The Ideas of Confucius
Essay - 3 pages - Philosophy
Confucius lived through a time of social change in China. Society was moving away from the old values, and towards more selfish pursuits that he felt were immoral and unjust. To this end, Confucius taught others what he felt were the core values of ancient Chinese culture, and in effect changed...
When China Ruled the Seas
Essay - 2 pages - Literature
When China Ruled the Seas is a discourse on the histories of China's naval prowess. The book begins with early Chinese history, detailing China's first ships, and the somewhat disputable evidence of China's colonization and exploration of places such as Japan, North America, Australia, and the...
Universal Science Fiction
Essay - 3 pages - Literature
According to Jane Donawerth in Frankenstein's Daughters, the only way for women to write science fiction, is for them to change the rules. This is certainly the case with Octavia Butler's “Bloodchild”. In Butler's Nebula award winning short story, Butler tells the tale of Gan, a young...
Japanese Culture
Essay - 3 pages - Literature
Although the books, Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami and Temple of the Golden Pavilion, by Yukio Mishima, are completely different works, both have uncannily similar characters. Each main character from these two books has at least one character in the other book who shares some of their...
Medea
Essay - 2 pages - Literature
When first comparing the play Medea and Aristotle's Poetics, many people feel that the lead character, Medea, breaks every requirement for being a tragic character. But when we take a step back and view Medea at a different angle, we see that she does actually fit every aspect of Aristotle's...
The Effects of Christ
Essay - 3 pages - Literature
One of the central themes of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, is love. Stowe felt that love could bring an end to the evils of slavery, and be a redemptive force. There is one character in this novel that embodies complete, unfaltering, and unconditional love: this character is Eva...
What Is Empiricism?
Essay - 2 pages - Philosophy
Empiricism is a view about where all knowledge comes from. Empiricism is not exclusive to scientific knowledge, but rather knowledge as a whole. This includes knowledge of everyday life. Empiricism states that science and everyday thinking have the same basic principles, and science is just...
Who Has Final Control Over Our Bodies: Me, You, or God?
Essay - 3 pages - Philosophy
Human beings, as superior animals, are born with unique cognitive processes that we have yet to identify in other animals. It is our cognition, our thoughts that set us apart from other creatures and make us who we are. However, our ability to think and analyze is also what causes us to question...
What's Your Perspective?
Essay - 2 pages - Literature
Most experienced readers do not have a hard time discerning authorial intent within an individual work or analyzing themes within that piece. Herman Melville's Benito Cereno however, provides a challenge. Melville intricately weaves this story so that no single interpretation fits, and it forces...
Dialect as a Form of Identity
Tutorials/exercises - 7 pages - Linguistics & languages
Every time a person opens his or her mouth to speak that person is speaking not only a language but a dialect of that language as well. It is a common misconception that only certain people whose pronunciations vary from what is considered Standard American English, speak a dialect. In fact,...
Similarities and Differences in Men's and Women's Cooperative Speaking Styles: An Analysis of Book Club Discussions
Tutorials/exercises - 11 pages - Linguistics & languages
Some of the most frequently referred to but potentially erroneous stereotypes regarding gendered speaking style differences involve dichotomies. Men are competitive - women are cooperative. Men focus on impersonal topics - women focus on personal topics. Men's speech is to report - women's...
Michigan's Upper Peninsula Variety of English and its Usage
Thesis - 7 pages - Linguistics & languages
Every time a person opens his or her mouth to speak that person is speaking not only a language but a dialect of that language as well. It is a common misconception that only certain people whose pronunciations vary from what is considered Standard American English, speak a dialect. In fact,...
The Connection between Crossword Puzzles and Semantics
Tutorials/exercises - 9 pages - Linguistics & languages
When a person sits down to work on a crossword puzzle the thought probably does not cross their mind that they are calling on various forms of linguistic knowledge in solving the crossword clues. The majority of basic language knowledge and usage is an unconscious phenomenon. It has been said...
Homer and the Futility of War
Essay - 3 pages - Philosophy
Rage. Rage is the first word that starts the Iliad (1.1), and as beginnings go it is a substantial foundation for the story told, however leaving the question “Which Rage?”. The rage of Achilles at the death of Patrokles, the rage of Menelaus at the theft of Helen, these are the...
Sexual Taboo: Vampire Myths and Stories
Essay - 4 pages - Literature
The belief in vampires has been around for most of recorded history, dating back before the bible and Ancient Egypt to Babylonian demonology and very early Sumerian mythology . Although, it was never the mythology that we think of today; in those times it was a belief rooted just as strongly as...
What is Practical Wisdom?
Essay - 3 pages - Philosophy
Aristotle within his Nicomachean Ethics defines the different regions of the soul, especially the virtues and functions of each. After all his contemplation over universal ideas, such as the very essence and base of justice and wisdom, he also realized the soul must contain a part to contemplate...
Nietzsche: Genealogy of Morals
Essay - 3 pages - Philosophy
Good versus Evil, this is the ever present conflict in human morality and while nearly one third of the modern world supports this doctrine by supporting Christianity, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche abhors this division of morals. His essay, Genealogy of Morals, remembers that once Good versus Bad...
Antigone Commentary
Essay - 3 pages - Literature
Sophocles wrote three plays about Thebes and while the tragedy of Antigone is chronologically the third and last of these, it was ironically written first out of them. It opens up, giving little background, with the two sisters Antigone and Ismene discussing their two now deceased brothers in...
Carpe Diem? Try Tomorrow
Essay - 2 pages - Philosophy
Initially, I sat in front of a blank page contemplating how to start the introduction, how to draw the reader in. But after an hour, it became clear to me that I could not easily conjure up a stylish lead-in with the subject matter. So here I am addressing the issue flat out. Does this make me...
The North Indian Tabla Drum as Saivite Hindu Religious Path
Essay - 2 pages - Philosophy
The traditions of Hindustani (North Indian) tabla drumming gather the various strands of culture that exist in India into a complex social tapestry. In order to understand the cultural phenomenon of tabla music, it must be heard within the context of an Indian heritage originating from a wide...
Anthrologists in Disagreement over Cockfighting
Essay - 3 pages - Philosophy
In anthropological theory there has been a clear division and consistent debate between cultural materialists and non-materialist symbolic anthropologists. Theorists such as Marvin Harris and Julian Steward are exemplary of the materialist position, while others such as Sherry B. Ortner and...
Postmodernism: Moving Toward Transcendence
Essay - 3 pages - Literature
The conception of a utopian society has both motivated and haunted countless civilizations since the dawn of time. Sublime and intangible, the aspiration to reach a “perfect” society is arguably the heart of one of the world's most significant movements; modernism. Proponents of...
An Animal's place in America
Essay - 3 pages - Literature
In 1975, an Australian philosopher by the name of Peter Singer first published his controversial book Animal Liberation. It has since become widely known as the beginning of the current “animal liberation movement” in America. The book preached the virtues of vegetarianism and vilified...
The Good-Morrow
Essay - 2 pages - Literature
“The Good-Morrow” is a story written by John Donne that talks about two lovers finding each other, and realizing that nothing in the world ever has or will matter. I believe that the lover's Donne is speaking about are himself and a lover of the past. However, the poem is not just about...
Masculinity in The Woman in White
Essay - 3 pages - Literature
The novel, The Woman in White, “seeks to revise recent accounts of the model of male identity posited by the first sensation novel”(Ablow, Par. 4). In The Woman in White, the author, Wilkie Collins, presents masculinity through the character of Marian Holcombe at a time when femininity...
The Flavor and Sound of Liberation
Essay - 2 pages - Philosophy
The versatile musical functionality of the tabla reflects its utility as an instrument of contemplation. As the rhythmic expression of the drone, the tabla focuses the listener's attention on the present musical moment. From a psychological perspective, “the basis of listening is the...
Devotion and Musical Practice in North India
Essay - 5 pages - Philosophy
The guru-shisya parampara is the system of master/disciple lineage that characterizes the traditional education system of North Indian music. The term parampara, ‘disciplic succession,' is introduced in the Bhagavad-gita (4.2), when Krsna tells Arjuna: “This Knowledge of yoga was...
Longing For HER: Ferlinghetti's Mad Quest for the Muse
Essay - 3 pages - Philosophy
While Lawrence Ferlinghetti makes no claim to being enlightened, his poetry is nonetheless a record of and reaction to the sacred journey. While it is illuminating to read words of the awakened prophets of world history, I think it can be as rewarding to read the work of those who, sincere in...
The Inner Soundscape of Nada-Yoga: Sonic Path of Union
Thesis - 3 pages - Philosophy
The Himalayan religious traditions (Saivite Hinduism, Mahayana Buddhism, Tibetan Bon-po) are related by a common heritage of esoteric practices intended to unify the religious aspirant with the ultimate reality (as defined by the particular tradition). This gnosis is defined variously as dzogchen...
Evelyn Waugh's The Loved One
Essay - 2 pages - Literature
Evelyn Waugh's The Loved One is a novel that with its darkly scathing humor attempts to impart the message that the plasticity of the present tense is illusory by exposing the superficialities of California's mortuary business. The contemporaneous effect that living in a world where a perverse...
