Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Review Items for Test "Problem of Evil"



“Both classical (Plato & Aristotle) and Christian (Augustine) political thought held rulers accountable for the wellbeing of their peoples. Machiavelli, in ‘The Prince’, focused entirely on what rulers had to do to get and keep power, which meant exploiting the fears and desires of their subjects…”  

“…[Hobbes] started by dismissing all Aristotelian questions about the ultimate goal of politics. There is no greater good for human beings, but there is, he thinks, a universally agreed-upon greatest evil, ‘sudden and violent death.’ The problem is we all have the power to inflict that evil on one another… so we are forced to treat one another as standing threats…As a result, life in the state of nature is ‘solitary, poor, nasty, and short.’ Thus it is in everyone’s interest to establish a single, superior authority, which will stop us from killing one another. This is the origin of the state…”
Quoted from “We, The Polity: A New History of Political Thought” by Adam Kirsch in the New Yorker.

“IT IS NOT GOOD FOR THE PEOPLE TO BE SCATTERED OUT ACROSS THE PRAIRIE. I WILL TEACH THEM TO MAKE THEIR CAMPS TOGETHER IN A CIRCLE, LIKE THE GREAT CIRCLE OF THE EARTH, AND TO LIVE IN HARMONY AND PEACE WITH EACH OTHER AND THE EARTH. I KNOW THE PEOPLE DON’T LISTEN SO GOOD, SO I MAY HAVE TO TRICK THEM INTO ACCEPTING THIS TEACHING.  Hyemoyhost Storm in Seven Arrows

“Facing our messiness is the stuff of a calling… and is surely the linchpin of our salvation…”
“”…whether we continue to bear our spiritually and emotionally challenging work or not, the world’s suffering continues. Even were we to step out of the trenches, none of us can adequately shield ourselves from …these inevitable injustices and sufferings… in fact, it is our very attempts to protect ourselves from such painful realities that we actually injure ourselves spiritually.”




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