Philosophical skepticism

Humans are overall good in my eyes and they were made good by God. People are put on this earth for reason and if they want to be to be evil and bad people then that’s their choice. Everyone has good in them no matter who you are. I believe that humans are good because of Ralph and piggy and when we mosses led the Israelites out of Egypt. William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies shows that humans are good through the characters of Ralph and Piggy. They both show examples of trust, leadership,…

"It is not power that corrupts but fear, Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of the power corrupts those who are subject to it" A quote by Aung San Suu Kyi. All leaders search for power but are corrupted through the fear of having it. This can be seen as a major theme tying together the play Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare. There are many different themes throughout Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, but the three most controversial ones are fate vs. free…

Is our universe one complicated computer game with us being mere artificial intelligence made of ones and zeros? This is a strange question, one that I believe cannot be totally disproven or proven but what can we know no matter the answer? The philosopher Descartes wrestled with similar questions. He was concerned about the nature of our reality and more specifically the nature of our knowledge. (Descartes 166-167) He wanted to form a base for knowledge and a method to prove that what we know…

Aristotle’s Four Causes in Science Explanation is basic human nature. It began as a way to pass blame onto another person, then onto God or gods. This changed with the ideas of Archimedes of Syracuse. Archimedes was a mathematician, physicist, and inventor who was responsible for the discovery of buoyancy and the invention of both the siege engine and screw pump. After his discoveries, the popular view on explanation was modified. Instead of divine powers intervening in the world, people…

The Existence of God and the Devil Demon In Descartes’s piece of philosophical writing, “Meditations on First Philosophy”, he argues that he has the idea of God, therefore God exists. In my paper, I will contend that the same argument will not apply for the possibility of the Evil Demon. In the beginning of the Meditations, Descartes claims if he want to establish the stability of anything in science, he must start over from the foundations. He set the standard for knowledge, which must be…

Is certainty necessary for knowledge? To really answer this question, we have to define what knowledge really is. Then in turn, we have to define what certainty really is. Truth also should be defined in order to help better understand the question. Once all three of these terms are defined then the main question can be dealt with. Truth should be dealt with first since it is the underlying aspect of the question. Some people could consider certainty truth. However, I do not feel as if…

One can argue that man’s human nature is both inherently good and evil, but it is through the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden that each generation born after them was no longer born without shame, which Hsun Tzu does a great job of showing how man’s nature is inherently evil. Hsun Tzu was a Chinese scholar who followed the Confucian belief who lived from 300-230 BCE. He wrote this piece of literature explaining how man is not born with an innocent or pure nature, meaning that in the…

1.Event-Causal Model of Human Agency and Its Difficulties Davidson proposes a ‘single line’ event-causal model of human agency, attempting to bring intentional states and actions into a single causal chain: an agent’s intentional states (or events), such as beliefs, desires and intentions, cause some bodily movement called ‘basic action’ to happen. There are different descriptions of this basic action, and under some of them, this action is intentional. (Davidson 2001/1963, 2001/1971) Even…

In the article “Ethical and Social Issues in Antidoping Strategies in Sport” by Norman C. Fost, it gives reasons about how the prohibition drugs in athletics have moral principles. Fost is arguing about how prohibiting such drugs is no clear moral principles. I will be analyzing two argument claims in the article of Fost and will also be evaluating Frost’s argument in agreeing with his arguments and reasons. Fost argues about what things are harmful and explains why it is not a good moral claim…

Austin Briffa Professor Lund Honors Philosophy of Science 12-04-16 Miracles: A Scientific and Religious Analysis The concept of a miracle has been etched into our society for centuries. It’s a word that is used quite often in colloquial language, such as when one hears good news. To many, they are attributed to supernatural entities, saints, and prophets, such as those found in Judeo-Christian scripture. From parting the Red Sea to turning water into wine, these mystical events have captured…