... we would deem to be a reasonable human being. Plato aims to be able to prove this to everyone through rational logical arguments; most of these are established in "Phaedo." Plato's first argument is the argument from opposites, whereby he states that every single thing in this world has ... " new knowledge of medicines and space, rather than "making," as they already have prior knowledge of the subject. A common criticism of this theory is that all people have varying levels of intellect; therefore if God is omnibenevolent and treats all people equally it would seem to defy the definitio...

• Word Count: 1130
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

During the last meeting of class we were led through a scattered discussion of the various philosophers and philosophies discussed throughout the year. If we are to find a common problem that offers any sort of unity to what we have been studying, it must be that each philosopher wants to discover how to go about experiencing reality. Philosophers such as Pierce, Tolstoy, Camus, Bergson, Russell, and Sartre have attempted to define an unconditional experience with varying degrees of success. To appreciate an experience unconditionally, it must be shorn of that which is sensed and that which is...

• Word Count: 931
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... described the ego, it might appear that I feel the ego is the most important aspect of the personality or the highest function of humanity. In actuality, however, I feel that no philosophy, religion or psychology can be based on pure egoism. There have been many such "ethical" theories of egoism in philosophy, economics, and political science, arguing that self-interest and "looking out for number one ... " is enough to balance all the contradictory interests and ambitions of human beings living in society. For example, in classical economics it is argued that egoistic self-interest serv...

• Word Count: 3556
• Approx Pages: 14
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... and from Aristotle so I will not mention it again, hopefully), is not universal, but rather, it is the particular. It is not a maybe, but a definite, not something hazy without definition, but something focused and cognitively concrete. Thus, substance is not in nor is it said with the subject (as are qualities), rather it is that which makes the subject a type ... to be a substances potentiality and its form it's actuality. The have the meaning and workings of Aristotle's substances is the only way to even begin any other analysis of his philosophical perspectives. So, armed with the u...

• Word Count: 2492
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... began to write his three famous books, Discourse on Method, Meditations on First Philosophy and Principles of Philosophy where his passion for philosophy and mathematics could shine. In my term paper, I will be focusing on specific passages from Meditations on First Philosophy, which was written in 1641. Meditations on First Philosophy is a discussion of metaphysics, or what is real. In these writings, he ultimately hopes to ... be originated from a perfect source or God." Another way which Descartes proves the existence of God is through an "Ontological" proof. This states that an esse...

• Word Count: 1700
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... not depend on things that exist in the universe. This is further support to the reliability of our scientific truths because our execution of science in nature revolves greatly around the principles of the truly infallible mathematics. Our scientific truths, however unfailing they may seem, even by definition in science, they are not considered to be absolutely certain for everything. Luckily we live in ... a habitual society and chaos doesn't throw all of our findings out the window. Hume states that we are all creatures of custom. Therefore we are safe with our scientific truths becau...

• Word Count: 1541
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... not depend on things that exist in the universe. This is further support to the reliability of our scientific truths because our execution of science in nature revolves greatly around the principles of the truly infallible mathematics. Our scientific truths, however unfailing they may seem, even by definition in science, they are not considered to be absolutely certain for everything. Luckily we live in ... a habitual society and chaos doesn't throw all of our findings out the window. Hume states that we are all creatures of custom. Therefore we are safe with our scientific truths becau...

• Word Count: 1525
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... beliefs, a government should be comprised of the portion of the population best capable of manipulating sciences in order to increase the quality of life of humankind, and by no other barometer. • However, it is untrue that all positivists are atheists, but rather agnostics. Positivists argue that because they have no hard definition of what any metaphysical supreme being is, ... they cannot utilize its existence to explain phenomena of nature, when there are scientific proofs which render metaphysics useless. So, weird, freaky dude started Positivism anyway? • The original Positivis...

• Word Count: 501
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... case especially, man's relationship to God. Herbert reserved his poems' subject almost entirely to the holy and within his work can been seen a deep understanding of the history of religious philosophy. Notably so is Herbert's debt to Saint Augustine of Hippo, whose late fourth century work, Confessions, had been at the time (and continually persists to be) a heavy influence on Christian, especially Catholic, doctrine ... is aptly stated in the fourth stanza when he writes, "Affliction shall advance the flight in me." The word affliction in this sense can be understood in its now-defunc...

• Word Count: 1516
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... perfection then you are a fool. By this, Gaunilo is trying to criticize the process by which Anselm moves from his definition of God to his suggestion of God's existence. Of course Gaunilo has a point: If the idea that a type of thing "than which no greater could be conceived" must necessarily exist, might this not apply to the most perfect potato or the greatest monkey? Aquinas ... and therefore there are also no sides. He said that in the same way, if you don't accept the concept of God in the first place, it is a useless argument. Further criticism comes from the Empiricist David Hum...

• Word Count: 662
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... to unexplained questions, while never providing answers to the questions about God himself. This is evidenced a great deal in the circular argument made by Descartes in the Meditations on First Philosophy. What follows is a brief account of the third and fifth meditations, which provide Descartes' response to the masked question, "What is God?" Can one perceive or confirm the existence ... scripture that has been deemed to come from your god is also the proof that God exists. This is the type of circular definition that Descartes is trying to avoid at all costs. Basically, it's like usi...

• Word Count: 1331
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... to empiricism. Mathematics isn't really knowledge about any matter of fact. It is only a game of symbol, nothing about existence. Like logic it is a demonstrative science, mathematical truths are true by definition. Berkeley's radical opposition to the received view of mathematics in the philosophy of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, when mathematics was considered a "science of abstractions." Since this view seriously conflicted with Berkeley's critique ... of abstract ideas. Berkeley has unique treatments of geometry and arithmetic and his famous critique of the ca...

• Word Count: 2949
• Approx Pages: 12
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... no God. If they were to be referenced to, they would be described strictly in the terms of nature. Materialism is not an empirical philosophy. It rests on assumptions that are metascientific not metaphysical in the Aristotelian sense. The assumptions of materialism reached beyond empirical science, though never beyond physical reality. Materialism can be said to conform to ... three theses: "(a) The identification thesis: Mind is identified as nothing more than physical states and processes of the brain and central nervous ... to treat souls as an exception case. Materialism has many d...

• Word Count: 1640
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... wisdom, characteristics, and criteria are an ever-present in Buddhist philosophy and concepts. The goal of Buddhism is to reach nirvana, the final freeing of the soul from all that enslaves it. The achievement of this condition can be fulfilled only through tedious and laborious exercise of the soul and mind, with the ultimate goal being a perfect harmony between the world and mind. Wisdom, according ... soul, the teacher must chose his students based on the soul and no other criteria. Transcending the body, the soul is the most important element of all characteristics of the human natu...

• Word Count: 460
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... external viewpoints of a reality and expressing it through the symbolical representation of concepts. This, Bergson claims, condemns philosophy to an eternal disagreement between the various schools of thought who adopt differing viewpoints and concepts of a reality. But if we are able to invert the habitual direction of the work of thought towards ... is essential and unique in the person, for what constitutes the person, what is simply his or her self, is internal by definition and can only be experienced by me if I were to be able and momentarily identify myself with the person. Howe...

• Word Count: 2351
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate