Lasting Consequences To Man, To Society and To the World: Ideas that Shaped and Ideas That Troubled (Essay Sample)

Charlene Ann Mildred Barroga HUM 207B Final Paper 4ABHUM Lasting Consequences To Man, To Society and To the World: Ideas that Shaped and Ideas That Troubled Ever since the Classical Times, Man has been in search of answers to questions concerning himself, the environment, and the world. Given this, as he searches for such answers he begins to make some unique discoveries thus, making him decide to formulate new ideas to share to his fellowmen, and as these sharing of ideas continue until today, more ideas rise up and give him different consequences and later on affecting the world whether for good or for bad that lasted for centuries. With this in mind, here are different ideas I would like to share which I believe are the best and the worst because of the lasting consequences they gave to man, to society, and the world. The first idea that I would like to share which I believe is the best of all the best ideas are the Centrality of God in the field of thinking. The first thinker to incorporate God and the Catholic Theological Teachings in Philosophy is Saint Augustine. As God being the center of all human thought it started to shed the light of thinking in the History of Philosophy, resulting in it raising the standards of thoughts within others. In addition to this, because of the centrality of God, it also raises the standard point of view of the Human Person coming from the Metaphysical Aspect, Biological, and others. One such example of how the centrality of God was seen in the perspective of viewing the human body is that it is perfectly united to the human soul making man the highest of all values. With this he advocates the respect for the human body as it is not owned by the mere human himself but the Human Being in respect to his own nature as the human person. In addition, because of the Centrality of God in the field of thought, it is evident enough to see how the different fields of the sciences, philosophy, history, art, literature, and Theology are united in one field. An example of the unity of Science and Theology is seen as this, that for Augustine, the world was not literally created in six days but the logic of the six days of Creation is just a logical indicator that God was the one who created the world. This notion of Creation by God was also depicted by Aristotle during the classical era, as a pagan he formulated that particular thought that there is an uncaused mover creating and is responsible to the different forces of nature, in the case of Augustine, this is no other than God. With this, I would rank the idea of the Centrality of God as the best of all ideas because of it’s complete unity in describing the value of the human person. The second idea I would like to rate as the best idea is the Aristotelian idea of the Polis which was written in Aristotle’s Politics. This is because, it was Aristotle who was the first to set up the basics of Social Institutions and to note that “The family is the most basic unit of society.” Given this teaching of having the family as the basic unit it is understandable that the personal formation of the human person begins at home, where he is taught the basic virtues, the basic ethics, and many other ideas. In addition, with the family as the basic unit in society it is indeed evident that one gets his basic necessary needs from his family such as food, shelter, clothing, support, and other needs that one would need and one is formed with a good moral character within the family. In addition, the family as the basic unit in society grounds us to learning the value of family life within ourselves as we are encouraged by different social institutions to spend time with our families, to gather together, and to even join different events that the government promotes in encouraging the formation of the family. This is because, later on as time passes by those who participate in such affairs or even make stances on the right or wrongdoings in society, this will all root back to the family: as they say, how one performs outside is how he is brought at home. With this notion, I would rank it as a second place to the best ideas with which I listed because as the idea of the family, because next to the Centrality of God in the lives of the human person, is the family the smallest social institution where one is formed. The Third idea I would rate as the best idea is the notion of truth which was formulated by Averroes also known as Ibn Rushd in his Spigot Philosophy as to quote: “Truth does not contradict Truth” given this saying despite being a Muslim who is obliged to only believe to only follow the teachings that were written only in the Quran and their other sacred texts, the principle that how Philosophy works as per Rushd is not the same as addressing the questions on religion. In fact, this premise of “Truth does not contradict truth” is a conviction that there are no multiple truths; moreover, as to discuss more on this, this premise was one indicator of a signal that Averroes used as an encouragement to go deeper in their thoughts, actions, and words as well, and encouraged others to study Philosophy even more. With this, as the statement “Truth does not contradict truth” it becomes a remarkable teaching coming from a Muslim Thinker, because with this statement, it grounds people to the teachings of the objective truth despite the truths that one would like to persevere on because of self-interest for comfort they cannot contradict the reality that they see in front of them coming from an objective standpoint. Also, with this it shows that the objective truth can be discerned by man. With this, I would give this a third ranking next to the idea of the importance of the family because next to the family is the notion of the objective truth with which ground others to only one truth, and there can be no multiple truths as to speak on this. The fourth idea I would like to discuss is the Rights of the Citizenry formed by Niccolo Machiavelli during his lifetime as he prescribes this in order to prevent tyranny. This Right of Citizenry is the principle that says that the ruler of the state has to address the civic needs of his people in terms of security, housing, food, and all other necessary needs in order for the ruler to get good support and for one society to flourish. In fact, with this idea of the right of citizenry, the people can benefit from the state with which they gain mutual support from each other because as the government addresses the rights of the citizens they are given a say in how they can make the lives of the fellowmen better in a society by the voice and the support of the government with his people-- it provides them ways into making a society better and last. With this through the rights of citizenry as formulated by Machiavelli, in addressing the rights of their fellow citizens they are fulfilling their duties in public service because as the ruler who is supposed to be a good model in society they are promoting the intrinsic dignity of the human person through providing the rights of the people but also addressing the needs of the masses, as the teachings of Human Dignity follows that every dignity of the human person is unique, the state must then advocate and model in this principle as such by providing the rights of their citizens such as the right to life, to food and shelter, the right to security, and many others. With this, I would like to rank this as the fourth of the best ideas because next to the person’s formation of the family and the truth he also must be aware of his rights within the state as well. The fifth idea I would like to discuss and this is the least best idea is the idea of the Separation of Powers. This idea was influenced by Montesquieu in his Spirit of the Laws. The separation of powers refers to the separation of the three branches of the government namely the legislative, the executive, and the judiciary. Given this what can be best in this separation of the three branches of the government is that the power for authority of the government is divided into these three branches which could be the use of the check and balance system that the government has which in fact can be beneficial to man and his society because, as these three branches work together and are ranked in an equal position which falls under the democratic country, they can maintain the balance in the government. In fact the founding fathers of the United States adopted this idea and experimented it to their own country as well, and eventually spread this system of governance in the lands they visited. Currently, different countries still maintain the Check and Balance system which falls under the principle of the separation of powers as well. Given this, it may be still be one of the best ideas that shaped human society and history; however, because of the fallen nature that Man has within himself problems on the separation of powers could step in because as the branches of the government and the system of the checks and balances are within, it is still made up and ran by humans who have a fallen nature, and could succumb to corruption, and greed when given into power. With this, I could still consider it as one of the best ideas that shaped society but because of the problems it can bring it is therefore, the least of all the best ideas. When looking into the worst ideas, the worst of all ideas I can personally say is the worst of all the ideas are the ideas of those that were brought by the Forerunners of the Protestant Reformation: Marsilius of Padua and William of Ockham. These two thinkers during their lifetime have been spreading the teachings that have been going against the teachings of Christian Theology, and the nature of the Human Person. Some of the known teachings especially of Padua is that of the notion that God is not their father but master-- this is a contradiction and an antithes...