Waxing Poetically: Addressing Culture with a Twist of Poetry

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How a person answers these questions may determine the very core of his or her being. Aristotle is concerned mainly with what it means to be good. The Aristotelian philosophy is one of ethics i.e., how to treat human beings and the results of that treatment. Descartes takes out goodness and plainly reduces the question to “What does it mean to be?” He does not rely on anything emotional or spiritual but only the rational mechanics or tools of what exists and what it means to exist. Descartes follows and theorizes the concept of “I think therefore I am.” Nietzsche then goes beyond knowing he exists and than asks what it means in general, whateverything means. Why be in the first place? What is the purpose of being? Russell replies by asking what is mean by “it.” Does the definer refer to nature, life, God? Does he refer to all or none of the three? This is Russel’s ultimate question. Nietzsche would answer this question through self-discovery and self-making, Russel similarly sees no need for God’s ethical guidance whereas Descartes and Aristotle see God as the prime cause of it all after which C.S. Lewis then asks finally, “What does it?” to which Lewis and rest of the theists answer, God does it.” and the atheists answer, “It is done.” Of course, for comic relief hip hop producer Lil’ Jon remains curious to it all - wwwwhat? Ah, the ways of the human mind are various and vast. At least there is Lil’ Jon to make sense of it all and to that I say ou-kaaaaay!

For further study visit the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Wax for answers.

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