Rousseau, Reason, and the Films of Human Shame
To Jean-Jacques Rousseau, reason is a burden. To him, it planted in humanity a coven of abstract fears and vices and was responsible for leading humankind to “purchase imaginary repose at the price of real happiness.”
Sacrifice, Suffering, and Politics: Exploring Dharma and its Centrality to the Attainment of Swaraj
As Hind Swaraj pieces together a passionate argument, I briefly solicit attention towards the hidden paradoxes, subtilties, and the interplay between philosophy and politics that dharma entails.
Hamlet: Revenge Over Remembrance
Few facts are certain in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, whether in terms of its characters’ allegiances, the motivations behind their actions, and in a few cases, even the sanity of some characters.
The Inevitable Fact of Captivity in Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life
Given the dramatic conclusion, Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life invites the readers to reflect upon the force of one’s innate desire to be free, as well as the Eurocentric colonial narratives that engrain a lingering and potent prejudice.
Objectification Versus Subjectification: The Self-Perpetuating Cycles Between the Psyche and Society
It is through the intricately-detailed prose of Frantz Fanon’s writing that scenes of objectification are depicted in Black Skin, White Masks.
Our Lives are Built on Weaving All Our Stories into Worlds We Call Our Own: The Stories that Create Personal Identity in Margaret Laurence’s A Bird in the House
A Bird in the House is a collection of stories narrated by a character named Vanessa. While Vanessa the narrator is an adult, the collection is about a younger Vanessa, who is a writer in her own right.
A Charkha Between Kallipolis and Worker’s Utopia: Unraveling Gandhian Self-Rule and Self-Control through Marxist and Platonic Philosophy
[…] Gandhi’s notion of personal self-control may be understood as a spiritual entity transcending both Karl Marx and Plato as well as the text’s conception of modernity.
Nature as Nurture: The Role of the Physical in the Journey to Enlightenment
Thinkers from all ages argue that we, as beings, are restricted by the physical world. Whether it be a heaven or some greater truth, there exists a metaphysical world which is unreachable through physical means.
American Eulogy: Dissecting the Proverbial Death of New York in Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Beyond
In examining both Hamid’s novel and the world that it is reflecting, it becomes clear that for Changez and many people like him, the “America” of New York, that global city, died in 2001.
Societal Alienation and Discontent: Freud and Marx on Our Relationship with Love, Libido, and Labour
Thus, the pain of Freud’s reality principle is minimized, if not outright eliminated, and the development of the ego begins to look much more like that of Marx and Engels’ universal individual.