Philosophy of history

solution was to start over and doubt everything. Descartes believed that the only thing for certain: “I exist” and “I think therefore I am” (Guinan Enlightenment). Following Rene Descartes philosophy, many people in society began to doubt and believed that nothing was certain except oneself. Other beliefs and philosophies began to emerge, such as empiricism, rationalism, and deism. Empiricism, founded by Francis Bacon, was the philosophical position that all human knowledge comes from…

question “why is there something rather than nothing?” (Zeyl, 2005). Many philosophers from Aristotle to several medieval Islamic authors and middle age thinkers such as John Locke, Samuel Clarke, and David Hume have used cosmological argument in their philosophy (Zeyl, 2005). In addition, St. Thomas Aquinas used cosmological arguments in three of his arguments to proof the existence of God. Contradict to this, the teleological argument begins with special properties and finishes with conclusion…

writings are actually Socrates thoughts, Socrates was the main philosopher behind Plato’s philosophies. The philosophies were structured around, thinking your own mind/obtaining knowledge, living the good life, and the immortal soul. Kant’s philosophies can be looked at as branches from Plato’s knowledge and thought because of the gap in their lifetimes though they are independent and unrelated. Kant’s philosophies are centred around our reality of what ‘reality’ is, the categorial imperative, a…

Philosopher. This German philosopher believed in nihilism, which is a philosophy that rejects all religious and moral principles, often in the belief that life is meaningless. This perspective on the world is continued, in the novel Grendel, by John Gardner, as the main character Grendel goes through different philosophies, from solipsism to nihilism. Grendel displays a nihilistic philosophy throughout the novel and ultimately this philosophy leaves him purposeless and plagues him with habitual…

eighteenth-century movement called the Enlightenment" (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). François-Marie Arouet, also known by his pen name as Voltaire, was a famous French philosopher whom started at an early age with his studies that led him to his successful career that has left a life lasting impact on people today. Voltaire was born the fourth child of five children in Paris, France on November 21, 1694 (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).His father was a “well-to-do public official”…

accomplishments and major work contributions. Focusing majorly on both Marx and Durkheim’s views and ideas of Religion and the structure of modern society and the similarities and differences of both theorists. Karl Marx One of the founders of economic history and sociology was born in 1818 in Trier, Prussia; on the border of France and Russia. He was the oldest boy to survive out of his family of nine. Both his mother and father were Jewish, and descendants of a long lineage of…

French historian, social theorist, philosopher and public intellectual Michel Foucault is remembered for his means of using historical research to elucidate the changes in discourse over time and the ever growing links between discourse, knowledge, institutions, and power. Born October 15th, 1926 in Poitiers, France, Michel Foucault was the second of three children in a middle-class family. His father, Paul Foucault, was an esteemed local surgeon. Both of Foucault's grandfathers were also…

scholar whose work has made a weighty impact on Western philosophy and modern history. He was acclaimed as “The Critic of All That Exists” for his negative criticism of our social norms and how we blindly follow. Nietzsche was born on October 15, 1844 in Röcken, Germany, He began his career as a classical philologist which is the study of language, it is also a combination of literary criticism, history, and linguistics before moving to philosophy. He was one of the youngest to take leadership…

periods in the history of logic [and] the peculiarly medieval contributions to logic were developed and cultivated to a very high degree. It was no longer a matter of interpreting Aristotle, or commenting on the works of the “Old Logic” or the “New Logic”; wholly new genres of logical writing sprang up, and entirely new logical and semantic notions were developed. (p. 16) Thus, Medieval philosophy, and the beliefs of Eriugena, certainly appear to have launched the evolution of philosophy…

during that era only makes his idea more prevalent in our society today. Finally, Kants ideas and concepts completely changed the way we look at metaphysics, ethics and even philosophy, in a society where it is acceptable and possible to kill people thousands of miles away with a click of a button it is the only Kants philosophy of where the end doesn’t matter, but rather it is the reason behind the action that matters is that the only thing which can provide us with justification for the…