Gandhi's Experiments with Truth
Essay - 3 pages - Philosophy
The concept of truth is the central aspect of religion. What is truth? How is it attained? These questions have been the focal points of theological discussion throughout history. Gandhi suggested that truth can be found in his concepts of Satyagraha, or total self-renunciation, and Ahimsa...
Utopian Thought: Political Perfection Built Upon Human Imperfection
Essay - 4 pages - Philosophy
Utopian fiction, a genre originated by Sir Thomas More in 1516, attempts to expound political theory under the guise of fiction. The narration of these works is essential to the communication of political ideas, as the integrity of the political information conveyed hinges on the actual...
Arguing Their Way to Salvation: Eschatology in Jewish-Christian Polemics of the Middle Ages
Essay - 4 pages - Philosophy
This essay will investigate how issues of Jewish messianism and eschatology were used as polemical devices in medieval disputations between Jews and their Christian interlocutors. Eschatology, the system of religious beliefs about the end of time, is a crucial theme in medieval Judeo-Christian...
Religion as Means for Social Mechanization in Dystopia
Essay - 4 pages - Philosophy
Dystopian literature describes societies in which Government seizes total control over its citizens by eliminating their sense of individual self, and in turn, efficiently regulating their personal desires. Only with deviant selfishness can a member of dystopian society regain his personal...
Embodying Emptiness: (Anti-) Aesthetics of the Prajnaparamita-Hrdaya Sutra
Essay - 6 pages - Philosophy
The Prajna-paramita Hrdaya Sutra, the 'heart' of the Mahayana tradition, represents the Buddhist anti-aesthetic of complete enlightenment in which the perception of any dualistic reality is a view of the deluded mind. The Heart Sutra is Avalokitesvara's explanation of the...
Sufi Love: Submission to the Beautiful
Essay - 2 pages - Philosophy
The practical and esoteric dimensions of Islam intertwine in the Sufi tradition to forge a non-dual relationship between the worshipper and God. Sufis augment their adherence to the Q'uranic doctrine of submission to God (Islam) with a passionate love for “doing the beautiful” (ihsan),...
A Discussion of Panpsychism: The Metaphysics of Consciousness
Essay - 3 pages - Philosophy
Panpsychism describes a world in which “everything has a mind (Chalmers 298),” and everything- animal, botanical, even mineral- is conscious. In order to determine whether or not all things are indeed conscious, two problems must be addressed. A definition of what it means to be...
Personal and Societal Alchemy in Early Daoist Scriptures
Essay - 5 pages - Philosophy
The principle of interconnectedness pervades the worldviews of the Daoist and Buddhist religions originating from India and China. It is fitting that the traditions themselves are historically and textually interconnected in a way that finds traditions intermingling by borrowing teachings and...
Ideology and War: Pacifism and Eschatological Militarism in Foreign Policy
Essay - 9 pages - Philosophy
War is a situation that embodies the principle of duality: one side is pitted against another in an “an act of violence intended to compel an opponent to fulfill our will .” That will, whatever it may be, “has its root in a political object ” that is determined within...
The Daode Jing: Manual for Cosmic Living
Essay - 3 pages - Philosophy
The Daode Jing is a manual, attributed to Laozi, suggesting that non-action (wu-wei) is a way by which one may exist in accord with the cosmic principle of Dao and thus ensure a virtuous self and society. By cultivating the individual body, the Daoist sage in turn cultivates the social body. This...
A Timeless Debate
Essay - 3 pages - Philosophy
At a lecture given at our own Stony Brook University, Michael Ratner asserts that “Justice is losing its power” . What Michael Ratner, the defending lawyer for many prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay, means by this daring statement is that America is losing sight of its foundations....
A Question of Filial Piety
Essay - 3 pages - Philosophy
Should we publicly accuse our own parents of a crime, which will undoubtedly result in their punishment? This age old question has been debated for millennia throughout the world with varied and countless legitimate arguments swaying people's opinions from one side to the other. It is unclear if...
Ego Trips and Empathy Falls
Essay - 5 pages - Philosophy
Although both drastically different in philosophy, Surrealism and Russian Futurism failed to endure, but in similar ways. Surrealism, as defined by Andre Breton, is grounded in past philosophies while Mayakovsky's Russian futurism floats somewhere in an intangible future. Breton often channels...
My Apologies
Essay - 3 pages - Philosophy
At first it seems daunting, attempting to fill four to six pages with insight pertaining to just one topic: apologies. However, as I reflect, I realize the true difficult task proves summing up the entire universe a single apology unlocks into a paper. Thomas Scheff begins his section about...
God: Creator or Created?
Essay - 2 pages - Philosophy
Ever since the Renaissance movement, when the question was finally free of its taboo status, there has been widespread and public debate among philosophers, theologians, and scientists as to the existence of God. With the exception of theologians, the debate has been internal as well as external,...
Pragmatism and idealism in the process of nation-building (1781-1788)
Essay - 7 pages - Philosophy
“Idealism without pragmatism is impotent. Pragmatism without idealism is meaningless. The key to effective leadership is pragmatic idealism.” (Richard Nixon). Were the very first years of the new nation, born of the American Revolution, marked by a “spirit of pragmatic...
The historical specificity and contemporary relevance of the concept of race
Essay - 6 pages - Philosophy
According to Rousseau, there are ‘two sorts of inequality': one is ‘natural or physical'; the other is between social groups. In order to understand an historical specificity of the concept of race, we will study how the second type of inequality was reduced to the first. In other...
Is Cohen More "Jewish" Than Dylan - or vice versa? Why or Why Not?
Essay - 2 pages - Philosophy
During the sixties, which came along with the Civil Rights movement, the diverse ethnic whites in the United States displayed an increase willingness to emphasize their distinct identity. Leonard Cohen and Robert Allen Zimmerman, alias Bob Dylan, were two major musical figures of this era. Both...
Essays on Jewish Culture
Essay - 4 pages - Philosophy
This paper includes two essays: -A Jewish-Christian Symbiosis: The Culture of Early Ashkenaz, Ivan G. Marcus : Ashkenazic Jews living in Northern and Eastern Europe differ from Sephardic Jews from Southern Europe in their respective relationships with surrounding religions. Whereas Sephardic...
Cultural Persistence: the Jews of New York
Essay - 3 pages - Philosophy
New York is probably one of the most famous cities in the world because of History but also from the fact that it is the symbol of USA, the country of Liberty, capitalism, the self-made-man... New York is a bit like a compendium of American values and a study of this town is very interesting to...
Unger's Views on Skepticism and Certainty
Essay - 2 pages - Philosophy
Peter Unger applies a unique approach to skepticism. In his essay, “An Argument for Skepticism”, he endorses the concept by insisting that if one is not a skeptic, he/she must be (more or less) dogmatic. The way in which he supports this is by attempting to prove that nobody ever...
A Defense of the Capabilities Approach
Essay - 8 pages - Philosophy
There is no country in the world where women are treated equally to men. Women are consistently fed less than men, given fewer educational opportunities, and fewer freedoms. Situations in developing countries are often more overtly detrimental to women, for example in India, it is estimated...
"The French lost the language war", argues John Kay. Do you agree?
Essay - 1 pages - Philosophy
Language has become an important issue due to globalization. Previously if a person spoke only one language it did not matter much. However the situation is completely different in the modern world. Learning English has become mandatory for every individual to surive in the globalized world. John...
What is the function of representation in Hobbes conception of political power as presented in the Leviathan?
Essay - 5 pages - Philosophy
The notion of Representation is a key feature in democratic regimes. More stable than the direct participation of the people into political life, it supposes that the institutions of the State reflect the composition and the wishes of the people. A simple look at the title of the book-the...
What are the differences between Locke's and Hobbes' notions of the "state of nature"?
Essay - 6 pages - Philosophy
Thomas Hobbes and John Locke are probably the most famous political thinkers of the 17th century. The generally accepted view asserts that these authors were poles apart, the first one advocating an absolutist regime and the latter recommending a stable civil society where powers are separated....
What are the differences between Locke's and Hobbes' notions of the "state of nature"? - publié le 11/04/2007
Essay - 6 pages - Philosophy
Thomas Hobbes and John Locke are probably the most famous political thinkers of the 17th century. The generally accepted view asserts that these authors stood poles apart, the first one advocating an absolutist regime and the latter recommending a stable civil society where powers are separated....
The French cultural exception: Exception or exclusion?
Essay - 4 pages - Philosophy
In a bit more than one decade, culture has become a crucial issue of the globalization process. In fact, the IT revolution along with the development of transport, the increase of the international commercial exchanges and foreign investments, and the constitution of multinational conglomerates...
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,...
