Human Nature Throughout history intelligent human beings have tried to better understand exactly what it is that makes people human. Some of the questions that are most frequently asked has to do with a supposed universal human nature, a basic idea Continue Reading...
Wittgenstein Ludwig Wittgenstein is particularly interesting because in Philosophical Investigations (PI) he repudiated all of his earlier work in logical positivism and the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (TLP), along with much of what was tradition Continue Reading...
wisdom of Socrates today: The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton The first chapter of Alain de Botton's The Consolations of Philosophy is set in an art museum. The author gazes upon an image of David's The Death of Socrates. De Botton co Continue Reading...
While the judges can be considered responsible for hamartia, Socrates himself is also accountable for hamartia when considering that he plays an important role in influencing the judges in wanting to put him to death. He actually has a choice, but Continue Reading...
Rousseau is right in this instance, as English people who vote for Members of Parliament can no longer control the actions of their representatives once they are voted to office. Thus, their only recourse to altering the political landscape is the e Continue Reading...
Then, my good friend, take my advice, and refute no more." In short, you must learn to take care of yourself and deal with current circumstances -- refusing to participate in 'the system' will only cause you harm, and by extension, harm to those you Continue Reading...
It is very dark in the cave, and everything, including the face of the person next to them, is in deep shadows. It is never mentioned whether the people are happy or sad, or whether they speak to each other. It is assumed that they speak at least en Continue Reading...
In spite of the fact that it never became as popular as Daoism, Confucianism was important because it was responsible for a series of reforms in the moral and political systems of China. It was only during the ruling of Dong Zhongshu that Confuciani Continue Reading...
It was not until the Renaissance that the art of rhetoric would retain the heights it had reached in the classical period. The Renaissance favored classical forms of rhetorical theory - particularly Latin. The Renaissance period can be seen as a se Continue Reading...
Certainly, rhetoric lends itself to the discovery of truth, as truth (Aristotle suggests) always makes more intuitive and intellectual sense compared to falsehood, and so equally talented rhetoricians will be more convincing sharing the truth than s Continue Reading...
German Romanticism Romanticism is nothing but a philosophical movement that started as a result of the increased growth of nationalism, the war of liberation and the reforms in the literary and cultural realms. In philosophy, the term is also relate Continue Reading...
Plato and Machiavelli, and how their ideas on leadership compare and contrast with each other. To do this, their respective works the Republic and the Prince will be used. In addition to the works by the two main authors considered, The Stanford En Continue Reading...
But the real world was a whole and perfect entity." (Philosophy Is a Way of Life) The theory of dualism and its implications in term ethics and politics can be derived from the following concise but insightful analysis. A dualistic view of reality Continue Reading...
Plato and Kant Plato's life span was between 427 BC and 347 BC. As a youth Plato possessed political visions, but he turned out disenchanted by the political authority of the city of Athens. He slowly turned out a follower of Socrates, adhering to Continue Reading...
Plato: Life, Philosophies, And Influence Time Period Plato Lived in. Plato was born in 428 BC and grew up in a time of major political change in Ancient Greece. The Peloponnesian War began a few years after he was born and continued until he was tw Continue Reading...
Furthermore, those people who did not speak Greek were referred to as barbar, the root of our word barbarian."[footnoteRef:5] [4: Ibid] [5: Ibid] Question 3 There are many aspects of Greek culture and artistic traditions that have left their mark Continue Reading...
(Leaves, 680) Similarly Whitman informs us: Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of all poems, You shall possess the good of the earth and sun…there are millions of suns left, You shall no longer take things at Continue Reading...
Second Treatise of Government," by John Locke is a revolutionary philosophical work that directly opposed the idea of absolutism. Absolutism held that the best form of government was autocratic, and was based on both the belief in the Divine Right 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...
. . while defending these institutions themselves" (1034-1035). Peled further argues that Rousseau was not able to solve this paradox and it was one of the reasons why he became increasingly pessimistic about modernity. But Rousseau's attempts to re Continue Reading...
That artificial institution would be "endowed with enough power to deter violence and promise-breaking among it's subjects." But, in conclusion, if that "artificial" institution uses violence or repression to "keep disorder at bay" then, according Continue Reading...
Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle are the most famous of the ancient Greek philosophers. All three of them have left a deep impact on the Western philosophy. In this paper we will look at the main points of their philosophies and the impact they left on Continue Reading...
He who would attack that state from the outside must have the utmost caution; as long as the prince resides there it can only be wrested from him with the greatest difficulty. (Chapter III) So, then one must be present and able to seek ambitious g Continue Reading...
Question 2: The goals of the philosophies were meant to exercise a set of ideals. Which common tenets of enlightened thinking do writers Mary Wollstonecraft and Denis Diderot advance in "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" and the selection from Continue Reading...
Paine's decision to write of high philosophical and political issues in common speech, and of used "graphic metaphors and his simple sentence structure [to] reflect a language understood at the time by common Americans," (Moss & Wilson, ed) has Continue Reading...
Slavery was an essential element of the society of Ancient Greece. Social life, in numerous ways -- family, commerce, politics, was heavily dependent on a class of people who fulfilled tasks their masters saw as degrading. Although, the concept of sl Continue Reading...
Rene Descartes: Why Psychology Cannot be a Science Like Physics The philosophies and concepts presented in Rene Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy illustrate several reasons why psychology cannot be a science like physics. These concepts inc Continue Reading...
Socrates Self-knowledge is a prerequisite for wisdom. For Socrates, self-knowledge or self-understanding is the precursor of the ability to probe the world outside of the self. In fact, Socratic wisdom is wisdom that is manifest and known. The Socra Continue Reading...
Isocrates: No Sophist A strict definition of sophistry has evolved throughout the centuries, yet sophists are identifiable in every age, whether in Plato's Dialogues, Shakespeare's dramas, or today's politicians and scholars. What then is a sophist? 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...
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...
Law for Aquinas is God and a True Example of Aristotle's Prime Mover Natural law requires minimal moral content as a prerequisite for viewing something as in contravention of the law, while the positivist school holds that the law is whatever the s 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...
The research too has to be reliable and valid cohering to an internal and external scientific definition of reality that is more physical and eschews the metaphysical and the abstract. Ontological Basis Positivism accepts a certain reality of exis Continue Reading...
reason What is the raison d'etat ( reason for the existence of the state)? Compare and contrast the views presented by theorists on the purpose, role, and existence of governments: Jean Bodin, Jacques Bossuet, James II, Thomas Hobbes, and John Lock 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...
In her discourse, "The Treasure of the City of Ladies," De Pizan contemplated how human society had developed the psyche and perception that females are inherently inferior to males. This issue was borne out of the author's observation how literary Continue Reading...
Morality therefore comes within but is associated with the results generated within as well: The force of an internal sanction derives from the feeling of pleasure which is experienced when a moral law is obeyed and the feeling of pain which accomp Continue Reading...
Thomas Hobbes It is rather ironic to note that the development of higher philosophic ideas causes man to constrain the whole world within the narrow assumptions of his personal understanding of the world. In such instances, philosophers, who are exp Continue Reading...
Postmodernism In order to understand the current themes in philosophy of postmodernism and post structuralism, it is important that we understand the structuralists themes, which dominated the philosophical thinking in the twentieth century and infl Continue Reading...
