Influence of Baroque Music to Classical Music Essay Example for Free

Influence of Baroque Music to Classical Music Essay Music of any period reflects, in its own way, some of the same influences, tendencies, and generative impulses that are found in the other arts of that time (Donna, 2005). Thus the word baroque, usually used despairingly by eighteenth-century art critics to describe the art and architecture of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, came to be applied also to the music of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. After some years after the death of Johann Sebastian Bach, the ornate, formal and strict form of the High Baroque became â€Å"old-fashion† and lost its favor. Music slowly began to change form the style and forms of the High Baroque to a simpler yet tuneful form around 1750. The period following the Baroque is called the Classical period. The transition to the new styles and forms of Classical music was, like all transitions, rather complicated. The use of the baroque bass figure lost its taste and became obsolete. The preference of a simple structure rather than polyphonic constructions became dominant most especially in secular music. There was also a preference for one clear melodic line without melting with many others. Although baroque music differs greatly from classical music, they have striking similarities as evident in specific styles and forms. Though Classical composers tend to avoid the antiquated Baroque, one cannot fully abandon the styles and forms of the immediate predecessors. Instead, these styles were further developed to form a new meaning and use on the new musical structure. Forms like the opera and orchestra revolutionized—the former branching out from serious to variety, and the latter have a complete upheaval. Moreover, on the late Classical period, great composers such as Beethoven and Mozart studied the works of Baroque composers Bach and Handel. The later works of the classical composers were characterized of having innovative yet powerful polyphony inspired by Bach’s masterpieces, and contrapuntal melodic lines imbued with the oratorios and suites of Handel. General characteristics of baroque music Baroque composers were united in a common goal: to express or represent a wide range of feelings vividly and vigorously. They sought musical means to express or arouse the affections.  Rather than they express their personal feelings, composers wanted to represent human emotions in a generic sense (Norton, 2010). The music is regarded for its distinct, formal compositional styles and forms. Style Various styles laid the foundation of baroque music. Expressive and expansive in melody yet deeply rooted in chordal harmonies, baroque music is typically highly rhythmical and quite easy to listen to. The comfortable regularity and lively rhythmic qualities of much of baroque music have made it appealing to many modern listeners. For more detailed listeners, one can interpret the music having poignant and stirring melodies, engaging conversation-like dialogues in sound, and rich harmonies and textures (Daniels Wagner, 1975). Modality was replaced by tonality which gave a strong feeling of joy or lament. In 2008, Ferris explains that composers developed and theoreticians articulated the tonal system, in which every note of the major or minor scale bears a specific relationship to every other note, and all of the pitches are more or less similar to the tonic. Composers at that time recognized and utilized triad chords as an entity, which resulted to meaningful and consonant units of sound. The use of triads most especially the three principle chords (tonic, dominant, and subdominant) paved a stable and harmonic direction to tonal music (The Baroque Period). Thus, the tonal system of harmony was wholly adopted during the seventeenth century. In addition, the continuous use of the polyphonic texture during the Early Baroque was revolutionized to form a new texture—the homophony. Imitative polyphony (more than one melodic line) was an extremely important factor in writing and playing music (The Baroque Era, Kamien, 2008). New forms of polyphonic music were developing because baroque composers felt that the art of counterpoint was essential to their artistry. On the other hand, the homophonic method (a musical technique that displays a vast separation amongst the melody line and the accompaniment) was gaining acceptance and use quite rapidly (The Baroque Era). The homophonic musical style played a significant role in opera and solo vocal music because it ocused the listener’s concentration in the poetic melody of the singer. Most pieces in baroque music have the basso continuo which gave way to uniformity and unity. Basso continuo, or figured bass, is an accompaniment which consists of a bass part with numbers which specify the chords to be played above it. Musical works containing a continuo part helped to convey harmonic support of chords under the melodic line (The Baroque Era). Kamien (2008) states that basso continuo is usually played by at least two instruments: an organ or harpsichord and low melodic instrument like the cello or bassoon. Kamien (2008) also adds that â€Å"the organist of harpsichordist plays the bass part with the left hand which is also played by the cellist or bassoonist. With the right hand, the keyboard player improvises chords or melodic line by following the numbers. Because the numbers only indicate a basic chord, the performer has a wide field of freedom. † With continuity of rhythm and melody, baroque music also features continuity of dynamic level. This means that the volume stays the same for a period of time, and then there is a sudden shift to a different dynamic level. There are no gradual changes in dynamics (such as a crescendo or decrescendo). Terraced dynamics were used as the main keyboard instrument was the harpsichord, which could only be played in two modes, either forte (loud) or piano (soft), precluding the ability to accomplish crescendos or decrescendos (Kamien, 2008). Moreover, baroque composers fashion their work with different kinds of ornamentation. For Baroque musicians, ornamentation is not merely decoration that has no intrinsic value but rather the chief way of moving affections. One should, therefore, try in his ornamentation, as in all other aspects of his interpretation, to effectively communicate the sense of the music. In a lyrical movement, baroque performers intensify the expressiveness through the use of smooth melodic ornaments and appoggiaturas, in a brilliant movement, incorporate virtuosic ornaments, and in a movement that seems complete, add almost nothing besides essential cadential trills (www. musebaroque. fr). Eventually, both vocalists and instrumentalists recognized the principal ways of ornamenting a melodic line. First, brief formulas called ornaments—such as trills, turns, appoggiaturas, and mordents—were added to certain notes to emphasize accents, cadences, and other significant points in the melody (Norton, 2010). Second, more extended embellishments—such as scale and arpeggio passages, and other types of flourishes—were added to create a free and elaborate paraphrase of the written line (Norton, 2010). Forms In 1573, a group of musicians and intellectuals came together to discuss various subjects, especially the desire to revive Greek drama. This group of individuals is known as the Florentine Camerata, they wanted lines to be sung instead of simply being spoken (Styles of the Baroque Period). The group developed a new vocal style based on the music of the ancient Greek tragedy. This new style followed the rhythms and pitch fluctuations of speech. It was sung by a soloist with only a simple chordal accompaniment and was, thus, homophonic; the Camerata rejected polyphony because it would obscure the all-important text (Kamien, 2008). Together with the opera, the oratorio stands as a major development in baroque vocal music. Like opera, the oratorio is a large-scale composition for chorus, vocal soloists, and orchestra usually performed during the Lenten season in the oratory, from which its name was derived; it is usually set to a narrative text. Oratorio differs from opera in that it has no acting, scenery, or costumes. Most oratorios are based on biblical stories, but usually they are not intended for religious services (Tovey, 1956) The genre reached its heights in the late baroque period in the works of George Frederic Handel such as the Messiah with its well-known chorus of continuous praise of Hallelujah. Likewise, the baroque mass is an instrumentally accompanied vocal music tended to be a conservative musical form. As the seventeenth century progressed, masses began to incorporate concertato style and to have instrumental accompaniments. These developments led to the five masses of J. S. Bach, whose B Minor Mass is one of the towering monuments of Western music (Daniels Wagner, 1975). One of the most significant aspects of the Baroque period was the emergence of independent instrumental music. Its development was not entirely what the Florentine composers had intended; â€Å"the new forms†, Kitson (1966) stated, â€Å"were by-products of reform†. The use of the modal system was broken down, and establishment of the major-minor tonality were considered. But, the old contrapuntal style was not abolished entirely. The known form of during the Baroque is the fugue. According to Kamien (2008), a fugue, written for a group of instruments or voices, or for a single instrument, is a polyphonic composition which is based on one theme called subject. Composers wrote fugues both as independent pieces and as sections within preludes or toccatas (Norton 2010). Throughout a fugue, different melodic lines, or â€Å"voices†, imitate the subject. Fugue subjects usually have a clearly defined character and a lively rhythm. Music that had become associated with various social dances began to separate itself and became a type of independent instrumental music. The baroque suite is a set of dance-inspired movements, all in the same key but different in tempo, meter and character. It is performed by a solo instrument, a small group of instruments, or an orchestra (Wright, 2008). The movements of a suite are usually in AABB form. The section A, which starts from the tonic key then shifts to the dominant, is balanced by the section B, which starts from dominant then shifts to the tonic (Kamien, 2008, p. 103). Moreover, the orchestra during the baroque period was a performing group on instruments of the violin family. The baroque orchestra was consisted of ten to thirty or forty players. At its core were the basso continuo and upper strings. The use of woodwind, brass and percussion instruments are variable depending on the demand of the piece to be played. An aria (in English works sometimes called an â€Å"air†) signifies a melody apart from the harmony, but especially a musical composition for single voice or instrument, with an accompaniment of other voices or instruments. The aria in Bach’s suites is a short binary movement in a flowing rhythm in not very slow common or duple meter (Tovey, 1956). Influence of baroque music to classical music In the middle of the 18th century, Europe began to move toward a new style in architecture, literature, and the arts, generally known as Classicism, which sought to emulate the ideals of Classical antiquity and especially those of Classical Greece. Changes in musical perception on style and form are likely caused by a sum of economic, religious, sociological and political factors. It is interesting to examine the music created within the hazy boundaries between the periods. Style Norton (2010) believes that â€Å"at its best, Classical music reached a consistently high standard and possessed the qualities of a noble simplicity, balance, perfection of form, diversity within unity, seriousness of purpose, and use of ornamentation. † The transition to the new style was rather complicated. There was a general relaxation of formality, and for a while nothing much to take its place (Daniels Wagner, 1975). The relaxation in the court life favored the Rococo (derived from the French word rocaille referring to the artificial rockwork), a reaction to the formalism, rigidity, and seriousness that had become characteristics of the Baroque, and a decorative style that was lighter, smaller in scale, and wittier than the Baroque (Daniels Wagner, 1975, Kitson, 1966). The melody most typically consisted of a series of a series of short motives, repeated several times and cast in four or eight measure phrases. The melody is also generously supplied with a variety of trills, mordents, and the like. Classical music is basically homophonic. It seemed a proper alternative to the heavy polyphonic textures of the High Baroque. However, texture is treated as flexibly as rhythm. Pieces shift smoothly or suddenly from one texture to another. A work may begin homophonically with a melody and simple accompaniment but then change to a more complex polyphonic texture that features two simultaneous melodies or melodic fragments imitated among the various instruments. In addition, polyphony was piously maintained when it came to church music. It was used for intensification, contrast, and development in the late works of Haydn and Beethoven The most far-reaching event of Rococo music was the development of the simple two-part dance form of the Baroque, through a gradual enlargement and refinement, to the sonata-form of the Classical period. The end result was a form that remained in a dominant position in the field of instrumental music for almost two hundred years (Kitson, 1966). Indeed, it is a marvel of structural flexibility, capable of the greatest conceivable variety of expressive content. By the beginning of the eighteenth century, it was generally cast in a form consisting of three movements arranged in fast-slow-fast sequence. In sonatas and other pieces for violin, gradual increases and decreases of dynamics had long been employed; a theorist addressed the problem of crescendo and decrescendo receiving considerable attention. The Italian opera orchestra, too, had been familiar with swelling of tone. The solution is the borrowing a baroque style. Terraced dynamics had provided composers with one means of achieving contrast. Operas employing this device were widely performed throughout Europe. Form The practice of the baroque era was the standard against which new forms was measured, and there came to be a division between sacred works, which held more closely to the Baroque style from secular works, which were in the new style. A new orchestra developed during the classical period. It was a standard group of four sections: strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion unlike the baroque which could vary from piece to piece. The number of musicians in a classical orchestra was greater than in a baroque group. Classical composers exploited timbres of each instruments. Unlike baroque composers, they did not treat instruments interchangeably. The Classical composers were the first to orchestrate for instruments like clarinet, trombone, and piccolo (Daniels, Wagner, et al, 1975). According to Kamien (2008), â€Å"the classical orchestra had developed into a flexible and colorful instrument to which composers could entrust their most powerful and dramatic musical conceptions. The mass continued to be an important form for Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven. During the Classical period, masses involved orchestra, soloists, and choir in a fully integrated work, using organizational principles derived from instrumental forms (The Classical Period). The majority of Mozart’s masses were in Missa brevis type, the simultaneous setting of several lines of text, or the omission of certain sections of the mass, becau se the Archbishop Colloredo of Salzburg had no patience with long Masses. Effects of the influences of baroque music Long after the Baroque era ended, and their music was all but forgotten, both Handel and Bach were rediscovered in the Classical era. All great Classical composers like Mozart and Beethoven, after Bach and Handel, studied their works and learned from them in grasping and further developing Bachs and Handel’s science of baroque composition in such a way, that something entirely new emerged, pointing into the future. Proficient Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart The works of Bach, such as the B-minor Mass and the six motets, and Handel, for example, the Messiah had deeply influenced the works of Mozart in his last years of writing music. Mozart was thoroughly familiar with the music of Handel. During his childhood trip to England, he became well acquainted with Handels music and he never lost his taste for it. One can hear Handels influence in some of Mozarts early works, such as The Solemn Vespers, and in later works such as the Great Mass and the Requiem Mass in D minor. In fact, the opening page of Mozarts Requiem, beautiful as it is, is merely a reworking of the opening choral movement of Handels funeral music for Queen Caroline (Langlois, 2008). At the age of thirty, Mozart, visiting the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, upon hearing a Bach motet for the first time, exclaimed â€Å"Now there is music from which a man can learn something. † Then, the choirmaster at Leipzig gave Mozart a copy of the score to all six of the Bach motets. They were a profound influence on his late style. In the last two years of his life, Mozarts counterpoint became even more exquisite and complex than before (Langlois, 2008). Moreover, Mozart was attracted to the main genres in which Bach excelled—keyboard sonatas, keyboard concertos, symphonies and operas. Bach’s singing-style themes, tasteful use of expressive motives, suspenseful harmonic ambiguities, and consistent thematic contrasts became permanent features of Mozart’s writing (Portowitz). Ludwig van Beethoven Having Mozart as his model for his compositional styles, Beethoven had been familiar to the styles of the works of Bach and Handel. He continuously borrowed ideas, techniques and texture of the music of the baroque in his latter musical career. In his later years, wanting to compose certain pieces in a more contrapuntal style, Beethoven worked hard at mastering counterpoint. He studied the music of Bach, Handel, and even of Palestrina. In his late music, he developed a style of counterpoint that is more reminiscent of Handel than Bach. His fugues in his late period are very rhythmic in nature and quite unique in the history of music (Langlois, 2008). Beethoven showed his constant concern with the work of J. S. Bach. He constantly requested copies of newly published editions, for example, a copy of the B-minor Mass, from the well-known publishers in Leipzig and Zuurich. In Beethovens sketchbooks, interspersed among work on his own compositions, there are numerous entries of short or long passages from Bachs works, among them, the Chromatic Fantasy, and fugues from The Well-Tempered Clavier and The Art of the Fugue (Cramer, 2001). For Beethoven, the sense and aim of the study of his predecessors, was indeed his own further development, toward new ideas. Beethoven described this very clearly in a letter to the Archbishop Rudolph, in which he clearly names Bach and Handel as the only true geniuses, among his predecessors: The aim of the world of art, as indeed in the whole creation, is freedom, progress; if we moderns have not the same firmness as our ancestors, yet the refinement of our manners has in many ways enlarged our sphere of action.

?The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow? Essay -- essays research papers

In 1863 Jim Crow was performing black face in major production halls. Jim Crow became a simble of racial discrimation. The erra of Jim Crow had begon at this time. This erra was a time were Jim Crow pushed for blacks have there rights taken from them. During the Jim Crow erra a lot of resterants and bathrooms had signs hanging outside that said coloreds only. Many blacks were fighting to start their commintuies because they felt this was the only way they would have rights.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1919 the Klu Kluc Klan ( KKK) became a national power. The Klan was major powerhouse behind Jim Crow. Blacks were not just going to stand by and let the Klan have control over them, so b;acks used the power of the press and the courts to fight back against the klan.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Then the video placed itself back to when Lincoln was presdent of the united states. The narrator talked about how Lincoln did not want the war to be about freeing slaves but , for the war to be about saving the union. During this times the balcks thought that linciln was fighting for them and all they wanted was to have rights. These rights consisted of land , education, ablity to vote ,, but mosting importantly was alnd they believe if theey owned land they were free. In South Carolina blacks had built their own schools, churches and communitys , on the land that they were given during the war. When Andrew Jackson was eleceted into office he did not like the idea fro blacks have their own land. So Andrew Jackson orderd Oliver O Howard a Christian general to remove the black people off the land they had made their homes. Oliver Howard called ammeting at the town hall and some were around 2,000 people attended.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1866 Congress passed the 14th and 15th amendments because the south was not looking out for the better intreates of the blacks. At this time reconstruction had began. Around the time reconstruction had began , most black people felt that they did not have to work in the fields or work at hard labor jobs. So they started electing other black man into office so that they could have rights and voice in the government. Also these officals helped with getting schools and education for the black population.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  At this time the KKK wanted all of the ex-slaves to fall back into place were they belonged... ...et them run it!† Montgumery wanted a safe place for blacks to live and grow as people. Mound Bayou was very proprose. When Missippi wanted to put in place the Jim Crow laws , Iza Montgumery was delegated to vote against the idea. But Iza voted for the a law against uneducation blacks would not be able to vote. Many blacks acrossed the nation felt this was tresion. Montgumery said that blacks had already lost. Booker T. Washington was mad like Fredrick Douglas. Booker was able to talk to talk to anyone. Booker sureached ideas for a white and black comprmisse. September 25th was calimed Negero day. Booker want to speak and people complained that there was a â€Å"nigger† giving a speech . Almost as if they felt he was unable to speak because he was black. Booker said to the white people we can be as seprate as two fingers but as close as the hand. That speech caused massive confusion for the blacks in the south. Although the white people at the rally were very happy an d impressed by the way Booker talked. To blacks this idea was called the Atlanta Comprimse. Dispite any Advances by blacks they were all surpressed because Jim Crow had complete control over the power of the United States.

A rough background on Aquinas

Acquiring the famous reputation as the â€Å"angelic teacher† among the rest of the medieval philosophers because of his overwhelmingly influential and prominent struggle in brilliantly standing on guard the Christian theology during his time which was saw one of the heights of the attacks on Christianity, Thomas Aquinas made use of human reason in resolving the criticisms that beset the Christian Church. Resorting to human rationality and argumentation in providing a substantial justification for the Christian doctrines that meddled specifically on the existence of God symbolized a staunch deviation from the tradition that preoccupied the minds of thinkers during the medieval period. His efforts at utilizing the Aristotelian concepts on metaphysics and epistemology alongside with reason roughly highlights his firm belief that even with the sufficiency of simple faith in establishing religious principles and the very existence of God the role of rational thinking in the strictest sense of the word can all the more fairly demonstrate the basic principles of the Christian faith. One of the most prominent arguments Aquinas proposed is his Five Ways to prove God’s existence. Although Aquinas’ attempt at proving the existence of God has startling parallels to that of Anselm’s Ontological Argument, the former claims that the argument of the latter thinker is unacceptable for the reason that man cannot explicitly demonstrate the existence of God whose nature is beyond the immediate knowledge of man through the straightest means (Oppy). Utilizing what seems to be a sprouting method of his time, Aquinas attempts at filling the structure of the Christian faith by embracing the field of rationality along with faith as the backdrop of his arguments. The Five Ways First of the arguments raised by Aquinas is the argument for The Unmoved Mover. At the center of this argument is the premise that no object moves without a mover, or that all objects move because of a mover in the sense that the leaves of the trees rustle because they are moved by the wind; that the balls in the billiard table collide with other balls or move around the table because of the force delivered through the cue stick. A hundred other more examples can be provided. Nevertheless the very essence of all these illustrations is that no object moves without a mover. Apparently, all the examples eventually lead to an infinite regress where no end can be perceived at first. However, Aquinas tells us that this is not really an infinite regress for there has to be the presence of a first mover which initiated the series of â€Å"movements†. At this point, Aquinas proceeds to remove the infinite regress by arguing that the first mover is God. In a seemingly parallel argument, Aquinas’ second argument rests heavily on cause and effect relation. That is, nothing is caused by itself. In other words, each and every effect ultimately boils down to a certain cause, or that it is of necessity that every effect for it to be an effect in the strictest sense has to be caused by something right at the onset of it being an effect. Again, it might be observed that a line of argument leads to an infinite regress. However, it is not the case for an ultimate cause above anything else has to be responsible for the chain of causes and effects. For that matter, Aquinas resolves the regress by arguing that the first cause is God. This is the uncaused cause argument. The third way offered by Aquinas in primarily proving the existence of God is the cosmological argument. At the core of this argument is the reference to time wherein material objects have not yet come into physical existence. All the objects that we may know today are virtually inexistent at such point in time. However, Aquinas goes on to argue that since all material objects already exist, there ought to be or have been something immaterial or non-physical which brought these objects into physical existence. In essence, Aquinas claims that God is the non-physical entity which brought about the material existence of these objects. Another argument which Aquinas tries to raise is the argument from degree. This argument apparently focuses its premises on certain variations of comparisons between qualities among men and other objects thereby providing a sort of background for yet another claim that all objects in the world, in their numerous manifestations, greatly differ and outweigh any traceable similarity that may hold them together. Thus, individuals may greatly differ in virtues, with one being an altruist and the rest vicious criminals aimed at furthering their personal ends. Nevertheless, even if people vary in these aspects, the contrast between them can only be achieved if we note of a certain referential point for all the degrees of comparison. The reference, then, should be one which is imminently a perfect maximum and that this maximum cannot possibly rest among men themselves. Hence, God is the perfect standard for all comparisons and is the ultimate reference. Lastly, Aquinas raises the teleological argument which is essentially the argument that seeks to prove the existence of God using the perceived design of the objects in the world. If we are to look upon the structure of the things we may either directly or indirectly perceive in the world, it will eventually dawn upon our thoughts that everything has been designed in such and such ways, serving various purposes that are derived from the very configuration of things. Similarly, it can be inferred from such premise that, since everything is so designed accordingly, there ought to be a designer of all these things which is a necessity which follows from the given observation on the design of things. The designer, as Aquinas argues, is God. Aquinas and human knowledge: faith and reason For Aquinas, knowledge is the comprehension of the supreme principles of being which define the very inseparable essences of the ultimate understanding of man—that of the sophia and phronesis. While the former is very much concerned with the individual’s intellectual capacity to exercise speculative thinking or understanding, the latter is primarily concerned with the aligning of the individual’s life in line with its fitting end through the role of practical wisdom. These two are inherently mutual in conception and are basically brought together in man’s attempt at arriving at the knowledge of everything. Moreover, this attempt of man in obtaining knowledge requires the aid of the Divine in such a way â€Å"that the intellect may be moved by God to its act.† Nevertheless Aquinas maintains that man by himself alone has the intrinsic and innate ability to grasp the knowledge of many things even without the special divine revelation. More specifically, natural revelation— ­revelations obtained through reason—is the truth which, due to man’s inherent human nature, is made accessible to each and every man. On the other hand, supernatural revelation allows man to comprehend the knowledge on the details of the existence and attributes of God requiring not merely reason but also faith. It should be noted that Aquinas is not entirely disproving the role of reason in arriving at the comprehension of things. Quite on the contrary, Aquinas strongly argues for the primal role of reason in arriving at knowledge. Nevertheless, even if he ascribes a premium weight on the significance of rationality, he qualifies this claim by stating that faith still holds central importance, specifically in acquiring knowledge of the existence of God and several other religious matters. It appears quite obvious, then, that the philosophy of Aquinas in addressing the inquiry on human knowledge of the world cannot be entirely separated from a religious perspective. In explaining the nature of man’s knowledge and how one is able to grasp an understanding of the universe, Aquinas reinforces his arguments at the bottom by infusing a religious strand in the heaps of his epistemological and metaphysical inquiry. Aquinas on Aristotle The philosophy of Aquinas, in its very focal point, is seen to be heavily tainted with the philosophy of Aristotle. Much of this claim, for one reason, rests on the historical perspective wherein several of the writings on the philosophy of Aristotle eventually reached the shores of Europe during the time of the Crusades. The ancient texts were then a part of French as well as Italian universities and institutions of education around the middle part of the thirteenth century. Like Aristotle, Aquinas himself agrees and proposes the claim that man is in fact a rational animal wherein man is able to grasp an understanding of the world and to arrive at knowledge of the Divine through this reason. Though man is an entity imbued with reason, man can merely arrive at such a comprehension of the universe through empirical means. That is, man is capable of grasping knowledge of the world through his sensory experience. As Thomas Aquinas states, â€Å"whatever is known is known in the manner in which man can know it.† Mortimer Adler argues that for the most part, Aquinas and Aristotle agree on several points. First, they both agree that the form of the state of affairs of material composites, which can be made known, must be received by the knower with the form detached from the corporeal substance. Consequently, by possessing the power to acquire such forms in such a way grants the idea that the knower is â€Å"potentially a knower† and is actualized when the knower receives these forms. Among other similarities in the ideas that exist between Aquinas and Aristotle, both in general put centrality on the rationality of man and the role of experience or sensory perception in acquiring or knowing objects. Owing much of the philosophical content of Aquinas’ ideas from Aristotle, the former has a strong belief that reason and human experience can lead man to realizing and understanding the universe and, consequently, the existence of God. And at the time where philosophy is closely knitted to religious matters, Aquinas sought to further reinforce his arguments by injecting Aristotelian philosophy for rationality during the medieval times was one of the factors that seek to explain the universe from a point of view detached from any religious ascription. Thus, Aquinas appears to have ‘Christianized Aristotle’ in the sense that the former made much use of the latter’s philosophy in a context slanted towards religion. (Jenkins) On theoretical knowledge Aquinas conceived of theoretical knowledge as something which is the result of human rationality juxtaposed with sensory observation. That is, one can arrive at theoretical knowledge primarily through an observation of one’s world and arrive at a logical structure and correlation of these things through the functioning of reason. Though Aquinas may direct us to the premise that this rationality of man is imbued to all men by God, nevertheless this same rationality alongside with sensory perception addresses the question on how men are able to satisfy his inquiries on matters which are at first unknown to him. For example, one may acquire the theoretical knowledge on the how the tides of the oceans rise and fall through visual perception first and foremost which later on proceeds with the functioning of reason in attaching causal relations to the observed phenomenon. A similar view can also be held towards volcanic activity, rise and fall of economic activity, and many others. Bibliography Dawkins, Richard. The God Delusion. Houghton Mifflin, 2006. Gaarder, Jostein. Sophie's World. Reissue ed: Berkley, 1996. Jenkins, John I. â€Å"Intellectus Principorum.†Ã‚   Knowledge and Faith in Thomas Aquinas. Cambridge University Press, 2004. 101-61. Oppy, Graham. â€Å"Some Historical Considerations.†Ã‚   Ontological Arguments and Belief in God. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. 4-46.      

Sexual Intercourse And Sexual Relationships - 1704 Words

I am aware that my parents do not expect me to engage in sexual intercourse until I am married, although, I do not agree with this view I do respect it and will not disappoint them. Personally, I believe that it’s okay to engage into sexual intercourse with both partners are in love because it’s not necessary that there be love in a marriage. I have witnessed many married couples who are no longer in love but choose to remain in a loveless marriage due to obligations and for this reason I hold my view. Although I do not have any sexual experience, I am fully aware of how sexual activities are conducted and am also aware of the importance of them; sex is part of life and it’s also a human need. I do not lack knowledge in the sexual part of life, I have always been a good student and majority of the knowledge I’ve acquired in this field came from the textbooks, my teachers and professors, and also from my current occupation. 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