Bertrand Russell

In the sixth chapter of his book, What Does It All Mean, Thomas Nagel ponders the concept of free will. In order to better discuss the subject, Nagel sets out a scenario. In Nagel’s scenario, you are to the desserts in a cafeteria line and are presented with the option between a wedge of chocolate cake and a peach. You take the cake, even though you know that is very fattening. Later, you come to regret your decision, saying “I could have had a peach instead.” Nagel focuses on this phrase and…

In the beginning of our book we learned about what philosophy means, the ultimate aim of philosophy, and we learned about critical thinking. Philosophy is “the love or pursuit of wisdom” (p5). After learning a good way to describe philosophy, we met a female philosopher named Perictione. She believed humanity exists in order to contemplate the principle of the nature of the whole (p5). Moving on to the ultimate aim of philosophy, we learn some of the goals of philosophy. A couple of these goals…

One of the most well-known works of Plato is his «Republic» in which he describes the ideal state. This concept is very important for understanding Plato’s political philosophy. From the beginning this work was criticized by many scholars and there was and still is an argument whether Plato’s State can be called closed and consisted of authoritarian society without freedom or not. That is the question I will try to answer in my essay. Describing the ideal state, Plato divides the inhabitants…

knowledge that), which refers to factual knowledge, Procedural knowledge (or knowledge how), which refers to practical knowledge of how to carry out tasks and finally and knowledge by acquaintance, which refers to knowledge gained from experience. Russell proposes that acquaintance is the primary source of all knowledge. For example one may learn that a car has rubber tires; however this will not give us any knowledge about the material itself or anything to do with the material. Instead this…

role is diminished. Property ownership still carries a lot of weight in America’s modern political society, but Locke’s particular agriculture-centric view of property holds little relevance in today’s industrialized society. In his writing, Bertrand Russell brought up the example of a Ford car manufacturer, and questioned how you could estimate which part of the total output is due to your own labor. As jobs become more and more compartmentalized, it becomes increasingly difficult to parse out…

As philosophers study religion and the validity of religious ideas, it is inevitable that the subject of God will be brought up. Whether or not God exists is a popular discussion that many people have, regardless of their philosophical background. However, philosophers have structured arguments in defense of God to better understand how or why the universe might be reliant on a higher power, and authors, such as Brian Davies and John Hick have written about such arguments for this reason. While…

In this view there are many that argue against the Divine Command Theory and Kant’s Independence Thesis. One of those secularists is Bertrand Russell. He believes morality has absolutely nothing to do with religion. George Mavrodes is a theorist who cirtizes Russell’s secular views. He calls Russell’s view to be very confusing. Movraodes argues that if morality and religion were not tied together…

I am God, and there is no one like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, (Isaiah 46:9c-10a NASB) Is the God of Process Theology the God of the Bible? This question will be answered in this essay. The God of Scriptures is sovereign (1 Tim. 6:15), immutable (Mal. 3:6), infinite (Jer. 10:10), perfect (Mat. 5:48), and prophetic (Is. 14:24). However, the God of Whitehead’s Process Theology is a source of meaning and reason; it changes and is changed, it is everlasting but imperfect and does not…

Confucian ren has been used in many ways. Ren is the ideal moral character to achieve that is grounded in human nature. Karyn Lai calls ren a dynamic concept as it “denotes both specific relational attachment (renkinship) and compassion for others (rencompassion)” (Lai 2008:62). How can this be so since one is a form of partial love and the other impartial love? Which takes precedence and what is their relationship? In this essay, I will first lay out Confucius’ view on ren and explain how it is…

Shellshocked: Both Veterans and the Greater Community The shells were coming without stop, the only way we could function was by playing cards, and comforting one another. We could only imagine what it would look like once the shelling stopped. This is a common story of the many soldiers during the great war. Although everyone was excited and exuberant about the war in the beginning, soldiers began to regret going into the battle because the profiteers were sitting back at home, and they…