Philosophy Essays

Generally, psychologists and educationalists believe that knowledge is acquired through the five senses. Of the five senses, eyes are considered to have a greater impact on knowledge acquisition because the knowledge gained through the sense of sight is clear, accurate and permanent. These images cannot be easily wiped out.  

The leadership of Max Horkheimer in 1930 became the onset of the active participation of the group best known as the key representatives of the Frankfurt School which included Erich Fromm, Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Walter Benjamin, and the contemporary representative Jurgen Habermas (Held, 1980, p. 29).

Ideologies are also understood in three different kinds of languages: religious, philosophical, and scientific. This makes them seem as if they are real and rational. It’s easier to picture an ideology from the past than one from the present. It is easy to see how the godly status of the pharaoh in ancient Egypt served an ideological objective.

Since the man was killed, it is impossible to know exactly what the cause of his troubling thoughts was but it is suggested that the cause was a tumor which altered his thinking. If this man were to survive and stand trial once healed of his tumor, the moral dilemma is to decide whether he is guilty of the crimes he committed while suffering the tumor.

What is Philosophy?  1.) Which of the philosophical issues covered this semester has been the most important and why so?   Among all the various philosophical issues that have been covered this semester, I consider Ethics as the most important. While the study of Metaphysics and Epistemology are the core important issues in philosophy, Ethics is considered an issue that is close to the daily problems that people deal with, and that is a matter that should not be overlooked.

This paper shall be a discussion of my personal political philosophy. Specifically, it shall be a discussion of my liberal political philosophy, largely based and supported by John Locke’s philosophy. A discussion of my political philosophy as applied in the Iraqi invasion shall be established by this paper followed by a discussion related to gay marriage.

The modern scholarly consensus holds that the canonical teaching of the Old Testament made no reference to an immortal soul independent of the body. A wide range of scholarly reference works consistently represents this view. In recent times, a minority of scholars have partially dissented from this view. 

Even though people are born in different countries and speak different languages, they belong to one race and that is ‘humanity.’ If you have a relative or a friend who is suffering from starvation, then you will definitely help him by providing food as long as you have enough resources.

My own experience visiting, interacting with residents and workers, and reflecting on those experiences at Brandon Woods is the mine of concrete experience on which I intend to draw insights into the ethics of euthanasia.

A few challenges include research activities. Research will affirm or negate a research question. Research includes gathering evidences to accept or reject a hypothesis. My current research challenge will result to proving that God exists, using cosmological argument.

Immanuel Kant considers old philosophical problems using new methods. Kant defends morality from reduction to self-interest, empirical fact, or feelings. Rather, he bases his supreme moral principle on reason. Kant attempts to uncover common sense morality’s principles.

Kelsen critically notes that the influence of Aristotelian philosophy has varied in its magnitude. While, the thinker’s stance on politics and ethics is still scrutinized to this day, enjoying unparalleled discussion and assessments, his once unassailable logic in the arena of sciences has been greatly challenged to the extent of extinction.

Nonetheless, the most vital significance of the philosophy of education is the academic field that deals with knowledge transfer since it is the essential or the central knowledge or subject matter that aims at solving learning problems that include the philosophical methodologies that are vital for all learning processes within any education discipline (Elias 136).

Milton Friedman (1970) of the New York Times Magazine stated that: ‘The primary and only responsibility of business is to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception and fraud.’

Good governance as championed by many political philosophers should lead to a number of benefits that include the involvement of all citizens in decision-making, political participation by the minority and marginalized groups, freedom of information and expression, and formation institutional reforms.

A discussion between two characters- About moral relativism Ethics, a set of rules in a society that regulates people’s behaviour by defining wrongs and rights in a society, is a fundamental aspect of people’s behaviour. Different ethical theories exist to explain people’s behaviours and to offer general rules towards a more cohesive society.

Human beings have been created to have their presence both in the spiritual as well as in the material world. It is said that “the spiritual world is where angels live, and the material world is where people live”. The way the human beings or the persons of the 21st century behave and functions largely depends on their environment and the manner in which the surroundings and the social condition the mannerisms and behavior of the human beings.

By studying James Stuart, Adam Smith, and Adam Ferguson, Hegel was able to gain a view of a world where individual self-interest ruled and where fragmented and atomized masses of humans were condemned to dehumanizing labor. He saw the problems that were prevalent in Scotland and England and considered whether these problems could be avoided in Germany.

The rapid urbanization further resulted into the rapid increase in the way modern thought and practices started to develop across the whole Europe and America. Modernism in its essence, therefore, depends upon how quickly the overall process of urbanization takes place within any given society.

The purpose for which governments should exist has been a preoccupation of philosophers from the classical period to modern societies. While Plato and Aristotle represent classical philosophers, Hobbes and Locke are a part of what is seen as modern philosophers. Some of the difficulties that society in the classical period faced are the same as what society experience today.

People often say that they have worked hard for the money they have earned and it is their right to spend it on buying a new car, redecorating the house, or buying new clothes. What people do not understand is that it is not their right to spend money on the things they choose. Government taxation would be an option and not a compulsion.

The notion of the dissatisfaction of electorates can also lead us to the fact that democracy creates a culture of over expectancy amongst citizen. Democracy puts emphasis on the power that the public has in shaping the way they are governed. This might lead to expectation from the public. The funny thing is the expectations.

Bible says that the first human Adam committed a wrong thing when he ate a fruit which was denied to him by God. Adam committed the first sin or wrong thing under the influence of evil forces. In other words, evil forces were there even before the creation of the first human Adam. Since the first sin, the segregation of the right thing from the wrong thing has started in the world.

The theories of human communication that have dictated the various means by which humans communicated since times immemorial, have now given way to newer, more unconventional theories. Fresh theories are now emerging, covering newer perspectives of communication through modern electronic media.

People have always equated happiness with freedom. As embodied in modern politics, entertainment media, and even business principles, freedom provides the individual with the capacity to optimize his potential. This definitive view on freedom gave birth to more specific ideologies, such as artistic freedom, political freedom, and academic freedom. 

Taoism is also a gift from China, the name may sound very complicated but in reality, it is not as complicated as it sounds. This paper will shed more light upon Taoism and the principles of Wu-Wei. Confucianism is a term that is very closely related to Taoism, a lot of cans be learned about the Chinese people just by knowing more about Taoism and Confucianism.

Aristotle and Kant are two philosophers that are well known in the field of ethics. However, before critically analysing the two philosophers accordingly to their philosophical framework, it is better to have a full grasp or understanding of societal contexts where they are confined.

The ethical code of a health professional helps him or her in deciding whether a certain act or procedure is moral or immoral. In certain situations, the health professional is also faced by two conditions which are either right or moral to a certain extent and decision has to be made in favor of a situation that is more right.

Gilbert is much concerned about the issues that may guide us to realize our future happiness and identity and how one can utilize these factors to achieve their happiness. According to Gilbert,we learn from others and to achieve our future happiness,the experience of others might prove to be of utmost importance as compared to individual’s experience.

The film informs us about how she lost her parents, and because of these become forced into some isolation. This enabled her posses an active mind that managed to keep her of the isolation thoughts. She helps a man who works as a painter reunite back with his family.

Professor’s Name Student’s Name Philosophy 10 January, 2012 Essay Questions 1] Life, for me, is living at the present moment; to attain the ideal perfection of human capability. In my view, it is our mentality and behavior towards life that decides the worth of our lives.

The author states that Boethius declares the unexpected outcome of an action as chance, which circumscribes human free will in such an influential manner that it appears to be vehemently dependent of some natural causality already determined and decided by the Omniscient. In other words, it is nature that bestows blessings on humans.

To my mind, protection of its citizens is the crucial ethical role that has to be performed by any State or Government. Further on in this essay, the main positions of the abovementioned philosophers are summarized and a personal position on the role of government is provided.

In Descartes' view, the urge to reason with everyone and almost at everything and the verbal communication are the characteristics that set humans separately from all other kinds. Using the belief of parsimony, wherein one always necessarily begins with the unpretentious details of pragmatic events, Descartes reasons that the perceived actions of all nonhuman living beings can be explained without crediting minds and understanding.

I have always looked up to my Grandfather as the perfect Paxton and I hoped to become somebody like him someday. That’s how things were in our family. The men always revered their elder family members. Women taught their children to hold on to family values and tradition.

Charles Darwin's work According to Popper, Kuhn, and Van. The philosophical work of Charles Darwin has attracted criticism from other philosophers that have supported or faulted his arguments. Darwin views tried to account for various evolution activities as well as the social nature of human beings.

Kant objected to the claims and doubted pure reason. He used two methods; priori and posteriori knowledge to doubt metaphysics. According to Kant, it is significant to differentiate between analytic and synthetic judgments since it is possible that some judgments will turn out to be synthetic and priori at the same time.

The cult, which claims to be the true church of Jesus Christ, has its own distinctive beliefs and texts different from those of Catholicism and Protestantism. The movement emerged during the 1820s in America and gained popularity over the next few decades though later got split into new rather small denominations.

On a larger scale, Hobbes also argue that states are also by nature guided by self-interest and destructive, thus, the necessity of a leader; the idea which I do not agree with. I did not agree with Hobbes’ argument about individuals being chaotic and miserable by default and that the basis of government is to put order upon this chaos.

The activities of violence were seen as instruments to further consolidate the existence, governance and the administration of the states. The plan behind adoption of activities of violence by the Europeans developed from the idea that war makes states. The violence and war in Europe led to the promotion of modern thinking, politics, economy and the society.

Although the original book appeared in Greek, a factor that has made translation quite hectic, this volume manages to bring out ideas as perceived by Aristotle. The book provides insight on the virtues and vices described by Aristotle. The volume consists of ten books as Aristotle penned them down.

The arguments are driven from logical reasoning, where the observer analyses all that they know of the world and the imagined world, to the extent that they reach the conclusion that an all-powerful God exists (Malcolm 41-50). One of the key models of this argument is the one developed by St.

Daniels rejects a rights theory of health care access. He does so not because he finds the arguments uncompelling but because “Rights are not moral fruits that spring up from bare earth, fully ripened, without cultivation”; rather, a right can only be defined in the context of society’s shared agreements.

Assisted suicide is getting popular in most parts of the world even though it is highly controversial. Some people argue that assisted suicide is a wrong concept both ethically and medically. In their opinion, taking the life of a person is a crime under any circumstances. Even after immense advancements in medical science, still we are unable to create an artificial life form in a laboratory setup. 

Mental phenomena have always been vulnerable to the influence posed by scientific investigations. However, Chalmer debates that consciousness has always found a way and reason to resist such things in a stubborn way. The explanations given by those considered scholarly have often failed to meet the required target.

The author of the paper tells that Christians believe in life after death and that their members go either to heaven, purgatory or to hell according to one’s morals. Abraham religions and materialistic believe in the resurrection of the dead where the body will take another form and survive death. Gods establish a resurrection of a person based on one's actions and beliefs.

After considering the view of utilitarianism ethics, I believe that the decision I took was valid to a great extent. My decision was based on a greater good. I wanted to help both the parents and the child. With the treatment of euthanasia, the child would be able to relieve the pain that he had been suffering from since the time he was born.

Moreover, individual perceptions regarding issues such as sexuality, religion or political ideology are based on the worldviews. Consequently, the necessity for worldviews can be compared to “eye glasses” that offer the best prescription in understanding the world.

This extends to existence as having two separate planes, material existence and mental existence, with the two planes, diametrically opposed to each other and separated profoundly, having no link of causation between the two. In the physical world, people can communicate, but the mental conscious world is completely hidden from view and unknowable by others.

The Eskimos used to conduct activities almost similar to euthanasia when an individual suffered from physical illnesses and became dependent on others, this especially used to take place while the resources became short or scarce. But these practices were operated after enough care was given to the patient and there was no way to cure the patient.