1. Socrates
Plato vs. Augustine on the Nature of Humanity Humans have struggled throughout the centuries with the complexity and ambiguity of our humanity. The question of who or what we are as humans is difficult one and does not have an easy answer. Our first understanding of humanity is based within the framework of the worldview in which we were raised within. However, through the process of maturing, it is natural to raise doubts of what we hold to be true is indeed accurate. ...
"The world is enigmatical, every thing said and every thing known and done, and must not be taken literally, but genially. We must be at the top of our condition to understand any thing rightly." - Ralph Waldo Emerson A Condensation of Its Context Toward the end of his notebook, "Naturalist," Ralph Waldo Emerson entered sentence (dated 1853) that marks a symbolic vision of nature familiar to his readers and, in more recent years, of concern to his ecologically minded critics: "He is the richest who has most use for nature as raw material of tropes and symbols with which to describe his life....