Philosophical Theories Essay Examples and Topics

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426 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 [...]
  • 2.3
  • Pages: 9
  • Words: 2420

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 [...]
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 890

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 [...]
  • Pages: 8
  • Words: 2164

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 [...]
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 942

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.
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 546

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 [...]
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1188

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 Both views present quite polarizing extremes and have outdated pre-conceived notions, as in the case [...]
  • Pages: 1
  • Words: 368

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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  • Pages: 7
  • Words: 1969

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 [...]
  • Pages: 1
  • Words: 385

Kant’s Theory of Artistic Creativity and Genius

Kant explains genius as the ability that is bestowed upon producers or artists of fine art whereby the origin of the idea of creating the work cannot be explained such as a scientist's discovery path.
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1120

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.
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 340

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

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 [...]
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 630

Main Branches of Philosophy

This is the study of value that surpasses the ability of a man to reason over the universe and its state on the whole.
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 966

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.
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 893

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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  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1248

The Concept of Justice

Socrates and Euthyphro show that the application of justice in different societies is not always fair. Plato's arguments are ambiguous because they do not offer a rational basis about how religion can be used to [...]
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 591

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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  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1129

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.
  • Pages: 1
  • Words: 298

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 [...]
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 624

Unethical Treatment of Animals

The fact that there is a long tradition involving the slaughter of animals for food does not justify the killing of animals.
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  • Pages: 7
  • Words: 2004

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.
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 966

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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  • Pages: 10
  • Words: 2719

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 [...]
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1384

Cosmopolitanism

According to Holinger, a world class citizen relates well with other groups, and all human beings: Cosmopolitan is about justice, which should be evident in all aspects and it must be the one governing the [...]
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 790

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".
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 930

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.
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1124

Plato on Who Should Rule

From the above discussion, it is notable that Plato connects the idea of "justice" to the "Form of Good". Such kings will apply practical theories and ideas in order to address the needs of the [...]
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 853

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.
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 861

Foundationalist Response to Skepticism

It is based on two principles: the first one says that one cannot be sure in his/her knowledge and there is not certain human knowledge; the second principle claims that all we know can only [...]
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1091

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.
  • Pages: 7
  • Words: 2081

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.
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 772

“Dismantling Truth” by Richard Rorty

The inherent problem I have with Rorty in this article is the fact that the concept of a socially defined truth clashes with the changing nature of society and the potential for people to agree [...]
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 562

Diotima Speech Analysis

In particular, Diotima deliberates on the concept of love and refers to other related notions, such as wisdom, knowledge, truth, and divinity to define the place of love in the material world.
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1415

Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche

In order to comprehend whether Nietzsche kept to such an idea of the dead God in all his works, and Beyond Good and Evil in particular, it is better to analyze his original works, written [...]
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1103

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 [...]
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 654

The Entitlement Theory of Robert Nozick

Real justice, according to Nozick, consists in the appropriation of holdings or their original acquisition, their fair and consensual transfer and the protection of the right to their property.
  • Pages: 1
  • Words: 306

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

Bentham’s and Mill’s Theory of Utility

In other words, his theory of utility is based on the principle of moral obligation: the greatest pleasure for the greatest number of people who are involved or affected by the action performed by one [...]
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 636

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.
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 836

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 [...]
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1003

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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  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 558

Locke’s and Berkeley’s Theories on Knowledge

He explores the forms of cognition and considers the question of the sources of the formation of ideas and concepts. Locke believes that external experience and perception give ideas of such qualities that belong to [...]
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 570

Philosophy of Love and Sex

In contrast to them, Richards elaborated a theory of phenomenal attraction that falls into the category of sexual concepts but differs from the notion of sexual arousal.
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 830

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.
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1541

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 [...]
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1644

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.
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 566

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".
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 923

Performative and Constative Utterances

In the context of marriage as a social institution, the performative statement said to fulfill the action is "I do", which fulfills the action of marrying.
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 562

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

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.
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 872

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.
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1161

Robert Nozick’s Conditions for Knowledge

The problem of Gettier is that such factors as the existence of a particular belief, as well as the truth of the proposition, do not reach universality and concreteness as it encounters counterexamples demonstrating the [...]
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1115

Eros and Civilization by Herbert Marcuse

In its turn, this is the direct consequence of the fact that, in order for this civilization to remain on the path of progress, in the linear sense of this word, it may never cease [...]
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1393

Darwin’s Theory of Human Evolution

Although Darwin seems to refute the religious claim on the origin of man, it is apparent that both religion and science share a common hypothesis that man has a distinct origin. Darwin is also concerned [...]
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 591

Emmanuel Kant’s Philosophy

According to the moral imperative, moral worth is the foundation of a person's ability to do right and is the foundation of the metaphysics of morals.
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1623
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