David Hume and the compatibility of necessity and liberty
Dissertation - 3 pages - Philosophy
The mind, according to David Hume, is not a truth-tracking device, and according to him, we misuse it if we think it can bring us to metaphysical conclusions. To Hume, the science of the mind can describe how the mind works and why it reaches the conclusions it does, but it cannot take us beyond...
A double paradox story
Dissertation - 3 pages - Philosophy
Philosophy has three major realms: the study of the physical world, the study of morals, the study of logic and reasoning. Immanuel Kant's Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals focuses on the study of morality and tries to give a clearer understanding of moral principles so that people can...
Never put Descartes before de horse
Dissertation - 3 pages - Philosophy
Rene Descartes used doubt to prove his beliefs to be true. In his most famous work, Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes enters into his most radical phase of methodological doubt when he introduces his evil genius hypothesis, also known as the evil demon argument. Descartes' demon...
Reading a reader: Deconstruction and the Prophetic imagination
Dissertation - 6 pages - Philosophy
A prophet is a voice, a man that becomes a word, whose message has the power to transform, reveal, destroy, and ultimately, re-imagine our perception of just who we are and why we are here. Arnold writes, the prophets were “instruments a revelation through which God discloses his will to the...
Modernism and the odor of Chrysanthemums by D.H. Lawrence
Dissertation - 5 pages - Philosophy
The modernism model challenged pre-existing socio-cultural norms and was exemplified by the discussion of social relationships in early twentieth century literature. This paper examines the interrelationship between D. H. Lawrence's Odor of the Chrysanthemums and modernism and submits that D.H....
The inter relationship between Judaism, Christianity and Islam
Dissertation - 4 pages - Philosophy
The contemporary framework of religion, social behavior and global governmental structure are often traced to the inception of the three central belief systems of Judaism, Christianity and Islam (Grayson, 2006, p.40). Whilst there are numerous alternative religious organizations in the world,...
The philosophy of non-violent protest
Dissertation - 5 pages - Philosophy
The concept of non-violent protest or “civil disobedience” is based on the premise of using non-violent means to effect socio-political change. The concept of civil disobedience has its roots in the philosophical writings of Henry David Thoreau and in 1848, Thoreau gave an infamous...
Plato and chance: How the two connect
Dissertation - 3 pages - Philosophy
With many students today viewing Plato as a distant figure of yesterday's literature, how can we use his writings to shed light onto today's contemporary writings? Such a classic writer has provided us with many works of art that seem to be obsolete and aged when viewed with the naked eye....
Friedrich Nietzsche: The "bad boy" of Western philosophy
Dissertation - 3 pages - Philosophy
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) is viewed as the “bad boy” of Western philosophy by many of his day. This is due to his critical views of moralities. However, he has always considered himself as having “a more severe morality than anybody.” His views were most likely...
Rousseau: Looking back to learn about today
Dissertation - 3 pages - Philosophy
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) is an English philosopher that is best known for his work in political philosophy and in the early stages of today's political science. In order to further understand the present day, he chose to create his Human Nature Argument. This argument surrounds the mental...
A man on his own
Dissertation - 3 pages - Philosophy
Albert Camus (1913-1960) contributes insightful ideas into the philosophical genre of Existentialism. Here, he introduces his concept of the “absurd” or how it differs from the traditional sense of the word. After being acquainted with his work, it is evident how he prefers actual...
Human difference: Evolutionary theory, racial theory and Marxist theory
Dissertation - 3 pages - Philosophy
In this paper, I am going to outline the differences between three theories which propose to explain differences in humans along the lines of sex, skin color, and monetary wealth. I argue that each theory is a specific way of constructing reality, inseparable from the social conditions in which...
Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil", from the 'Natural History of Morals'
Dissertation - 3 pages - Philosophy
In the chapter "Beyond Good and Evil", Nietzsche criticizes the prevailing moral system of his time. Before I even begin to discuss Nietzsche's criticism, I would like to define "moral system". A moral system can be broken down into content, representation, and justification. The content...
Biographical approach to The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Dissertation - 3 pages - Philosophy
There are many factors that influence an author and their work such as the time period they are living in as well as the experiences they had that shaped them. In The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, there are many parallels from the life of the fictional character Gregor Samsa, to Kafka's own...
Zizek's concept of two revolutions
Dissertation - 9 pages - Philosophy
Slavoj Zizek is a leading Marxist sociology academic, whose work is well publicized as utilizing the works of leading French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan in reinterpreting contemporary socio-political trends (Parker, p.120). Moreover, it has been posited that it was with Zizek's “The sublime...
The mechanical philosophy before Descartes
Dissertation - 3 pages - Philosophy
René Descartes, a French philosopher and mathematician who lived from 1596 to 1650, is well known for outlining a mechanical philosophy intended to replace the traditional Aristotelian system. His mechanical philosophy centered on the idea of matter in motion; he believed the contact and...
Natural sciences versus human sciences
Essay - 2 pages - Philosophy
By and large, the status of the sciences of nature or natural sciences such as physics or chemistry goes unquestioned. They conform to the different criteria put forward by epistemologists and qualify as sciences. This does not mean that physicists or chemists never encounter epistemological...
The Hindu view on creation of nature
Dissertation - 4 pages - Philosophy
Kavir Dev (kabir parmeshwar) has himself given the knowledge of the nature created by Him which is as follows- In the beginning, there was only one place ‘Anami (Anamay) Lok', which is also known as Akah Lok. The Supreme God used to live alone in the Anami Lok. The real name of that God is...
Why should the human sciences be patterned after the natural sciences?
Essay - 2 pages - Philosophy
At some point, we may want to ask radical questions: after all, why should human sciences be patterned after natural sciences? After all, why is it that we need to have such a monolithic model of scientificity? Why couldn't there be several ways of being 'scientific'? Let us review...
Theodicy and it's responses
Dissertation - 3 pages - Philosophy
The problem of theodicy and what the appropriate response to said problem is an issue that torments theologians. I will argue that the most suitable response to this problem is in Metz's efforts in straying from the standard approach by admitting that theology cannot solve the theodicy problem,...
Niebuhr, Hauerwas and Pacifism
Dissertation - 4 pages - Philosophy
The relationship between politics and religion in the United States is a hotly debated subject. I will examine the way in which Reinhold Niebuhr and Stanley Hauerwas negotiate the relationship between politics and religion by examining their views on pacifism in the Christian religion and how...
Confucian study, East Asia and the process by which women were educated
Dissertation - 3 pages - Philosophy
According to the Confucian understanding of gender, “[a] woman is only virtuous if she is untalented. ” They key to this postulate is the word ‘virtuous.' Virtuous, unlike any other synonym that the author could have chosen, indicates a sense of purity, specifically, purity in a...
Dualism and behaviorism fail to reconcile
Dissertation - 3 pages - Philosophy
I will compare the Cartesian mind to the Skinnerian characterization of behavior. The Cartesian mind is an entity separate from body and it affects behavior while the Skinnerian characterization of behavior is exclusively contingent upon re-in forcers from the external environment. The Skinnerian...
The original position: Nozick's and Rawl's theory of theory of justice
Dissertation - 4 pages - Philosophy
The Original Position is when people have conception of the good, are rational, and contain a sense of justice. The concept of the good can be conflicting and opinion oriented, but the sense of justice is institutes what is right or wrong. In the Original Position don't have the “Veil of...
How women perceive one another across the religious divide from the secular to Judeo-Christian to the Muslim community
Dissertation - 8 pages - Philosophy
Beginning with a macro question, my research is defined by a more nuanced context. Through reflecting on the different positions and sensitivities around how we define ‘others', an examination of how women perceive each other across the religious divide from the secular to Judeo-Christian to...
Invasion of the body snatcher
Dissertation - 3 pages - Philosophy
A doctor must make a moral decision. He works in a hospital and has five deathly ill patients to look after. Each patient needs one organ to stay alive. A pizza delivery man enters the hospital. The delivery man is an organ match for all of the patients who are desperate and in need. The doctor...
Descartes' views on mind, body and substance dualism
Dissertation - 2 pages - Philosophy
French philosopher Descartes makes it very clear, when making the comparison between body and mind, two substances which he calls the ‘thinking thing' (res cogitans) and the ‘extended thing' (res extensa), that these two parts of the human experience are very different. In this sense,...
Feminism in France and in the United States of America: A comparison - publié le 29/09/2009
Dissertation - 14 pages - Philosophy
This comparative study arouses already some stakes to this first word. How do we define feminism in a strict way that is stripped of any subjectivity? To define this controversial word appears not only useful but also a necessary starting point to this essay. According to Le Petit Robert,...
Essentialism and dependence: Modal and non-modal Mereolgies
Dissertation - 5 pages - Philosophy
In the study of Ontology, and more specifically the study of mereology, essentialism and dependence, or ontological dependence, are perennial issues, which pop up. In the case of the former issue, essentialism, this is merely the study of the essence of an ontological object. In the case of the...
The work of Carl Gustav Jung
Dissertation - 12 pages - Philosophy
In this essay we will explore whether the work of Carl Gustav Jung has been built upon. Alternatively the psychology that Jung built may have been close to entirely his own with little contribution from others. Or perhaps a great deal of additional work will have been contributed from others....
