Medieval philosophy

In Plato’s Republic, Socrates uses a variety of teaching methods in order to guide his peers toward a deeper understanding of what justice is. However, the teaching styles implemented by most educators today do not reflect those used by Socrates throughout the entirety of the Republic. It is through Socrates's own use of philosophical inquiry, his offering of analogies, and his creation of images that the ideal process of education is revealed which emphasizes the role of the teacher as the most…

philosopher, we cannot fully comprehend God. “The Wager”, which includes a psychological argument, consists of individuals who are willing to risk their own lives and bet on the existence of God. Essentially, the argument of this work is between philosophy and faith, disputing that humans cannot come close to reaching the realm of the highest belief. Pascal takes the assumptions of those who are non-believers and attempts to persuade them to believe in God by giving them wisdom and knowledge…

Subjective relativism is the moral perspective implying that if an individual approves of an action, it is then directed to be moral. For example, an individual can say “X is right,” and someone else can assert that “X is wrong”. When applying subjective relativism to the situation, it justifies that action X is both right and wrong. Suggesting that it can be right for a particular person but wrong for another. Thus, when deciphering whether something is moral or not, it is correlated to…

Analysis: The preceding narrative is from a time in my life not too long ago. It reminds me of Walker Percy’s essay The Loss of the Creature in the sense that things are not always as they appear to be. Percy’s thesis is one mustn’t blindly follow what we are taught, but rather, one must discover for himself what is genuine and true. My personal story, however, is slightly different than those of others in the fact that I’ve been battling addiction since the age of 15, and cannot relate much to…

criticism expounding a causal theory of beauty. "I contemplate the structure, and the sculpture causes to arise in me a particular sentiment of beauty. That is all," . Hume's reflective return to common sense keeps skepticism as a "Constituent" of "True philosophy" skepticism makes the first critical move when it explodes the commonsensical identification of feeling in the bystander and quality in the object, by announcing that beauty is nothing more and beyond one's sentiment. The stipulative…

The antinomies of pure reason are among the most important sections in Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, and transcendental philosophy in general. Among the antinomies, none were more well-recognized or well known than the third antinomy, which concerns the nature of freedom and determinism. This antinomy went on to pave the way for the rest of German Idealism, along with signaling a general shift in metaphysics that Kant himself would be engaged with for the rest of his life. As an indication of…

Harman presents the argument that we never have any evidence for or against any moral claim and that moral “facts” serve no purpose regarding the explanation of making observations unlike scientific facts do. In this essay, I will argue why I believe that Harman’s argument is ultimately successful, successful being that it is convincing of its conclusion. I will accomplish this by first paraphrasing Harman’s premises in an understandable manner. Next, I intend to provide a possible attack that…

Truth is Not What it is Truth is the reality of what has happened, however, the road to understanding truth is not always straightforward and smooth. This is because one person may perceive the truth one way, while another perceives the truth differently, so, their truths are different. In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, the steps towards discovering the real truth are discussed, and these concepts are present in William Shakespeare’s Othello. The characters created by Shakespeare in Othello…

Utilitarianism is an ethical framework that correlates with this issue. Utilitarianism stands on the principle that no action is good or bad in itself. This means, all actions are consequence driven. If a person chooses to give noncitizens healthcare access, it is because the outcome of such an option brings about a good result. However, if the United States gives noncitizens rights to healthcare because that seems right, but there is no evidence of a beneficial outcome, then according to…

The world isn’t black and white. No one is only good or evil. People are not only one thing and nothing else. They change through their experiences in life that they go through and have multiple conflicting and diverse personality traits. In Homer’s The Odyssey, the main character Odysseus is a perfect example of this. He is a hero and a good leader, but sometimes has lapses in judgment and doesn’t always do the right thing. He learns from his mistakes though and changes for the better. He is a…