Womens Rights Are Human Rights Speech Analysis Philosophy Essay

Womens Rights Are Human Rights Speech Analysis Philosophy Essay On 5 September 1995, Hillary Clinton, former first Lady of the United States, was invited by the Women Health Security Colloquium, which was sponsored by the World Health Organization, to attend the Fourth U.N. World Conference on Women in Beijing, China. As the Honorary Chairperson of the United States delegation to the conference, she gave the speech, Womens Rights Are Human Rights in the first few days during a special Plenary Session. In the speech, she utilized several persuasive techniques, also known as propaganda, grasping peoples attention in order to achieve support for the claim of the womens rights she was devoted to. Propaganda is usually a speech device that people intently use to induce or intensify others actions and attitudes with some deluded languages. Since propaganda is deliberate, it is often looked down as an evil and offensive tool. However, sometimes it can just be used for an act of persuasion or a personal perspective. According to Cross, propaganda is an important tool and seen in everywhere surrounding our lives. It needs to be correctly analyzed and respected and it can actually work toward good causes as well as bad (p.526). -For example, by intentionally incorporating propaganda into her speech, such as appealing to peoples emotions, distracting peoples attention, and somewhat misleading people, Hillary Clinton strengthened her persuasive power for womens rights and successfully beamed her message all over the world. Some propaganda techniques employ pathos, the act of appealing to peoples emotions. For example, plain-folks appeal, a device where a speaker tries to win our confidence and support by appearing to be a person like ourselves, is a type of propaganda. Clintons speech displays this technique when she says, We come together in fields and in factories. In village markets and supermarkets. In living rooms and board rooms. Her words suggest that she is one of those everyday people in fields, factories, markets, living rooms, and board rooms. Clinton further expands this idea by saying, We share a common future. This statement suggests that because we share the same future, we are on the same level. She is telling her audience that we should listen to her points because she is one of us, and thus has similar goals and interests to us. We are effectively led to believe that we should trust her so that we can overcome our shared struggles to achieve those shared goals and that shared future. Through plain-folks appeal, she turns her audience into trusting comrades-in-arms. She then employs the bandwagon technique in a similar manner. When she says, That is why every woman, every man, every child, every family, and every nation on our planet has a stake in the discussion that takes place here, she is again promoting that idea of oneness, which is the sharing of both struggles and goals. In the bandwagon technique, however, the goal is to pressure people to believe what everyone else believes and to conform, thus being faithful to the conference. There is a call to action. Clinton is telling the audience to jump on the bandwagon, because if one of them does not, that is the equivalent of turning away from your fellows. In the speech, she further strengthens the credibility of her argument by appealing to other emotions, such as pity and fear. Appealing to pity is achieved by attempting to win the audiences sympathy by giving examples of rightfully pitiable situations, in order to convince us of the conclusion or solution she will propose. One sees this technique in the statement: As an American, I want to speak up for women in my own country women who are raising children on the minimum wage, women who cant afford health care or child care, women whose lives are threatened by violence, including violence in their own homes. In that sentence, she in effect not only manages to tug on the audiences heartstrings, but also to subtly declare herself as the honorary representative of these poor souls; then she becomes the voice of the voiceless and oppressed. At the same time, it is also hard not to notice how Clinton makes the use of appeal to fear, a persuasion technique that implicitly threatens the audience and like the previous examples of pathos-based argument, uses emotions rather than reasons to persuade. Clinton displays this technique in her speech by saying, As long as discrimination and inequities remain so commonplace around the world as long as girls and women are valued less, fed less, fed last, overworked, underpaid, not schooled and subjected to violence in and out of their homes the potential of the human family to create a peaceful, prosperous world will not be realized. Here, she is basically saying that people feel pity for those disenfranchised individuals she gives as an example, but if we continue to do nothing, their situations will deteriorate further and worst of all, such situations may affect them as well, in their own family and in their own home. Of course, the point of stirring her audience to such extents is to pursue a specific ideal, sometimes even a certain agenda. In the speech, however, she does not specify what exact action she wants her audience to take, and yet the call to action is almost palpable. Clinton achieves this by distracting her audiences attention. In particular, she uses transfer-glory by association in this case-a propaganda technique wherein the speaker attempts to transfer our good feelings about one thing, towards their viewpoints. She makes her audience aware that her goal is the improvement of womens lives, What we are learning around the world is that if women are healthy and educated, their families will flourish. If women are free from violence, their families will flourish. If women have a chance to work and earn as full and equal partners in society, their families will flourish. However, as we can see, she is careful not to exclude anyone from appreciating her viewpoints. In fact, she sugges ts that by joining her cause, people would actually be helping themselves. Clinton even broadens the scope of these purported benefits when she says, And when families flourish, communities and nations will flourish. Thus, by helping women, we are actually helping the entire world. It is an altruistic enough message in all respects. To cement such a message, however, we will notice that the speech is also littered with attempts to mislead the audience as well. For example, when she states, Women are the primary caretakers for most of the worlds children and elderly, she is making a hasty generalization in fact. As Cooper shown, A hasty generalization is a conclusion based on a sample that is too small or in some other way unrepresentative of the larger population. (p.152) Such a statement supports her overall argument and it might also be true in certain cases; however, she misleads her audience by stating it as a fact without stating a basis that men can also be the primary caretakers for children and seniors. Clintons use of another technique in her speech, stroking (Argumentum ad populum), gains my admiration. First, she presents an opposing view to her points when she states, There are some who wonder whether the lives of women and girls matter to economic and political progress around the globe. By suggesting that some people think it is not necessary to care about womens rights simply just because they think women are less useful in the field of economy and politics, she raises indignation. However, it is misleading in that it creates an opponent, an unspecified they, that may or may not exist. Thus, the argument becomes whether what they said is true or not, and not the possibility that no one truly said those instigating statements. Clinton then assures the indignant audience that there are many women who are just as successful as men in professions with high emolument in fact, stating: Let them look at the women gathered here and at Huairou the homemakers, nurses, teachers, lawyer s, policymakers, and women who run their own businesses. She manages to present both argument and counterargument without specifying who the enemy is supposed to be and uses stroking that makes us feel we as women are very important to the society. Another technique that Clinton uses to mislead her audience to cement her message is card-stacking. Card-stacking is the technique which tells us the fact that is true but still not the entirely true in order to prevent us from being aware of some other important facts. For example, Clinton employs this technique when she states, If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are womens rights and womens rights are human rights, once and for all. While it is true that womens rights are a part of human rights, human rights are not specific to just all women, they encompass the rights of both genders. Here, Clinton uses the card-stacking to mislead us, in order to perk up the importance of womens rights. Near the end, she uses card-stacking again when she says, Families rely on mothers and wives for emotional support and care; families rely on women for labor in the home; and increasingly, families rely on women for income needed to raise h ealthy children and care for other relatives. Considering the very diverse memberships, values, and situations of any set of real families, this generalization is not necessarily true; thus, she subtly misleads her audience again. Throughout the history, propaganda is often used by government or politics or advertiser to affect peoples attitude and consequently alter peoples decisions to become the follower of the point of the political party or become the consumer of the company involuntarily. However, the intention of Clintons speech is completely different. It does not have to damage an oppositions credit as in some candidates speech, and neither induces people to purchase something actually unnecessary in their lives as in some ads. It is about delivering a great message for her audience regarding the significance of public women welfare. Propaganda can be used in good manners as well as bad manners. By promoting the propaganda in the positive way, Clinton successfully increased my perception of the importance of womens rights and made me want to follow her idea as long as she dedicates for this claim.

Future of North Korea Economy: Politics over Economic Policy

Future of North Korea Economy: Politics Over Economic Policy The terms starvation, isolation, totalitarianism, and nuclear ambitions combined would remind most people the hermit kingdom in East Asia, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and its Kim dynasty. After the demise of the aged dictator Kim Jong Il in December 2011, the country went through a period of mourning the death of their â€Å"beloved† Great General and, undergoing a power succession to his 29-year-old son, Kim Jong Un. He has been known to have attended a Swiss school in his childhood years, enjoying playing basketball and video games (Yan & Shubert, 2011).However, even though many outsiders have a hopeful outlook on this young dictator to be somewhat liberal in both economic and political perspectives, analyzing the situation through levels of analysis suggests that he is unlikely to be any different than his predecessors. In fact, because maintaining the nation’s authoritarian Kim dynast y and communist political system is the most important objective for North Korea, he will probably continue to put low priority on economy, defying international norms as a totalitarian nation of a closed, rigidly planned economy.The Three Levels Explained The levels-of-analysis is an approach conceptualized by Kenneth Waltz in his book Man, the State, and War to understand global politics through categorizing different factors shaping states’ behaviors (Ray, 2001). The approach can be categorized in to three levels: the individual level, which emphasizes the roles played by individual leaders, nation-state level, focusing on interaction between various actors under the nation’s political system and culture, and the system level, addressing distribution of power in the international system (Dorff, 2004).Although levels-of-analysis problem, regarding limitation and vagueness of integrating units, is an ongoing issue according to James Lee Ray (2001), the levels can be i ntegrated more simply in to a more structured and comprehensive analysis when they are considered as different explanatory variables of different location as in this case. Individual Level of AnalysisKim’s past actions show that his main goal is consolidating and maintaining ultimate power through an authoritarian, inhumane method that closely resembles his father’s methods. His fondness for Michael Jordan and his chic, stylish wife may give the impression that he would adopt a more â€Å"open† leadership, but since succession, he has been ruthlessly eliminating anyone in his way of solidifying power within the ruling party, while also verbally and physically provoking South Korea.Not long after ascending to the â€Å"throne†, he executed Kim Chol, vice minister of the army, with a mortar round for â€Å"reportedly drinking and carousing during the official mourning period after Kim Jong Il’s death† (Ryall, 2012). Moreover Klug (2012) report ed that Ri Yong Ho, the military chief who was Kim’s mentor during the power transition and one of the key figures that the former leader relied upon, had also been removed from his position, for health reasons, this July.Baek Seung-joo of the Korea Institute for Defense Analysis say that these replacements of influential military officers and purges of over a dozen senior officials are signs that the young dictator is reshuffling the cabinet to appoint people loyal to him, while also keeping check of any possible dissidents (Kim, 2012). In addition, Kim has clearly shown that he is not concerned with international norms when he reportedly played a major role in planning the shelling of South Korea’s territory, Yeonpyeong Island, a couple of years ago (Yang, 2012).Statements threatening to attack South Korea and its key figures have also escalated in a harsher, specific tone after the change of leadership, even out threatening to send revolutionary armed forces to â₠¬Å"reduce all the ratlike groups and the bases for provocations to ashes in three or four minutes, in much shorter time, by unprecedented peculiar means and methods of our own style† in April (Choe, 2012). Byman and Lind (2010) claim that these provocations help Kim to stoke popular nationalism, while strengthening his position within the military.It has been only a few years since Kim entered politics, but these series of eliminating potentially threatening figures, including even those who have helped in smoothing the transition, and continuous provocation to the international society suggest that consolidating power through provocation and purging is the main focus of Kim on the individual level. Even if Kim Jong Un succeeds in gaining stable power, it is unlikely that he would be enthusiastic in bringing forth major economic reforms as expected by some analysts because such extensive reforms could undermine his authority as they would risk loyalty of the military and the p arty.As Ben Ascione (2012) argues, unless the military becomes a major stake holder in economic reforms through generating profit instead of depleting huge amounts of North Korea’s budget, economic reforms will have to be pursued at the cost of the military first policy, which is a guideline his father, prioritizing the military in allocating resources to foster loyalty from the army by strengthening its position. Therefore, Kim would have to face dissatisfied military elites if he were to start expensive economic reforms.He may have vowed to develop the economy, and rumors have spread that he will push through reforms allowing farmers to keep 30% of their yield, eventually replacing the state rationing system, but these reforms have been postponed numerous times, while the state has even officially denied any intent to reform and called the expectation â€Å"a foolish and silly dream† (â€Å"Where the Sun†, 2012). Nuclear aspiration is another major characteris tic of Kim Jong Un that makes economic reforms unlikely in the near future as this deters the possibility of the army profiting from economy growth.Pouring billions of national money into developing nuclear program can be traced back to more than half a century ago, when his grandfather had allegedly became intimidated by the United States placing nuclear-tipped Matador missiles in South Korea (Pincus, 2006). Kim Jong Un shares the same goal for developing nuclear weapons, showed by launching North Korea’s forth rocket, criticized by the international community as a disguise for developing long distance missile, while also declaring to launch once more this December (Ramstad, 2012).North Korea’s drive for nuclearization has been condemned by the international society and resulted in a UN Security sanction that aim to deter North Korea from acquiring goods for its nuclear programs (Albright & Walrond, 2012). Therefore, since profiting from the military sector is nearly impossible without trade, which is difficult under current international sanctions unless Kim gives up nuclearization, heavy economic reform is a dangerous option for Kim if he wishes to heighten loyalty from the military to maintain power.Nation-state Level of Analysis The unique culture and political system of North Korea combined with the military first policy create an environment where opposing the leader is almost impossible, resulting in an ideal political system for sustaining totalitarianism regime. After decades of propaganda, the juche ideology, emphasizing autarky, or self- sufficiency, and suryong ideology, which means â€Å"leader† and which idolizes the Kim family, have now become almost a religion for the North Korean people (Byman & Lind, 2010).These ideologies have permeated every aspects of the closed society to an extent that many North Koreans are xenophobic, feeling strong hatred and disgust toward the United States and South Korea (Byman & Lind, 2010). According to Brian Myers (2010), North Korean math textbooks ask questions of ‘Three People's Army soldiers rubbed out thirty American bastards. What was the ratio of the soldiers who fought? ’, while dictionaries and schoolbooks endorse students to call foreigners â€Å"muzzles† and â€Å"snouts†.Myers continues on to say that these kinds of propaganda leads to form a culture of ethno-centric nationalism, where the North Korean people sincerely believe in their blood’s pureness and superiority over other races, while honoring their ‘great father’. South Koreans were shocked when they heard the news of the modernized looking North Korean cheering squad turning furious with tears when they saw a portrait of their ‘beloved father’ soaked in rain, running out of the bus to protect his face on the banner ad (Kum, 2003).Even if the effects of propaganda might have weakened through the influx of South Korean movies and drama seri es, Ken E. Gause (2012) found that the state constantly conducts surveillance and investigation on ordinary citizens through various overlapping security organizations, which can even lead to execution of those who have been found to violate law and order, thereby effectively blocking the civilian sector from forming any opposition groups.Government and military officials are no exceptions but are rather even more spied upon through organizations such as the Political Bureau and Military Security Command (Gause, 2012). On the other hand, the military first policy favoring the military serves to encourage loyalty from the group most needed to enforce power and stability. These conditions of propaganda, surveillance, and favoritism form a somewhat stable domestic politics, consisting of only the supreme leader and his favored military officials, that has lasted for three generations of dictatorship and seen by some, including Albright and Walrond, to last for ore. Moreover, these dime nsions shaping the domestic cultural and political nature of North Korea act as countervail to economic reform, which cannot be successful if the state does not give up its military first policy and rigid rules. The ethno-centric nationalism promoted by the two ideologies deters many North Koreans from accepting their system to be a failure in comparison with democratic countries such as the United States and South Korea (Myers, 2010).Thus, North Koreans would have greater utility from any minor improvements in standard in living through weak reforms. This would incentivize Kim to focus more on propaganda and security, while maximizing the use of propaganda to indoctrinate people of how successful the economic reforms, if any, were, thanks to the regime. This could be the reason why Kim Jong Un continuously emphasize that he will improve economy, but drags on doing much change.Also, Un-Chul Yang found that momentum of economic reform diminishes because economics is strictly consider ed to be subordinate to politics, which leads to rejection of economic policies, no matter how rational they may be, if they challenge the authority of the supreme leader (2012). The two largest and only players in domestic politics, Kim and the military, due to the unique structure of the society, will thereby choose to continue the military first policy to conserve their power and maintain the totalitarian regime. System Level of AnalysisIt is highly unlikely for North Korea to give up its only mean of leverage in international relations – nuclear weapons. Not only are they significant in building support from the military internally, they bolster North Korea’s stance more than any other weapon in the power and legitimacy struggle with its South Korea (Byman ; Lind, 2010). Moreover, the weapons allow North Korea to have an upper hand in negotiations for food, energy, and other economic assistance with other major powers. They even incentivized its only ally, China, t o bribe the country with cash and energy aids to just sit them down at the negotiating table (Kim, 2006).Because of these power incentives, North Korea will be more unwilling to give its nuclear ambitions up, leading to further economic sanctions from the international society, while North Korea would try to maximize its gains from utilizing the leverage to compensate for the loss from sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council. David Albright and Christina Walrond (2012) says that China continues to be a major loop hole of this international sanction, giving North Korea plenty of opportunities to secure resources for developing its nuclear program.Albright and Walrond (2012) also predicts in their ISIS report that North Korea's nuclear program and uranium enrichment efforts will continue, and succeed in building at least 28 nuclear weapons by 2016. Therefore, as North Korea’s nuclear programs continue rather successfully regardless of international condemn, it is ironically rational for North Korea to keep its economy closed and planned to strengthen its power, stability, and leverage in international relations. Conclusion and Future PerspectivesIn conclusion, Kim Jong Un’s own motivations to hold power, the unique political system and culture of North Korea, and rational choices that the country should make to win the power struggle would all act in favor for a closed, planned economy. Unlike South Korea and other democratic nations where the economic situation greatly influences politics, North Korea have been steered by the regime for so long that everything including economy now depends only on the government.Hence, despite recently being named as the ‘sexiest man’ of the year 2012 by The Onion, Kim Jong Un would also remain an unappealing Kim for his democratic counterparts. The major stakeholders including the Unites States, South Korea, and China should continue to negotiate with North Korea to convince them tha t their gain from opening up is greater than following their traditional acts of provocation. Also, China should not allow North Korea to exploit its weak implementation of export controls and should bind to the U. N.Security Council’s sanction to put greater pressure on North Korea. Even though future prospective is still dark in the current situation, more intimate negotiation and actions of responsibility from Beijing could result in positive news in the future. References Albright, D. , & Walrond, C. (2012, August 16). North Korea’s estimated stocks of plutonium and weapon-grade uranium. Institute for Science and International Studies. Retrieved from http://isis-online. org/uploads/isis-reports/documents/dprk_fissile_material_p

Aesthetic Education Essay

Friedrich Schiller wrote Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man in 1793 for his friend the Danish Prince Friedrich Christian who had provided him with a stipend to help him through an illness. In 1795 the letters were published and the provide a worthwhile consideration of the nature of Aesthetics for us still today. The collection of twenty seven letters is not an easy read but it is worth persevereing to gain the insights of this great poet and playwright, friend of Goethe and inspiration for Beethoven and many artists, particularly in the Romantic era. The book touches upon a broad range of topics, some of which you do not normally associate with aesthetics. However the letters do consider the nature of Beauty and its relationship to art and man. For Schiller beauty seems to arise as a synthesis between opposing principles â€Å"whose highest ideal is to be sought in the most perfect possible union and equilibrium of reality and form†(Letter XVI, p 81). Schiller also discusses the nature of the ideal man and how the impulse for play interacts with man’s nature, especially his rational and sensuous aspects which form a juxtaposition within him. This juxtaposition is discussed at length with a synthesis described in terms that suggest a transcendance that culminates in our very humanity (Letters 18-20). Man and his nature is important to Schiller as his reason, but â€Å"The first appearance of reason in Man is not yet the beginning of his humanity. The latter is not decided until he is free,† (Letter XXIV, p 115). Through discussion of the work of art and the fine arts Schiller brings us closer to a conception of what art means to man and how important â€Å"Homo Ludens† is as a conception of man. Schiller admired classical Greece and its art and saw the role of history and freedom important in the discussion of the nature of art. Above all both as a poet and a thinker Schiller held the ideal of freedom to be sacrosanct. According to Schiller, freedom is attained when the sensual and rational in man are fully integrated but his aesthetic disposition is seen as coming from Nature. These letters provide a rich vein of ideas from which the thoughtful and attentive reader may find inspiration in consideration of the aesthetics and the nature of the work of art. Friedrich Schiller menulis Surat Pendidikan Estetika Manusia pada tahun 1793 untuk rakan Christian Friedrich Putera Denmark yang telah disediakan dengan wang saku untuk membantu beliau sakit. Pada tahun 1795 surat telah diterbitkan dan memberi pertimbangan berbaloi sifat Estetika untuk kita masih hari ini. Koleksi 27 surat tidak read mudah tetapi ia adalah bernilai persevereing untuk mendapatkan pandangan penyair dan pengarang drama hebat ini, rakan Goethe dan inspirasi untuk Beethoven dan ramai artis, terutamanya di era Romantik. Buku ini menyentuh kepada pelbagai topik, ada yang anda tidak lakukan biasanya bersekutu dengan estetika. Walau bagaimanapun, surat mempertimbangkan sifat Kecantikan dan hubungannya dengan seni dan manusia. Untuk kecantikan Schiller nampaknya timbul sebagai sintesis antara prinsip lawan â€Å"yang tertinggi sesuai perlu dicari dalam kesatuan mungkin yang paling sempurna dan keseimbangan realiti dan bentuk† (Surat XVI, p 81). Schiller juga membincangkan sifat manusia yang ideal dan bagaimana dorongan untuk permainan berinteraksi dengan alam semula jadi, manusia terutamanya aspek rasional dan sensasi yang membentuk saling bertindih dalam dirinya. Saling bertindih ini dibincangkan dengan panjang lebar dengan sintesis diterangkan dari segi yang mencadangkan transcendance yang memuncak dalam kemanusiaan kita (Huruf 18-20). Manusia dan alam adalah penting untuk Schiller sebagai alasan beliau, tetapi â€Å"Kemunculan pertama sebab dalam Man tidak lagi permulaan kemanusiaan. Terakhir ini tidak memutuskan sehingga dia adalah percuma,† (Surat XXIV, ms 115). Melalui perbincangan kerja seni dan seni halus Schiller membawa kita lebih dekat kepada konsep apa yang seni ertinya kepada manusia dan betapa pentingnya â€Å"Ludens Homo† adalah seperti konsep manusia. Schiller dikagumi klasik Greece dan seni dan melihat peranan sejarah dan kebebasan penting dalam perbincangan yang bersifat seni. Atas semua kedua-dua sebagai penyair dan pemikir Schiller diadakan ideal kebebasan untuk menjadi boleh dipertikaikan. Menurut Schiller, kebebasan dicapai apabila sensual dan rasional dalam manusia bersepadu sepenuhnya tetapi pelupusan estetik beliau dilihat sebagai datang dari Alam. Surat ini menyediakan darah yang kaya dengan idea-idea dari mana pembaca yang bernas dan penuh perhatian boleh mencari inspirasi dalam pertimbangan estetik dan sifat kerja seni. PENDAPAT NO 2: Although this type of reading can be challenging for the modern reader, I thoroughly enjoyed this thought-provoking book. If you enjoy philosophy and subscribe to a personal philosophy that an appreciation of beauty and learning through play are valuable, Schiller will appeal to you. Walaupun ini jenis membaca boleh mencabar bagi pembaca moden, saya telitimenikmati buku ini memprovokasi pemikiran. Jika kita menikmati falsafah dan melanggan kepada falsafah peribadi bahawa menghargai kecantikan dan pembelajaranmelalui permainan adalah berharga, Schiller akan merayu kepada kita. PENDAPAT NO 3:SUMMARY A generic summary of the argument in Friedrich Schiller’s Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man would be: in order for a person to become a moral and rational being she must pass through an aesthetic education in which she harmonizes with herself and thus becomes Free to exercise her rational will univocally. The passage often quoted as a summation of Schiller’s major theme in this work is: â€Å"It is through Beauty that we arrive at Freedom. † This passage, since I first encountered it, has been one of the few essential thoughts I carry with me through life. My superficial knowledge of Schiller, through only this famous quote and the above general argument, has had a disproportionate effect on me. When Conor Heaton, a friend from Chicago, recommended Schiller’s Letters to me, I was thrilled for the opportunity to read the entirety of the work and to test my own personalized version of the idea against Schiller’s initial conception. Schiller, a German Romantic dramatist, poet, and essayist, wrote his Letters during the height of France’s Reign of Terror. Like so many other Romantic thinkers across the globe, Schiller cried for joy at the French Revolution’s liberation of the human spirit. But, like artists and thinkers generations before and after him, Schiller suffered great disappointment in the aftermath of the revolution when power and fear destroyed the ideals of Justice and Freedom that had sparked the revolution. In some ways his argument stems from the idea that if the revolutionaries were perfectly educated in the ideas of aesthetics they would have been able to escape their own power struggles and thus have been able to create a Just and Free French State. Instead, the French Revolutionaries, whose only education on and exposure to government came from the monarch they so despised, exponentially replicated the atrocities of the very kind they dethroned. In doing so they turned the country into an irrational, immoral mess. It is a theme not isolated to 1790’s France, and though Schiller was influenced by the events of his time, he is also picking up an ambitious argument first articulated in the Western tradition two thousand years before his time. The idea of an aesthetic education as essential to a moral and rational life was originally Plato’s. In setting out to create the ideal civilization in his Republic, Plato’s characters conclude that banning books and particular artists (including Homer) will be necessary to ensure that young men are properly trained to appreciate Beauty. Plato’s characters felt that scenes from The Iliad about conniving and jealous gods were bad influences on young men, who may look to the gods as examples. And works that espoused ideas or styles that did not create the harmony in the soul essential to becoming a fully realized Moral man were not worthy of being taught. While laying the groundwork for regarding Beauty as essential to the human experience, Plato also put forward the first argument for censorship. (If one finds themselves scoffing at this idea or comparing Plato to Hitler, it may be wise to remember that a major component of America’s current education system assumes that those being educated cannot decipher the language and tone of Huckleberry Finn without intolerable harm, or read of Holden Caulfield’s rampant moral downfall and sexual escapades without falling into decadence, and that 12 year olds cannot be closer than 100 yards from a condom without instigating rampant uncontrolled sexual orgies. Plato’s excuse is that he didn’t have the benefit of thousands of years of education research proving his instincts incorrect.) Schiller never grounds his ideas by discussing or suggesting particular texts that may be suitable for an aesthetic education. His tendency to speak in shifting abstractions has cost him a more prominent position in the greater philosophical tradition. But if The Aesthetic Education of Man is read as it was written – as an artist trying to convince the world that Art and Beauty are essential to a Free and Moral civilization – then it is a wonderful and essential work whose philosophical consistency is far less important than its general spirit. Schiller’s argument itself is also only a small component of why this text is so engaging. He never stops reaching. His every sentence embodies the Romantic belief that truth, pure Truth, is at our fingertips, and with persistence It can be held in our palms. His style fluctuates between art and philosophy. Schiller has no fear of spreading his ideas, and his grandiose style represents perfectly the abundance of thought that was flowing out of Romantic Germany during his lifetime. He makes grand and provocative historical claims: â€Å"The Romans, we know, had first to exhaust their strength in civil wars . . . before we see Greek art triumphing over the rigidity of their character . . . And among the Arabs too the light of culture never dawned until the vigor of their warlike spirit had relaxed (58). † He states complex ideas in beautiful little statements: â€Å"We know that Man is neither exclusively matter nor exclusively spirit. Beauty, therefore, [is:] the consummation of this humanity (77). † And there is much more beyond this in Schiller’s Letters. He propounds a theory of Beauty and just how it can harmonize mankind and allow moral and rational men to flourish, and so on.

Character Qualities of Nora and Antigone in A Doll’s House...

Marlo Thomas says, ‘‘One of the things about equality is not just that you be treated equally to a man, but that you treat yourself equally to the way you treat a man.† Antigone, written by Sophocles, and A Doll’s House, written by Henrik Ibsen, are two plays about two women who defy the rules of society. In Antigone, an ancient Greek play, the girl breaks the king’s law in favor of the gods’ law by giving her brother, Polynices, a proper burial. In the end, Antigone dies because of her behavior, but not before she shows how strong she is when she stands up to Creon. In A Doll’s House, a Norwegian play that takes place in the late 1800s, Nora Helmer appears to be a normal, subservient wife to her husband, Torvald. However, throughout the†¦show more content†¦And she scoops up dry dust, lifting it high and pouring, she crowns the dead with three full liberations,† (Sophocles, page 29, lines 474-480). This excerpt from Antigo ne shows her dedication to her brother and the gods because she does not just give up after the first attempt to bury him fails. Antigone goes to bury her brother again, even though she knows it could very well result in her death. Both Nora and Antigone’s persistence in their goals help them succeed in getting what they desire, but that is not the only quality that makes them unique from other women of their time. One of the main themes in both Antigone and A Doll’s House is how both women are against the expectations of society. In the duration of A Doll’s House, the reader learns that in the beginning of her marriage with Torvald Helmer, Nora takes out a loan from a man named Krogstad. She does this because Torvald is deathly ill, and the only way he will live is if they take a trip to Italy. Because Nora takes out the loan without his permission, she has to keep it a secret from him the whole time they are married, (Ibsen). Not only does Nora take out the lo an without her husband’s permission, but she also forges her father’s signature to do so. She ends up breaking the laws of both society and state. If anyone ever finds out about what Nora has done, then her reputation will be ruined. Because she is a woman, that will be almost like suicide for Nora.Show MoreRelatedComparison of A Dolls House and Antigone1248 Words   |  5 Pagesown feet. The characters of Nora and Antigone, from Henrik Ibsen’s ‘A Doll’s House’ and Sophocles’ ‘Antigone’ respectively, completely fit my description of ‘the empowered woman’. As inspiring figures, they left me wondering how they maintained their identities even in their patriarchal societies. What touched my heart the most is the way they fight for what they feel is moral and just instead of following what society dictates. I believe that each and every woman possesses the qualities like ‘the empoweredRead MoreWhat Makes a Hero1664 Words   |  7 Pageshard-working mother who gives so much day in and day out gets the graphite gratitude of â€Å"hero†. Heroes are the characters that are consistently strong, selfless, and intelligent. In Shakespeare’s legendary play, Hamlet, the main character is faced with a journey of vengeance and self-discovery. Even though in the beginning of the play Hamlet is a depressed young man, he develops into a character of intelligence, courage, and strength. First, instead of confronting his uncle about murdering his fatherRead MoreA Doll House by Henrik Ibsen7379 Words   |  30 PagesMa. Jennifer S. Yap Dr. Sherwin Perlas World Literature January 14, 2012 A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen Translated by Rolf Fjelde I. Introduction During the late nineteenth century, women were enslaved in their gender roles and certain restrictions were enforced on them by a male dominant culture. Every woman was raised believing that they had neither self-control nor self-government but that they must yield to the control of a stronger gender. John Stuart Mill wrote in his essay, â€Å"The Subjection