Aristotle and Happiness What is the point of life? Happiness? Virtue? Power? All of these? The ancient Greek philosophers would have pushed us gently in the direction of virtue, although they would also have argued that both happiness and power deri Continue Reading...
Room for Debate: Russia and the Liberal Ideal The Liberal Ideal of the West, which grew out of the Romantic/Enlightenment era where men like Voltaire and Rousseau espoused the qualities of naturalism, freedom, and equality, is now being challenged b Continue Reading...
Socrates Both comedy and tragedy are "related to emotional needs and religious longings that became crystallized and structured in ritualistic celebrations and festivals," (34). Both can be framed as "catalysts" that force "some sort of conversion" Continue Reading...
38); a Prince should also appear to keep at least some of the old ways so the people will readily accept the new ways (Machiavelli, Discourses on the first decade of Titus Livius, 2007, p. 98). While the circumstances may change, it is clear that a Continue Reading...
As activists in women's liberation, discussing and analyzing the oppression and inequalities they experienced as women, they felt it imperative to find out about the lives of their foremothers -- and found very little scholarship in print" (Women's Continue Reading...
And, if one flees historical reality, then, is it not futile in that eventually it will catch up with us? As a "guest" of this world, then, what is the basic responsibility we have towards humanity? Daru chooses an isolated and ascetic life -- he fl Continue Reading...
" (Ibid) the term cosmology is derived from the Greek word 'kosmos' meaning order and refers to the world and the universe. (Ibid, paraphrased) the cosmologic philosopher is stated to be on who "contemplates the nature of this order and is concerned Continue Reading...
In his Allegory of the Cave, Plato depicts a world where prisoners are held in a cave for their entire life (Cohen). The puppeteers cast shadows on the wall of the cave, and the prisoners see the shadows as reality. Upon breaking free from the cave, Continue Reading...
right, a legal right, a moral right, a human right. How are they related? Rights are privileges or entitlements to perform particular actions, or to be in particular state/situations; or privileges/entitlements to carry out certain actions or be in Continue Reading...
Theism or Atheism? When humans consider the existence of God, they tend to look outward for evidence and inward for understanding. Humans must process both types of information through a filter that is based on an unwarranted confidence in human rea Continue Reading...
Gorgias, Encomium of Helen In the English language in the twenty-first century, the term "sophistry" still exists to refer to a plausible-sounding but misleading argument, an evaluatively negative term to describe bad reasoning. Although the term de Continue Reading...
Euthyphro What is Socrates' definition of piety in the Euthyphro? The Socratic dialogue of the Euthyphro is initiated by the case of a young man who has brought charges against his father for murder. The father, hearing that a slave on his property Continue Reading...
Euthyphro and Piety An Analysis of Euthyphro with an Alternative Definition of Piety Euthyphro gives three definitions of piety which fail to satisfy Socrates. Socrates' goal in this dialogue is to reveal the shallowness of Euythyphro's argument an Continue Reading...
Laches Courage as Knowledge in the Laches In the dialogue Laches, Socrates aids Nicias and Laches in advising their friend on the proper instruction of young men. In his usual fashion, Socrates gently turns the discussion from a simple question of Continue Reading...
It follows that the material search for riches and honor, the desires of the flesh and other aspects that constitute the material world"...lead people astray from what is their true good." (Boethius - the Consolation of Philosophy) This view is als Continue Reading...
The relationship between man and machine has long been a fearful one. From the dawn of industry there have been visions of the machines rising, one day, to destroy us all. For Lang, this was a core philosophical argument. Within the stifling confine Continue Reading...
The fact that he believes in the gods differently than some of his neighbors seems to cause them to view his teachings as atheism. In the "Apology," Socrates says: "Some one will say: And are you not ashamed, Socrates, of a course of life which is l Continue Reading...
If somebody has been accused of something that is punishable whether civilly or criminally, he will do everything just to be able to surpass the trial, even resorting to escape. Concerning the value of the law, Socrates has shown his strong standpo Continue Reading...
Social Theory in the View of Phenomenology: Alfred Schutz Who was Alfred Schutz, and why was his work on social theory and phenomenology so important? This is an important question that must be answered here, and will be answered, but there are oth Continue Reading...
Greek and Roman times, rhetoric and rhetoric theory has been one of the issues that were discussed and improved, appearing in almost every aspect of life. There was rhetoric in politics, but also in everyday life, in discussions or seminars. When de Continue Reading...
Confucianism Describe the unique characteristics of Chinese worldviews and discuss the significance or the implications of these characteristics in relation to the worldviews of other traditions such as the Jewish, the Christian or the modern scient Continue Reading...
While these are some of the more famous elements of rhetorical theory, they do not require extensive discussion here for two reasons. Firstly, they are fairly well-known. Secondly, and more importantly, they actually do not provide much insight into Continue Reading...
Buddhism and Kant The Philosophies of Buddhism and Immanuel Kant: An Examination and Comparison of Similar Beliefs Major world religions and the philosophies that accompany them are quite numerous. With the help of the internet, anyone can researc Continue Reading...
Chinese philosopher's point-of-view on Confucius. It has 2 sources. Shu-hsien Liu projects in his article titled "Reflection on Methodology " an understanding of the rational behind Confucius and Chinese philosophy. According to Liu Chinese philoso Continue Reading...
Immanuel Kant Today, Immanuel Kant is still considered one of business ethics' most predominate philosophers. Thus in a way, the study of business ethics is founded on the ideas floated by Kant and those who shared in his opinions. In this text, I w Continue Reading...
In stark contrast, these things do not happen in the 'waking' world (LaBossiere 2). While there are many other differences, these two standards show that even though I might not be able to know the true natures of these two worlds, there are good re Continue Reading...
Realistically Heidegger was at least vaguely a theist, which is rather contrary to the existentialist mind set of humanism, but his point was still existential and in his early work, at least he attempted to clearly deduce a way of stressing the nee Continue Reading...
Given that archetypes appear consistent across dreamers, the impact that culture has on the meaning of archetypes and dreams, and the fact that mourners consistently have the four types of grief dreams, it seems logical that culture would impact th Continue Reading...
The philosopher differed radically from Descartes in the fact that he believed that every physical manifestation to be found (and evidenced of a body or a sensory perception of something) stemmed from an idea. Spinoza contended that thoughts begot t Continue Reading...
Confucianism, in other words, provided structure to various sets of ideals existing at the time. Central to this structure was compassion in human relationships. According to the Religious Tolerance Website, social harmony was achieved by means of Continue Reading...
Existence of God This report has the difficult task of trying to prove the existence of God. But there is a silver lining in this challenge -- we have ancient philosophy to help. By using the beliefs, works and philosophies of Saint Anselm and Desc Continue Reading...
Writes Copper, "the Nicomachean Ethics, many hold, is the greatest work ever written on practical philosophy" (p. 126). The greatest portion of this appeal comes from Aristotle's ability to reconcile the cultivation of a pure, inner self with the pr Continue Reading...
Zombie Argument v. Physicalism: In the field of philosophy, zombies are imaginary creatures that are used to illuminate problems regarding consciousness and its relation to the physical world. As compared to those in witchcraft or films, zombies are 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...
Kant, Rousseau, Locke In his book Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics, how does Kant apply these concepts? Discuss Kant's EACH use of: - sensibility - transcendental idealism - objective reality - understanding - Copernican revolution The philoso Continue Reading...
Ethical Philosophies Sometimes, when faced with a situation within murky ethical waters, there are difficult decisions to make. This is not made easier by the various philosophical outlooks available today, some of which would provide contradictory Continue Reading...
Existentialism: A History Existentialism is a philosophical school of thought that addresses the "problem of being" (Stanford Encyclopedia, 2010). Existentialist questions involve the nature of man in relation to the universe, the subjective nature Continue Reading...
Rather than viewing the overview of ethics as a "classical" versus "modern" approach, what seems apparent is that there has been a powerful, but gradual, evolution in theory that began in Ancient Greece, and has simply been reinterpreted based on m Continue Reading...
Speaking about the order of the universe we can shift the speech towards human nature and essence. In performing actions which support harmony, man is doing nothing more but manifesting his nature and realizing his essence. The tool that the indivi Continue Reading...
