Finally, Socrates comes to the idea of knowledge as true judgment accompanied by "an account," meaning evidence or reason. In this context, knowledge would mean not only believing something true, but also having a reasonable justification for that b Continue Reading...
Descartes -- Discourse on the Method Rene Descartes was firmly rooted in the idea that all questions could be answered through mathematical or scientific means. His approach to constructing solutions, verifying knowledge, or establishing truths was Continue Reading...
William James' defense of belief and faith marked the main points of his lecture entitled The Will to Believe. This philosophical treatise is introduced then followed by ten major sections in order to explain his position. Ultimately James' case for Continue Reading...
Descartes Discourse IV For centuries, humans have wondered about certain basic paradigms of the universe -- how do we know what we know? Is there truth? Is there a God? How can we prove that? While we know that this basic question has been debated f Continue Reading...
Keats attempted to purify the sublimity in nature -- but it was disconnected from the old world view of sublimity in nature with regard to God. Keats' Romanticism often employed the use of the gods and heroes of antiquity -- what it moved away from Continue Reading...
Plato held that a just state would be run by philosopher guardians. Plato thinks that, given their education, talents, virtues and the way their lives would be controlled in his Republic, such people are the best possible rulers. Is he right about th Continue Reading...
His viewpoint is neither traditionally Christian and therefore subject to Church doctrine, nor strictly pagan and therefore subject to strict rationality. Hegel's working out of the thesis and antithesis of life and death, and the synthesis, which i Continue Reading...
Mill and Wilson Attempting to find any common ground between the moral and political philosophies of John Stuart Mill and Edward O. Wilson seems futile, given that their ideas are based on extremely different premises and assumptions. Wilson was a D Continue Reading...
Hence, it could be inferred that the soul differs even more from the human being in terms of the nature of species than the donkey does. Inferring this, the question might follow: If a soul differs so completely from human being, how could it retain Continue Reading...
(Descartes) Locke Locke, in opposition to Descartes, believed that empirical, or sensory, knowledge is to be trusted over innate knowledge. By empirical knowledge, Locke referred to any ideas derived from external sensory experiences of the body, Continue Reading...
Nonetheless, an argument from common sense can be made based on our own observational context. For example, neurologically speaking, there is a wealth of evidence to illustrate that genes have an immense impact on the final structure of the brain, a Continue Reading...
Plato vs. De Tocqueville -- The ideal vs. The real vision of the democratic character and the democratic state Both the Greek philosopher Plato and French traveler Alexis de Tocqueville approached different 'lived' versions of contemporary democracy Continue Reading...
Plato & Aristotle The Platonic theory of knowledge is divided into two parts: a quest first to discover whether there are any unchanging objects and to identify and describe them and second to illustrate how they could be known by the use of rea Continue Reading...
Philosophy of Marriage In The Prophet, poet Kahlil Gibran says of marriage, "let there be spaces in your togetherness...Love one another, but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls." My philosophy of Continue Reading...
Plato, Marx, And Critical Thought David Richter's book is absolutely indispensable, as it is one of the few anthologies willing to acknowledge the existence of and include well-chosen examples from the long history of critical thought and how it hel Continue Reading...
Gulliver's Travels Jonathon Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726) is a satiric novel aimed at revealing the trends of seventeenth-century philosophy, including ideas on human nature. For instance, as Gulliver, the main character embarks on a journey to Continue Reading...
Rene Descartes wrote "I think therefore I am," philosophers have considered the meaning, origin, and function of cognitive thought (Newman, 2014). Thinking in itself appears to be proof of one's own existence. Self-consciousness -- the awareness tha Continue Reading...
Empiricism Whenever a person chooses a side in the traditional debate between rationalism and empiricism, that person is necessarily making a statement about how much people should trust the evidence of their own senses. However, there are a number Continue Reading...
Plato believe that being or change is more real? According to Plato, one of the greatest challenges of life is the question of "how can humans live a fulfilling, happy life in a contingent, changing world where everything they attach themselves to Continue Reading...
Heidegger and Hitler Proponents of Heidegger's metaphysical viewpoint are reluctant to identify a relationship between it and the opprobrious Nazi regime which Heidegger supported from 1933 to 1945. Critics of Heidegger, however, view the relationsh Continue Reading...
John Rawls' theory…. In his book A Theory of Justice John Rawls offers readers a "Kantian Interpretation" of his "original position," according to an essay in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SAP). First, a review of Rawls' "original po Continue Reading...
Since right now computers are non-living, they must be programmed with knowledge (facts). If we used the analogy of a human who somehow was devoid of experience (senses, etc.) then that human would have to be retaught evertyhing in order to interpr Continue Reading...
Alluding to "proofs" that God exists shifts the discussion from attempts to mobilize "Jerusalem" in the service of "Athens" to more religiously motivated projects to justify faith. The goal here may be to assuage one's own doubts, develop latent tr Continue Reading...
Both the "Theory of Universal Integralism" and "The General System Theory" were regarded as meta-theories because they were both drawn from other theories. Consider the theory of Universal Integralism, for instance. As mentioned above, Wilber's con Continue Reading...
Therefore, it can be said that the patronage of Federico Cesi was important for Galileo because it placed him in contact with well-known scientists, it offered him the possibility to conduct research by consulting materials from a variety of fields, Continue Reading...
This concept is implausible if there is a just and loving God, but if some evil genius had created the world instead -- along with human understanding of God -- then every single belief could be brought into doubt. Essentially, Descartes takes the n Continue Reading...
Throughout the duration of the war, Paine was responsible for publishing a series of propaganda pieces which were published in the Crisis. In these, he often addressed the British Crown and warned of the Americans' united spirit: "In all the wars wh Continue Reading...
They do not occupy space. Nevertheless, although the Form of a circle has never been seen -- -indeed, could never be seen -- -mathematicians and others do in fact know what a circle is. That they can define a circle is evidence that they know what i Continue Reading...
Aquinas and His "Five Ways," an Expression of Assumed Faith The Five Ways of the existence of God, penned by the famed Thomas Aquinas are reported to be some of the most practical and real philosophical arguments of the existence of God. Though they Continue Reading...
Different people analyze different situations differently and reach to different conclusions. In supporting his idea he further argued that the senses should not be trusted because people get fooled by their sense. This is due to the reason that man Continue Reading...
Inception Explanation Some movies are based on philosophical themes that run through the whole movie and imply meaning other than those being visibly represented. Inception was also one such movie, directed and co-produced by Christopher Nolan, the Continue Reading...
Michel Foucault's Madness and Civilization (mentioned on page 5 of 11, "the reading list") Michel Foucault's Madness and Civilization is a complex work with so many different themes that it requires strenuous and concentrated reading to understand Continue Reading...
This implies that a lot about us is built via our symbol systems. Burke's asserts that a correlation exists between the nonverbal and the oral. Burke believes that non-verbal language involve signs plus labels that help one to understand things. Bur Continue Reading...
Tao In Chapter 29 of the Tao te Ching, Lao-tze raises an issue that is central to Taoism but which a modern American might find difficult to understand. This issue is non-interference. Americans like to be in control. This is not just an American fe Continue Reading...
Identity Williams on Identity In a series of relatively simple though complexly-worded (out of necessity) thought experiments regarding body-swapping and changes to memory and the mind, Bernard Williams attempts to demonstrate that identity should Continue Reading...
Kant and David on Causality; Rousseau and Adam Smith on Social Order Compare and contrast Rousseau and Adam Smith, on the importance of economic or political mark in their account of social order. Rousseau saw the development of organized political Continue Reading...
Frankenstein and Enlightenment The Danger of Unregulated Thought in Frankenstein Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; Or, the Modern Prometheus, considered by many to be one of the first science-fiction novels written, is rife with anti-Enlightenment under 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...
associationism remains not only one of the earliest theories of leaning but it also comes across as being one of the most enduring. Basically, associationism holds that association of ideas can be used to explain mental processes. In this text, I wi Continue Reading...
real life situation, there is need for both the creative analytical thinking, indeed the two more often than not work together in adding value to each other when making decisions or giving solutions to a situation. Creative thinking relates to crat Continue Reading...
