Metaphysics

7. David Rothenberg focuses on Aristotle’s objection to his position. Aristotle defines the cause of nature in four separate ways: material cause, formal cause, efficient cause, and final cause. These four separate causes cast nature as the omnipresent, enveloping cause of everything in the universe. Consequently, Aristotle does not set any limitation to nature and its causes. Nature becomes the cause of nature in absolute. Thus, Aristotle presents a fallacy of a circular argument. By claiming…

The Skeptic Belief The search for the indubitable truth is the main aim of Descartes meditations. In order to do this, Descartes subjects everything to doubt in order to uncover what is immune to it. Therefore, his skeptical argument is said to be stronger than his positive argument in which beliefs are justified. Thus, the justifiability of beliefs and perceptions as put forward by Descartes lead people to be forced into skepticism. From Descartes first argument we look at those things that can…

The argument assumes that the “I” acknowledges himself or herself to have free will. According to Hume’s argument, the “I” is both free to do (A) and casually determined to do (A). P1 and P3 will be granted. They will not be subject to controversy for the rest of the paper, although their irrelevancy will be demonstrated. P2 contradicts observation. Consider the following thought experiment: En route to an important meeting, Claire hears someone calling for help. Deciding that arriving at the…

Predestination The concept of salvation for Augustine was an idea in which human free will had practically no place. He believed that a predestined eventual return to the Lord was a gift that He extends to all since we are compulsive sinners from which we have no control unless He rescues us from it. Here Augustine, again, refers back to the Fall for this concept, believing that because of this, all humans are inherently evil and God alone, by His grace saves from eternal death.…

The argument consists of several premises and one conclusion. The first premise would be "If there is no God, then there is no morality". The second premise would be "If God doesn't exist, then there are no truths about what is and what is not moral". The third premise would be "Of course God exists, since the billions of faithful believers out there couldn't all be wrong". Finally, the conclusion would be "Therefore, it necessarily follows that there are objective truths about what is moral".…

Looking in a dictionary, free will is the power, attributed to human beings, of making free choices that are unconstrained by external circumstances or by an agency such as fate or divine will”. Free will allows free choice. Where as determinism is when a person's behavior is considered to be dictated by internal or external forces. Some philosophers say human beings are free, but some other thinkers disagree. This essay will be addressing different philosopher’s points of view regarding the…

Determinism; The Proof in Newton The Great Man Theory states that people are not mere products of their backgrounds, but are great because of how they’re born. For example, if someone was born into greatness, they would be disproving the Great Man Theory, but if the course of their life was changed because of one event, they would be proving the Great Man Theory. The Great Man Theory is an idea thought of by Thomas Carlyle. Carlyle was a Scottish philosopher, born in 1795. Another word to…

Kant defines objectification as mentioned above, as ‘the reducing of a person, a being with humanity, to the position of an object’. The idea of humanity for Kant was the personal lucid nature and capability for rational choice it is about determining what is valuable, and furthermore finding ways to enhance and develop these particular values. Kant’s holds a large weight of significance over the respect for humanity to one’s self and to others around them, he states ‘Humanity must never be…

Living in a world filled with fear and worries from tragic events continuously occurring in society, it is no shock that people are relentlessly wondering about the upcoming future. People are left with the wandering thought of whether the events occurring in society are caused by the courses of actions and choices one decides to commit or that it was fated from the beginning. Throughout, centuries the question of whether fate or free will defy one's destiny has been circling around leading it…

David Hume wants to explain to us a radical kind of skepticism in which the contents of our mind are described into two parts. The first part is impressions, the actual experiences that we have. For example, tasting an apple is an experience that we can have. The second part is ideas, copies of impressions in which we are remembering the taste of the apple. Renee Descartes view of the external world is through God because he is not a deceiver so material objects comes to existence. The idea of…