Dialectic

actions that are against the law, or in religious terms, one must abstain from sinful acts; Kristeva writes that “abjection persists as exclusion or taboo (dietary or other) in monotheistic religions [...] it finally encounters with Christian sin, a dialectic elaboration, as it becomes integrated in the Christian Word as a threatening otherness––but always nameable, always totalizeable” (Kristeva 17). Kristeva stems most of her understanding…

Essay Question #1 – Sport and the Sociological Imagination Throughout history victors and their fan bases have always been known to celebrate extensively, often times with violence. In ancient times and even as recently as World War II, conquering armies would lay waste to their opponents cities after defeating them. While it was not as common in more recent battles, armies such as Genghis Khan’s in the 13th century and the Ottoman Empire in the late 13th and early 14th centuries were famous for…

“The use of someone else’s words or ideas without adequate acknowledgement—that is, presenting such words or ideas as your own… Deliberate plagiarism is nothing less than cheating and theft…” (Rottenberg). This quote from Annette T. Rottenberg is placed under the title “Definition of Plagiarism” in the Point Park University Student Handbook. Plagiarism has always been viewed as a crime or a wrong doing that one should never do because it is unethical. Ethics and plagiarism are both important in…

that knowledge at every birth, and so we need to be reminded of what we already know. He said that he did not teach, but rather served, like his mother. Making use of questions and answers to remind his students of knowledge is called maieutics, dialectics, or the Socratic method. One example of his effect on philosophy is found in the dialog Euthyphro. He suggests that what is to be considered a good act is not good because Gods say it is, but is good because it is useful to us in our efforts…

Essay # 3 (Final Essay) Throughout history many scholars, philosophers and rulers have proposed a multitude of “ideal” forms of governing. In the Republic, Plato has made his own form of it. His governing involves the instatement that philosophers ought to be the primary rulers in a city/state; the Callipolis. With this set up Plato, through Socrates in the work Republic, conducts a systematic questioning of being. As the Republic, itself is an attempt to answer a problem with human…

William Shakespeare’s Elizabethan tragedy, ‘Othello’, resonates the damnation and inevitable dissolution of man in the face of compunction, facades, hubris and unbridled jealousy; extremities which foster the machinations of our humanity-the igniter of one’s hamartia. Through the use of dramatic irony, symbolism and soliloquies, Shakespeare journeys one through the complexities and subtleties of the human condition; accentuating the eponymous hero’s inexorable fall from grace which is centred on…

Now that the main ideas of Rousseau’s political thought have been exposed, the sense of ‘forced to be free can be explained by dividing the paragraph in that the phrase is located. “In order for the social compact not to be an ineffectual formula, it tacitly includes the following engagement, which alone can give force to the others: that whoever refuses to obey the general will shall be constrained to do so by the entire body; which means only that one will force him to be free. For this is the…

Most of us never think about the food we eat. How is it made? Where does it come from? What exactly is in it? Is it safe to eat? Sometimes the best answer to those questions is no answer at all. Some of us may not even care, some will. It’s all about the perspective of the person. No answer is wrong. In the book The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan writes about a potato called the NewLeaf. The NewLeaf potato isn’t like any other kind of ordinary potato. It’s a genetically engineered potato that…

2.1.1 Intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation According to Deci and Ryan (1995) self-determination theory is divided into two general types of motivation, one is intrinsic motivation which refers to motivation to engage in an activity, because it is enjoyable and satisfying to do, the other type of motivation is extrinsic motivation which is based on external rewards to the activity itself. It refers to the performance of an activity in order to attain some separable outcome, or to achieve some…

Many philosophers take simple facts to be the truth without evaluating them, simply assuming these things are true because others told them so. Philosophers who question the basic principles that are accepted worldly can be thought of as outcasts, but in reality, it is better to question everything than to assume anything. Two examples of philosophers who did not make these naïve assumptions are Parmenides and Zeno of Elea. They held the belief that motion does not exist, and were ridiculed for…