1) Always let your conscience be your guide.Pinocchio, Pinocchio
2) The water’s always changing, always flowing But people, I guess, can’t live like that.Pocahontas, Pocahontas
3) All it takes is faith and trust. Peter Pan, Peter Pan
4) Fate is kind She brings to those to love the sweet fulfillment of their secret longing. Jiminy Cricket, Pinocchio
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ReplyDeleteI really like the quotes that Zahrrah has added. I find the quote by Pinocchio very interesting, and I think it provokes thought on human nature.
ReplyDeleteThere are some assumptions made in this quote. The first assumption is that we all have a 'conscience' within us. The nature of the conscience is not explicitly stated in the quote. However, we can make an inference regarding this. This leads to the second assumption of this quote, which is that our 'conscience' will lead us in the 'right' direction. This is implied by the tone of the quote, as the quote sounds like a piece of sagely advice. From this assumption, we can argue that the quote implies that every human being has a ‘moral’ calling in them that, once answered to, will lead us in the ‘right’ direction and prompt us to do the right thing. The quote seemingly implies that humans intrinsically have this moral force within us, which seems to mirror Mencius’s thought that humans are born inherently morally good, or with moral ‘virtues’ that must be nurtured and enhanced.
However, the quote differs very subtly from Mencius’s thought on this. Rather than implying that our ‘conscience’ must be enhanced, the quote implies that we must let go of factors that influence us against letting our conscience control us. In other words, the quote tells us not to enhance conscience, but to stop enhancing other factors that pull us away from our conscience. Stopping the enhancement of other factors will inevitably lead to our conscience taking us along a path, without any additional nurturing of this conscience being required. I personally think that this is quite a simplistic view, as I believe that a person’s sense of morality is empirically gained. People with differing experiences will have different senses of morality, and one person’s following of their conscience may lead to a different path than that of someone else following their conscience. This contradicts the idea of conscience allowing us to do the ‘right’ thing, if there are multiple outcomes to following our ‘conscience’. There is no absolute outcome, and this implies subjectivity of one’s conscience. And if subjectivity is involved, it is logically possible that following one’s ‘conscience’ could result in a person undertaking questionable actions, which would then make the piece of advice misguiding.
I personally believe that there is no set rule of thumb that can be followed, in order to make decisions or decide how to progress with our lives. I believe that situations need to rationally be considered as separate, contextual instances. I believe that following one’s ‘conscience’ can lead people dangerously close to allowing themselves to be unfairly ‘guilt-tripped’ or emotionally manipulated to act in a way that may not be doing the ‘moral’ thing, but may be an act of submission. However, I am not saying that conscience must be ignored: I believe that conscience is a force that must be considered while making a decision but not the absolute determinate of them.
4) Fate is kind She brings to those to love the sweet fulfillment of their secret longing. Jiminy Cricket, Pinocchio
ReplyDeleteWhat's interesting about this quote is the idea of a reward for one's actions. If you love, if you do not boast of your longing (it is secret, after all), it will be fulfilled. I think this is a very idealistic view of the world, as it manages to both advocate the goodness and selflessness of our heart while affirming that we will be rewarded for it. The implication is, though, that we should not be good in hopes of the reward, but because of Fate's kindness, still receive it. This seems problematic--if we shouldn't do it for the reward, mentioning it seems disingenuous, as though affirming that inside, we really do need the hope for a happy ending, so we can never truly have purity of intention. This idealistic, problematic view is reminiscent of Kant's view on morals. He too believed that we should do good without profit in mind, but at the same time said that we must be able to hope for a reward for our actions.
Unfortunately for Disney and Kant, this dichotomy leads me to believe that their assertions only prove the opposite of what they espouse. In our moral actions, desiring a reward is close enough to hoping for one that their optimism seems like human desperation. They try to both take the cake and eat it, but succeed only in proving the weaknesses of the heart.
2) The water’s always changing, always flowing. But people, I guess, can’t live like that. Pocahontas, Pocahontas
ReplyDeleteThe quote here brings about the issue of human nature, mainly in relation to change. It's presumed in the quote that change is inevitable. Change is a concept that we all have to face, most often whether we like it or not. But the resistance to change seems to be ingrained in our human nature. Maybe because change is synonymous with uncertainty and it's also a very human characteristic to feel the need for control. The quote parallels water and humans in the fluid total embracing of change in contrast to being dragged, kicking and screaming as many of us seem to do.
Rationally, change makes sense because it connotes progression of any kind. If it's in our human nature to resist change as much as possible, than we must assume that humans, though possess the ability to think rationally and for example, at times, accept change, our human nature reveals to us that we can also be very irrational.
Personally, I think that the quote calls attention to a fundamental rut that we continually find ourselves in. Change is often difficult and uncomfortable and we resist it because what we don't see, what we can't control, we tend to reject purely on the basis of the fact that it's alien to us. The quote urges us to be more fluid and flowing like water, but it's somewhat flawed because water is a chemical and humans are rational, thinking beings. Where water simply flows in whatever direction that reaches the ocean, our journey as humans doesn't have an endgame that is entirely clear.
All it takes is faith and trust. Peter Pan, Peter Pan
ReplyDeleteThis quote made me recall the Biblical view of Human Nature, one that states that for a human to lead a happy, content life and eventually end up in Heaven, he or she must have faith in God and devote their lives to good deeds and actions. By saying "all it takes", the quote is underscoring the simplicity of the fact that it doesn't take a lot, but rather just two things, to achieve whatever it is that consists of "all" or everything. In this case, it is faith and trust.
The predominant reason why the Biblical view of Human Nature came to mind was because faith and trust could be interpreted in different ways, and the way I interpreted it was that faith was faith in God and trust was similarly related. However, that is just one view and I can see how other human nature theories could be easily related to this quote depending on what exactly is being trusted and believed in. For instance, if it was faith and trust in yourself, the existentialist view could be applicable. This view states that humans are free and therefore, nothing until we construct a self. By having faith in ourselves and others and trusting what we are capable of, we are therefore making a life for ourselves and creating a self.