St. Teresa of Avila, Essay Example

St. Teresa of Avila describes pure spiritual love as one that is completely without self-interest. St. Teresa received this understanding from the bible in Matt. 5: 43-48, Romans 12: 10-16 I, and Thes. 5: 12-15. It is important to love everyone regardless of who they are, whether these individuals are different from oneself and even if they are not likable in general.

This includes loving all family members, neighbors, coworkers, and community members equally. Ultimately, if we love without self-interest, we will treat others well. A related adage is to treat others the way you wish to be treated; if you love them unconditionally, they will love you unconditionally as well. Individuals do not necessarily need to follow a religion in order to abide by this philosophy even though it stems from religious principles.

According to Kai Kresse, a moral individual is one who attempts to seek knowledge and use this as a means by which actions are taken. Those who do so are more likely to make informed decisions. This is related to Kantian ethics, which states that the positive intention of an action is what makes it moral.

These concepts are therefore related because in order to have a fully positively intended action, one must carefully consider all aspects of the outcomes. In order to do so effectively, the individual must have some kind of pre-existing knowledge. Therefore, moral actions are taken by individuals who are fully aware of the outcomes and what they will mean for others, provided that the action will either do good for others or not impact them.

Zera Yacob criticizes religion because organized religion is damaging. He professed this claim even though he believed that there was a single deity who he referred to as God, indicating that individuals can and should worship this deity in their own way. Yacob believed that the truth of life should be found by looking towards the natural world. He believed that the morality of a specific action would be dictated by determining whether it creates or reduces harmony in the world. He believed that implementing religious rituals were in contrast with the need to create harmony, as some of these actions would hurt others.

In his book Hatata, he validated God by stating “If I say that my father and my mother created me, then I must search for the creator of my parents and of the parents of my parents until they arrive at the first who were not created as we [are] but who came into this world in some other way without being generated.” Thus, while he used God to explain the creation of man, he believed that it was the responsibility of humans to do right for one another, and not on the behalf of a deity.

By stating this, Descartes is referring to the fact that what is true for us is constantly changing throughout our lives. Therefore, it is our responsibility for us to recognize that our former truths may not be our current truths. This is important because truth is constantly evolving. As we grow older, we come to accept new ideas and beliefs as fact that refute our former beliefs. If there is greater evidence for these new ideas than there was for the old ones, then we must forget about these old ideas and except the new, with the understanding that these new ideas may eventually come to be rejected as well.

Ultimately, since facts can only be true or false, it is important for us to seek truth rather than simply feeling comfortable believe that everything we think is true is real.

In his publication, The Tragic Sense of Life, Unamuno primarily disagrees with Descartes statement “Cogito ero sum”, which translates to “I think therefore I am”. He argues that not everything that exists thinks, which states the opposite of Descartes’ claim. Ultimately, he argues that it is possible to conceive pure thought without consciousness of self or without personality. Therefore, thinking may not define being and the body and the mind may not necessarily differ, as Descartes had claimed. Thus, he claimed that an individual who exists is one made of flesh and bone, not necessarily one who thinks.

Unamuno countered Descartes’ well known saying by countering it with the idea stating that “Sum ergo cogito”, which means “I am therefore I think”. He argues that humans have many things in common with animals, so it may not be thinking or emotion that distinguishes them. An example he gives in his book is that cats can feel sad and weep, which means they must have thought about pain or experienced pain. The same occurs for humans. However, humans have a greater sense of consciousness, which he defines as a knowledge of the extent of our own limitations. It is possible that animals do not share this with us, and that it is this that makes us distinct.