Author: Fisnik

In Montaigne’s writing, he mentions and gives examples on how powerful the mind and imagination is. It can be beneficial in a sense of healing, bringing happiness, and formation of something into reality. An example on how powerful our mind can be is, one of those ink photos, where many see either a duck, or a rabbit. In reality, it’s neither, it is simply, ink on paper. Our mind is so powerful that we can tell it what we want to see, which as why, some can see the rabbit, and some can see the duck. We simply see what we want to see, we tell ourselves what we want to believe. Which is why the in the writing, the doctor believed he was improving from his illness, through imagination, and seeing Montaigne. Now imagination is powerful, but not only positive, it can be negative. As we can see and believe what we want through the power of our mind, we sometimes fail to see and believe things that are seen differently from others.  Continue reading “The Power of The Mind”

Towards the end of the book, Pizan contradicts herself when explaining building women and tearing down men. This is because in the first topic she believes that men and women belong to a similar sphere. In some sections, she purports women should tolerate their husbands while in other sections she encourages women to leave their wicked husbands. As a Christian, she should have tried to reconcile women with their husbands. 

Pizan’s book brings about changes in womanhood that men are often too blind to notice. It has also contributed significantly to the debate that men hold on wanting to keep on maintaining their positions and ranks without the interference of women. Men have always wanted to be rulers and authority in society. Her constant use of virtues and achievements from the past from various women, Christine is able to adopt a three-way focus in the lives of women, that is, the intellectual, the spiritual, and the physical. All of these show that women are equal and just as powerful as some of the best-known men in the world.

Lysias regards the non-lover to be preferred by the beloved. within the beginning of the speech, Lysias supports the non-lover by stating they’re going to voluntarily satisfy the beloved’s self-interest even as very much like they’d satisfy their own (Phaedrus 231A). In other words, by preferring a non-lover, a symbiotic partnership will arise where both individuals can healthily enjoy each other. In contrast, Lysias states an admirer will hold expectations for a beloved, creating a demanding “give and take” relationship; not acting voluntarily but acting selfishly to realize something reciprocally. Such as, in modern terms, a person buys a lady dinner and therefore the man expects the girl to exchange sex for the value of a salad. Socrates states the irrational, instinctual behavior of the lover and the “acquired judgment” of the non-lover to be within a single individual (Phaedrus 237D-237E). Following this idea, Socrates sees the desire to be overpowering and drives lovers to “seek pleasure in the beautiful,” leading the lover to become jealous and hinder the beloved by over-protecting them and never allowing the beloved to learn and progress their mind (Phaedrus 239B). Because of Socrates’ conclusions of the lover being overpowered by desire, making irrational choices and being captivated by the lustful sickness of Love.