Natural sciences versus human sciences
Essay - 2 pages - Philosophy
By and large, the status of the sciences of nature or natural sciences such as physics or chemistry goes unquestioned. They conform to the different criteria put forward by epistemologists and qualify as sciences. This does not mean that physicists or chemists never encounter epistemological...
Women: Inferior to men, inferior to women, through The Rover and The Way of the World
Book review - 3 pages - Literature
Seventeenth century British women held no personal value. Throughout Apra Behn's, “The Rover” and William Congreve's, “The Way of the World,” women are commoditized, used as pawns by men and powerful elders. Their value is not a human value, because women are seen as objects...
The Hindu view on creation of nature
Thesis - 4 pages - Philosophy
Kavir Dev (kabir parmeshwar) has himself given the knowledge of the nature created by Him which is as follows- In the beginning, there was only one place ‘Anami (Anamay) Lok', which is also known as Akah Lok. The Supreme God used to live alone in the Anami Lok. The real name of that God is...
Why should the human sciences be patterned after the natural sciences?
Essay - 2 pages - Philosophy
At some point, we may want to ask radical questions: after all, why should human sciences be patterned after natural sciences? After all, why is it that we need to have such a monolithic model of scientificity? Why couldn't there be several ways of being 'scientific'? Let us review...
Postmodernism in literature
Essay - 3 pages - Literature
Linda Hutcheon considers the term postmodernism as one of the 'most over and under-defined' in her poetics of postmodernism. Some consider the so-called postmodern movement as too heterogeneous to be even called a coherent system of thought, others define anything that is contemporary as...
Paul Auster, "Brooklyn Follies" - "Double-cross" (chapter 20), de That was when Harry...." a " cradled in the arms of the B.P.M.
Text commentary - 4 pages - Literature
This extract is the 20th chapter, 'Double Cross' of the novel. This is the story of Harry's murder, which constitutes the most tragic moment of the book. Nathan is here the narrator. He and Tom leave the Chowder Inn in order to go back to New York for Harry's funeral. Later will...
Paul Auster, "Brooklyn Follies" - "Dream days at the Hotel Existence" (chapter 19), de "first perusal of the grounds?" a "say nothing to Tom"
Text commentary - 3 pages - Literature
This passage is an extract from the nineteenth chapter of 'Purgatory' from the Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster. The characters arrive at a place to end up finding somewhere to sleep as their car broke down. It constitutes the longest chapter of the novel which is so in a way the linchpin...
Paul Auster, "Brooklyn Follies" - "Purgatory" (chapitre 3), de " No one grows up? " a " would have remained in this purgatory "
Text commentary - 3 pages - Literature
This passage is an extract from the third chapter of 'Purgatory' from the Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster. It's after the first appointment between Nathan and Tom. In this chapter, the story is focused on Tom's recent past, since his arrival in Brooklyn, and that's why we...
The Odyssey of Homer and the Aithiopika of Heliodorus
Thesis - 6 pages - Literature
Though the Odyssey and the Aithiopika, or Ethiopian Romance, were composed by two different men writing from different worlds and separated by a gap of many centuries, they share many of the same thematic, structural, and literary features. The Odyssey is a Homeric epic poem which is thought to...
Competing giants: The subversive counter-performance of the Soviet writer
Thesis - 5 pages - Literature
The early twentieth century poet Osip Mandelstam postulated that, “Poetry is respected only in [Russia] - people are killed for it. There's no place where more people are killed for it.” Mandelstam, who himself fell victim to the Stalinist regime for his subversive prose, was...
Theodicy and it's responses
Thesis - 3 pages - Philosophy
The problem of theodicy and what the appropriate response to said problem is an issue that torments theologians. I will argue that the most suitable response to this problem is in Metz's efforts in straying from the standard approach by admitting that theology cannot solve the theodicy problem,...
Niebuhr, Hauerwas and Pacifism
Thesis - 4 pages - Philosophy
The relationship between politics and religion in the United States is a hotly debated subject. I will examine the way in which Reinhold Niebuhr and Stanley Hauerwas negotiate the relationship between politics and religion by examining their views on pacifism in the Christian religion and how...
A multiple representation of the Shebeen Queen
Text commentary - 16 pages - Literature
"More than a shebeen queen, she is the incarnation of motherhood?: a theme that Peter Abrahams develops in Mine Boy. Xuma, the protagonist, is surrounded by support and advice. Surprisingly, Leah is not the only mother figure in Mine Boy; a white woman called Di also plays this role. In addition...
The maze-like South African township
Essay - 13 pages - Literature
At a time when black South Africans did not have enough time and money to enjoy leisure pursuits, music and dancing appeared to be their only glimmer of hope. In the townships and slum yards, music developed and became synonymous with life and entertainment. A very good example is the presence of...
The origins of the South Africa Shebeen Queen
Text commentary - 18 pages - Literature
What is a shebeen and what is the origin of this term? This is the first question we will try to answer in detail. "The exact origins of the word shebeen are unknown, but it most likely came into popular use in Ireland from the Irish-Gaelic language before spreading to the English-speaking...
The Aunt's Story, Patrick White
Text commentary - 7 pages - Literature
Australian literature includes many different literary genres, from poetry to autobiography, and its history is, like that of Australia, quite recent. Among Australian writers, Patrick White stands out, mainly because contrary to many Australian writers, his works are not solely based on the...
De republica anglorum, Sir Thomas Smith
Text commentary - 3 pages - Politic philosophy
This text is extracted from DE REPVBLICA ANGLORVM, 1565, by Sir Thomas Smith, a fiery protestant. He focused upon two main monarchs, Edward VI and Elizabeth I. They both belonged to the Tudor dynasty. In 1547, Edward VI became King of England, at the age of nine, and on his death in 1553, Mary I,...
Patrick White's The Aunt's Story
Text commentary - 3 pages - Literature
An epic and psychological narrative art which has introduced a new continent into literature.' This sentence uttered in 1973 when Patrick White won the Nobel Prize for literature. Indeed, not only did he bring on the international scene Australia as a country which produced a great writer but...
Sir Thomas Smith (1513-1577), De Republica anglorum (1565), Part II, chapters 1 and 3
Text commentary - 4 pages - Politic philosophy
This text is a fragment from the De Republica Anglorum book, written by Sir Thomas Smith in 1565. The author was one of the first people to convert himself to Protestantism during the Protestant reformation. He also became a Member of Parliament. In the first part, the author presents the powers...
If you were given a chance to create an ideal society, what would it be?
Speech - 2 pages - Politic philosophy
It always seems dangerous to talk about an 'ideal society' because this is exactly what all the totalitarian and authoritarian regimes have been looking for. It has also been the ultimate purpose of all politics since Antiquity and one of the biggest dream of humankind. First of all, an...
Gilgamesh and Ramayana: The value of the epic
Thesis - 3 pages - Literature
What is an epic? The epic is traditionally defined as a long narrative poem which relates the adventures, journeys and deeds of a central hero. These narrative poems are the oldest known works of literature and some, like Gilgamesh, even date back to pre-history - the time period prior to the...
Confucian study, East Asia and the process by which women were educated
Thesis - 3 pages - Philosophy
According to the Confucian understanding of gender, “[a] woman is only virtuous if she is untalented. ” They key to this postulate is the word ‘virtuous.' Virtuous, unlike any other synonym that the author could have chosen, indicates a sense of purity, specifically, purity in a...
Annotated Bibliography - A Farewell to Arms
Book review - 27 pages - Literature
Killinger's argumentation is very convincing. He presents the connection between Hemingway's work and the existentialist movement in a tremendously clear and effective way. Every aspect of existentialism is covered, and backed with concrete examples and quotations from the text. The...
American religion and politics
Essay - 3 pages - Politic philosophy
Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in 1850 that religion "teaches the Americans the art of being free". Alexis de Tocqueville, French historian and political thinker, wrote "Democracy in America" after his travels in the United States of America in the 1830's. To his mind, democracies are...
Catch-22 : black comedy or satire ?
Book review - 5 pages - Literature
Catch-22, often considered as one of the literary masterpieces of the twentieth century, is also often analyzed as being either satirical, or characteristic of the theater of the absurd, or even both. At first sight, this appears to be totally irrelevant, given the subtle but still significant...
Paul Auster, The Brooklyn Follies - On rascals (Chap. 7)
Text commentary - 1 pages - Literature
What we have here is an extract from the novel the Brooklyn Follies, written by Paul Auster and published in 2005. Earlier in the novel, we discovered the main character, Nathan Glass, a 60 year old man in remission from cancer. He was looking for a quiet place to die, but after a moment, he...
Paul Auster, The Brooklyn Follies An unexpected encounter "I lost contact" "happy and rich"
Text commentary - 1 pages - Literature
This text is an extract from the novel Brooklyn Follies, written by Paul Auster and published in 2005. Earlier in the novel, we discovered the main character, Nathan Glass, a 60 years old man in remission from cancer. He was looking for a quiet place to die. In fact, someone recommended him...
Paul Auster, The Brooklyn Follies - Dream days at the hotel existence (Chap. 19) - "A steep dirt road" and "except having children"
Text commentary - 1 pages - Literature
What we have here is an extract from the novel The Brooklyn Follies, written by Paul Auster and published in 2005. Earlier in the novel, we discovered the main character, Nathan Glass, a sixty year old man in remission from cancer. He was looking for a quiet place to die. However, after a moment...
Paul Auster, The Brooklyn Follies A night of eating and drinking - "I'm not talking" - "inside your dreams"
Text commentary - 1 pages - Literature
What we have here is an extract form the novel The Brooklyn Follies, written by Paul Auster and published in 2005. Here, we are in the 1st half of the novel and 3 characters are present: Tom, Nathan and Harry. Nathan, the main character of the book, is Tom's uncle, and Harry is Tom's...
Paul Auster, The Brooklyn Follies Farewell to the court (Chap. 3)
Text commentary - 1 pages - Literature
What we are about to study is an extract from the novel The Brooklyn Follies, written by Paul Auster and published in 2005. Here, we are at the beginning of the novel, where Nathan and Tom are having lunch and talking about Tom's activities. We may wonder in what ways the passage is...
