Concepts in metaphysics

Identity can only be created by people themselves throughout their life. The creation of one’s identity derives from an individual’s thoughts, actions, and impact they have had on life and others. In Thomas Merton’s wise words, “True identity is something people must create for themselves by making choices that are significant and that require a courageous commitment in the face of challenges.” Life is meant to let us face challenges to find who we are by what paths we choose to take. Despite a…

Prior to reading Authority and American usage written by David Wallace by the title alone I had low expectation on how much I would enjoy the read but I grew to have a lot of interest in the reading. In the reading David Wallace raised the issues between Prescriptivism perception and descriptivism perception, as he goes back in history dates as far back as biblical times up to the present day observing how the English language has been constantly changing since the beginning of the English…

while the latter is a set of spiritual teachings imparted by sage Vasistha to his disciple — Rama. Both of these texts discuss the notion of the self but offer different interpretations and means to achieve it. I will also argue how certain pragmatic concepts. for example, the rejection of fatalism — make the exposition of the self as expressed in the Yoga Vasistha seemingly more plausible to me than that in the Katha Upanishad. According to the Katha Upanishad, the self (often referred to as…

Examination of student identity development will be preceded by presenting an epistemological framework that employs symbolic interactionism theory which has been widely used to investigate an array of issues within the field of social psychology including identity. On a very basic level that explains the interrelationship combining symbols, objects and meanings, Hewitt (2003) points out that “human beings employ symbols, carve out and act toward objects rather than merely respond to stimuli,…

A friend of mine once told me how often she goes without seeing another person of her race at school. She explained how uncomfortable she was and how she felt like she didn't belong. She explained that once she met someone else who could relate with her situation she became comfortable with her surroundings. According to illustrator Christopher Myers, “When we think about what it is to be ‘connected,’ we think about memory. We think about storytelling. All of these words that we hear - ‘literacy…

Descartes program of methodological doubt was to doubt absolutely everything. He thought that if all were doing is perceiving how do we know that what we’re perceiving is real when sometimes even our mind makes mistakes. For example, we see things aren’t there or hear a noise that wasn’t actually made or even think we see a family member but it was actually someone else. In my opinion Descartes theory goes very deep into the mind and really makes you think and almost makes you afraid. When it…

Pushing the limits that we abide by provides the catalyst to extending our perceived barrier. About four years ago during the summer before freshman year, I attended a leadership camp run by a group called Calleva, where I took part in a large variety of activities meant to strengthen yourself and your ability to work and understand others. We did activities that could range from breaking boards, to hiking a trail we had only been on once before in the middle of the night with no flashlights.…

Copy Principle: Prompt One David Hume, in the book, “An Enquiry of Human Understanding,” denies the thought that ideas are innate or come from within us. Instead, he claims that all ideas, when they are first experienced are derived or duplicated from simple impressions or world experiences. This is known as Hume’s Copy Principle. To prove his hypothesis, Hume divides his argument into two sections. One being that complex ideas can be broken down into simple ideas and followed back to their…

René Descartes first builds up his position in Meditations on First Philosophy by starting with pushing aside all that we know and learned as it was based on the empiricist thinking, that our beliefs are to be based on our sense experience, which is the perceived foundation of how everyone thinks. This way of thinking, according to Descartes, should be abandon as it is a defective way to do so when learning. Even thinking by numbers and figures are not a good foundation when gaining knowledge in…

An individual’s perception is made up of stacked lenses that alter the truth, which summarizes their own slice of reality. These lenses are experiences, and they can have major consequences to one’s quality of life. The experiences one buys and commoditize for status elude them the farthest away from the truth, and are the most spoiling for their character. Our money driven society feeds these illusions to individuals with a bias that they do not necessarily understand and purposefully…