedrooms of the camp, but that the water is undrinkable (this occurs in Chapter 2). Another example that is found in Chapter 2 is that there is two inches of cold water on the floor in the shower room, so the prisoners can’t sit down. I will also mention that the shoes of the prisoners where mixed up on arrival, and that the German soldiers weren’t kind enough to keep the shoes in pairs. This is terrible for the prisoners, as Primo says himself, because â€Å"death begins with the shoes†. Also, the Germans banned the prisoners from carrying straw under their clothes to protect themselves from the cold. Examples from Woyzeck will include the fact that the doctor makes use of Woyzeck by making him eat only peas, knowing that he (Woyzeck) has no other choice since he is desperate for money. III.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It is man who suffers injustice This part of my essay may be welded with the previous part so as not to have to repeat examples again. I will simply analyse how man copes with the injustice that is inflicted upon him. IV.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"To wait for his neighbour to die in order to take his piece of bread is [†¦] further from the model of thinking man then the most primitive pigmy [†¦]†.

Seeing the World Through a Broken Heart

The world is a pit of suffering and pain yet we see it not. All across the world, people are suffering from injustice, oppression, and from other afflictions caused by our very own brothers yet we feel not these things, least of all, know of them.A worse thing we have done is make ourselves be the very cause of their pain as if our indifference is not enough a mockery. We do not know their plight, we cannot see their sufferings, we cannot feel their pain all because our hearts remain unbroken.We think the world is confined to the corners in which we move. We have learned to deafen our ears and harden our hearts to the grave injustice and oppression that our brothers across the continents go through everyday. We have downplayed their sufferings with cliches and punchlines we learned from self-help books and by doing so, our hearts do not turn to see their reality.And then, a single movie, carrying a powerful message, turns our worlds upside down. It breaks our hearts to millions of pi eces and opens the eyes of our hearts. We witness the realities of this world and we get shaken. We start to stir up inside.We begin to ponder intently and thoughtfully about what the world goes through, we start to philosophize and discuss within ourselves who we are and what man is and what does man do. We start to wander through life's realities and we always ask why. Our hearts have been broken and now see things in their most naked honest state, and so, it refuses to rest.What is a broken heart?A broken heart simply is an honest heart. It is a heart which is not blinded with fantasies but clearly sees reality as it is. It is a heart that looks at people through a clear glass and not through a rose-tinted window. It is a heart which does not deceive itself with promptings taught by the learned but contents itself only with what it has witnessed.Hotel RwandaHotel Rwanda pounded on my chest like a jackhammer with a deadline. It crushed my heart down to its basic components and for ced me to adopt a whole new perspective about things. I never knew that a world such as that I have seen in the movie existed. I thought people from Africa suffered only from hunger.I never knew of a racial prejudice of that magnitude. I thought only Saddam Hussein was guilty of racial cleansing. How could have I been so base so as to be ignorant of what our brothers go through? I have never seen man so vicious. I have never seen man treat their brothers as â€Å"cockroaches† all because they are of a different race.My heart was shaken and the scenes remain vivid in my mind long after I have seen the movie. Often, in solitude, I contemplate on the movie and I ponder on why man such as the Hutus will do such a thing as they have done. Their skin color was the same.The only reason for the discrimination which I could gather from the movie is that the Tutsis were taller and had the more handsome features. And I ask: what is that?! Perhaps, it is envy.As I continue to ponder, I h ave come to believe that envy really is one viable reason for racial discrimination. The Great Holocaust, which executed hundreds of thousands of Jews, was inspired by envy. Aryanism is built upon envy over the chosen people of God.So perhaps too, the thing that happened in Hotel Rwanda was inspired by envy. The Hutus were envious of the Tutsis because the latter had better physical features. It is a shallow reason but it is enough to cause man to want to eliminate an entire tribe of people.Envy is the second of the seven deadly sins. And rightly so. The movie has proven how deadly it is. What does envy do to man? Among lovers it has caused a lot of broken relationships, unstable marriages, and even manslaughter.Stories of lovers shooting each other because of jealousy have passed by our ears millions of times. Among families, it has caused dissension.Families get broken up because of envy. Envy has caused brothers to hate their own brothers. It is noteworthy that the first murder c ommitted was inspired by envy. The Bible account of Cain and Abel contains the story of the first murder where Cain killed his own brother, Abel, because of envy. Among friends, envy has caused contempt. Among classes and races of people, it has caused discrimination.

Corruption of Government Essay - 1313 Words

The unlawful use of a person’s position while in power leads to multiple problems with today’s government. The corrupt methods politicians use are ideas that are strictly in place for personal gain. Present throughout history and still prevalent within today’s world, government corruption has consisted of a number of negative issues including bribery, economic and social impacts, and the misuse of power. Government’s role within daily life has been shown to have negative effects as seen in many aspects of life as well as in literature. Bribery can be defined as when one is offered money or some other incentive with the intention to corrupt a person’s actions. ¬ Bribery is the main component, if not the basis, of government corruption.†¦show more content†¦If anyone in Equality’s society were to disobey the Council, they would be punished. â€Å"We have seen one of such men burned alive in the square of the City. And it was a sight which has stayed with us through the years, and it haunts us, and follows us, and it gives us no rest. We were a child then, ten years old. And we stood in the great square with all the children and all the men of the City, sent to behold the burning. They brought the Transgressor out into the square and they led them to the pyre. They had torn out the tongue of the Transgressor, so that they could speak no longer† (Rand 50). The Council had shown the community the burning of the Transgressor as a threatening bribe so that the community would know not to disobey The Council, because if they did they would be punished. The threat of punishment was an indirect form of bribery placed by that society’s government on its daily life. Bribery is one of the negative side effects that result from the corruption of government actions. There are also economic effects that result from government corruption. These economic effects coincided with bribery. People who work for compani es that are at risk of being shut down for health or other reasons will pay any amount to make their problems go away. In Mexico, food store owners such as Jose Luis Garcia will pay anywhere from $50-$100 to have inspectors turn the other way (Archibold). This happens on a small scale such asShow MoreRelatedCorruption in Government4697 Words   |  19 PagesCorruption in Leadership: Public Service and Government Cynthia Klecha Abstract Corruption throughout the world is extensive. Corruption is defined as the twisting of integrity. A corrupt individual is an opponent of the truth; their virtues and ethics are deficient. 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