Natural philosophy

society. Can one accept scientific understandings of the world and still preserve their faith in a higher being? In order to analyze the compatibility of religion and science we should define each discipline. In this essay, science is knowledge of the natural world based on facts learned through empirical evidence, theories and data, while religion is the belief in a higher being without need of proof. I will only focus on one aspect of religion which is the belief in a higher being and not the…

David Hume drew our attention to the popular problem about inductive reasoning, which can be seen as an argument that cannot provide a circular justification for inductive reasoning. However, Nelson Goodman’s problem is different, because he is not questioning how we can justify induction, but rather what kinds of inductive practices are valid, and unfortunately, there is no clear answer to this question. In this paper, I will be explaining Goodman’s «New Riddle of Induction» and how we can…

Modern philosophy presented several important contributions to different matters, such as rationalism. Rationalism is the explanation, and understanding of the universe through the use of the human mind. Spinoza, and Kant are two major modern philosophers, who provided their own philosophical systems involving rationalism. Spinoza’s interpretation involving rationalism was partly succeeded by Kant. Spinoza considered rationalism to provide guidance in human understanding. In order to…

Ethics is the standards of right and wrong that advise what humans must do. Epicurus is one of the philosophers who taught about these ethics. Epicurus believed that the purpose of life was to attain pleasure. He believed that by attaining pleasure, one can live a good, happy life. Although this was his view on life, other philosophers such as his contemporary, Aristotle, had different views of what the purpose of life was. Epicurus was one of the major philosophers during his time. He was an…

roads. And just as you must choose whenever you come to a fork in your physical road, you must also choose between different mental roads, different philosophies of life.” Throughout The Journey, Peter Kreeft explains that life will always have two ways. One cannot either pick to have or not to have philosophy but the choice is between good or bad philosophy. To decide which way of thinking is good or bad one must question other views to strengthen their own. Peter Kreeft is in a dream-like…

Because no one can debate with God, he or she must settle with the answer “because God said so.” In the Greek society, there were many unanswered questions. These answered were often answered by gods. One common example would be the mystery behind natural disasters. When there was an earthquake the Greek citizens would ask: “Why was there an earthquake?” This was then explained by the phenomenon of the Greek god, Poseidon. Poseidon was one of the many Greek gods but he was specifically in charge…

father/mentor of modern day philosophy. His immense…

of the philosophy and social structures of the time period in Candide. The value of the enlightenment ideas and the contrast between different social classes were super beneficial and allowed me to further develop the true understanding of the text. The novel, written in the time period of the enlightenment, reflects many aspect of the key ideas about philosophy. The Enlightenment movement encourages people to emphasize reasoning and rational thinking instead of theories and philosophies. This…

the foolishness, always ironic and sarcastic, but always good-natured and modestly. It is quite another we see in Plato's "Apology". Although Socrates here and says that he knows nothing, is he himself, however, as a person, knowing that such a philosophy, as a man, confident in ignorance and moral base of its judges, even as a man, quite proud and confident that is not averse to a few fly in the face of his philosophical freedom, their courage before the court and the community and their…

have come and gone during the course of the world, the two that sparked my interest were Saint Thomas Aquinas and John Locke. These two philosophers contributed so much to the study when they were alive, and even continue to enrich the study of philosophy today. They are two very distinct, different people with varying thoughts and views on matters, yet have similarities, as well, that unite them and their ideas. I will describe in detail both of…