Sympathy in Film essays

Sympathy in Film essays Creating sympathy is a very delicate and skilled task to perform in a motion picture. Filmmakers have to take factors in to account in order to get their message across. There are many techniques, ranging from an actors or actresses clothes and possessions to the environment in which the movie takes place in, to the set lighting, camera angle, and sound. Although, none of which is as near as important as the acting; how the star portrays his or her character. We have to believe the actor is really that person on the screen, if we are to feel emotions towards that character during a dramatic scene. A film that demonstrates this to the tee, with brilliant acting, visual effects, and sound is Braveheart. The leading/main character, William Wallace, played by Mel Gibson gives his audience a emotionally charged experience viewing this film. Without words, every look, every expression, we know exactly how he is feeling and sympathize with his pain. His first real traumatic experience comes when his newly wed wife is killed. Her throat is slit and she is tied to a pole for the town to see as an example. Meanwhile William is waiting for her at a meeting spot. We, the audience already know that shes dead, but distressfully watch as Wallace slowly becomes terrified of what could have happened, as he looks round and round for her. He soon gives up, and decides to return to the town hed last seen her. Finding her slain body tied up to the post, he falls to his knees, speechless, and we see the utter horror in his eyes, as Wallace realizes he has nothing else to live for. Looking at a proud man suddenly broken, the audience feels utter sympathy towards him and what he has lost. Mel Gibson directed in and stared in this film, which let him play the role of William Wallace in the manner he wished. The film was produced in Scotland, and was made to take place around the end of the 13th century. The s ...

Planting, Growing, and Marketing Royal Paulownia

Planting, Growing, and Marketing Royal Paulownia Paulownia tomentosa has had marvelous press on the Internet. Several Australian and United States companies make claims of extraordinary growth, unbelievable wood values, and magnificent beauty. Paulownia, they write, can shade an area in record time, resist insects, feed livestock, and improve the soil component - and in some ways this is correct. But is this just hype or is the plant truly a supertree Let me introduce you to Royal Paulownia and you just might rethink the abilities given to the tree by producers. Empress Tree - Mythology vs. Facts You can tell this tree is very special right away, from just its name. The plants pedigree and regal names include Empress Tree, Kiri Tree, Sapphire Princess, Royal Paulownia, Princess Tree, and Kawakami. The surrounding mythology abounds and many cultures can claim title to embellishing the plants many legends. Many cultures love and embrace the tree which in turn promoted its worldwide popularity.  The Chinese were the first to establish a much-practiced tradition that included the tree. An oriental Paulownia is planted when a daughter is born. When she marries, the tree is harvested to create a musical instrument, clogs or fine furniture; they then live happily ever after. Even today, it is a valued wood in the orient and top dollar is paid for its procurement and used for many products. A Russian legend has it that the tree was named Royal Paulownia in honor of Princess Anna Pavlovnia, daughter of Russias Czar Paul I. Its name Princess or Empress tree was an endearment to a nations rulers. In the United States, many of these trees have been planted for wood production  but naturalized wild stands grow along the Eastern Seaboard and through the mid-western states. Paulownias range is said to have expanded because of the seed pods used in packing shipped cargo from China early in the last century. Containers were emptied, winds scattered, the tiny seeds and a fast paulownia forest developed. The tree has been in America since introduction during the mid-1800s. It was first discovered as a profitable tree in the 1970s by a Japanese timber buyer and the wood was purchased at attractive prices. This sparked a multimillion-dollar export market for the wood. One log is said to have sold for $20,000 US dollars. That enthusiasm has mostly run its course. One thing to remember is, the wood is totally ignored by domestic timber companies in the United States and speaks volumes about its economic potential, at least to me. But utilization studies by several universities including Tennessee, Kentucky, Maryland, and Virginia suggests the potential  for a favorable future market. Should You Plant Royal Paulownia? There are some compelling reasons to plant Paulownia. The tree has some of the best soil, water, and nutrient retaining properties. It can be made into forest products. At first blush, it makes sense to plant Paulownia, watch it grow, improve the environment, and make a fortune at the end of ten to twelve years. But is it really that simple? Here are the attractive reasons for growing the tree: Paulownia is a light, air curable wood, that does not warp, twist, or crack. The tree is fire resistant and water repellent. These are very good wood qualities and the tree has all of these. Paulownia can be sold for pulp, paper, poles, construction material, plywood, and furniture and at top dollar. You still have to be lucky enough to be growing the trees in an area with a good market. Paulownia can be commercially harvested in five to seven years. This is true but only for some products made by companies that may or may not be buying at any given time. Paulownia is a beautiful tree and is easily propagated from root cuttings. But it can also become a problem in the landscape because of its messy habits. Paulownia is nitrogen rich and makes an excellent livestock fodder and soil amending mulching material.   If all of these statements are true, and for the most part they are, you would be doing yourself a favor to plant the tree. It would, in fact, be a great idea to plant the tree on a good site. Great for the environment, great for shade, great for soil, great for water quality and great for a beautiful landscape. But is it economically sound to plant Paulownia over large areas? Are Paulownia Plantations Economically Practical? A recent discussion on a favorite forestry forum was are Paulownia plantations economic? Gordon J. Esplin writes promoters of Paulownia plantations are claiming incredible growth (4 years to 60, 16 at breast height) and value (eg $800/cubic meter) for Paulownia trees. This seems to be too good to be true. Are there any independent, scientific studies on the species? James Lawrence of Toad Gully Growers, a Paulownia propagation company in Australia sums it up completely. There has, unfortunately, been much over-hyped promotion of Paulownia. It is true, however, that under the right conditions, Paulownia produces valuable timber in a shorter time frame... Lawrence goes on to say that it usually takes from 10 to 12 years to achieve a size economical to mill and is not construction strong enough to be used as building material. It is most likely to find its place in moldings, doors, window frames, veneers, and furniture. He further says that trees in the cooler regions of Australia may be more slowly grown and consequently of higher timber quality - close growth rings are desired for furniture - than those grown in warmer climates; however, the higher rate of crop rotation in the warmer zones should compensate for any lower returns per m3. Lawrence just indicated, at least to me, that we need to take a deep breath and grow the tree slower for optimum quality. And what about a little thing called market? Remembering that the top three things that affect the value of any real property are location, location, location, I would suggest that the top three things that affect the value of standing timber price are markets, markets, markets. Paulownia is no different from any other tree in this regard and you need to find a market before planting and I have found no support for a market on the Internet. The literature suggests that the present US market is extremely under-developed in Paulownia and one source actually suggested that there is no present market. The future of this tree depends on a future market. I did run across a credible reference to price. Mississippi State University indicates in a report on Unique Species and Uses that Paulownia logs have been found growing in the Mississippi Delta and south along the Mississippi River. Paulonia logs have been in high demand in Japan and bring excellent prices (my emphasis) to landowners in Mississippi. I have yet to find that buying source. Also, there are risks associated with any tree planting venture. Paulownia is no different. It is sensitive to drought, root rot, and diseases. There is also the economic risk of producing a tree with little future economic value.

A summary post us even more important in this forum given the range of Coursework

A summary post us even more important in this forum given the range of issues thathave been covered - Coursework Example market and sets high prices than the prices at which the buyers are willing to buy at leading to the restriction of supply quantity and a reduction in the demand of the consumers for the product due to the high prices (Varoufakis, 1998). One example of a monopoly is the government of Saudi Arabia that has total control for supply of oil and the whole oil industry. Other examples include Sky film that has led to increased prices in the pay television business in the UK. Inappropriate competition may result to an oligopoly, which is a form of market failure where a small number of firms dominate the market and decisions by one firms influences that of other firms in the market (Howard et al., 2009). Collusion among the firms leads to setting of higher prices and limiting of supplier affecting the consumers in the market. Examples of oligopolies include Tesco, Sainsbury, Morrisons, and Asda, which have 74.4% of the grocery market and Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds TSB, Natwest, and Halifax, which together dominate the banking sector in the United Kingdom. Inappropriate information may also result to a situation characterized by one buyer influencing the decisions of the suppliers in the market, a situation referred to as a monopsony (Ferguson, 2004). An example of a monopsony in the Natural Led Lumber Media Company where it is the only company conducting lumbering operations in Lumber town. As demonstrated in the above examples of monopoly, oligopoly, and monopsony as cases for inappropriate competition, leading to market failure, which results in the lack of a free market mechanism for allocation of goods and services demonstrated by these conditions in the

International Actors in the Middle East Since 2000 Assignment

International Actors in the Middle East Since 2000 - Assignment Example The United States invasion of Iraq is one example serves as an example of the attention that the United States has lavished on the Middle East, despite the fact that the reasons they originally gave for doing so no longer appear to be true. As Stephen Zunes explains, â€Å"WITH THE MAJOR JUSTIFICATIONS FOR THE U.S.-LED INVASION OF IRAQ †¦ NOW DISCREDITED, AND CLAIMS OF WANTING TO CREATE A DEMOCRATIC IRAQ HIGHLY DUBIOUS, THIS RAISES THE QUESTION AS TO WHAT ACTUALLY MOTIVATED THE UNTED STATES† . Some theories suggest that economic factors played a role in this invasion, but another strong driving factor was to impose American interests on the country The American occupation is not without its costs. â€Å"OVERALL, THE INSURGENCY VIOLENCE BEGAN AS, AND REMAINS, A REACTION TO THE OCCUPATION† . Such violence can be compared to that during the American Civil War or the Vietnam War, simply speaking; the inhabitants of the country are trying to get the invaders to leave. Some analysts predict that if the United States were to withdraw their troops, the violence within the Middle East would significantly decrease, as motivation against the United States military decreases. Indeed, when the United States pulled out of a similar situation in Vietnam, much of the hatred and violence dissipated . Violence continues in Iraq among the various political factions, most prominent of which are the Sunni and the Shiite. The United States has primarily provided support for the Shiites, however this poses a potential problem as â€Å"THE SOUTHERN SHIITE REGION IS A POTENTIAL POWERFUL ALLY OF IRAN, WITH AT LEAST ONE MILITIA (MAHDI) FUNDED DIRECTLY BY IRAN† . Suggestions for the future outcome for Iraq include a proposal to divide Iraq into three distinct regions, which would function autonomously. However, it appears unlikely that any such decisions will be made soon . As can be seen from the above examination, the allocation of power within the

The Metamorphosis of Paul Baumer in All Quiet on the Western Front :: All Quiet on the Western Front Essays

The Metamorphosis of Paul Baumer in All Quiet on the Western Front       Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, a novel set in World War I, centers around the changes wrought by the war on one young German soldier. During his time in the war, Remarque's protagonist, Paul Baumer, changes from a rather innocent Romantic to a hardened and somewhat caustic veteran. More importantly, during the course of this metamorphosis, Baumer disaffiliates himself from those societal icons-parents, elders, school, religion-that had been the foundation of his pre-enlistment days. This rejection comes about as a result of Baumer's realization that the pre-enlistment society simply does not understand the reality of the Great War. His new society, then, becomes the Company, his fellow trench soldiers, because that is a group which does understand the truth as Baumer has experienced it.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Remarque demonstrates Baumer's disaffiliation from the traditional by emphasizing the language of Baumer's pre- and post-enlistment societies. Baumer either can not, or chooses not to, communicate truthfully with those representatives of his pre-enlistment and innocent days. Further, he is repulsed by the banal and meaningless language that is used by members of that society. As he becomes alienated from his former, traditional, society, Baumer simultaneously is able to communicate effectively only with his military comrades. Since the novel is told from the first person point of view, the reader can see how the words Baumer speaks are at variance with his true feelings. In his preface to the novel, Remarque maintains that "a generation of men ... were destroyed by the war" (Remarque, All Quiet Preface). Indeed, in All Quiet on the Western Front, the meaning of language itself is, to a great extent, destroyed.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Early in the novel, Baumer notes how his elders had been facile with words prior to his enlistment. Specifically, teachers and parents had used words, passionately at times, to persuade him and other young men to enlist in the war effort. After relating the tale of a teacher who exhorted his students to enlist, Baumer states that "teachers always carry their feelings ready in their waistcoat pockets, and trot them out by the hour" (Remarque, All Quiet I. 15). Baumer admits that he, and others, were fooled by this rhetorical trickery. Parents,too, were not averse to using words to shame their sons into enlisting. "At that time even one's parents were ready with the word 'coward'" (Remarque, All Quiet I.

Islamic scholars Essay

Western philosophy of religion, as the basic ancestor of modern religious studies, is differentiated from theology and the many Eastern philosophical traditions by generally being written from a third party perspective. â€Å"Islamicization of the West†, is the diffusion and assimilation of Islamic culture in the West. This is distinct from Islamization that means the conscious acceptance and implementation of the ideal Islamic cultural patterns by non-Muslims and nominal Muslims. Islamicization is sociologically similar to, though not identical with, Westernization subject to the limits and conditions of imitative- innovative social change. The Islamicization of the Medieval West, occurred, first, during the period ending around the middle of the eleventh century before systematic translations from Arabic into Western languages began; secondly during the age of Arabic translations coinciding with the little Renaissance of the twelfth to the seventeenth centuries; and third, during the Catholic-Protestant Reformation and Renaissance of the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries. The transformation of the West during these centuries until the sixteenth, passed through several stages of contact and conflict with Islamic culture. The West resorted to various strategies. Until about the end of the eleventh century, the Western views of ideal Islam and its cultural and military triumphant civilization were fostered by sheer ignorance, fanaticism, hatred toward Islam and the Muslims, Biblical exegesis, and relative intellectual and physical isolation. This led to the expected apogee of Western Zealot type response: the Crusades of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The extensive contacts with the superior Islamic culture and Muslims during the Crusades ushered in a new era in Western self-consciousness, and awakened responses to Islamic culture. The highest intellectual achievements of the West during these two centuries, twelfth and thirteenth comprised the imitation of Islamic science and learning. Universities were found in the West patterned on the Muslim universities to assimilate the new knowledge made available by translations of the works in Arabic and, to a lesser extent, of Greek classics, which have been superseded by the Muslims. The main philosophical influence on the Christian thought at this period was Avicenna and Averroes, the two Muslim philosophers commenting Aristotle and building their philosophical systems on or against the Greek philosopher. Aristotle presented to the Christian scholars the opportunity to escape from the Muslim thought as such. Aristotle belonging to the classical past (Greek and Roman) of Europe was a positive complement to the Muslim sciences towards which the Christian scholars had turned to acquire their knowledge. He began a new era by pointing inwards at Christians and their own deficiencies as an explanation for their lack of success compared to the Muslims’ one. He believed the cause of Muslims’ success was their religion, which sanctioned worldly pursuits, self-will and secular dominion. How Islamic scholars first translated Aristotle and then how Western Christians came into possession of them. Muslim philosophy influenced Western thought in several ways, it initiated in the West the humanistic movement; introduced the historical sciences and the scientific method; helped the Western scholastics in harmonizing philosophy with faith; stimulated Western mysticism; laid the foundations of Italian Renaissance and, to a degree, moulded the modem European . The Muslims were the first humanists and they gave a humanist bend to the Western mind. They were the first to reveal to the West that outside the prevailing Catholic Church it was not all darkness and barbarism but untold wealth of knowledge. They captured and further developed all the intellectual achievements of Greece and transmitted them to the West before any direct contact between the Greek intellect and the Western mind was established. It was through their influence that ancient and contemporary men outside the Christian West also began to be looked upon as human and even possessed of higher civilizations. To the Arabians, Aristotle represented and summed up Greek philosophy. They adopted the doctrine and system, which the progress of human affairs had made the intellectual aliment of their Syrian guides. It was a matter of historical necessity, and not an act of deliberate choice. When the need of scientific culture awoke amongst them, they accepted Aristotle. From first to last Arabian philosophers made no claim to originally, their aim was merely to propagate the truth of Peripateticism as it had been delivered to them. In medicine and astronomy, as well as in philosophy, they entertained an almost superstitious reverence for their Greek teachers. It was with them that the deification of Aristotle began. And from them the belief that in him human intelligence had reached its limit passed. Abul Walid Mohammad Ibn Rushd was the ultimate rationalist, the Aristotelian heretic of the medieval Islam and Christianity. His singular influence in stimulating the Western Renaissance is acknowledged as the landmark in the history of Western civilization. Along with Ibn Sina, he is the greatest name in Arabian philosophy whose influence spread, in many directions, through the duration of the Middle Ages, then in the epoch of the Renaissance up to the very threshold of modern times. Indeed, he was the greatest Muslim philosophers of the West, and one of the greatest of medieval times. Ibn Rushd came from a family of Cordoban scholars and was a trained lawyer and a physician; his role initiated him into philosophy. He wrote extensive commentaries on Aristotle, and others. His philosophy was in the tradition of prevailing Islamic scholasticism, with attempts to synthesize Islamic faith and reason in light of the available Greek heritage. His Commentaries on Aristotle were translated into Latin and Hebrew. The works of Aristotle and Ibn Rushd in their Latin translations were used not only in the curriculum at Naples, but were also sent to the Universities of Paris and Bologna. Once the rediscovery of Aristotle through Ibn Rushd’s writings was complete, the philosophers and theologians alike found themselves in possession of the greatest intellectual reservoir ever developed up to that time. Ibn Rushd â€Å"the Great Commentator. Influenced by his writings, philosophers and theologians split into two major groups; the liberal, with Siger of Brabant at their head, and the conservative, with St. Thomas Aquinas of the Dominician Monks at their head. The issues for the split where metaphysical, philosophical, and practical. However his critics, did not escape his influence, and their understanding of Aristotle was conditioned. When Ibn Rushd died in 1198, he bequeathed to his successors the ideal of a purely rational philosophy, an ideal whose influence was to be such that, by it, even the evolution of Christian philosophy was to be deeply modified. Gilson attributes to Ibn Rushd the recognition, which became pivotal to St. Thomas’ own philosophy, that nothing should enter the texture of metaphysical knowledge save only rational and necessary demonstrations. However, unlike some of his adversarial Latin Averroists, St. Thomas was not willing to concede that either Aristotle or Ibn Rushd were infallible. The enthusiasm in Paris during the thirteenth century for Ibn Rushd’s Aristotelian Commentaries brought serious questions as to the compatibility of Ibn Rushd’s Aristotelianism with the Christian doctrine. In the thirteenth century, Papal Inquisition against the Christian heretics came under condemnations with the focus mainly on Latin Averroists, led by Siger of Brabant, who was suspected of subscribing to the double-truth doctrine. Ibn Rushd himself did not subscribe to such a thesis, it is doubtful, according to Gilson, and other medievalists that even Siger himself did so. This doctrine, however, was a godsend for the scientifically minded people in the West, who were condemned and persecuted by the Church and the State. They found their best support in this and other â€Å"Averroisms†. The Ibn Rushd’s Aristotelian commentaries and his own contributions rapidly became the ruling mode of social thought in the West. Scholars of medieval Europe were provoked and inspired by Ibn Rushd’s writings. Whereas some Muslim scholastics and their Latin successors tried to â€Å"Islamise† and â€Å"Christianise† Hellenism, Ibn Rushd’s commentaries and rationalism seemed to excessively â€Å"Hellenise† Islam and Christianity. Thus, his Muslim contemporaries persecuted him while Muslim posterity almost ignored him, allowing his works to be lost. However, Jews preserved many of them. In Latin Christianity, the commentaries were translated into Latin from the Hebrew, fed the heresies of Siger of Brabant and the rationalism of the Italian school of Padua, and threatened the foundations of Christianity. St. Thomas recognized that some parts of religion were beyond reason and must be accepted by faith alone. The aim of his life was to reconcile Aristotelianism and Muslim knowledge with Christian theology and Thomas Aquinas was led to write his document to halt the threatened liquidation of Christian theology by Arabic interpretations of Aristotle. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Latin orientated-Averroism had far-reaching consequences for medieval and modern social thought, hardly foreseeable by the medieval scholastics. It established a tradition in which it became possible to question the status of religion and from the end of the twelfth century to the end of the sixteenth century Averroism remained the dominant school of thought, in spite of the orthodox reaction it created first among the Muslims in Spain and then among the Talmudists, and finally, among the Christian clergy. These centuries witnessed revolutions in the evolution of social thought, with medieval Islamic sources always providing the background. As the Greek heritage â€Å"had aroused the great age of Arabic science and philosophy, so now it would excite the European mind and inquiry and speculation would crack stone after stone of that majestic edifice to bring this collapse of the medieval system in the fourteenth century, and the beginnings of modern philosophy in the ardor of the Renaissance . The results were monumental in Western history. It is suggested that Harold Nebelsick puts it well. He discusses the achievements of the Arab-Islamic scholars and how they appropriated, appreciated and preserved Greek classical learning and built upon it and thus, laid the foundations for a quite unprecedented revival of learning in Europe, and the results were the Renaissance in the thirteenth century, the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century, and eventually the rise of modern science in the seventeenth. Even in our own time the contributions of those scholars, in the world of Islam and in the Christian West, represent the source of the most beneficent form of intellectual enlightenment. For Ibn Rushd, the primacy of reason is unquestioned but compatible with faith, and for this Gilson regards him as the herald of rationalism long before the Renaissance. In his Harmony of Philosophy and Religion, which was not available to St. Thomas, Siger of Brabant or their contemporaries in Latin, Ibn Rushd maintains a position which may be called the harmony of truth, philosophical and theological. Thus, philosophical truth, although superior to religious truth, is not really incompatible with, or even different, from it. The only difference is the path to truth philosophical and the theological. The Islamicisation of intellectual culture in Spain as early as the ninth century was described by Alvaro, a contemporary Cordovian bishop, the Christians loved to read the poems and romances of the Arabs, theologians and philosophers. Young Christians read and studied with enthusiasm the Arab books, and gathered immense libraries at great expense and despised the Christian literature as unworthy of attention. This refinement of life gradually spread northwards from Spain and Sicily. The experiences of the Crusaders in Islamic lands doubtless contributed something to the spread of Arab culture in Western Europe. The notion of â€Å"the miracle of Arabic science† circulated most unfortunately by Sarton, the Historian of medieval science, is false. The explanation of the â€Å"phenomenon† of the sudden birth of Islamic science lays down in the living Islamic ethos of those times; its dogmas and its gamut of culture; the all- pervading Islamic law which forged strong bonds of social co-operation among the Muslims, and between the Muslims and non-Muslims, citizens and resident aliens of the vast Islamic society of bewildering religious, ideological, national, racial and linguistic diversity. This Islamic ethos in action rekindled the dying members of the pre-Quranic ancient sciences and worldwide civilization. These mechanisms operate only in a cultural and political milieu of propitious dogmas, laws, values, cosmological doctrines, attitudes and efforts, all of which existed in the progressive period of medieval Islamic civilization. Conclusion Muslims gave a humanist bend to the Western mind. They revealed to the West that outside the prevailing catholic church it was not all darkness and barbarism but immense wealth of knowledge. Before any direct contact between the Greek intellect and the Western mind was established, Arabs had captured and further developed all the intellectual achievements of Greece. It was also due to their influence that men outside the Christian West began to be considered as human and even possessors of higher civilizations. The Muslims absorbed the best in the existing sciences and civilizations consistent with Islam and developed them, thanks to the intensely developed Islamic consciousness and conditioning, based on a remarkable Islamic system of education. There was great flexibility in horizontal and vertical mobility of people as nationalistic and hedonistic evils were held in check. Prerequisites for science and civilization were there: invention and innovation based on original thought; social mindedness and utilitarianism of individual efforts as well as in the organization of state and its educational and other programs; political stability, the rule of law and constitutionalism. All these mechanisms and conditions are necessary for the genesis, development, diffusion and application of science and technology. This fact of medieval Islamicization of the West needs to be fully researched, accepted and incorporated in specialized works and in the teaching materials of schools and colleges around the world. The consequences of this will be far reaching in understanding the socio-cultural rejuvenation and modernization of the developing nations, in building up a genuine and universally acceptable theory of social action, and in ridding sociology of ethnocentrism; in removing the burdens of historical romanticism and apologetics imposed upon the underdeveloped nations and suppressed minorities as a reaction to the cultural arrogance of nations and ethnic groups which are highly developed today but had their own dark ages at some other time and in promoting international understanding and co-operation for development and world peace. As a whole, various possible relationships between ideas of Muslim scholars, Greek philosophy and Christianity hence scholastics’ stand towards borrowing without acknowledgement or rejection Muslim scholars tried to interpret Greek ideas to establish a synthesis if possible. Otherwise, they criticized and refuted them. Since Christianity also faced the same problems, scholastic scholars borrowed those arguments, if they found them favorable in their case also, without acknowledgement. In this category generally come philosophical and metaphysical ideas Thomas Aquinas was led to write his Summa to halt the threatened liquidation of Christian theology by Arabic interpretations of Aristotle’ ‘Indeed the industry of Aquinas was due not to love of Aristotle but to fear of Averroes’. . It was an acknowledgement but with ill intention. Such references are not uncommon even in the contemporary texts that fully ignore Muslim scholars’ contributions to economic thought; scholastics borrowed without hesitation and preferred to refer to Greek scholars if they felt such a need. There was a spontaneous and determined general agreement about what to take and what to reject; what was taken was always either culturally common, or culturally neutral. The body of scientific knowledge was culturally neutral. Its cultural bearings were easily absorbed, because they were part of the common inheritance of the Arab world and of Europe. In times that are more recent a large number of Western scholars, together with Muslim scholars writing in Western languages, have been bringing out the diffusion of Islamic science, philosophy, and other aspects of Islamic culture in medieval West. However, such researches have not been incorporated in the Western education system and culture, in the manner and to the extent necessary for fostering the proper appreciation of the ideal and historical patterns of Islamic culture. Therefore, the West portends and strives for Westernization of the Muslim world because of what is considered to be the backwardness of contemporary Muslim behavioral culture pattern and the denial of the existence and validity of ideal Islamic culture pattern. Therefore, we can see the reactionary Muslim responses through polemics, xenophobia, historical romanticism, zealotism, fanaticism, extremism, even terrorism. This is in fact very different from the creative adaptation indispensable for contemporary rejuvenation. The consequences of the denial, falsification and neglect of this historical fact have been extremely serious: the denigration of Islam in the eyes of Muslims and non-Muslims; the identification of Islam and its culture with ignorance and backwardness and of â€Å"modernity† and progress with Western civilization; the creation of xenophobia and arrogance in Western mind, and the perpetration of ideological and politico- economic. Western imperialism against Muslim people; the imposition of an inferiority complex among Western educated â€Å"modern† Muslims, and the bitter social and political cleavages between the â€Å"modern† and the â€Å"traditional† Muslim elites. Reference http://www. accesstoinsight. org/lib/authors/bodhi/wheel282. html. http://www. accesstoinsight. org/ptf/dhamma/sila/pancasila. html. www. lssu. edu/faculty/jswedene/FULBRIGHT_FILES/Islamic%20Contributions%20to%20the %20West. doc http://www. aina. org/article/greek2. html library. csun. edu/mbarrett/religiousstudies. html www. lib. utk. edu/diversity/culturecorner/spring04/reference_spring_04. pdf

Cultural Disenchantment in a Postwar Climate Illustrated...

One of the principal themes in Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway is the English people’s collective loss of confidence in the state of the British Empire after the First World War. Set in London in the June of 1923, the novel opens at the close of a global war that lasted only four years but cost the United Kingdom more than 100,000 lives and permanently shifted the political boundaries and social world order of its people. Each of the novel’s many characters represent a different aspect of the English citizens’ disenchantment with established, presupposed cultural values and worldview brought about by the unexpected lack of glory in victory or dignity in the dead and wounded multitudes. The world Woolf creates in Mrs. Dalloway is†¦show more content†¦The frequent references to Big Ben, the houses of Parliament, London, the Prime Minister, and the Queen of England within Clarissa’s stream of consciousness connect the reader, through i conic images of England in the height of its bureaucratic and social greatness, to her world unsullied by the grit and horror of war. The Queen, who to many became a symbol of an outdated political class system and a dying monarchy, is still to Clarissa a figure of â€Å"the majesty of England, of the enduring symbol of the state† (Woolf, 16). Clarissa’s struggle with self-realization and retrospection correspond closely with England’s own eroding national identity, and her grand party is the culmination of decades’ worth of wilted aspirations and undelivered promises. Formerly the greatest empire in the world with colonies on every continent, a flourishing intercontinental economy, and a reputation for being invulnerable on land and sea, England saw horrific losses in resources as well as and cultural integrity on the field of battle. It is both a difficult and necessary struggle for Clarissa in coming to terms with her country’s failures; she is forced to reevaluate her life and place in an England that can be enthrallingly beautiful while propagating unprecedented death and devastation on its own soil. The death of Septimus Smith, a