Essay --

Courtney Peters Essay 1 Rough Draft ENG 308 2/21/14 Donne: The Imprint Left Behind Every writer leaves his mark, his imprint, in his writing; a thumb print left behind the ink if you know how to look for it, and Donne is no exception. The problem is extracting Donne’s imprint, and essence, from the poem, and understanding what that tells us about him. In one poem in particular this stands out, his Holy Sonnet IX, where Donne’s imprint lingers, giving another story behind the text, of his belief in God, but also his inner questioning, and confliction and doubt which come out as contradictions. Behind the text, Holy Sonnet IX, as Donne speaks through his speaker and poem, we come to understand that he is a religious man, though conflicted, which leads to doubt and contradictions, as he resents God in a way, while also just craving for his absolution and for him to forget and forgive his sins and wash them away, sins which weigh on him heavily and he believes taint him. Looking at Donne’s Holy Sonnet IX, you can see where parts of his self are hidden under the text, if you only know how to look and how to interpret what you find. Donne repeats â€Å"I† throughout the poem three times, and while doing so he not only reflects parts of his inner self, but changes his stand point each time. In the first instance of â€Å"I†, Donne writes, â€Å"If lecherous goats, if serpents envious/Cannot be damn’d; Alas; why should I bee?† (3-4). Here he questions God, demanding to know why he should be damned when the lecherous goats, and serpents cannot not be condemned and damned for their sins. The second instance of â€Å"I† however writes, â€Å"But whou am I, that dare dispute with thee/O God? Oh! of thine onely worthy blood,† where he shifts from angrily questioning... ...e forgotten and he is not damned by them. The illusion and imagery emphasize the severity of his desire for God to forget his sins, the sins which he emphasizes by referring to them as â€Å"black sins† utilizing severe language in calling them thus, to further darken the already negative connotation of his sins and their evilness. The allusion speaks of the greatness of Donne’s sorrow, in that he would cry a river, his wish in the end, more than anything, for his sins to be forgotten and him undammed, and his thoughts on sins, that they are black, his darkness, his taint, his embarrassment, indebting him to God who in turn damns him. -- Create a conclusion, short, but sums up: What I mean by Imprint How his imprint shines throu, aka, what we learn of him from: His usage of I His pattern His allusions, imagery, and language Should be one per paragraph for most

Eternal Recurrence by Nietzsche

The theory of Eternal Recurrence, which is also referred as Eternal Return, states that the world has been returning or recurring. This implies that whatever realities our world has in this particular times would be repeated indefinitely yet unknown to all in the same manner that they are represented to the world at this moment (Lowith). According to historical records, the concept or idea of eternal recurrence originated from the ancient Egypt and was later on adapted by the Stoics and Pythagoras. Nevertheless, this principle had been abandoned through the rise of Christianity (Lukacher). It was only when Friedrich Nietzsche reintroduce the thought the scholars began to evaluate its truthfulness or possibilities. The fundamental argument of this theory is that the world is confined in scope and fixed, predetermined or restricted quantity of substances. While matter is considered limited, time exceeds it by being immeasurable and never-ending. The world does not possess staring point or end point whereas matter, that which comprise the world, is consistent in undergoing various changes in terms of its state (Lowith). Moreover, the theory suggests that the number of probable changes that the matter could have is limited and is fixed thus arriving at an assumption that sooner or later the similar state will happen again. The concept of eternal recurrence is fundamental and imperative throughout the works of Nietzsche. According to another philosopher in the name of Martin Heidegger, Nietzsche, though advocating the theory of eternal recurrence, did not really argue that such phenomenon has existed or is existent. But what is true on Nietzsche’s philosophy is that he accepts and does not deny the idea of eternal recurrence or eternal return. As Heidegger furthered, Nietzsche regarded the theory or the concept as merely a simple assumption just like how the Christian faith admits the idea of Hell and Angels. The idea of eternal recurrence is manifested through Nietzsche’s published works such as Thus Spoke Zarathustra and The Gay Science (Heidegger). But Nietzsche succeeded presenting his full conception on the thought of eternal recurrence on the foremost book. In this writing, the protagonist Zarathustra discovers himself on a mountain and faces two opposite paths. Together with the dwarf they try to work out on the dilemma of the two opposite but eternal paths. Zarathustra asks the dwarf if is it possible that someone has already passed the path yet continues to pass through path in unfathomable times. As he sees the gate, he concludes that it could be the case that everything that is happening in this world have already happened in the past, and is happening in the present time, and would eventually repeat to happen in the future since neither of the paths suggests a beginning nor an end (as both paths are eternal). This spectacle motivated Nietzsche to work on the possibility of eternal recurrence or eternal return. Basically, Nietzsche’s idea of eternal recurrence is simply a hypothesis of what he introduced in his work. No one would really know or confirm if particular things or event shad already happened in the past and just recurring. Hence, it could not really produce or offer concrete or sufficient evidence to say that at some point or truly eternal recurrence exists. In a way, eternal recurrence has some semblance or similarity with the idea of reincarnation (Lukacher). However, in reincarnation, it is not the matter that recurs but the only the soul. Thus, eternal recurrence could not be termed as equivalent of reincarnation. Comparable to what Nietzsche argues about the eternal recurrence principle, Arthur Schopenhauer also has his own idea of eternal recurrence the same way as Nietzsche’s. However, in his idea, the only thing that recurs is the matter in such a way that entities return in their own bodies and not in other bodies as how the tradition of reincarnation suggests (Lowith). It is noteworthy that Schopenhauer does not include time but merely explaining eternal recurrence as a physical concept. The same thing as Henry Poincare suggests in his proof to support the eternal recurrence through Mathematics (known as the Poincare’s Recurrence Theorem). It argues that if a system has a finite level of energy and remains at a finite spatial amount, after a considerable length of time, a system would return to its original state (Lowith). As an analysis of Nietzsche’s theory or concept of eternal recurrence, it is obvious that Nietzsche did not demand absolute truth to his principle for the fact that he did not imply all throughout his discussions and philosophy on the concept of eternal recurrence that it really exists in reality. In effect, he maintained analyzing and reflecting on the concept as simple a hypothesis, a conjecture, a presupposition. Furthermore, it could be the case that Nietzsche understood that there is no way that he could prove his hypothesis for the reason that there would be no entity that would demonstrate the very principle of eternal recurrence. No person would claim that his life and his being recur the same way as they did before. Works Cited Heidegger, Martin. Nietzsche: The Eternal Recurrence of the Same. HarperCollins, 1985. Lowith, Karl. Nietzsche's Philosophy of the Eternal Recurrence of the Same. First ed.  Ã‚  Ã‚   University of California Press, 1997. Lukacher, Ned. Time-Fetishes: The Secret History of Eternal Recurrence. Duke University  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Press, 1998.         

On Campus or Off Campus Living

On Campus or Off Campus Living If you are a new student and you want to choose between living on campus and living off campus, here some differences between them which may help you in your decision. The first difference is the cost. Normally, off campus housing is more expensive than on campus housing because of the additional charges. When you live off campus, you should pay for your own Internet access, furniture, and kitchen and bath necessities in addition to the rent, so it is a high initial cost.However, on campus housing does not need most of these charges because they are already paid with the rent. The second difference is transportation. If you live on campus, you can easily walk to your classes, libraries, and cafeterias. You do not have to waste your time and money to ride buses or trains or to drive your car to go to the campus. In contrast, you should ride buses or trains or drive your car to go to the campus when you live off campus which means wasting money and time i n addition to the traffic issues if you are living in a crowded area.On campus housing and off campus housing also differ in privacy. On campus housing usually means a shared bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen. It is also means a limited and sometimes not quiet place to study because you share it with others. On the other hand, off campus housing means you own your bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen and also means there is a large enough and quiet enough place to study. The other difference is the social life.Living on campus allows you to make more friends and meet more people than living off campus and also keeps you in touch with any activities that happen on campus, while living off campus probably does not allow you to make more friends or keep in touch with most campus activities. All in all, there are many differences between living on campus and living off campus, so when you want to choose between living on and off campus, classify these differences to advantages and disadvantages depending on your situation. After that, choose which is more advantageous than the other. .