Philosophical Theories Essay Examples and Topics

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419 samples

A Critique of John Rawls’ Theory of Justice

These principles are the principles of social justice; they provide a way of assigning duties and privileges in the basic institutions of society and they define the appropriate distribution of the benefits and burdens of [...]
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Avocado vs. Artichoke: Can Human Nature Change

The essence of the avocado vs.artichoke debate lies in the dynamic of opposing ideas of essentialism and proteanism in philosophy. Both views present quite polarizing extremes and have outdated pre-conceived notions, as in the case [...]
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John Rawls’ Theory of Justice

1 This is a classless principle calling for justice equality promoting mutual understanding; nevertheless, taken the way it is, this principle would confuse people on some issues and this is why Rawls compliments it with [...]
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The Certainty and Doubt Relationship

It confirms the close relationship between certainty and doubt, namely that the absence of one gives rise to the other. To conclude, the concepts of certainty and doubt are close and intertwined in many things [...]
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Transcendentalism in American Literature

The emergence of new transcendental ideas reshaped the American literature introduced in the works by Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman in such a way that it contributed to the excellence and maturity of the literary world [...]
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Theories of the Creation of the World

According to the Bible, a tree of life was created by God in the middle of the Garden of Eden. In the Iroquois Creation Story, a tree was growing in the middle of the floating [...]
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Divided Line and the Allegory of the Cave

It is necessary to underline the fact that the thinker strived to clarify common features of his Divided Line and the allegory of the Cave; the analysis of his philosophy gives an opportunity to realize [...]
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The Role of Gods in Plato’s Philosophy

As Plato recounts the episode "Myth of Er" found in the republic dialogue phaedo and the story of time reversal in the statesman, a clear view of the hierarchical arrangement of the cosmos is illuminated.
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  • Words: 2081

Immanuel Kant Ethics

Kant argues that, "a person is good or bad depending on the motivation of their actions and not on the goodness of the consequences of those actions".
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Rene Descartes and Karl Marx’s Philosophy

I have seen that Rene Descartes contribution in philosophy and natural science stood the test of time; therefore, he became a hero' on the other hand, Karl Marx's contribution in social science did not stand [...]
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  • Words: 942

Philosophy’s Main Branches

It is the epitome of thinking and as it was described by the London times, "the great virtue of philosophy is that it teaches not what to think, but how to think".
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Plato’s Philosophy

The allegory of the cave can serve in revealing some of the key reasons to mistrust the views of the majority.
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Philosophy: Roland Barthes as a Structuralist

Although Barthes had not contemplated anything of the sort, his efforts and the efforts of others led to the establishment of the structuralism movement in the 1950s and the 1960s.
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The Theory of Knowledge by Immanuel Kant

Main Kant's idea was in the necessity of both reason and experience for human beings. In his opinion, Synthetic judgments are opposite to analytic and are not sufficient to decide the importance of proposition.
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  • Words: 546

The Purpose of Man

One of the basic virtues of a human being is to be rational, and it enhances all other virtues. A human being must have the ability to select his actions, goals, and values carefully for [...]
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 814

Plato’s Philosophy in “The Republic”

In his description of the ideal society, Plato explains that people in the society are not advised to act without knowledge such that before a city is erected, full understanding of justice should be known.
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  • Words: 772

Lessons From Plato’s Book ‘the Apology’

Though called 'apology' by Plato, the speech is not actually an apology- Socrates was attempting use his wisdom to justify his teachings and beliefs, and not to apologize for his actions.[2] First, his concise and [...]
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Sense experience is the only source of knowledge

Theories such as rationalism the Intuition/Deduction thesis and Innate Knowledge thesis which support the notion that there is the existence of intrinsic or instinctive knowledge or the subsistence of a priori knowledge, knowledge of necessary [...]
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Ideal Society by Plato

The task of the social leaders is to orient to interests of the majority in order to avoid the opposition of the public which can lead to revealing the negative qualities of people living in [...]
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Why Did Plato Hate the Sophists? – Philosophy

He claimed that the sophists were selling the wrong education to the rich people. The methods of teaching that the sophists portrayed in Athens were in conflict with Plato's school of thought.
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What Is Rationalism in Philosophy?

The moderate philosophical inclination anchors on the role of reason in the acquisition of knowledge. The extreme standpointthe posits the relevance of reason as the sole gateway to the acquisition of knowledge.
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Reflection on Confucianism

Yao reacts against the constricted view of the philosophy, which comes from failure to open into the historical development of the philosophy and the role of the Confucian tradition as a whole in advancing Confucianism.
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  • Words: 966

Nozick’s Entitlement Theory

The Entitlement Theory of Justice is intended to submit an explanation of what justice necessitates in relation to property and is divided into three doctrines which are; the principle of justice in rectification, justice in [...]
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Thomas Hobbes’ Views on Human Nature

Generally, peace is achieved by creating a government and forsaking individual rights in favor of one entity to ensure humans' chaos-less existence.
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Parmenides and Upanishads Philosophies

Instead, it underlined the logical explanations of the world existence as well as attempted to ground the idea of reality processes as the evictions of changing procedures in a never-changing space.
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Heraclitus: Fire Is the Principle of Everything

However, when it comes to Heraclitus, he believes that fire is the principle of all that exists. In addition to that, Heraclitus further develops his idea by mentioning that the existence of fire is commensurate [...]
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Nature and Convention Relation

For harmony to prevail, human beings have to live in accordance to the two kinds of order; that is nature and convention.
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  • Words: 1124

What is the Socratic Method?

The Socratic Method is also referred to as the Method of Elenchus or the Socratic Debate. It was after his friend from youth Chaerpon paid a visit to the Oracle of Delphi and deemed Socrates [...]
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Cartesian Dualistic Theory of Pain

Cartesian developed the Cartesian Dualistic Theory of Pain to explain the relationship between physical and psychological types of pain. Therefore, Descartes developed the Cartesian Theory of pain to explore pain in the context of mind [...]
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Existentialism of the 20th Century

They argued that human beings are actors in the world and hence are aware of what is in it unlike the trees and stones that just exist.
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Rationalism. The Theory of Knowledge

The allegory is preceded by the analogy of the divided line and metaphor of the son. Descartes is considered to be one of the greatest rationalists.
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  • Words: 836

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave

In Plato's Allegory of the Cave, there is much darkness in the cave and only very little light can be found in this place and it is so hard for a person who is in [...]
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  • Words: 2172

The Philosophy of Ancient Greece

Overall, it is possible to argue that the philosophy of ancient Greece is mostly associated with the names of such prominent thinkers as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.
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  • Words: 830

A Defence of Thrasymachus Concept of Justice

As they argue with Socrates on the issue of injustice, Thrasymachus says that justice "is nothing more than the advantage of the stronger". According to them, the cardinal aim of Thrasymachus is to prove that [...]
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The Principle of Sufficient Reason

Although Leibniz tries to explain the essence of the ultimate reason for existence by the invocation of the presence of a metaphysical reason, he also continues to illustrate the mechanism that relates the metaphysical reason [...]
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  • Words: 1472

Aristophanes in Plato’s Symposium

His speech has a somber tone and tells the fabled story of the beginning of love. Aristophanes creates the notion that the earliest humans were androgynous a combination of both male and female using his [...]
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  • Words: 654

Recollection Theory in Philosophy

The theory of recollection was an answer to Meno's paradox that states that man needs not learn anything new as what they know is enough, and what they do not know are not necessary.
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  • Words: 829

Marxist’s Views on Industrial Revolution

Based on this, Karl Marx stated that the products produced by the communally owned means of production should be divided equally to avoid classes and ranks in societies.
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  • Words: 1541

Monistic Views on the Mind-Body Debate

If the mind does not need the physical body to exist, it means that the state of unconsciousness due to injuries and other objective reasons is impossible.
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  • Words: 1161

Confucian Ethics

An example, of a group of people who have not mastered the concept of Li, may be judges who make their decisions based on their understanding of the law and not the prevailing special circumstances [...]
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Humanism of Renaissance Era

Platonic philosophy, precisely the concept of world of forms, had dominated the medieval era that subjected the human body, as a shadow of a real body in the world of forms, to little or no [...]
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Kant’s Critique of Judgment

The purpose of this paper is to analyze critically the concept of the sublime as presented by Immanuel Kant in his work 'The Critique of Judgment'.
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1748

Definition of Epistemology

The reality of knowledge depends on its justifiability; that is, epistemology tends to question the truth behind human knowledge hence, through such understanding, individuals are able to form a basis of comprehending any piece of [...]
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The Concept of Epiphenomenalism

According to consciousness, the flow of information goes from the mental aspect to the physical aspect, which means that consciousness rise due to the interaction of the physical as well as the mental and cognitive [...]
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  • Words: 1644

Plato’s and Aristotle’s Theories of Human Nature

Chapter five of Kupperman's book "Theories of human nature" looks at great philosophers, namely Plato's and Aristotle's points of view in trying to define humanity. The writer tries to illustrate the complexity of defining a [...]
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  • Words: 301

Philosophy Issues: Utilitarianism or Deontology?

Regardless of the extent to which some people are opposed to the applications of moral principles, which should be consistent with the scriptures of God, they are used to produce the best results in communities.
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  • Words: 1118

The Ontological Argument for the Existence of God

Kant's objection to the ontological argument stems from his view of the concept that a being that is conceived in the human mind, and which exists in the real world, is superior to an idea [...]
  • Pages: 10
  • Words: 2858

Rationalism as a Branch of Epistemology

To downplay the importance of sense experience, Plato and Descartes show that sense experience can never be a cause of experience since the objects captured through it are vulnerable to change.
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  • Words: 873

The Philosophy of Education in the Sultanate of Oman

In non-Christian philosophy of education, essentialism can be associated with the concept of "general education," while in Christian philosophy of education, essentialism can be associated with the concept of "Christian education," which aims to develop [...]
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  • Words: 384

Thales Method of Knowing

Considering the world as a continuously changing whole, as a process, Thales believes that it is due to different states of the same beginning, its "condensation" and "rarefaction" relative to some intermediate state.
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Plato’s Theory of Forms and Personal Perception

In his philosophical dialogues, the thinker divides the divine, unchangeable world of forms and the world of material, physical objects that was constantly changing and existed only as a shadow of the ideas.
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  • Words: 295

Philosophical Teachings of Stoicism and Confucianism

Firstly, speaking about the principal contrasts between Stoicism and Confucianism, it should be mentioned that Confucius developed the teaching aimed at the improvement of the state structure, whereas the Stoics pay the main attention to [...]
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  • Words: 546

Frege’s Solution to the Identity Puzzle – Philosophy

Some of his main achievements include the creation of the primary axiomatic system, the invention of the contemporary logic of quantification, and the definition of identity. In concluding the identity puzzle, Frege asserts that the [...]
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  • Words: 1471

Kant’s Ethics: Objection to Lying

And as lying is a form of communication, and people know this fact, the only way out in order not to be defrauded is stop communicating.
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  • Words: 1378

Kant’s Formula of Universal Law

The test for universal acceptance involve: determining the agent's maxim; imagining that everyone in the same position as the real-world agent observed that maxim; deciding if there is any contradictions generated from the maxim; if [...]
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  • Words: 681

Plato’s Visions of Beauty and Déjà Vu

From this point, beauty can be discussed as the attribute of things and as the independent form, and deja vu is the example of the reality as illusion because the life is only the reflection [...]
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  • Words: 812

The Mind and Allegory of the Cave

The highest type of reality is the one that is based on knowledge of forms as illustrated through the allegory of the cave.
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  • Words: 2642

James Anderson’s Argument on Happiness

Although he makes a strong case for the existence of happiness, the foundation and organization of his article are less strong, which eventually lessens the general effect of his argument.
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  • Words: 872

Materialism and the Theory of Consciousness

He said that the fabric of the universe makes us susceptible to producing life, consciousness, and reason. The people who object to Nagel's arguments claim that the theorist makes a lot of assumptions.
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  • Words: 845

Russel Value Philosophy Analysis

Russell is right that the value of philosophy lies in its vagueness, and the importance lies in the questions, not the answers.
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  • Words: 1186

Associationist Theories of Thought

The first doctrine is that the more recondite phenomena of the mind are formed out of simple parts. Associationism is the theory of psychology explaining the connection between thoughts and past experiences.
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  • Words: 893

The Two Main Types of Morality Behind Nietzsche’s Theory

Nietzsche regarded that every personality needs to arrange their moral structure: the key point of principles is to facilitate every individual to sublimate and regulate their obsessions, to emphasize the originality inherent in their being, [...]
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1050
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