Philosophy Essays

Further, this debate has led to different opinions that to some extend seem confusing. The other available option is to teach evolution theory as the explanation of origins in science classes. For some time in the past, evolution did not appear in the curriculum after its scrapping by court orders after a debate on its eligibility (Ryan and Cooper, 2012).

The second premise is to argue that majority of libertarians deem that we should hold individuals morally responsible. This paper will have two sections. The first will express libertarians’ view to punishment and the second will be to find the most probable objection to this believes.

Plato’s point of view was developed as it contradicted the idea of another philosopher, Socrates. As further explained, “Plato recognizes that the demand for a single account of virtue is not as uncontroversial as it is made to appear in the Socratic dialogues” (Irwin, 148-9).

“Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains” (Rousseau 141) is one of the famous lines of Jean Jacques Rousseau. Jean Jacques Rousseau is known as one of the most influential Genevan philosophers. His political and sociological ideas had been pivotal and influential of the French Revolution, the cultivation of Socialist theory, and music (Dent).

The present essay will explore the meaning and different concepts of ethical practice. Focusing on a case scenario, different theories of ethics will be outlined. The first section will expose the chosen ethical dilemma and describe the moral complexity of decision-making. Later sections will focus on the utilitarian and libertarian points of view in chosen case, its positives and negatives.

Hence the need to ask, “Does God exists?” And is proof for the existence of God necessary? There have emerged various arguments to support the existence of God. First is the ontological argument that invokes the belief of the existence of a being that is all perfect, omniscient, and powerful. It asserts that God is “that than which no greater can be conceived.”

As with all opinions, does not mean that one is right, or one is wrong. Aristotle’s views, while not necessarily congruent with Plato’s views, do show a strong influence as a result of what Plato taught. Plato’s discourses are heavily influenced by the Pre-Socratics and Sophists, and none too little influenced by Socrates himself.

This is simply because one may have been exposed to some form of religion and subsequently religion may have found root in his or her way of arguing and even speaking. This is why there is a natural inclination for people to refer to religion words when people are in pain or angry.

The problem of defining the meaning of life is further compounded by the fact that it is difficult to pin-point the referent of the term life; what does the term life refer to? (Solomon, 44). While contemplating the meaning of life in his confessions, Leo Tolstoy concluded that life is evil and meaningless (28-29).

The author explains that “A Vindication of the rights of Women” was published in the year 1792. This book of philosophy is based on the rights of women in society. In Western Europe, married women lost their individual legal identity and single women had minimal protection under the law during the eighteenth century.

This film portrays control and surveillance over the people in the society, having no idea who really is in control. In this film, Lucas depicts a society where all tasks are controlled by a computer and psychological reactions to conformity leaving many people wondering about their place in the society.

It was raised several years ago for causing damage to the area because of chemical contamination. The question is to figure out who was responsible for the contamination of Love canal, a neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York. In this survey, we will try to answer the relevant questions and we will sort out how much damage was done by the company.

William James believed that the truth is found in experiences and not in judgments about the world. He gave his most distinctive and resonating lecture, “The Will to Believe” in 1896. It aimed for “a justification of faith, a defense of our right to adopt a believing attitude in religious matters, in spite of the fact that our merely logical intellect may not have been coerced" (Axtell).

What a person perceives is mainly due to their knowledge of their surroundings which can be either known or unknown. Without the understanding of the human mind, it is hard to know the body. Descartes, during his meditation on a piece of wax, said “it is now manifest to me that bodies themselves are not properly perceived by the senses nor by the faculty of imagination, but by the intellect alone.”

Karl Max published a number of books, for example, ‘The Communist Manifesto in 1848’ and ‘Capital’ in 1867.  The philosophical work influenced by materials written by Karl Max is known as Marxist theory or Marxist philosophy. This paper seeks to elaborate on how Marxism tackles various fields including politics, economics, and society at large.

The woman acts as a replacement or surrogate mother for another woman who cannot carry the pregnancy until birth or is unable to produce fertile eggs. Surrogate mothering would be classified into two. The first one involves the implantation of the husband’s sperm in the surrogate mother through a process referred to as Artificial Insemination.

Perhaps the most important contribution to the body of knowledge has been the subject of philosophy. Various philosophers have presented their views about a wide range of issues that trouble the society. Increasingly, this knowledge has enabled the human generation to understand and appreciate their origin as well as the nature of their interactions.

Capital punishment or Death Penalty is still retained extensively around the world, especially in the Muslim nations and United States. According to the most recent statistics, 58 countries still retain it while 97 have completely abolished it. Human rights organizations and activists all over the world have been protesting against this punishment and are in favor of abolishing it globally.

Morality and relativism are problems that philosophers have grappled with for a very long time now. For centuries, man has been confounded with the problem as to whether he needs a universal moral standard or not. These questions have been tied up with the subjectivity of man and how the interpretations of modern realities take shape.

What do you think comprises reality? Locke argues that ideas of substances are derived by sensation and reflection. The substances are purely assumed to exist through the sensation of the pattern and qualities of the ideas. Substance, mode and relation, are complex ideas of sensations (Tully 39).

Scientific revolution was a period in history when mathematics, physics, astronomy and biology transformed the nature and social perceptions. This paper seeks to look into the impact of enlightenment on the scientific revolution. The middle ages saw the emergence of scholars who questioned the ideas that had always been accepted.

Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors features interesting and highly philosophical situations in which the characters are able to represent ordinary humans’ susceptibility to make realistic choices that are either inherently good or bad. Allen is successful and effective in leaving the audience reflecting on their own lives and the choices they made that are based on a personal understanding and belief of goodness and badness.

Both, people who support abortion and those who oppose it are quite rigid in their support and opposition. The right to take life is that of God and therefore many argue that abortion is immoral. Others argue that abortion does not involve taking a human life and it is morally permissible to abort a child. 

When the divorce adversely affected a child, then it would be immoral. Otherwise, if the divorce ended problems like family violence, then divorce is a moral solution and, therefore, legitimate. Warburton, however, exhorted that we must think long-term.

The major interests in human beings are those that satisfy the basic need for food and shelter, develop one’s abilities, avoid pain, and enjoy warm personal relationships and those that allow a person to pursue his or her project without interference. These major interests entitle a person to equal consideration in the capacity for happiness and suffering.

These disputes have led to the emergence of some schools of thought challenging the supreme nature of God. Such schools want to challenge the authority of God as the creator of the world and the fact that God has the authority over His creation.

In conclusion, the intriguing questions and explanations brought about, by Sam Harris, are quite evident enough for dismissing freewill as a determinant in human life, and everything happens because they had to happen. In other words, an action happens solely because of the preconditions and predetermining factors. 

Those individuals who love to pursue wisdom by means in an intellectual manner are regarded as philosophers. On the other hand, philosophy entails academic discipline that concerns the rational investigation of the structure of reality and nature. This essay demonstrates the five categories of philosophy namely epistemology, reality, freedom, self, and ethics. 

In “Civil Disobedience”, David Thoreau’s line, ‘Unjust laws exist, shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?’ cries the naked truth about the existence of laws that were made to protect the people but somehow abused them.

This is what Camus refers to as absurd. According to Camus, people will never find what they are looking forward to finding in life in terms of meaning to it, order, or reasons to it. It can only happen that they can try to seek refuge in the leap of faith through placing hopes in God who is beyond the world or simply conclude that there is no meaning to life.

There are two reasons that James Rachels believes we should be vegetarians. First, the production of meat protein is inefficient and results in the waste of enough protein-rich grain to solve the world’s hunger problems, because the process of turning the grain to meat is 87.5 percent wasteful (184-5).

From what we know of the history of Native Americans in America, simply reinforces the thought patterns that whites had of Native peoples during that time period—including the habits they had while living in their environment. The major forces which characterize the stereotype of First Nations people include sorrow, defeat, and broken treaties along the way—which characterize several of the stories of various native peoples.

Are these people interested in the questions “Who is to be blamed?” or “What is to be done”? The answer to these questions is much more complex. Dostoyevsky’s Underground is full of bitterness. The author is upset and he is critical. In any case, his voice sounds like an alarm for the society of the nineteenth century.

I strongly agree with Hobbes that there is no free will. But I disagree with him that there is a free man. If our choices are always influenced by different factors, then there is nothing free with that. I agree that we are only free in choosing to act upon our choices, as our choices will forever be affected by different things.

From gladiators to chariot racers, they all used some form of herb mixture to enhance their performance in sports by preventing fatigue and injuries. These extracts were made from mushroom extracts or plants seeds that are still used up to date in the making of either liquid or tablet performance enhancements. Sports people have used PEDs for a long time since the Greek and Roman age. During earlier years, coaches provided their sports men with their own recipes that included mixtures of strychnine.

Generally, Machiavelli was a famous historian, diplomat, philosopher writer and humanist who did his work in Florence. He was one of the officials in the Florence Republican and was given a post to deal with military and diplomatic affairs. He was one of the most influential philosophers of western politics.

Liberalism is a political ideology that recognizes the rights of people, personal property and a free for all economy (Owen,1995). In addition to this, it also recognizes governments that protect the liberty of each citizen and a constitution which also protects the autonomy of its people from the powers of the state.

He acknowledges the situation that the dichotomy between science and the environment places man in and looks at several problems that are a part of it. He talks of the different aspects of this problem and the possible defense mechanisms that the planet may have in order to combat the encroachments of technology. For Suzuki, it is also important that one understands the importance of mankind’s position on the planet.

Philosophers like Plato and Aristotle have always focused on the virtuous side of humans and laid emphasis on values such as ethics and morals. Thus, primarily, the existence of God can be felt from the moral, ethical and virtuous values that humans imbibe rather than feeling the presence of a God in flesh and blood.

For example, recent calls to control and even ban gun use as a response to increasing violence and murder in schools that involve guns such as the recent shooting in Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown inadvertently run counter to the basic Bill of Rights of the Second Amendment.This is not the first however that this Amendment had been challenged.

natural contrast that always conflicts with the wants of humanity. In order to find the final conclusion of the absurdity suicide must be ruled out as a solution. The reason behind this conclusion is the fact that man must be there for the ‘absurd’ to exist.

Johnson would want to tell us that we need to know more, as patriarchy is a system that could only be understood if we look at it that way and not merely relying on individual psychology. We need to understand patriarchy as a system, and by doing so, that is the ultimate way we could understand how a male-privilege society feeds sexist trends.

Analysis of philosophical terms indicates that the processes and concepts that humans create set stage for intense debate. Based on its nature, dualism is a force that is highly creative and helps in shaping the history of the world, as well as daily interactions between people.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is possibly one of the oldest stories on Earth. It originates from Ancient Sumeria and was originally written on 12 clay tablets in cuneiform script. Nobody can deny the interesting nature of the story. The Epic of Gilgamesh is well articulated and talks about the adventures of the historical King of Uruk.

"Even in applied ethics, awareness is often missing. The tone of much writing suggests that John Stuart Mill is still alive and that none of the twentieth centuries has happened. (‘Never such innocence again' has not been applied to ethics.) [Glover hopes] to help change this by encouraging an idea of ethics as a more empirical subject."

Rowe’s Cosmological Argument is one example of theism oriented principles that argues that because the universe had a beginning, then it definitely had a cause since everything that comes into existence must have a cause.

Worldview as it Relates to Philosophy. When considering the concept of worldview I recognize that it is a complex notion that incorporates a wide variety of elements. Broadly speaking worldview is the way humans view and interact with the world. On a deeper and more fundamental level worldview encapsulates the philosophical or religious understandings we have and developed about the nature of existence.

Among the men is Socrates, who asserts that the greatest purpose of love is becoming a philosopher or a lover of wisdom. Plato explains the nature of love by painting two pictures to us: the physical world which we can use our senses to perceive, and the world of forms which we only think of.

However, this is more that just the story one man; as it is the stunning, humorous chronicle of a generation, of the changing times, as well as the rising tide of the dissention against received wisdom. The writer has written an extensive new afterword, which updates both the continuing struggle for a society that is fairer and his personal history.

Although state of sleep and philosophy of unconsciousness has always been a matter of vital interest for the thinkers and philosophers since ever, yet the issue got particular attention of the discipline of philosophy during 17th and 18th centuries. Descartes, Locke, Leibniz, Kant and Nietzsche paid due to heed in respect of explaining the same in the light of their observation, meditation, belief and intellectual abilities.