Medieval philosophy

Education is essential in order to become a well-rounded, reasonable human being. Without education people have no reason to question what they read or hear and do not have the ability to assess critically what they hear even if they do desire to question it. Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” from Book 7 of “The Republic” theorizes on what would occur if a prisoner chained in a cave, exposed only to shadows on a wall were to break free of his chains. Plato theorized that when the prisoner was…

Persuasive Essay It’s been more than two thousand years ago that a Greek philosopher could determine three ways to persuade an audience. One of them is ethos. Ethos shows that the person making the video or commercial has a certain degree of credibility. Having credibility in ethos contains good character and sense, also qualified to accomplish the argument. Pathos is another way that allows you to persuade an audience. In rhetoric, pathos is referred as strong emotions or feelings, such as…

This essay will respond to the questions regarding whether value is objective or subjective, and whether prices can be “fair” or “unfair.” The writings of Etienne Condillac and John Locke reveal that prices are most often objective, and that prices can be either fair or unfair. This essay will evaluate the works from these men and will use practical examples to illustrate the objective nature of value and the varying fairness of prices. Differing preferences, needs, and supply will show the…

In The Life of Pi, Yann Martel creates a juxtaposition of realities that requires the reader to choose which is better. The first requires the reader to suspend their disbelief and embark on a fantastic journey in which anthropomorphism consumes reality; the second requires the reader to understand the animal-like behavior of barbaric humans. This dualistic situation where both realities conflict but align simultaneously creates an alternative domain which highlights the ambiguity of human…

When his eyes adjust, he gets introduced to the world above the cave, where he can understand the meaning of all things, including the shadows of the objects that he now gets to see for real. This portion of the Allegory is akin to a man practicing philosophy and becoming a philosopher; an individual that realizes the ignorance shown by his peers and can now understand all that existence holds. An important piece of this experience is the man’s introduction to complete brightness, now that he…

enrich the pre-existing curriculum. Many of the ideas that Adler had are still relevant today. Many works on which he focused on are often used in the curriculums. Adler was deeply impacted by the ideas of Aristotle. He also felt that the Perennials philosophy was very important and it held a lot of weight. Adler experienced many critics along the way, as many people believed that what he was teaching was too hard for the average person to understand. Despite this, Adler could create over 400…

Augustine was a Christian philosopher who believed that people have the free will to make their own decisions and choices. One example is the choice between good or evil. He also believed that people should be searching for and obtaining eternal goods, rather than desiring temporal goods. In many aspects Chris McCandless from Into The Wild was searching for eternal goods and the divine. McCandless was a vagabond who sold all of his belongings and decided to hitchhike across the United States. He…

Free will is a term that has been in debate, for many years now and still is a concept of modern philosophy. As this idea of free will can be seen as one thing or another. For example, as in the reading of “Free Will” by Sam Harris it is mentioned how free will is just a delusion and how the belief in free will ties up to all that humans appreciate. Additionally, as others may say that we are the aware source of our ideas and movements in the present. Harris also remarks on the reading how “You…

Despite Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud’s individualistic ideas and definitions of religion, they obtain a common understanding regarding wishful thinking of an afterlife. However, the way they interpret the afterlife is different. Karl Marx argued that the idea of an afterlife is able to dull the pain of reality; he uses religion to shed some light on how bad living life truly is. On the other hand, Freud believes that all religious believes are just illusions and wishful thinking is the ultimate…

Utilitarianism is slowly gaining popularity in the world of philosophy as a normative theory and has been stirring up a lot of debate amongst people from all walks of life. Normative theories of ethics work by presenting one key principle as the main criterion on the basis of which a human being's actions are judged to be good or bad. That limits its overall view because it is never that easy to distinguish between the two in a world where all lines are slowly blurring. The principle itself can…