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Philosophy -- Society and Identity
Is there such a thing as true identity? To what extent does our concern about how people perceive us affect our identity? Do you feel the society brands you as a man, a woman, a teenager, a college student, an Asian, a Middle Eastern, an American, etc. And places expectations on you accordingly? Is it possible to discover the real us? How? While pondering, look around you. Your room, your clothes, your belonging, how much of it represents you, and how much represents the current style?
There is such a thing as a "true" identity, but it can be very hard to differentiate that from our superficial identity, mainly because so much of what the average person's identity is a function of social conditioning and all of the external influences that shape who we are in our communities and societies. Much of the...
For example, we choose clothing substantially for the audience of other people who we expect to encounter and we develop tastes in entertainment media, such as music, in particular, largely as a result of who our friends and peers are, and more so for those reasons than for the intrinsic elements of the music we choose to listen to. We form personal identities that reflect the norms, values, and expectations of our families, communities, cultures of origin, and our societies. To a large extent, these elements of our individual identities are arbitrary and would have been entirely different if we happened to have been born into and raised in a different social environment. In that sense, they are dictated by external elements rather…
Asian Philosophy As a concept, "Wu-wei' literally means 'in the absence of/without doing exertion,' and is often translated as 'doing nothing' or 'non-action'." (Slingerland, 2003) But this definition refers to the mind of the person involved, not the actual action taking place. The actor's mental state, or spiritual state, is the focus of "Wu-wei," and since it does not limit itself to the actual action taking place, anyone can strive to
This idea was accepted by most of the philosophical schools of the time, including the Atomists. Plato took quite a different approach and found that ideas, as noted, and saw idas as existing outside of human consciousness. Plato's doctrine of recollection holds that learning is the remembering of a wisdom that the soul enjoyed prior to its incarnation, another aspect of the idea that there are ideal forms "remembered" by
Bioethics has been dominated by a European model, with European worldviews and philosophies dominating the discourse. This is true in academia as well as in public policy. The need for global bioethics discourse is pressing, because the life sciences are no longer regional or provincial in scope. For example, there has been a lot of speculation as to the progress made in East Asian cloning laboratories, particularly in China and South Korea. Claims
On the other hand, Schopenchauer argues that because happiness is fundamentally unobtainable, humans are faced with a life of disappointment, which thus leads to the disconnect that causes suicide. However, if both of these philosophers' theories on the cause of suicide were taken at face value, it would be surmised that every human would commit suicide and thus the extinction of the human race would be inevitable. Yet, this is
The Taoist concept of wu wei refers to "non-action." Misunderstood as a proposal for inertia or inaction, wu wei means letting go. Instead of interfering or trying to control external situations or people, I can use the principle of wu wei to allow genuinely wise action take place. A combination of Beginner's Mind and wu wei permit me to take my ego out of my interpersonal relationships. I greet
Gayatri Gopinath, associate professor of women and gender studies at the University of California at Davis, says that many of these young Asian-Americans who join artistic subcultures are individuals who cross over from one country to another in addition to not fitting into the norm of gender, sexuality or psychology. A first-world homosexual transnational has difficulty finding rights of citizenship or dual citizenship in any geographical locations of a diaspora