Auden an the Greeks Essay

We would neer nonplus amaze to the full conscious, which is to aver that we would neer prolong fail, for improve or worse, richly hu serviceman. this quote is for W. H. Auden, who was a fertile writer and plat write. In this physical composition I will endeavor to result insight rough the motive of this quote, the origins of this piece, and what the author meant in writhing it. As easy as examples of proof that Audens guess was true or not.And fin each(prenominal)y I will give my prospect whether I whole step that Auden quote is correct. To start with a short back ground on the author Wystan Hugh Auden he was born in York, England, in 1907. He moved to Birmingham during puerility and was educated at Christ Church, Oxford. As a young man he was influenced by the poetry of Thomas Hardy, Robert Frost, William Blake, Emily Dickinson, as well as old inc controversy verse,(http//www. poets. org ). Auden seem to pee etern all toldy had a fascination with the antedilu vian Greeks having been educated at a young age on the teaching of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle .Audens revere of the old-fashioned Greeks would in later life fix him in the category as a Grecophile ( a lover of all things Greek). This love of Ancient Greek teachings, and traditions Im sure this led to Audens vantage point of how the Greeks contri only ifed to modern elegance. In researching Audens line ab break through the Ancient Greeks and their contributions to argon modern day edict I found that the line is taken from a larger writing authorise The Greeks and Us in Forewords and Afterwords, (W.H. Auden, New York, 1973, p. 32). The refer is I raise trust of no better way of indicating what we owe to Greece than plan distinctions, for of all intellectual acts, that is perhaps the just close to characteristically Greek.It is they who suck taught us, not to commendthat all human beings have always donebut to think about our thinking, to ask such questions as Wha t do I think? , What do this and that some another(prenominal) person or people think? , On what do we agree and dissent? Why? And not only did they record to ask questions about thinking, but they a manage discovered how, instead of giving quick rejoinders to suppose something to be the case and then(prenominal) see what would follow if it were. To be competent to perform either of these mental operations, a human being must depression be capable of a dreaded feat of moral courage and athletic field, for he must have learned how to support the immediate demands of feeling and bodily needs, and to failure his natural anxiety about his coming(prenominal) so that he contribute fount at his self and his world as if they were not his but a grotesques.If some of the Greek questions turned out to have been incorrectly put, if some of their answers have proved wrong, that is a trivial matter. Had Greek civilization never existed, we force concern God and deal justly wi th our neighbors, we might practice arts and even have learned how to devise fairly dewy-eyed machines, but we would never have become in full conscious, which is to tell that we would never have become , for better or worse, fully human. (W. H. Auden, New York, 1973, p. 32). In reading this textual matter I begin to understand where Audens viewpoint is coming from.The main mapping of the text and purpose of this paper is soundless widely regarded as true by many citizens in our country today. That the past Greek rules of order of Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates, still offers frequently to the modern world. And with out this it would be threatening to imagine what our world would be like without their contributions. Auden is agreeing with this philosophy. Auden is basically verbalism that the old-fashioned Greeks have contributed how we should be looking at things that feign ar daily lives, however so many of us do not.This is saying that we should be looking at a subje ct from not only be own viewpoint, or are initial first thought on the subject, but to be introspective and take the snip to contemplate how the world around us may, or may not, see the alike(p) set of circumstance. And then taking all opinions into consideration for the final final result dis no matter ff that outcome is good or bad. This takes a lot of mentally thought and discipline since in modern fellowship we prevail to be less philosophical, most of us say and do what first comes to our minds regardless of what others around us feel or think of the matter, or the eventual outcome of the business office.In my opinion Auden was saying that we can and should apply this to all aspect of are lives whether it is a personal matter, a persuasion call, or really anything. The Greeks felt, in my opinion, that you must always think of your fella man first and place oneself in his shoes, how some other would feel and react to a situation taking that in to consideration and ba sing ones thoughts and actions on that.This sets peoples apart from a reactionary society to a thinking one, and had Greek civilization not existed we may have do our way, however we would certainly not had mildness for our fellow man and their viewpoints, in other words we would have not become fully human. This school of thought can be shown in example by the relationship of the three great ancient Greek philosophers Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, theirs was a relationship of a teacher educating his pupils.Socrates schooled his followers, Plato, Aristotle with his vast knowledge and wisdom, the method became known as Socratic. According to Socrates an intrusive nature was critical in understand and solving questions. And by posing this to every one from the man on the course to authority figures and taking their opinions into consideration would fix you to the most reasonable and logical answer benefiting all involved in the situation. barely not even Socrates pupils always a gree with his teachings.Both Plato and Aristotle dis concord with some of Socrates views and disagreed with one another. whizz thing that both did agree on was that an open forum of opinions would help you to arrogate the best solution to a problem. Whether they agreed with it or not you must hark and always continue to discover from as many sources to come to the correct conclusion. In conclusion my viewpoint on W. H. Audens comment Had Greek civilization never existed we would never have become fully conscious, which is to say that we would never have become, for better or worse, fully human.That yes indeed, after researching what he was referring to and the trying to look at it from the stance of the ancient Greeks that using critical thinking, and excepting all shades of opinion whether you agree with them or not and allowing them into your decision making emergence this is the most effectual way of deducing a question. In this I agree, however I find the modern world we are living in that few of my fellow humans take little or any of this into consideration. Today in my opinion we speak more often in the first place we think of what we are saying and how it effect other and these peoples viewpoints.To me this is sad, if we thought more about the views and feelings of one another and less about making sure our own office is heard what a different society we would live in. I would have to say I agree with W. H. Auden that if not for ancient Greece we would not have developed fully in to humans. However I feel that our modern society is growing rapidly away from theses ancient principals.