Philosophical Theories Essay Examples and Topics

The article "The Challenge of Cultural Relativism" by Rachels explores the issue of ethics. According to Rachels, cultural relativism fails to support the existence of universal moral standards.

It is possible to note that Rawls' philosophy can be applicable in the contemporary world as it addresses major issues associated with unequal distribution of resources.

Therefore, the main purpose of this paper is to discuss theory of Forms as one of the main contributions of Plato.

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 [...]

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 Both views present quite polarizing extremes and have outdated pre-conceived notions, as in the case [...]

It is a unique way of philosophical understanding of reality, the general idea of which is the fundamental category of the process.

The first aspect of Aristotelian defense of justice, which is crucial to discuss, is the fact that, according to the philosopher, justice is relative to others.

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 [...]

This idea is based on the supposition that it is impossible to be the one and the other at the same time.

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.

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 [...]

In this passage, Confucius addressed the role of the family in the growth and development of a nation. Being the smallest unit in the nation, the family plays a vital role in ensuring the stability [...]

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 [...]

The ideas of the Polish novelist in the Heart of Darkness aimed at unraveling the issues that faced ivory traders in the Congo basin meaning the author attempted to look beneath the surface.

The feeling of empathy comes up when there is a clear difference between the person being empathetic and the one who is the subject of empathy.

Without the body of the argument, the title expresses that there is a form of lying that is not considered immoral.

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 [...]

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 [...]

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.

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 [...]

The author says that the scholar should explore the nature in themselves, and "he shall see, that nature is the opposite of the soul, answering to it part for part.

Compatibilism is closely linked to causal determinism in that it agrees with the fact that past events affect future events. In essence, people are not locked to determinism only but also to the fact that [...]

The allegory of the cave can serve in revealing some of the key reasons to mistrust the views of the majority.

It would not be an exaggeration to state that Plato's allegory of the cave only makes perfect sense if one views it in the light of the theory of forms.

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

The main aim of this paper is to look into the arguments presented by Rene Descartes and David Hume on the issue of the self.

As a rule, the process of reading used to be interpreted as interactive due to the unceasing process of drawing connections between a reader's perception of the represented ideas and the viewpoint conveyed in a [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Therefore, it seems that the Glorious Revolution was more of a revelation for the people of their power to choose and to change.

Inception has a philosophical argument in the plot which resonates with Rene Descartes' reasoning on the nature of reality and the mind's interpretation of its experience.

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.

It can be noted that in all cases suffering was seen as evil in some quarters of the ancient world as is seen today.

The contribution of Immanuel Kant to the modern philosophy made him be considered as one of the greatest and the most remarkable philosophers existed in the 18th century.

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 [...]

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".

The positive legal norm which does not correspond to the high-frequency behavior of the living law is the one that ought not to be.

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 [...]

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.

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 [...]

Can it happen that truth is a kind of agreement between a belief and a real life fact, or is it possible that a true belief should cohere with other true beliefs, or is it [...]

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.

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.

The only way the truth will be concealed and still lead to happiness is when the truth is substituted with a lie.

The open question argument is an attempt of George Moore, an English philosopher, to prove that natural properties cannot be reduced to moral ones.

He asserts that the duration of an activity and the intensity of pleasure are very important in measuring the levels of pleasure.

As opposed to the rational theory, the empiricism theory estimates that the main source of knowledge is the experience which can be based on the "perceptional observation of the world".

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".

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 [...]

On the other hand, the teleological ethical perspective states that the results for all actions matter in determining the nature of the undertaken decisions.

The rationale is that Dave's action was not the outcome of who he was and what he believed, the values he held or his desires.

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.

He further asserts that so long as the same sound being is the same self, the self has the same personal identity.

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 [...]

Additionally, it has been documented that one of the major virtue of philosophy is its ability to teach not what to think rather how to think.

Heidegger concludes that authenticity is temporary as opposed to inauthenticity because we are born with the former and achieves the later after some time Nietzsche on his view argues that authenticity is the elementary mode [...]

Nietzsche in the seventh maxim asks whether man is a result of the erroneous work of God or God is the error of man.

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 [...]

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.

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.

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.

The structure of this paper analyzes the service to God and the perception of the afterlife, as highlights of the differences and similarities about the Christian and Islamic perceptions of life.

However, the goal is to show that individuals do not have the right to do whatever they deem right even if it does not interfere with other people's peace of mind.

The dialogue between Socrates and Euthyphro is focused on the definition of piety or holiness and is set up in a humorous and sarcastic tone.

Kant indicates that the goodness has not to contain a meaning of the consequences and results, it is good in itself.

Weiss argues that Plato used the argument by Socrates that true philosophers hate the pleasures of the body, for example, drinks, sex, and food.

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.

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 [...]

It is important to mention that the ideologies used to support the argument that goodwill is the only purely good item in philosophy, also support the fact that reason and intent are not enough to [...]

The Sumerians inspired the Hindus to write the Ramayana and Mahabharata poetic stories on the power of the gods and the ideals on how people should live.

The idea of fleeing the real world that is habitable in the thinking of man, to the desert preoccupied by fear, dangers and uncertainty refers to the need for independence of the spirit.

The concept of social constructivism gives people the power to create and encourages them to create a positive world that they will exist in peace.

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

This is exactly the intention of Berkeley here; he intends to argue that an object of perception will not be the state of the human mind but an item of the universe.

A Coherence Theory of justification is one that supports two central ideas that distinguish it from foundationalism: There are basic beliefs that serve as the basis for other beliefs, and

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 [...]

A scholar perceives the natural world in a way that is free of past influence. He states that self-reliance is a concept that applied to the American scholar who must exercise a great deal of [...]

Finally, Emerson speaks about the importance of action for the scholar as a thinking man and explores the duties of such a man.

Religious leaders also pray for the body and the soul of the dead but lay a lot of emphasis on the soul.

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 [...]

Personally, I like the literal reading of this question, according to which there was an egg first, and only then a chicken.

Also, his philosophy conveys the importance and the beauty of the life of faith in the midst of a discouraging world.

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.

Rene Descartes, a French philosopher and the founder of the mathematical rationalism, was one of the prominent figures in the field of philosophy of the 17th century.

In summary, Descartes implies that since we do have an idea of a being that is all powerful and perfect, and since we can distinctly and clearly assign the attribute of necessarily existence to this [...]

Harry Frankfurt made major contributions to the philosophy of action through the idea of guidance and objection to compatibilists' proposal about the incongruity of causal determinism and ethical accountability.

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 [...]

Confucius taught that the role of the elders is to teach the youth and the role of the youth is to learn from the elders.

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.

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.

Hume's argument gets interesting when he postulates that regardless of the number of times we witness a succession of events, we cannot predict the succession of events.

Thus, Frankl claimed, "there are two races of men in this world, but only these two the "race" of the decent man and the "race" of the indecent man".

In philosophical terms, the concept of matter advances the fact that all things are made up of matter and all thoughts are created as a result of the interaction of matter.

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 [...]

The main concern of Foucault consists in the way technology has influenced quest for power among the ruling class in the society, and also the reason as to why the society is violating the rules [...]

The first clause calls for distribution economic and social disparities in a way that, "they are to be of the greatest benefit to the least-advantaged members of society".

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.

The Confucian gentleman is the one who lives by the highest moral standards and aims to help others achieve the realization of this goal.

Various social scientists and religious scholars have given different interpretations for the emergence of the universe and the forms of life in it.

The human nature of capitalism is encrusted in the philosophical thinking of the west. Therefore, western philosophy considers the existence of God and capitalism as the main influences on human nature.

Studying it, obtaining new and new facts, enlarging his knowledge, man started to think not only about the principles of the functioning of the surrounding world, but about the ways his percepts the information and [...]

Metaphysics tried to explain the origin of things on something that is beyond our scope of reasoning when measured against our capacity to understand things with respect to our senses.

The idea of necessity is that any necessary fact is true across all possible worlds; that is, we could not envisage it to be otherwise.

The ideas which do not resemble the objects that caused them are the ones of secondary qualities: sound, color, odor, and taste.

On the other hand, dualism denies physicalism, or that the physical facts of human bodies do not determine the composition of human beings.

This is the reason why Clifford states that the ship owner should be condemned on the basis of making a judgment without sufficient evidence In his pragmatism, James sees the truth in terms of usefulness [...]

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.

The theory is the opposite of utilitarianism in the sense that it considers both the means and the end, as opposed to utilitarianism which focuses only on the end.

However, merely being able to relate to nature is not enough to become a truly Confucian ideal of a person; according to the postulates of the teacher, one has to reach the state of a [...]

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 [...]

According to Locke, the state of nature is a state of perfect freedom and a state of equality that is only bound by the law of nature.

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'.

The reason of why Kant's ideas are preferable to me is that the categorical imperative allows to define what actions are obligatory and which ones should be forbidden and to choose the way that is [...]

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 [...]

In response to the skeptics, it can be argued that although sources of knowledge may be fallible, they are still helpful and allow people to function in the world.

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 [...]

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.

The straw man fallacy is a type of logical fallacy whereby one person misrepresents their opponent's question or argument to make it easier to respond.

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.

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.