Hume and Experience In morals, politics, religion and science, Hume was a conservative empiricist who emphatically rejected all theories he thought of as metaphysical or not based on actual experience and sense perceptions. He did not regard religio Continue Reading...
Mill believed that any act may itself be inherently moral, so long as the outcome of that action produces a benign effect. Mill believed that the most ethical act is that which produces the most good, even if the act itself is one which is tradition Continue Reading...
Heraclitus and Parmenides What is known to us about the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus is obscure, controversial, and of the 140 fragments available, many are of dubious authenticity. And even those which are considered authentic, are open to d Continue Reading...
Greek/Hellenistic Tradition Augustine View In Book XIX of Augustine's City of God, his focus is on the end of two cities -- "the earthly and the heavenly" (843), which he explains while simultaneously illustrating the nature of the Supreme Good. He Continue Reading...
If the soul is immortal, then the perspective upon death changes. Suddenly, it is no longer so scary, since it does not represent an ending but a mere passage to another type of existence. However, there are other implications which we can not affo Continue Reading...
Aquinas argues that the fact that man can perceive himself to be true serves as a validation for God's existence; however this is dissimilar to Descartes impressions of the Mediator who, according to the philosopher, is capable of mistaking that whi Continue Reading...
Epicurus' philosophy is a profound testimony of how science and rational observation can provide a moral guide for humanity. For example, the fact that everything is made up of the same basic matter acts as a reminder that it is necessary to treat Continue Reading...
Of all the changes that I would feel if I were to embrace an existential philosophy, the most profound change would be that I would lose my empathy. Right now, I firmly believe in individual choice. However, I also believe that people's choices are Continue Reading...
Matrix or the Cave? The Matrix (1999) has singlehandedly brought the debate over the epistemology of the Real into popular dialogue. For the first time in centuries --if not in history-- a large section of the common crowd had a metaphor by which to Continue Reading...
Stoicism Established by Zeno in Athens as early as 300 BC, Stoicism as a philosophy became popular because it provides people with balance in their belief in the metaphysical and rational philosophies existing during the period. Primarily a philoso Continue Reading...
Derivatives -- Perceptions of Value and Use Realistic & Empirical Research Approaches in Finance Empirical research (which originates from the positivist tradition) and qualitative research are sufficiently distinct in their philosophical groun Continue Reading...
Intrinsics The Problem of Temporary Intrinsics: Perundantists and Endurantists The objective of this study is to examine and explain the problem of temporary intrinsics and the Perdurantist solution to it. This study will answer whether the confl Continue Reading...
The text deals at length and often with a great variety of matters which bear on the human condition, but there are matters which would certainly have no place in a modern treatise on politics" Therefore, it is rather hard to determine the extent t Continue Reading...
epistemological perspective text ( sources) coincides view truth human mind grasps reality. Explain find There are several different perspectives of epistemology, which is the justification for or the source of belief upon which all knowledge is ba Continue Reading...
However, in the most recent theory of evolution which discusses the living world appears as the result of chance and an output of different randomly selected natural mills. This kind of development came to present as a result of the need of more sub Continue Reading...
Epistemological Beliefs and Organizational Leadership Epistemological Philosophies: Comparing Plato and Protagoras To understand our quest for knowledge, we often have to go back to some of the classical theories in order to get a full view of how Continue Reading...
Rwandan genocide a philosophical theory (Jean-Jacques Rousseau's theodicy). How philosophy successful Philosophical Healing It is extremely interesting to note how much relevance philosophy -- and in particular that which was propagated by Jean-Jac Continue Reading...
One need only refer to the preceding example to prove this fact. In this example, glass on the floor with spilled water and the author's testimonial to what happened all add up to the fact that there a glass was broken. In this case, there is no dif Continue Reading...
Plato on Justice The Greek word which Plato uses to mean "justice" -- dike or dikaios -- is also synonymous with law and can also mean "the just"; as Allan Bloom (1991) notes, Plato uses a more specific term -- dikaiosyne -- in the Republic, which m Continue Reading...
Foremost, though, is the Nietzschian concept that freedom is never free -- there are costs; personal, societal, and spiritual. To continue that sense of freedom, one must be constantly vigilant and in danger of losing that freedom, for the moment th Continue Reading...
Accidental possessions are those that an entity can achieve and fail, yet he exists. If a set of required possessions is mutual by various individuals than the set of possessions represents the essence of a natural sorts. The point of Aristotelian s Continue Reading...
But even many devout believers in America today state that we all worship the same God, and thus participate in the same 'truth' regardless of our affiliation. Even atheists validate the feeling of believers and state that although science is factua Continue Reading...
Dogen's Great Doubt Both exoteric and esoteric Buddhism teach the primal Buddha-nature [or harma-nature] and the original self-awakening of all sentient beings. If this is the case, why have the buddhas of all ages had to awaken the longing for and Continue Reading...
self" is difficult to define but usually involves the inner life of the individual, the psychological dimension of human existence as opposed to the outward, physical form. The self is conceived as a creature of consciousness, a mind capable of thou Continue Reading...
Conceptions of an Enduring Issue Relationship between Body and Mind/Soul - Aristotle and Descartes Aristotle modeled hylomorphism as a fusion of form and matter or soul and body as two elements of one solid being. Aristotle viewed the body's form Continue Reading...
Plato's Philosopher King Plato and the Philosopher-King With the Allegory of the Cave, Plato expresses the notion that the best thing a philosopher can do is lead the people and that, in turn, a leader (king) must be a philosopher. Plato emphasizes Continue Reading...
The Critique of Pure Reason proposed and researched, highlighting expertise of how the mind's synthetic framework makes up the world. As a review of taste, such a technique does not try to separate some home that is distinct to beautiful items, howe Continue Reading...
mythos and logos? The most direct linguistic renderings of 'mythos' and 'logos' into English would be that of 'myth' and 'logic.' In our current conceptualization of faith, there is often a distinction between these different ways of knowing. It is Continue Reading...
Nietzsche and Power What does Nietzsche mean by a "will to power," or "life affirmation?" "The world itself is the will to power -- and nothing else. And you, yourself are the will to power, and nothing else!" F. Nietzsche Much of Nietzsche's thou Continue Reading...
Marx Hegel German philosopher Hegel developed a philosophy that can be called phenomenology, or Philosophy and the Actual World. Whereas previous philosophers concerned themselves with abstractions, Hegel wanted to apply philosophical inquiry to the Continue Reading...
This is the problem of induction in a nutshell, and it is something that has alternatively been seen as one of the most severe limitations on true knowledge about the world or as a non-issue in any practical terms. If inductive reasoning cannot be Continue Reading...
Living authentically "as if" my actions had the force of reason strikes me as very similar to living in deliberate opposition to reason -- which, in a contemporary milieu, often entails structuring a life according to personal experience or even fai Continue Reading...
" With his bold and sweeping statements about a divine mission to seek out and expose false wisdom, and his assertions that nothing short of death will stop him from completing that mission, Socrates makes it clear that, to him, the vocation of a ph Continue Reading...
Sartre-No Exit Jean Paul Sartre's "No Exit" is an apt description of existential hell. (Sartre, 1958) Existentialism attempts to describe our desire to make rational decisions despite existing in an irrational universe. Existentialism requires the a Continue Reading...
Aquinas Thomas Aquinas was summarily concerned with the compatibility of faith and reason. In The Summa Against the Gentiles (Summa Contra Gentiles) and the Summa of Theology in particular, Aquinas presents his arguments for the synthesis of faith a Continue Reading...
) (Stevenson, 1972). Certainly, in a world in which moral ambiguity is commonplace, a framework or reference for moral analysis is relevant and necessary -- particularly as we begin to include concepts from other societies. Clearly, Sandel is more r Continue Reading...
Gifts of the Jews Thomas Cahill's book The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels demonstrates what happens when a great idea is ultimately brought down by a lack of critical and rhetorical rigor. T Continue Reading...
Plato and Death One of the most influential minds in western philosophy describing this search for meaning was Plato. Plato lived from 422-347 B.C, and was born into an aristocratic family in the city of Athens where he became a student of Socrates, Continue Reading...
Free Will" Exist and if so, to What Extent does it Exist? The concept of "Free Will" has been debated by many philosophers over a period of centuries, not only regarding its very existence but also regarding its elements, the extent to which it may Continue Reading...
