My Philosophy Who am I' My Philosophy of life over the past couple of months of learning “philosophy,” by its definition, is extremely vague and confusing. It can be related to anything to do with thought, perception, and even basic human existence. However, over the notes, readings and class discussion I have been part of through these months, I learned that philosophy is just simp

Kierkegaard Vs. Nietzsche Existentialism is based on the idea of individual existence, subjectivity, and the individual's freedom of/and choice. The task of existential thought is to locate or create meaning given the ambiguity of human existence. Existential themes are not limited to a particular time period. We often still explore them in connection with philosophy of race, questions

Plato And Black Elk Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” and Black Elk’s “The Great Vision” each make a case for a particular way of knowing through a vision or higher realm. Black Elk describes a far more detailed version of his own vision as a young child. His experience provides a way of knowing the spiritual world. Plato describes a man imprisoned in a cave who finds a way of knowing and u

Positivitism Legal positivism is the thesis that the existence and content of law depends on social facts and not on its merits. The English jurist John Austin (1790-1859) formulated it thus: “The existence of law is one thing; its merit and demerit another. Whether it be or be not is one enquiry; whether it be or be not conformable to an assumed standard, is a different enquiry.” (1832,

Is Morality Objective Or Relative' Morality is objective, and is self-evident. I will prove that moral relativism is self-refuting and unethical with concrete examples that we see in nature, and have seen in history. Ethical (moral) relativity is defined as the denial of any absolute or objective moral values, and the affirmation of the individual (person, community, culture, etc) as th

Being And Becoming The Significance of the Two Levels: Being and Becoming, in Plato’s Theory of Forms Plato has been a significantly great influence not only on other philosophers of his time but people in general of his time and people on into the present and probably into the future. Plato’s theory of forms is specifically one of the most interesting topics within his many philosoph

Dorian Gray Beauty And Goodness The picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde uses beauty and goodness as one of its major themes. Dorian Gray, the main character, is used to portray these characteristics as well as how easily they can be lost. Dorian is described as “wonderfully handsome, with his finely-curved scarlet lips, his frank blue eyes, his crisp gold hair”. This outer beauty is

John Locke John Locke, the English philosopher of the 1600’s main thesis was that men could rule themselves in an orderly and judicial way if given the opportunities. This philosophy portrays men who are created in God’s image as rational and fair, who will do justice according to a prescribed set of rules. This theory put the power of governing in the hands of those to be governed. T

Plato Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” and Black Elk’s “The Great Vision” each make a case for a particular way of knowing through a vision or higher realm. Black Elk describes a far more detailed version of his own vision as a young child. His experience provides a way of knowing the spiritual world. Plato describes a man imprisoned in a cave who finds a way of knowing and understanding t

Progressivism Progressivism: My Teaching Philosophy As educators, I believe it is important that personal beliefs about education be explored. This should be an ongoing and evolving process; however I find the philosophy of progressivism within my fundamental beliefs about teaching. Everyone has their own opinion or ideas about how education should operate and what should be the focu

Natural Rights And Herbert Croly “They did it, no doubt, in the name of democracy; but of all perverted conceptions of democracy, one of the most perverted and dangerous is that which identifies it exclusively with a system of natural rights” (Croly 81). To Herbert Croly, in his book The Promise of American Life, God or nature cannot secure individual rights. The entire nation, as a wh

Descartes Descartes and his Deamon Everyday we are bombarded with various forms of stimuli. We see many people, we hear cars drive by, we feel the cool breeze, etc, but how can we prove that we are really experiencing these stimuli' That is the question that Rene Descartes asked some three hundred fifty years ago, is there anything real in this world' Descartes conclud

Clausewitz Strategy Tactics Strategy has been defined in the dictionary as the military science, or art, of marshaling a nation’s military, political and economic capabilities to bring about a desired military result, whereas tactics can be defined as being the military science of obtaining objectives through the deployment and maneuvering of soldiers, ships and planes, etc. Straightfor

Cultural Relativism Bennett 1 There are an enormous amount of people in this world that we live in. All of these people belong to different cultures and societies. Each society has traits and customs that make it different from any other. Every society has their own way of looking at and dealing with certain situations. “Different societies have different moral codes” (Rachels 618)

Educational Philosophy The five educational philosophies; idealism, realism, pragmatism, reconstructionism, and existentialism all share similarities and differences. Each philosophy gives us a different insight on how we should educate students. They have different teaching methods and different curriculum. Each philosophy has its pros and cons and from our class exercise, we can see th

Life Journey Of The Odyssey Life Journey of The Odyssey The Odyssey is an epic story of one man’s journey as well as the trials and tribulations that he encounters while trying to make it back to his home. Along the way, this story not only follows the guidelines of many other hero stories, but also applies to our everyday struggles both internally and externally. It seems like every

Rousseau’s Inequality Among Men Rousseau’s Inequality Among Men Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s “Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality Among Men,” gives an insightful way to view the way inequality an injustice came about and how we should respond to it. His discourse is, more or less, a critique of the social contract as viewed by some of his constituents. Rousseau agreed wi

Scary Facts, Critical Thinking Class Scary Presidential Facts Do you ever get those emails that have those weird facts in them and you just wonder how can this be true' Well, I was checking my email one day and sure enough I got one of those emails. It sounded like it was true, I mean I am not a history buff so I could not be totally sure, but there was only one way to find out, re

Socrates- Euthyphro In Euthyphro, just like in the Apology, Socrates is once again found defending himself. In both texts Socrates uses cross-examination as a means to proving his innocence and discovering the “truth.” In this text, Socrates is trying to define the meanings of pious and impious. Socrates, who is always in search of discovering some sort of “truth”, relies on the gre

Kants Theory Of Morality Kant’s moral theories focused much more on that of reason and less on emotion…in fact he completely denied the role of emotion in ethics. The basis of Kant’s theories of morals and ethics lies on the categorical imperative. The categorical imperative divides into three parts which break down his theories. The first part is “an imperative that Kant expresses as

The Great Chain Of Being Most of the concepts about the nature of living things in the early modern era were derived from the writings of Aristotle. Aristotle wrote about the concept of distinct types of organisms that could be distinguished from all the rest. Aristotle was interested in much more than the biological world, and attempted to build a theory of the world as a whole. As par

The Influence Socrates On The Society Every person has an idol, somebody to look up to, try to become alike, understand own mistakes in comparison, and be a little wiser. Most of our societies actually rely on somebody to tell them the proper way of doing things, but some of us are being leaders who can show the path. Socrates’ radical skepticism and questioning improved the society and

Deontological DEONTOLOGICAL - This type of theory claims that there are features within the actions themselves which determine whether or not they are right. These features define the extent to which the actions conform with recognized moral duties. For example, driving while drunk violates the duty to “above all do no harm.” The duties derive from various sources, such as religion, biol

Death To Socrates Plato, The Trial and Death of Socrates. The “Apology”, pp. 19-41 “Socrates is an evil-doer, and a curious person, who searches into things under the earth and in heaven, and he makes the worse appear the better cause; and he teaches the aforesaid doctrines to others”. (pp. 21) This is the nature of the accusation against Socrates for his work. Socrates was a p

What is real What is real' What gives life meaning' What happens when we die' These three questions are very common in today’s society. Everyone has different beliefs and their answers to these world view questions are different. Greek Philosopher’s, Aristotle and Plato (Socrates) had very different views and answers to these questions. What is real' Aristotle believed that for something

Hedonist VS. Epicurus Hedonist VS. Epicurus At first glance Epicurus’ philosophical views and hedonist philosophy may appear to be one in the same. They both believe in doing what is pleasurable and don’t particularly have anything to do with behaving in a manor to make a God happy. Epicurus’ views can almost be thought of as a type of hedonism, one could even call it Epicurean hedoni

Free Will Vs Determinism Free Will Vs. Determinism Psychological theories of personality and behavior can be placed on a continuum between Determinism, the belief that who we are is largely governed by outside forces, and Free Will, which obviously assumes that who we are is a result of the choices we make.(Abascal p. 19) Nobody can predict how something as complex as the human

American History X - The Possibility Of Hate The Possibility of Hate American History X was an impressive film, which showed the awesome power of ideology. It centered around the circumstances which create or dispel peoples beliefs. The single most important concept dealt with appeared to be the ideal of racism. There are many facets to racism; the transformation into following its i

Creationism Vs Evolution Philosophy, as defined by the American Heritage Dictionary (2001), is the “investigation of the nature, causes, or principles of reality, knowledge, or values, based on logical reasoning rather than empirical methods” (p.633). In other words, it is logical thought process instead of experimentation. Philosophy can be broken down into many categories, so I narro

Crito 1.) The Crito was written by Plato, who recounted the conversation held between Crito and Socrates just before his death. Socrates was charged with the corruption of the youth and was given a choice of exile or death. He chose death, and Crito was not at all happy about his decision. Crito felt that Socrates had been wronged by the government and should escape into exile. Socr