Rationalism

In the book The Greeks and the Irrational, the author E.R. Dodds studies whether the ancient Greeks were rationalists, or contrary to popular belief, they were sensitive to the non-rational factors of human experience. During a museum visit, Dodds gets his inspiration for this book from a young man who thinks Greek art “lacked the awareness of mystery”(1) for it to be interesting. He then goes on to write this book, so that “anthropologists and scholars who had no specialist knowledge of ancient…

While The Fountainhead provides an insight to Rand’s perspective regarding individualism, Atlas Shrugged is the novel where she defined her school of Objectivism which holds individualism as one of its major tenets. Individualism is the driving force which keeps the intellectuals of Atlas Shrugged committed to making their ideas work for them rather than being drawn into a system of collectivism which effectively destroys their progress and spreads it equally across the masses. The two main…

Scientific Revolution: [Subtitle] Scientific Revolution began in the late 1500’s. It is a spirit of questioning the accepted views of the world. All ideas were brought up by the European Society. Scientific Revolution would make Europe the most powerful place and people in the world. One of the best aspects was self-perpetuating nature for the Scientific Revolution. Humanism began to influence scholars in the late Middle Ages. Nicolaus Copernicus challenged Ptotemy’s geocentric. Johannes Kepler…

to my philosophical view on teaching, the three CAPS mentioned teaching approaches and the methods/techniques used in my teaching process. My teaching philosophy is constructed out of critical rationalism and partially out of Ubuntuism. According to Higgs & Smith (2015: 26 – 31) critical rationalism is a philosophy that fosters questioning and anti-authoritarian attributes. My goal as teacher is to enable learners to think for themselves and that is only possible when learners are given the…

These conceptions consisted of reason, nature, happiness, progress, liberty, and toleration that make up the four broader categories of the eighteenth century. The major concepts of the Enlightenment were individualism, relativism, empiricism, and rationalism. First, the defining of “ism” gives great insight into the meaning behind these concepts. The “-ism” suffix is defined, as having a belief in something, whether is be a theory, religion, or teaching. Individualism is a “belief in an…

Descartes studied and discussed consciousness, the self, and personal identity in their work. They had different views on how the self was different from the brain or from the mind and on how knowledge is gained. However, their main concept was rationalism verses empiricism. According to Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, it is a study that “rationalists claim that there are significant ways in which our concepts and knowledge are gained independently of sense experience and empiricists claim…

Darkness at Noon In order to best understand peoples, cultures and their history, knowledge of worldview, or an understanding and knowledge of Reality, is of the utmost importance. Familiarity with the worldview of a people group and how it is manifested within their history, aids us in understanding and developing an accurate philosophy of history. Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler provides us with an incredible example of the worldview held by those who are under a totalitarian regime, a…

Helen in a way that draws on the historical reception of Helen. Helen is used as the central figure, Gorgias providing four arguments for her exoneration; necessity, force, persuasion and desire. Concepts present shift from the body as argument, to rationalism, the application of reason to human actions. Whilst some may interpret Gorgias’ signification of these concepts as radical feminism, I will present an argument for the Encomium of Helen instead as an encomium…

seems distant from experience through mental processing the more we can rely on that experience. Although, experiencing pain our perception of the former thoughts is a more assuring in being innate. The Innate Concept and Knowledge are vital to rationalism. However, experience does not deliver the knowledge we get from reason. Reason is considered to be more valuable than experiences and as a foundation of knowledge. This can be obtained through sensory experiences (Stanford, 2015). Descartes…

The Greeks are, for the most part, appropriately admired. Although ancient Greek civilization has negative qualities, the advancements they contributed should not be disregarded. Many positive aspects of Greek life, including politics, art, rationalism, and scientific thought, continue to resonate throughout modern society. The negative components in Greek society were mainly issues regarding equality. There were great divides between genders and between socioeconomic classes. Most…