The Rise of the Ribat Mentality and the End of Muslim Spain
Essay - 6 pages - Philosophy
Between the fall of Toledo in 1085 and the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212, a new force entered the politics of Muslim al-Andalus (or Andalusia). This force was the North African Islamic fundamentalism of two groups, the Almoravids and their successors, the Almohads. Both these groups...
Greco-Roman Banquets: Applications to Biblical Analysis
Tutorials/exercises - 5 pages - Philosophy
The author of this meager submission once attended a birthday banquet at the local McDonald's establishment in the far southwestern corner of Oklahoma. The highlight of this social outing, which must have included many compelling and edifying moments, consisted of a game in which contestants...
"People like Us" by David Brooks
Essay - 3 pages - Philosophy
David Brooks' “People Like Us” is an analytical essay on the issue of diversity seen from the eyes of the author. Brooks takes an emotional point of view of the way in which we take for granted how diverse our nation is although it is “relatively homogeneous” when looked at...
The case of Louis Ferdinand Celine
Worksheets - 1 pages - Philosophy
While Heidegger was involved in the German Nazi movement, the well-known French writer Louis-Ferdinand Céline was advocating anti-Semitism in some of his pamphlets written between 1937 and 1941. Racism can be found even in his later works and a comparison is generally made between them and the...
Place of Buddhist education in present day Vietnam
Essay - 6 pages - Philosophy
In the beginning the Christi?n Er?, the people in v?rious p?rts of Southe?st ?si? found out of Buddhism ?s ? result of increased contact with the Indian merchants who had come to the region to trade. These merchants not only set up trading places in Southe?st ?si? including Vietnam, but also...
Jesus through the Gospels
Essay - 6 pages - Philosophy
Every Christian knows about Jesus and the main events concerning his life: how he was born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem, how he was baptized by John the Baptist, how he healed many people, how he taught the crowds who came to listen to him and how he died on a cross after being betrayed. One...
What are the Objects of Visual Perception?
Essay - 3 pages - Philosophy
There is much debate about what it is we actually perceive of the world, if anything at all. In this essay I wish to focus on the theory of Direct Realism, and show why I believe it to be the correct theory. I will show this by looking at all the main objections to Direct Realism, and show that...
Is Creation Due to Nature or God? Discuss the Arguments for Creation in the Samkhyakarika.
Essay - 3 pages - Philosophy
The Samkhya School of philosophy has what I believe to be an agnostic note on the nature of creation and on the existence of God, although not atheistic in the sense that there is still a cause for evolution. In this essay I will try to show how the Samkhya idea of creation is appealing but it...
Can Knowledge Be Characterised as Justified True Belief? What Would a Better Account of Knowledge Look like?
Essay - 4 pages - Philosophy
There have been many attempts over the years to try and define what constitutes knowledge. Up until the early 1960's, the general consensus was that the tripartite analysis of knowledge was correct. However, it is now widely accepted that this is not the case, due to the work of Edmund Gettier...
Essay on the Vaisesika and Bhagavad Gita Distinctions between Self and Body
Essay - 3 pages - Philosophy
It is my opinion that the distinction between self and body, as set out in the Vaisesika and mentioned in the Vedanta (Sourcebook, 1957, pp121-138, 386-423) , is an extremely cogent theory which seems to be able to reply to most objections raised to it. In this essay I will attempt to show how...
Is Sound Eternal, as the Mimansa Philosophers Believe It to Be or Is It Transitory as the Nyaya Says?
Essay - 3 pages - Philosophy
Behind the claim that sound is eternal appears to be the idea that it must be eternal because the utterance of the word is for the purpose of another. Without this eternality, one person could not make anything known to another, because once the word was spoken, it would no longer exist. Another...
What Would It Mean for an Event to Be a 'Miracle' in the Sense that Hume Describes It?
Essay - 5 pages - Philosophy
In this essay, I hope to show that some of the criticisms levelled against Hume, especially those by Robert Hambourger (1980), are not effective in their attempts to erode Hume's argument. These issues were discussed in an article by Dorothy Coleman (1988), which I will use to outline the...
Has Hume Refuted the Design Argument?
Essay - 4 pages - Philosophy
In my opinion, David Hume, in his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, completely destroys the traditional design argument. In this essay I will outline an example of the traditional design argument, as written by Newton, and also Hume's critique of this argument, in his ‘Dialogues...
Jürgen Habermas overemphasises the role of the public sphere in his theory of law and democracy
Essay - 6 pages - Philosophy
Jürgen Habermas (born June 18, 1929 in Düsseldorf) is a German philosopher, political scientist and sociologist in the tradition of critical theory. His work focuses on the analysis of advanced capitalist industrial society and of democracy and the rule of law in a critical social-evolutionary...
Aristotle's "The Rhetoric"
Essay - 2 pages - Philosophy
When digging deeply into Aristotle's “The Rhetoric” it only begs the question of the origins of the author. Many of us learn about Aristotle's legacy in grade school and learn about his works. However, many of us also fail to learn the basic elements that made Aristotle who he was then...
Progressing Toward the End of Spirit: Hegel on World History
Essay - 2 pages - Philosophy
Although Hegel's concept of spirit can sound like a purely metaphysical concept, more simply it is the ultimate force of our wills. Hegel believes that the wills of individuals, (which are inherently free wills,) that make up a nation are a kind of collective consciousness, which has an ultimate...
The Ideas of Confucius
Essay - 3 pages - Philosophy
Confucius lived through a time of social change in China. Society was moving away from the old values, and towards more selfish pursuits that he felt were immoral and unjust. To this end, Confucius taught others what he felt were the core values of ancient Chinese culture, and in effect changed...
What Is Empiricism?
Essay - 2 pages - Philosophy
Empiricism is a view about where all knowledge comes from. Empiricism is not exclusive to scientific knowledge, but rather knowledge as a whole. This includes knowledge of everyday life. Empiricism states that science and everyday thinking have the same basic principles, and science is just...
Who Has Final Control Over Our Bodies: Me, You, or God?
Essay - 3 pages - Philosophy
Human beings, as superior animals, are born with unique cognitive processes that we have yet to identify in other animals. It is our cognition, our thoughts that set us apart from other creatures and make us who we are. However, our ability to think and analyze is also what causes us to question...
Homer and the Futility of War
Essay - 3 pages - Philosophy
Rage. Rage is the first word that starts the Iliad (1.1), and as beginnings go it is a substantial foundation for the story told, however leaving the question “Which Rage?”. The rage of Achilles at the death of Patrokles, the rage of Menelaus at the theft of Helen, these are the...
What is Practical Wisdom?
Essay - 3 pages - Philosophy
Aristotle within his Nicomachean Ethics defines the different regions of the soul, especially the virtues and functions of each. After all his contemplation over universal ideas, such as the very essence and base of justice and wisdom, he also realized the soul must contain a part to contemplate...
Nietzsche: Genealogy of Morals
Essay - 3 pages - Philosophy
Good versus Evil, this is the ever present conflict in human morality and while nearly one third of the modern world supports this doctrine by supporting Christianity, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche abhors this division of morals. His essay, Genealogy of Morals, remembers that once Good versus Bad...
Carpe Diem? Try Tomorrow
Essay - 2 pages - Philosophy
Initially, I sat in front of a blank page contemplating how to start the introduction, how to draw the reader in. But after an hour, it became clear to me that I could not easily conjure up a stylish lead-in with the subject matter. So here I am addressing the issue flat out. Does this make me...
The North Indian Tabla Drum as Saivite Hindu Religious Path
Essay - 2 pages - Philosophy
The traditions of Hindustani (North Indian) tabla drumming gather the various strands of culture that exist in India into a complex social tapestry. In order to understand the cultural phenomenon of tabla music, it must be heard within the context of an Indian heritage originating from a wide...
How can MacIntyre claim that some traditions, but not others, can escape the problem of incommensurability in their moral reasoning?
Essay - 5 pages - Philosophy
From the moment we abandoned Aristotle's teleology, MacIntyre believes, there has been no proper moral philosophy, but only philosophers "working ... with bits and pieces of philosophies which are detached from their original pre-Enlightenment settings in which they were comprehensible and...
Anthrologists in Disagreement over Cockfighting
Essay - 3 pages - Philosophy
In anthropological theory there has been a clear division and consistent debate between cultural materialists and non-materialist symbolic anthropologists. Theorists such as Marvin Harris and Julian Steward are exemplary of the materialist position, while others such as Sherry B. Ortner and...
The Flavor and Sound of Liberation
Essay - 2 pages - Philosophy
The versatile musical functionality of the tabla reflects its utility as an instrument of contemplation. As the rhythmic expression of the drone, the tabla focuses the listener's attention on the present musical moment. From a psychological perspective, “the basis of listening is the...
Devotion and Musical Practice in North India
Essay - 5 pages - Philosophy
The guru-shisya parampara is the system of master/disciple lineage that characterizes the traditional education system of North Indian music. The term parampara, ‘disciplic succession,' is introduced in the Bhagavad-gita (4.2), when Krsna tells Arjuna: “This Knowledge of yoga was...
Longing For HER: Ferlinghetti's Mad Quest for the Muse
Essay - 3 pages - Philosophy
While Lawrence Ferlinghetti makes no claim to being enlightened, his poetry is nonetheless a record of and reaction to the sacred journey. While it is illuminating to read words of the awakened prophets of world history, I think it can be as rewarding to read the work of those who, sincere in...
The Inner Soundscape of Nada-Yoga: Sonic Path of Union
Thesis - 3 pages - Philosophy
The Himalayan religious traditions (Saivite Hinduism, Mahayana Buddhism, Tibetan Bon-po) are related by a common heritage of esoteric practices intended to unify the religious aspirant with the ultimate reality (as defined by the particular tradition). This gnosis is defined variously as dzogchen...
