Republicanism and constitution-making in the young American Nation
Essay - 8 pages - Philosophy
When the first colonists settled on the Atlantic coast of America and built the towns of Plymouth and Jamestown at the beginning of 17th century, they were looking for a better life than their homelands could provide them with. However, a century later, the descendants of the first settlers can...
Is it conceivable that you might survive the death of your body?
Essay - 4 pages - Philosophy
If somebody thinks thoroughly about life, he will naturally come across the thought of death. We see death as a natural consequence of life. Everyone is not agreeing on the meaning of death though. Some see it as the end of everything, a total annihilation; others see it as the start of a new...
Descartes' version of the ontological argument in the light of Kant's criticism
Essay - 4 pages - Philosophy
God has always been a subject of debate and it will probably always be so. One of the reasons leading to this perpetual debate is that people have never agreed on the concept of God. Some religions (e.g. Hinduism) believe that there are several Gods whilst others (e.g. Christianity, Islam,...
How (if at all) do you know that you are not dreaming?
Essay - 3 pages - Philosophy
One big philosophical question is to know whether we know anything or not. Knowing in a sense is quite different from its everyday use. As a matter of fact everyone claims to know various things all the time, but the conditions that are required to say that we know in everyday life are quite...
How (if at all) do you know that you are not a brain in a vat? - publié le 05/04/2007
Essay - 4 pages - Philosophy
Our whole life (attitudes, reactions, actions) is based on knowledge. Depending on our present state of knowledge, we react to different situations in different ways, give different answers to different questions. To do that, one has to know something. Even though we do not tend to question our...
The Wood-Pile
Book review - 4 pages - Literature
Frost presents to us here a rather enigmatic poem. Upon a first contemplation the reader may experience the feeling that he has read a poem about nothing, and may read and re-read it, endeavoring to discover some hidden meaning. And indeed “The Wood-Pile” is virtually about nothing, a...
Chapter VIII's analysis of 'Human Bondage' by Somerset Maugham
Essay - 4 pages - Literature
The excerpt to analyse retraces what may be considered as a part of the main body of the plot of the apprenticeship novel Of Human Bondage by the English writer Somerset Maugham. The passage I'm about to try to analyse is extracted from the 58th chapter which means that the reader is already half...
How (if at all) do you know that you are not a brain in a vat?
Essay - 4 pages - Philosophy
Our whole life (attitudes, reactions, actions) is based on knowledge. Depending on our present state of knowledge, we are going to react to different situations in different ways, give different answers to different questions. To do that however, one has to know something. Even though we do not...
Treatment of time in Virginia Woolf's Work
Essay - 4 pages - Literature
In her novel 'Orlando: a Biography' published in 1927, Virginia Woolf evokes 'the extraordinary discrepancy between time on the clock and time in the mind' (Orlando p.91) and the opposition she expresses between thess two concepts of time is to be found, more or less obviously, in...
Treatment of time in Virginia Woolf's Work - publié le 09/03/2007
Thesis - 4 pages - Literature
In her novel "Orlando: a Biography" published in 1927, Virginia Woolf evokes 'the extraordinary discrepancy between time on the clock and time in the mind' (Orlando p.91) and the opposition she expresses between this two conceptions of time is to be found, more or less obviously, in most...
"Araby", James Joyce - publié le 08/03/2007
Book review - 8 pages - Literature
This short story was written by James Joyce who lived from 1882 to 1941; it is an extract from 'Dubliners', published in 1914. The book is compound with several short stories which took place in Dublin, and deals with the monotone life of some people. The text is entitled 'Araby',...
"Araby", James Joyce
Book review - 8 pages - Literature
This short story was written by James Joyce who lived from 1882 to 1941; it is an extract from Dubliners, published in 1914. The book is compound with several short stories which take place in Dublin, and deal with the monotone life of some citizens. The text is entitled "Araby" and tells the...
Explain and discuss critically the role that Hegel attributes to 'work' in the development of self-consciousness in his account of the servant-master relationship
Essay - 3 pages - Philosophy
In the section entitled "Relations of Master and Servant" from The Phenomenology of Spirit (1807), Hegel explains one stage of the development of consciousness. He begins by pointing out that only by acknowledging an "other" is self-consciousness possible: for example a teacher only recognizes...
To what extent are values and colours analogous?
Essay - 3 pages - Philosophy
It can seem quite strange to compare moral values and color, for one consideres one of these two things to be acquired, as the other one seems to be in constant evolution. Blue, green or red, can be defind by nature, but goodness, cruelty or rightness are simple human qualifications made upon...
If you lack money do you also lack freedom? Please explain your position with reference to the works of at least two of the following: Berlin, Taylor, and MacCallum
Essay - 5 pages - Philosophy
“Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe.” (Edmund Burke). Defining justice and how achieve a just society depends on the conception we have of the notion of liberty and equality. These two elements are the core notions of political...
Explain Marx's conception of communist society and assess critically in comparison and contrast with the social ideals of Rousseau
Essay - 5 pages - Philosophy
"A spectre is haunting Europe - the spectre of Communism." This is the prophetic opening line of The Communist Manifesto, published in 1848, one of the major and most well-known work of Marx and Engels, dealing with their ideal of a communist society. However, The Communist Manifesto is not a...
Black and white imagery in Blood Wedding by Federico Garcia Lorca
Book review - 3 pages - Literature
When analysing Lorca's use of black and white imagery in Blood Wedding, a first observation would tend to show that the colour white is much more present throughout the play than black, the white being used, not essentially in the characters' clothing as black is used, but also in totally...
The fantastic atmosphere in The Moon Bog by HP Lovecraft
Book review - 1 pages - Literature
In his short story entitled ?The Moon Bog', Lovecraft adheres to his methods to create a genuine fantastic atmosphere. Both his style and his narration contribute to the setting of a cosmic ambiance in a very effective way. From the point of view of the narrative, the themes in this short...
"The aim of all utopias, to a greater or lesser extent, is to eliminate real people". The Handmaid's Tale. John Carey
Book review - 2 pages - Philosophy
By asserting in the introduction of his ?Faber Book of Utopias' that "the aim of all utopias, to a greater or lesser extent, is to eliminate real people" [CAREY : xii], the British literary critic John Carey provocatively enhances what makes utopian stories so contradictory. On one hand, any...
Aristotle and the best kind of life in society
Essay - 6 pages - Philosophy
Nicomachean Ethics (NE) is generally considered, not without any reason, as one of the main books in the history of the ethics. Indeed, Aristotle describes and constructs in his book major concepts, like virtue or happiness that have been used for a long time, from Kant to Arendt and that do...
Can Self-interest provide a plausible foundation for a theory of justice (egalitarian or otherwise)?
Essay - 5 pages - Philosophy
For a long time, humans have been considered intelligent animals, which are able to think and use their mind (Aristotle, [1975], 1098 a). In other words, being human consisted in being virtuous in pre-modern times. Since, the wave of the modernity has widely taken in its wake all these ethics,...
Aristotle and the virtue (Nicomachean Ethics, 1105b19-1107a25)
Essay - 4 pages - Philosophy
This text is extracted from the beginning of two of the famous Aristotle's book, the Nicomachean Ethics (NE). After having done with the problem of the Good and the purpose of the human in Book one (book I, chapters 1-12), Aristotle aims to define what virtue is (I, 13; II). He has already...
Is Rawls' version of "Reflective Equilibrium" a defensible method of theorizing about social justice?
Essay - 6 pages - Philosophy
When John Rawls publishes his Theory of Justice in 1971, he was the first to use the expression "reflective equilibrium" (RE). Even if this kind of idea had been employed before by Nelson Goodman (Goodman, 1955), Rawls employs it as his method, to build a complete theory of justice and sort out...
"The Tempest", William Shakespearean - Prospero's relationship with the natives
Essay - 3 pages - Literature
In Shakespeare's play The Tempest, Prospero is presented as the colonizer, and Ariel and Caliban are seen as his «colonized subjects ». These two Natives had to accept this newcomer twelve years ago, and we rapidly learn that both didn't react the same way. Ariel feels grateful towards Prospero...
The drama of discrimination in Henry James' The Ambassadors - publié le 25/01/2007
Essay - 4 pages - Literature
The Ambassadors is clearly a novel: the novel is free, and has the most elastic form. We could be tempted to say that there is no drama in the work. In fact, drama has different meanings. First, it is the name of theatrical plays of a particular kind or period. Secondly, it can mean a situation...
Moon Palace by Paul Auster
Essay - 3 pages - Literature
While some readers found reading ?Moon Palace' a moving experience, others felt that the string of coincidences seemed too unbelievable. In this article, I will attempt to present my interpretation of the author's aim in writing it. The protagonist MS, receives a response to the...
Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's
Essay - 3 pages - Literature
This document will attempt to analyze the character Holly Golightly in the light her following statement: "I'm very scared, because it could go on forever. Not knowing what's yours until you've thrown it away." Holly Golightly is the main protagonist in ?Breakfast at...
Muslims and the State: A comparative study of Muslim religious needs in the educational domain in France and Great Britain
Essay - 6 pages - Philosophy
Islam is one of the fastest growing religions in Europe today; it is already the second religion in Europe. There are at least thirteen million Muslims living in this area ranging from Portugal to Finland and from Ireland to Bulgaria. The sociological entity of these Muslims is very...
Terror and Horror in the Fantastic Novels: Walpole's The Castle Of Otranto, Shelley's Frankenstein and Stoker's Dracula
Essay - 8 pages - Literature
The concepts of terror and horror are key factors in the Fantastic and Gothic novel. This literary genre appeared with Walpole's The Castle of Otranto in 1765 and then flourished until 1830; it mainly developed during the historical period of the Enlightenment and can be seen as an alternative to...
Critical evaluation of the respective interpretation of cultural relativism as explained by Bernard Williams and Alasdair MacIntyre
Essay - 3 pages - Philosophy
The moral relativism denies that any moral code has universal validity, and ethical propositions do not reflect absolute and universal moral truths. Morality is relative to social, cultural, historical or personal circumstances. The idea of relativism is not new. Protagoras, a Sophist, claimed...
