One basic concept of philosophy, which regards philosophy as life’s view, is that human beings use philosophy as the constant effort to make their life
meaningful. To explain more about it, Liang Gie in his book Philosophy as an Element of Human Existence
cited J.A. Leighton words who mentioned that: Philosophy seeks a totality and harmony of reasoned insight into the nature
and meaning of all the principle aspects of reality. A complete philosophy includes a world-view or reasoned conception of the whole cosmos and a
life-view doctrine of the value, meanings, and purposes of human life 1998: 12.
In short, philosophy tries to find out the nature and the meaning of all life’s principle and the complete meaning of philosophy includes the concept of the
whole world, the value, the meaning and the purpose of life. Randal also mentioned that it is very definite that the central issue of philosophy is about
human’s life and its connection with the reality. Philosophy tries to reveal some basic question about life, such as what the meaning of life is and what makes life
worth living 1942: 5. In his book The Philosophical Journey an Interactive Approach, Lawhead
mentioned that philosophy has four basic goals. The first one is the search of self- understanding, the second is love and pursuit of wisdom, the third is the question
about our basic concern meaning, such as God and happiness, and the last is the search for beliefs that can be justified 2000: 6.
6. The Relation Between Philosophy and Literature
Philosophy and literature have a very close relationship because there are many great philosophers who reflect their ideas in literary work Knight, 1962:
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15. In other words, literature can be seen as the historical record of many philosophical thoughts. The idea of philosophy also can be used by the authors of
literary works as their basic ideas. Thus, literature can also be considered as one of the philosophical teaching. Therefore the existence of literature itself is very
important. As cited from Guerin’s A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature,
Plato and Horace mentioned that the basic function of literature is to reveal philosophical issue to the society 1999: 25. Knight also mentioned in his book
Literature Considered as Philosophy that philosophy and literature have some
things in common. First, both philosophy and literature try to criticize the issues that occur in the society, and second, philosophy and literature use the criticism to
find the truth and goodness 1962: 14.
C. Theoretical Framework
This study attempts to reveal religious fanaticism that is illustrated by the character of Silas and the significance of his religious fanaticism in The Da Vinci
Code . Therefore, in order to support the analysis, the writer will apply some
theories. First, since this study deals with one of the characters in this novel that is Silas, theories on character and characterization are applied. The applications of
these theories are intended to get a better understanding on the characteristics of the character of Silas.
Second, in order to reveal the religious fanaticism of Silas and to understand its significance in the novel; the writer also applies some reviews
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