Philosophy Week 4
In the first chapter of the gospel of John is a word term with a very rich history in the antiquity of theological writings. According to this chapter, Jesus Christ is recognized as logos, meaning “the word” that is incarnated. In other words, Jesus Christ, through power and God’s activity, was made flesh. The main reason why John uses logos in this chapter is to make people reading the scriptures to understand the very nature of God. By the use of logos, in this case, he wants people to understand the “divine intent” of God. Indeed, Apostle John needed to convince his audience that the Logos was a divine person before being incarnated into a human-divine person.
Apostle John’s application of the term Logos has some similarities to Heraclitus idea and meaning. Heraclitus’ idea of logos was that there was an active rational principle that permeated the reality and thinking of human beings. Neither was it water, nor air as other philosophers had hypothesized. Heraclitus idea was that it was something more subtle and hard to explain and sometimes referred to it as fire or God. This was similar to Apostle John’s application in that he intended his audience to interpret it as the cause, intent, or the reason. The only dissimilarity was that Heraclitus idea of logos was the plan or intent in the mind of God, while in John’s application; the term leaned towards God instead of men so that they would consider it as the “divine intent.”
Morality of “Darrow’s Cigar Trick”
Imagine a case scenario where a client facing death penalty hires you as the defense attorney. During one of your private and confidential conversations, the client has admitted of having perpetrated first-degree murder and evidence given during the trials has almost proved your client guilty for the crime. In my own opinion, it was morally right for Darrow to practice the cigar trick during the court trials. This is because he not only had the mandate to represent his client with diligence but also due to his moral responsibility to pursue the best outcomes of his client. As a criminal defense attorney, Darrow had the moral responsibility to do what it takes to ensure his client did not face the death penalty, and the best option at the time was to distract the jury.