Epicurus Letter To Menoeceus Is About Life And Explains It From A Phi

Epicurus' Letter to Menoeceus is about life and explains it from a philosopher's point of view. In it he discusses pleasure, pain, death, fear, judgment, destiny, ignorance and many other debatable issues that humans experience. The one idea that struck my attention is from a passage about pleasure and morals. He doesn't use the word moral but rather implies that morals are connected to pleasure. The passage states, "Pleasure is our first and kindred good. It is the starting-point of every choice and of every aversion, and to it we come back, inasmuch as we make feeling the rule by which to judge of every good thing." Epicurus simply indicates "Pleasure" which means that it could be anyone's pleasure. By simply stating "pleasure" in a general term it could mean that pleasure of another person may bring pleasure to oneself. One could make a sacrifice in order to please another person (or people) which ultimately pleases oneself. For example, a man or woman who is willing to give up their life for their country would be pleasing himself or herself as well as the country. That is a huge sacrifice that one may make in order to fulfill their desire to do something good. Epicurus suggests that pleasure is our first thought that is good. So in order for something to be good it must be pleasurable to anyone including yourself. He also states that pleasure is our first and kindred good. This suggests that from the time that we are born we associate good as something pleasing. Infants learn that eating, sleeping, being changed to be more comfortable, cuddling, having a blanket for warmth, and any other physical needs are all good or pleasing to the baby. As we grow our pleasure comes from our emotions as well as our physical desires. The parent of a child receives his or her pleasure from the caring and nurturing of the child. According to Epicurus, our choices are based on pleasure. As we age our form of pleasure transfers from a physical need to our emotional needs. When we evaluate a situation we tend to think about what would be best or the most pleasing to us. An example of this is that I choose to go to school because it makes me happy to have an education and so I can feel secure in my future. My choice was made from an evaluation of how pleasing it would be for me, had it not been pleasing I would have altered my choice. Both the feelings of security and happiness were evaluated before I made my decision. Epicurus also mentions feelings and how they effect our judgment of good. Since our choices are based on pleasure they effect our morals or our judgment. When a person considers another person's feelings over their own is a value that is instilled in their morals when they are young. For example people that have children place their pleasure on the happiness of their child. From this the child is learning the pleasure of pleasing others and that it is good. Epicurus entwines the idea that pleasure is connected to our judgment of everything that is "good". He began by talking about pleasure and how it is the first thing that we learn. He then says that we consider the amount of pleasure something will bring us before we make our decisions about things. Then he brings in the idea of how pleasure is a feeling and that we make feelings our basis for determining if something is good. From all these feelings and judgments we are given our morals. So if we didn't have feelings would it be possible to have "good" morals?

Anorexia and Bulimia essays

Anorexia and Bulimia essays There was this girl at my high school last year that most guys, including myself, found to be very attractive. She was only a freshman, but that is beside the point. At the beginning of the year, and even before the year started when I saw her at an open house or something, I would think to myself Wow! every time she walked by. However, as the school year progressed, I noticed her getting very skinny. Not only that, but her face seemed to become more puffy. I thought this was somewhat strange. It definitely occurred to me that she might have been bulimic, but maybe she just ate right and exercised a lot. Obviously the word got around that she was, in fact, bulimic. This changed my entire opinion of her, as Im sure it did for many other people as well. I no longer found her to be attractive, but actually ugly. That made me wonder why people would ever do that to themselves. There are much better ways for one to improve their looks than resorting to disgusting habits that ar e usually very damaging. Every year there are millions of people that are involved with severe eating disorders. They can actually be life-threatening. Young women comprise most of the entire population affected by eating disorders. One reason for this is because women tend to go on strict diets in order to get themselves the perfect body. Researchers have found that such strict dieting can be the threshold of an eating disorder. The results of eating disorders can be very serious. For example, one out of ten cases of anorexia leads to severe consequences, including death from starvation, cardiac arrest, or maybe even suicide. However, people have increasingly become more aware of how dangerous eating disorders are, so they are more likely to get themselves some help. Although, people still exist who dont think they have a problem and wont get help for themselves. Family and friends can help the sick person recogn...

CORPORATE STRATEGY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

CORPORATE STRATEGY - Essay Example British American Tobacco aims at leading the industry as the preferred partner of stakeholders qualitatively and seeks volume leadership among the global tobacco competitors qualitatively. It has been keeping its vision of achieving leadership of the global tobacco industry as a milestone for last few years. It has also been putting efforts to maintaining balanced approach to achieve growth, improved productivity and developing to be a winning organization. The company’s leading international brands include Lucky strike, Dunhill, Kent, State Express555, Rothmans, Benson and Hedges, Winfield and John player Gold leaf. It also produces fine cut tobacco, pipe tobacco and fine cigars. The international tobacco industry produces currently about 5.5 trillion cigarettes a year, of which 17 % market share is hold by British American Tobacco. British American Tobacco believes that the application of a consistent strategy would always be helpful to build a sustainable business. Growth, productivity, responsibility and winning organization are the four elements of the corporate strategy of British American Tobacco. The vision of British American Tobacco is to achieve leadership of the global tobacco industry through its strategies for creating shareholder values based on growth, productivity, responsibility and winning organization. It had been consistent in its strategy and as a result it could measure the effectiveness and results of the strategy. During 2003, the efforts to expand British American Tobacco’s market share was obstructed by major competitor’s higher growing marketing spend and other factors. In order to achieve proposed growth, it had to seek for an imaginative way to challenge the status quo in the market. British American Tobacco brought forward a new range of light menthol products, differentiated by menthol taste rather than the usual tar deliveries and hence it could change the market