The Enem essay test requires, among other things, a good argument that is able to support what is being said and reinforce a critical proposal on the subject.
The argument can, and should, be supported by theoretical foundations found in the thinking of great names in the history of philosophy.
For this reason, we selected 20 quotes from philosophers of ancient, medieval, modern and contemporary philosophy to use in the writing of the Enem.
1. "Nothing is permanent except change." (Heraclitus of Ephesus)
heraclitus (540 a. C.-470 a. C.) favors the idea that everything is in constant motion and transformation.
Reinforcing the idea of change (becoming), Heraclitus also affirmed the impossibility of entering the same river twice. Upon returning, the river and its waters would already be changed, it would already be another river, because everything that exists is in constant transformation.
2. "Being is and non-being is not." (Parmenides of Elea)
In this famous and enigmatic phrase, Parmenides (530 a. C.-460 a. C.) states that, contrary to the thought of Thales and Heraclitus, movement and transformation are just illusory. So everything is immobile and unchanging, everything remains.
3. "I only know that I know nothing." (Socrates)
The sentence spoken by Socrates (469 a. C.-399 a. C.) is probably the most famous phrase in the history of philosophy. In it, Socrates draws attention to the wisdom contained in ignorance. For him, not knowing is much better than knowing badly.
This phrase is the spirit of the Socratic method (irony and maieutics). The aim of irony is to abandon prejudices and false certainties, to be aware of one's ignorance ("knowing nothing"). From there, seek true knowledge.
See too: I only know that I know nothing: the enigmatic phrase of Socrates.
4. "A life without reflection is not worth living." (Socrates)
Second Plato, this phrase was said by Socrates after being tried and sentenced to death. It brings with it why philosophy, questioning and reflection, all driving the philosophical attitude.
5. "I believe to understand and I understand to believe better." (St. Augustine)
For the philosophers of the Middle Ages, reason was subordinate to faith. For Saint Augustine (354-430), the purest and noblest knowledge was the knowledge coming from the scriptures (Holy Bible).
6. "Inordinate love of self is the cause of all sins." (St. Thomas Aquinas)
Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) sought to make a union between the Aristotelian philosophy and the Christian religion. He elaborated rational proofs for the existence of God ("Five Proofs for the Existence of God").
7. "I think therefore I am." (Discards)
To the "Father of Modern Thought", Rene Descartes (1596-1650), everything can be doubted. Therefore, the first certainty you have is the fact that you can doubt.
Doubt is born of thought. Thus, for the philosopher, thought (reason) is the only sure source of knowing reality. This way of interpreting reality was called rationalism.
8. "Man is man's wolf." (Hobbes)
the english philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) states that the greatest enemies of human beings are themselves, because they are naturally violent.
And, fearing a violent death in a war of all against all, human beings prefer to make a pact or social contract with the aim of guaranteeing their safety and property. Thus, the State emerges as the guarantor of order.
9. "Where there is no law, there is no freedom." (Locke)
John Locke (1632-1704) believes that the State appears to guarantee, through laws, the natural rights of individuals, especially the natural right to property. This theory served as the basis for the development of liberalism.
10. "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains." (Rousseau)
for the french philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), the human being is good by nature. However, you feel the need to associate with other individuals.
He fulfills the social pact and thereby abandons his natural freedom and, in return, receives civil liberty, which is limited to the general will and the freedom of other individuals.
11. "It is not the benevolence of the baker or the butcher or the brewer that I expect my dinner to come out of, but rather their efforts to promote their self-interest." (Adam Smith)
the British philosopher Adam Smith (1723-1790) is the father of economic liberalism. He asserted that individuals tend to fight for their own interests. Without self-interest, nothing could guarantee that individuals would be willing to any kind of production.
This power would be the source of wealth for nations, the necessary engine for the production and efficiency of a society.
12. "Man is nothing but what education makes him." (Kant)
the Prussian philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) has in its philosophy a strong imprint of the ideals of the Enlightenment. With that, the search for knowledge (the light of the Enlightenment) is a guideline of his thought.
13. "There is only one innate error, and that is to believe that we live to be happy." (Schopenhauer)
the german philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) is known as the "philosopher of pessimism". He stated that life is suffering and that the search for happiness is a path to frustration.
Happiness is, for him, an ephemeral moment in the midst of suffering and should never be understood as a constant.
14. "What doesn't cause my death makes me stronger." (Nietzsche)
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) believed in human potency, in the "will to power" as a way to "live life like a work of art".
Nietzsche affirms that the individual must be a poet of his own life, able to live it in the most beautiful way possible. It is also his the phrase that states that "God is dead".
15. "The history of society to this day is the history of class struggle." (Marx)
Karl Marx (1818-1883) was responsible for structuring the theory of class struggle. For him, the State, historically, developed from the conflict between antagonistic social groups, privileging the interests of elites.
A dominant minority (the bourgeoisie) controls the means of production and, from there, exercises its power over a majority (the proletariat).
16. "The limits of my language mean the limits of my world." (Wittgenstein)
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) was another Austrian thinker who represented a shift from philosophy to language.
For the philosopher, understanding the world involves the use of language. Therefore, language is the way in which the world is interpreted.
17. "The consumer is not sovereign, as the cultural industry would have us believe; it is not its subject, but its object." (Adornment)
the philosopher Theodor Adorno (1906-1969), one of the leading exponents of the Frankfurt School, made harsh criticisms of what he called the cultural industry.
For him, the capitalist system, through its cultural industry, appropriated forms of culture for the production of consumer goods (products). These products have a semblance of culture, but in reality they are nothing more than consumable objects that are profit-oriented and market-fostering.
18. "You are not born a woman: you become." (Beauvoir)
This famous phrase by the French thinker caused a lot of repercussion and heated discussions for being present at the 2015 Enem test.
In it, in addition to feminism, Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) affirms his existentialist thinking. It reinforces existence with a conditioning character to the individual's understanding.
19. "The important thing is not what they make of us, but what we ourselves make of what others have made of us." (Sartre)
the french existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) denies the possibility of neutrality before the world.
The thinker makes us aware of our condition as free subjects, forced to make choices at all times, with human beings being "condemned to freedom".
20. "The only thing we can be sure of is uncertainty." (Bauman)
the Polish sociologist Zygmunt Bauman (1925-2017) developed an important theory about today. According to him, we have abandoned the solidity characteristic of previous modernity.
Our relationships have been liquefied and we live in a liquid modernity. According to him, this is a time when relationships assume a characteristic of fluidity and fragile stability and nothing is made to last.
Exercise Proposal - Writing Enem 2018
In the writing of the 2018 Enem, the newsrooms that obtained a score of 1000 (maximum grade) made clear the need to carry out intertextuality.
Students received the theme "manipulation of user behavior by controlling data on the internet" and sought to relate the supporting texts with some elements of literature, pop culture and theoretical foundations based on philosophy and sociology. Below are the examples:
Example 1
It is worth mentioning, in the background, which interests are served by such data control. This issue occurs due to capitalism, an economic model in force since the end of the Cold War, in 1991, which stimulates mass consumption. In this context, technology, allied to the interests of capital, also offers network users products that they believe are personalized. Based on this assumption, this scenario supports the term "illusion of contemporaneity" defended by philosopher sartre, as citizens believe they are choosing a differentiated product, but, in fact, it is a manipulation that aims to increase consumption.
(Paragraph from writing grade 1000 in Enem 2018 by student Thais Saeger, emphasis added)
Comment
In her text, the student highlighted Sartre's thinking and its relationship with freedom.
For the philosopher, the full exercise of freedom is intrinsically linked to the awareness of the world in which it is inserted.
Since individuals are "condemned to freedom," they are obligated to make choices at all times. This obligation makes the individual need to be aware of himself and the world and make the best possible choices.
Sartre still develops his concept of bad faith. In it, the individual assumes a false passivity as if he were unable to make choices, being led to reproduce and maintain the current model.
Example 2
In the context relating to the manipulation of user behavior, it can be mentioned that in the 20th century, the Frankfurt School already addressed about the “illusion of freedom in the contemporary world”, claiming that people were controlled by the “cultural industry”, disseminated by the mass media. Currently, it is possible to draw a parallel with this reality, as millions of people around the world are influenced and even manipulated every day by the virtual medium, through search systems or social networks, being directed to specific products, which significantly increases consumerism exacerbated. This is intensified due to the lack of effective public policies that help the individual to "navigate" correctly in the internet, explaining you about data control positioning and teaching you how to be a consumer conscious.
(Paragraph from writing grade 1000 in Enem 2018 by student Lívia Taumaturgo, emphasis added)
Therefore, there is a strong power of influence of these algorithms on the behavior of the cybernetic community: by observing only what interests and what was chosen for him, the individual tends to continue consuming the same things and close his eyes to the diversity of options available. In an episode of the television series Black Mirror, for example, an app paired people for relationships based in statistics and restricted the possibilities to only those that the machine indicated - making the user passive in the choice. At the same time, this is the objective of the cultural industry for thinkers of the Frankfurt School: to produce content based on the public's taste standards, to direct it, make it homogeneous and, therefore, easily attainable.
(Paragraph from writing grade 1000 in Enem 2018 by student Lucas Felpi, emphasis added)
Comment
In the two excerpts above, the students make use of the theories given by the Frankfurt School that focus on social control based on mechanisms of the cultural industry.
The cultural industry, through its vast production, generates an illusion of freedom. The individual is led to believe that he is a free subject endowed with the power of choice.
However, these choices are previously restricted and regulated by market offerings. The subject becomes an object, being easily controlled, formatted and led to the reproduction of the model. This system tends to perpetuate the interests of big business and economic capital.
Interested? Other texts can also help you:
- The most important philosophers in history
- 25 quotes from various topics to use in the essay
- Words to start an essay
- Enem's 1000+ writing: examples with explanation
- Golden tips to make a 1000 grade essay on Enem
- What NOT to do when writing Enem
- How to do a good writing in Enem?
- News that may be on Enem
- Writing themes to rock Enem
- Writing topics that have already been featured in Enem
