Philosophy Paper Articles

http://www.iep.utm.edu/god-time/ http://www.iep.utm.edu/epictetu/#SH4c To maintain our prohairesis (moral character) in the proper condition – the successful accomplishment of this being necessary and sufficient for eudaimonia (‘happiness’) – we must understand what is eph’ hêmin (‘in our power’ or ‘up to us’; see Discourses 1.22.9–16). If we do not do this, our prohairesis will remain in a faulty condition, for we will remain convinced that things such as wealth and status are good when they are really indifferent, troubled by frustrations and anxieties, subject to disturbing emotions we do not want and cannot control, all of which make life unpleasant and unrewarding, sometimes overwhelmingly so. This is why Epictetus remarks: ‘This is the proper goal, to practise how to remove from one’s life sorrows and laments, and cries of “Alas” and “Poor me”, and misfortune and disappointment’ (Discourses 1.4.23, trans. Dobbin).

A response to the statement " It is impossible to know anything with absolute certainty."

This statement of   "It is impossible to know anything with absolute certainty" seems very grey. When I first read it I thought that there was no way that this was true, but the more I thought about how many things in our lives are uncertain, the more I agreed with the above statement. In life, we will never fully know/understand the people around us. We all keep secrets and parts of ourselves hidden because we fear what others may think. We'll never actually know how this planet came to be either. Sure we have our theories and beliefs, but no one living in this day and age was ever there to witness the beginning of it all. In the world we live in there are too many unknowns that we cling to in the hopes that one day we will be absolutely certain with how things happened. Nothing in this world is certain, not even our daily weather. Temperatures change and light moves to create sunshine or darkness. The world around us changes so quickly so often that there is no certainty alive.

Fate vs. Regret

Thinking about my Senior Philosophy paper the idea of fate or the saying "everything happens for a reason" came to mind. Along with this I always seem to think of regret. If things really do happen for a reason, then why do some have regrets? Faith plays a role in this thinking because it seems that most people who do have a strong faith seem to believe in fate, whereas those that aren't as intumescent in their faith seem to regret certain situations, like of they just said something differently or encountered a situation a minute later that things would be tremendously different.