Please explain the following statement: "If there kurks in most modern minds the notion that no desire of our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is not part of the Christian faith." Also, please compare the sentiment Lewis expresses about sentiments of Kant's in this text as opposed to the sentiments he expressed in The Problem of Pain. Help! I read EVERYTHING, but I can't answer this. The quote is word for word from my study questions and doesn't even make sense to me. Grrrrrrrr!
2007-11-21 08:05:50 · 5 answers · asked by lani 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
maybe if you would look up what those words mean, it would make more sense to you....
2007-11-21 08:09:48 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
I'll stab a guess: Lewis was saying God meant us to enjoy many physical things in life. Lewis elsewhere said, 'Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.'
These desires are God-given and satisfaction is also provided by God. The Stoic philosophy was founded in Athens around 308 B.C. by Zeno; he made virtue the highest good, concentrating attention on ethics and inculcating control of the passions and indifference to pleasure and pain. Self-control, fortitude and austerity are signs of stoicism. Kant was a German who died in 1804. Kantian philosophy is of a-priori categories of thought whereby sense-impressions are co-ordinated. I really don't know what that means but it doesn't sound like a lot of fun either.
Lewis might have been saying, 'It's good to enjoy physical things that God created for us to enjoy.' He might even have quoted the Psalm that speaks of 'wine that makes the heart of mortal man rejoice' (Ps 104:15). There was nothing pruddish about Lewis, nor should there be with any Christians! Even pain is a God-given sense that we can benefit from, but I've done quite enough homework for you! Get a handle on that and see what you can turn out!
2007-11-21 16:26:16 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
If you're having trouble with the first sentence (and there is at least one typo in it), it appears to say something like: "Anyone who thinks that desiring what is good and enjoyable for us is never wrong, is getting their ideas from Immanuel Kant and from the Stoic philosophers, not Christianity. (i.e. - Christianity does not guarantee personal advantage or pleasure.) So you will have to figure out where in Kant these ideas are stated for comparison.
2007-11-21 16:27:06 · answer #3 · answered by skepsis 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Desire is not always a bad thing. Everything in moderation.
2007-11-21 16:11:17 · answer #4 · answered by Shawn B 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Yes desire is good.
2007-11-25 09:49:56 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋