Essays on Western Philosophy

Philosophy, by definition, is not only the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom but also asking questions that seemingly have no answers. Ancient Greece had no shortage of wise men called the Sophists. While they taught young men wisdom for money, their objective was to prove themselves wiser than their opponents by making their arguments appear stronger than it really was. To them, the truth was relative and arguments, as Protagoras admitted, could be distorted to their advantage. Of course, Socrates, being part of the Sophists, did differently by using their reasoning techniques in order arrive at the indisputable truth ...

Introduction

Plato is one of the most influential philosophers in western philosophy. His main contribution in philosophical thought is the theory of ideas, also dubbed by many critiques as “Plato’s Idealism” (Nellickappilly 1). Upon careful analysis of Plato’s idealism, it is inferred that while it has many flaws, it still contributed significantly to the development of human knowledge and philosophical thought.

Strengths and Weaknesses

When it comes to flaws or weaknesses, diverse critiques point out that Plato’s idealism is not logical and is hard to understand. In order to understand these criticisms it is first essential to understand what this ...

The moral point of view refers to people’s perspective on an issue based on whether the issue is deemed morally applaudable or morally right or wrong. So it involves the resolutions or laws created based on a larger perspective about what is right or wrong, one that affects or impacts more than merely one person, and therefore doesn’t take a person’s self-interest into account. The point of view can be identified by two characteristics: a best practice of deferring to reason; in other words, the resolutions should be the outcome of thoughtful sound reasoning, rather than ...

Concepts are often controversial to define. This has been evident in Western philosophy since its inception, as Socrates, its founder, had a method of asking about people’s theories in order to demonstrate that they were illogical or flawed in some way. One can find an example of this, among many, in Plato’s Republic, where Socrates puts into discussion the word justice. After presenting his own account, he contradicts that of Thrasymachus, who believes that justice is related to the interest of those who are in power. An analysis of this proves that it is important to be ...

Karen Moore is the HR director of a multinational company, QuestSource. The company has an office in Shanghai, and her Chinese counterpart is Tsang Yao, a pleasant, even-mannered man. While initially, Moore is pleased with the hiring and performance reports from China—believing that Tsang is doing a good job—she is later infuriated to learn that most of the hired employees are Tsang’s relatives. She takes this matter to her supervisor and the chief operating officer of the company, Daniel Young, who admonishes her for showing a lack of awareness regarding Chinese work culture. This paper analyses Moore’s reaction to ...

Rene Descartes had a philosophical treatise published in 1647 called the meditations on the first philosophy (Statile et al. 2010, pp.548). His book has six different meditations that include meditation of the things called doubt, meditation of the nature of the human mind, meditation of the existence of God, meditation that concerns true and false, meditation that concerns the importance of the material things, and the meditation that concerns the differences between mind and body.

First Meditation: Doubtful Things

This mediation called skeptical doubts starts as the mediator makes a reflection on some of the beliefs during his lifetime that now he attest as falsehoods. ...

Eastern philosophy maintains that the natural world does not follow laws, it simply ‘is.' Humans can seek pattern and regularities in the flow of nature, but any ‘laws’ thus detected results from human conception, a way of organizing our experiences, and does not represent the underlying basis of the phenomena being observed (Stevenson, 2000). Eastern philosophy maintains that there is a possibility of a deeper understanding of reality that is normally available in daily experiences. According the Western philosophy, the process of thinking involves moving away from reality to the world of symbols, and an irretrievable difference lies between symbols and its ...

Doctor Candidate:

Philosophy of Transformation: Differentiation or Subtraction Summary in Key Words Philosophy of transformation; Deleuze; Badiou; differentiation, subtraction, (re-, de-) territorialization; folding; plane of consistency; events (interventions); truth procedure; subject; the capitalism; the democratic materialism

Summary of the Theme and the Aim of the Project

This project focuses on the characteristics of the radical change, concerning philosophies of Badiou and Deleuze. The plan is to analyze Deleuze’s idea of creative differentiation, relevant to the (re-, de-) territorialization and the folding, meanwhile to examine Badiou’s subtractive philosophy about the event (the intervention), and the truth procedure. Four steps to undertake this project will be conducted in sequence: ...

An overview

Introduction In simplest of words, theology is the study of religions and religious beliefs. Some scholars choose to call it the science of deities and divinity. But atheistic scholars do not very much approve of theology as a viable branch of study or ‘science’. Nevertheless, theology has been helping religious people understand, follow and even reform their religions with time. The great theologians in history have acted like a guiding star to bring changes in religious beliefs and rituals. And in the course of past several centuries, the major religions in the world have been modified mainly because of these ...

Taking into account the sources of Islamic law, what changes did the ulama in Persia undergo during the reign of Shah Abbas I (1587-1629) that would have direct influence on the Iranian Revolution of 1979? Shah Abbas (or Abbas I) hated sunnies and he suggested a new denomination to people: Twelver Shiism. Shah Abbas and many other traditional religious people were against any change in Iran. They wanted to follow the belief of Shiism. The Ulama (the respected religious people with religious degrees) was trying to unite the belief of Shiism and the philosophy of Aristotelian and neo-Platonic. ...

According to Knight (114) Aristotle is known as the Greek Philosopher who left a mark in the philosophical word. He learnt most of his philosophical ideas from Plato. In fact together with Socrates and his teacher Plato, most of the western philosophy is attributed to them. His philosophies were the first to left a mark in the western philosophy physics. Indeed even his student Alexander the Great became just as good as he was. Aristotle’s writing covered a wide range of topics including politics, morality, metaphysics, logic, aesthetic and science. Aristotle’s physics was quite impressive and they shaped the medieval ...

Ancient Greek History Essays

1. What are the Names and Dates of the 4 Historical Periods of Hellenic Civilization? What are the major events/people that pertain to each?

Hellenistic civilization showed the success of Greek influence in the ancient world. This period also portrayed an era of history is the period which followed the conquests of Alexander the Great and was referred to this by the historian J. G. Droysen. This period highlights four major events which are the Delian League, Wars of the Delian League & Peace of Callias, the Peloponnesian War and the Spartan & Theban Hegemony and the triumph of ...