Taoism is one of the great philosophical systems and religions which has come from ancient China, debuting fully in the 4th century B.C. Taoism can be difficult or controversial to define because so much of Taoism has an elusive, adaptable quality to Continue Reading...
He even goes so far as to say that if in death he can talk with Orpheus, Musaeus, Homer and Hesiod, death will be worth it. He says, "Nay, if this be true, let me die again and again." One of the most profound statements that Socrates offers to his Continue Reading...
Parmenides is one of Plato's most important dialogues, according to both ancient and modern scholars, and focuses on the critique of the theory of forms, based on the influence of pre-Socratic thinkers such as Pythagoras, Parmenides, and Heraclitus. Continue Reading...
Fear of death is typically referred to by researchers as death anxiety. The phenomenon has been split into several categories. There is the fear of pain, the fear of the unknown, the fear of losing a loved one, and the fear of the consequences that m Continue Reading...
Thomas Aquinas is the most important figure of his age. Many people have heard of Thomas Aquinas, but fewer know why he is the most important figure of the 1200s and beyond. Thomas Aquinas was a Dominican monk, a writer, and a philosopher. He creat Continue Reading...
High Renaissance Movement and Its Most Celebrated Artists The Renaissance is referred to as a period of time where there was a great cultural movement that began in Italy during the early 1300's. It spread into other countries such as England, Franc Continue Reading...
Socrates: A Just Life Socrates' view on man's search for justice is one of the great guiding lights provided by the Ancient Greek civilization. Provided for civilization through the writings of his student, Plato, Socrates lays the framework for the Continue Reading...
Plato's theory of Being and Becoming, and its relations to the forms, is rooted in the dichotomy between being and not-being. Prior to Socrates the Sophists, from Parminedes to Gorgias, had argued that because it was impossible by definition for Not Continue Reading...
The book discusses the prevalent impression of oneself as a separate ego covered in a bag of skin that is similar to a hallucination that accords neither with experimental philosophy nor with the religions of the east, more specifically Hinduism. Th Continue Reading...
" Pericles said that Athenians did not have to be forced to chose the lot of the soldier, they loved the land that gave them the freedom to chose to live the way they wanted, rather than to fulfill a predetermined ideal and thus, when necessary: "The Continue Reading...
Science, Religion, And the Making of the Modern Mind: Plato and Aristotle The question of whether or not knowledge is identical to mere true belief goes as far back as Plato, as he argued that correct judgment, though a necessity for knowledge, is n Continue Reading...
Reason vs Passion: Comparing Aristotle and Plato Introduction It must be well known among all students and scholars of philosophy that both Plato and Aristotle have a high regard for reason. But what is their view on passion? It might be surprising t Continue Reading...
Socrates and the Republic The Republic represents Socrates' true apology, as this is the only work in which he has effectively handled the subject he was coerced into facing, following the allegations of Athens against him; the subject is his relati Continue Reading...
Plato It is possible to read Plato's Apology as the best extant textual representation of the legacy of Athens in the fifth century BCE in law and politics. The fact is that the Athenians, although they voted to put Socrates to death, might very wel Continue Reading...
Plato's Republic There is some truth to the idea that certain appetites are difficult to control. As animals, we seek things like food and sex, as these are among our most basest needs. As humans, we may seek some of these things to excess, and indu 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...
The logic is simple: the judges here are fakes but the judges in the afterlife are real; and moreover, the one truth he asks the jury to keep in mind is that "…a good man cannot be harmed either in life or in death" (41-c). After all, Socrates Continue Reading...
Typically a Japanese funeral follows the sequence: when someone dies, they are placed to rest in their homes. The corpse was placed with the head pointing the North, copying the deathbed of Gautama, and the head of the bed is well decorated. Then t Continue Reading...
Socrates' speech in Plato's Apology. It is this author's opinion that Socrates' position that the unexamined life is not worth living has validity. We will see that this is the case as we examine Socrates' spontaneous oration regarding virtue and ho Continue Reading...
Utilitarianism and Plato Philosophy is an ancient process. Since the times of Ancient Greece and Rome, people have taken it upon themselves to question the reality of their worlds and to postulate what it is that causes people to behave the ways tha Continue Reading...
Marx, Plato, and the Matrix There are various dichotomies that are explored in the 1999 film the Matrix including concepts of reality and illusion as well as the relationship between man and machine. The concepts of reality and illusion can be explo Continue Reading...
The question arising from this claim is whether evidence exists to prove that there exists an infinitely good, powerful, and wise God where morality naturally emerges. Humes argues that is hard to imagine that an all-good, powerful God exists in thi Continue Reading...
Socrates and the Apology Socrates and Death in the Apology In The Apology, Socrates contrasts his ability to address the crowd against more skillful speakers stating that he offers truth over eloquence (17b). In essence, he infers that others use t Continue Reading...
Violence in Plato: The Euthyphro In the dialogue of the Euthyphro, Plato depicts an exchange between the titular young, aristocratic man who has decided to turn his father in for manslaughter and the Greek philosopher Socrates. According to Euthyphr Continue Reading...
He is committed to the adjudication of his guilt or innocence exclusively through rational arguments grounded in truth and the logical validity of the arguments themselves. Plato's Republic: Epistemologically, Socrates believed that all of us are Continue Reading...
The Greeks believe that the soul is an essential part of the body since it gives it life. The soul thinks, feels, and chooses[footnoteRef:1]. The interaction between the body and soul influences one another giving rise to the concept of dualism. They Continue Reading...
In short, everything depends upon perception. Clearly, some forms of calamity are worse than others. And there is no denying that harm is perceived, especially immediately following bad news. However, one does have control over one's reactions to th Continue Reading...
Efforts were made to check the power of the majority as well as the minority, for to achieve justice not simply in the perfection of the individual soul but to create a functioning and just government that has effective checks and balances that stym Continue Reading...
Socrates and Plato Greek philosophy held a preeminent place in the middle ages among scholastics like Thomas Aquinas, whose Summa Theologica was an attempt to reconcile faith and reason. The faith aspect was supplied by the Church, but the reason ca Continue Reading...
Islamic government may be defined therefore as the rule of divine law over men."(Khomeini, 29) God is the true authority in the state, and the sole legislative power: "In Islam the legislative power and the competence to establish laws belongs exclu Continue Reading...
Heraclitus with support from Plato's dialogues and Seneca's Letters. It has 2 sources. No matter what one aims at accomplishing in his or her life s/he is still bound by the universal laws that demand actions, whether voluntary or involuntarily, of Continue Reading...
Like Plato, More retains the belief in One God in his concept of the perfect society by injecting the foundation of Neoplatonism and blending it with a rather festive or carnival-like quality (Marius 1995 as qtd in SparkNotes 2010). Utopians enjoy Continue Reading...
At the same time they lack the privilege of privacy and private property ownership accorded to all other classes. The auxiliary class enjoys both power as well as the ability to lead normal lives. However, they must consistently thrust themselves in Continue Reading...
he also felt that it was the only way a society could achieve law and order. Furthermore he states that the person who rules the state must be a person of great power and can be beneficial for eveyrone. He compares this to the founder of sparta and Continue Reading...
Socrates is actually right in the last clause, because neither the ideas nor the souls existed before birth, partially because birth is an arbitrary limit. The use of birth as a delineation is entirely arbitrary and is rooted in the same kind of in Continue Reading...
In Plato's mind, the body is an anchor which holds the soul from enlightenment. That which we know (as we will discuss later) we knew before we had the body and it is only recollection of this knowledge that allows us to know anything while we are i Continue Reading...
Still, the central message of the book was peace within the self and towards others, although it does also advocate self-defense. The Koran for example states "Fight in the cause of Allah those who fight you, but do not transgress limits; for Allah Continue Reading...
But this sense of a death of nationalism, or one's personal belief is different than Nietzsche's statement because no ideology has kind of hold Christianity did upon the world when Nietzsche wrote in 19th century Europe. Response 2 Do you think we Continue Reading...
And surely there is some horrible person who has committed countless violent and despicable acts and we need to punish him or her for doing so. The first model presented her takes this view of capital punishment. However, if evaluating capital punis Continue Reading...
It is the premeditated and cold-blooded killing of a human being by the state. This cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment is done in the name of justice. It violates the right to life as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Amn Continue Reading...
