Analytic philosophy

Bizzell and Herzberg note in The Rhetorical Tradition that a figure who constantly promote the concept of belle lettres is Hugh Blair who encourages the cultivation of taste. According to him, good taste is needed to enhance moral improvement. Further, he asserts how the character of taste is incorporated as delicacy and correctness. Occupying these two will define people as intellectuals. Blair briefly elucidates that people with delicate taste are able to “see distinctions and differences…

The Nihilistic theory is one that disregards aspects of one's life that provide comfort and faith. Beginning with de Beauvoir's outlook and nihilism, she sees the nihilist view as some cowardly way to avoid the unknown of life. No one knows what happens when they pass, this aspect frightens many and over the many millennia humans have come up with a plethora of ideas and theories as to what happens beyond this visual plane. These hypotheses gave and still to this day give people hope and…

Thomas Hobbes was a well-known philosopher, born in the 16th Century. He toyed with numerous ideas and theories in his lifetime; some supportive of earlier philosophers and others disproving his predecessor’s findings. Psychological egoism emerged from Hobbes’ opinions. In this paper, I will state his view of human beings, and express my opinion of his view. Additionally, I will discuss altruism and how I view the idea of altruism. Psychological egoism is defined as, “the view that the…

“Make a rational choice,” how many times have you used this phrase or heard other people use it? Numerous times right? Whenever we are receiving or giving advice, we try to focus on the rationale. So what is a rational choice? According to a traditional model of rational choice theory, a choice is considered rational if it is expected to maximize utility. Usually, any choice that tends to increase the level of satisfaction is considered to be rational. To have a better understanding of the…

Alexandra Ma Professor Yalovsky BUSA 100 2 December 2015 The Black Swan Individuals are encouraged to adopt long term planning, make decisions based upon factual knowledge, and predict future situations through analyzing similar past scenarios. However, according to NYU Professor Taleb’s bestseller, The Black Swan, even well-supported predictions are futile in the occurrence of a black swan event—one that is deemed highly improbable, but causes great consequences (Taleb). The Black Swan provides…

My quote that I chose is from the book to Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and it is,“One thing that does not abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.” When reading To Kill a Mockingbird, it is evident that opinions and the terms in which people view things and the way they come to these conclusions is an important aspect in the unfolding of the story. My largest philosophical question emerged, in reference to the quote, about the idea of the human “conscience” and the way it is not…

Descartes philosophies grew from his discontent with the Jesuit education he was raised with. He decided to fix this dissatisfaction by following his own “method”. The first step of this method was “never to accept anything as true that [he] did not plainly know to be such” (Descartes 11). Descartes built his whole philosophy on life around the principle of skepticism. Descartes decided that he would not believe anything…

Bank transactions, social media, and medical release forms, are just a few examples of privacy matters encountered daily, but what definition does privacy hold in today’s society? In Professor Daniel J. Solove’s essay, “Why Privacy Matters Even if You Have ‘Nothing to Hide’,” he debates that privacy issues affect more than individuals with something to hide. Professor Solove describes how an insufficient definition of privacy allows for an interpretation of its meaning. Privacy, However, cannot…

Both Plato and Descartes are similar men when it comes to the quest of knowledge. Both men believe knowledge is the product of our own reasoning and understanding of the world around us. They are both distinctive on how to answer the big question, “What is knowledge?” Plato’s way of demonstrating knowledge is his most famous examples of the Allegory of the Cave and The Divided Line, which uses the idea of sense perception. Socrates/Plato set the scenario in which there are prisoners who've been…

The objectivity of moral values has been questioned greatly through out time. So, do objective morals and values really exist? Or are we so enamored with the idea that there is a standard universal code to follow for guidance. In his piece “The Subjectivity of Values” J.L Mackie states that, “There are no objective values.”(Landau175) The moral subjectivists uphold the idea that moral claims are only true, if they are objectively true. But what makes these true? Consequently what establishes…