Other Classics Commons^™

Freely Bound - The Free Will Arguments Of Boethius And Martin Luther, Joshua Sullivan

Global Tides

The concept of free will has long puzzled philosophers and theologians alike. This notion exists on a spectrum. Proponents of an entirely free will occupy one end, asserting that man can make choices utterly independent of any external factors, while advocates of determinism reside on the other end, arguing choices are entirely dependent on biological, subconscious, or external metaphysical causes. This paper investigates the free will claims of two early Christian theologians, Boethius, a 6th-century Roman senator and philosopher, and Martin Luther, father of the protestant faith. By analyzing and contrasting these theologians’ rival claims, a deeper understanding of the …

Life At The Meridian: The Subjectivity Of Ethics In The Works Of Albert Camus And Friedrich Nietzsche, Clancy E. Robledo

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

This paper endeavors to respond to the questions: can ethics can be unbound from its traditional rootedness in religious systems? If so, what contributions did Nietzsche make to liberate value from the shackles of Western morality? To what degree is Camus one of the “new philosophers” Nietzsche calls for in On the Genealogy of Morals?

In an attempt to demonstrate that ethics can and do exist vividly in the realm of the non-religious, this paper will begin by illustrating the metaphysical door Nietzsche opens through his use of aphorisms in Thus Spoke Zarathustra and his investigation of the history …