Philosophical Theories Essay Examples and Topics

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420 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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  • Pages: 9
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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 Both views present quite polarizing extremes and have outdated pre-conceived notions, as in the case [...]
  • Pages: 1
  • Words: 368

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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  • 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

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

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

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

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

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

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 [...]
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 681

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

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

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

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

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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  • Words: 340

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

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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  • Words: 930

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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“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

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.
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  • Words: 1120

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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  • Words: 890

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.
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  • Words: 966

The Theory of Good Life

In this theory, Aristotle refers to a good life as being a happy life. Aristotle says that good life, since it is a final end, is explained in terms of human functions.
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  • Words: 1452

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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  • Words: 923

Inauthenticity and Authenticity Differences

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 [...]
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  • Words: 697

Skepticism as a Philosophical Theory

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.
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  • Words: 667

Skepticism and Its Implications

This essay seeks to explain skepticism, exemplify its propositions regarding the unreliability of normal sources of knowledge, and address the theory's implications and possible responses to its proponents.
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  • Words: 673

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

Descartes’ Method of Doubting Everything

In his method of doubt, he says that the world could be unreal and that God is a deceiver. His mind-body dualism depends on believing that God is not a deceiver.
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  • Words: 631

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.
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1378

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.
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 845

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.
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  • Words: 836

Perdurance Versus Endurance: Theories Comparison

For instance, the supporters of the hypothesis often tend to the ideas of the theory of relativity, where they consider time as the unit of measurement that does not have constant indicators.
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Camus and Nagel Views on the Human Life – Philosophy

Although Camus and Nagel agree that absurdity plays the great role in the human life, the thinkers' views are rather contradictory, and Nagel's argument seems to be more convincing because the author focuses on the [...]
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1394

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 [...]
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  • Words: 1393

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

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.
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 830

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

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 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 [...]
  • Pages: 8
  • Words: 2172

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

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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  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1650

Direct Realism

The perceptions that influence the validity of the direct realism theory have a great impact on understanding the reality. Through the information that is relayed from the material object to the mind through sensory nerves, [...]
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1391

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

The problem for criterion

It is clear through the literature that has come to man, that philosophers started being increasingly concerned with the task of justifying the possibility, and therefore, the credibility of human knowledge of the entire world.
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  • Words: 1591

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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  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1472

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

Wilhelm Dilthey’s Hermeneutic Perspective

Consequently, the subject matter, which is the suitability of Dilthey's modes of apprehension to revealing the common ideas of groups of citizens from the perspective of hermeneutics, can be understood by discussing others' views.
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  • Words: 570

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

Immanuel Kant’s Theory of Knowledge

Basing on this statement, therefore, empirialists have to carry out a rigorous test to determine the relationship between the decisions that individuals make, and the prior knowledge affecting the decisions making.
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  • Words: 944

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 [...]
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 547

Morality of a Defense Attorney

Because of the responsibilities that lawyers have once they have committed themselves to their clients, there are times that their morality is put to test."A lawyer has to be with a client loyal, knowledgeable, skillful, [...]
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 1174

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

Reader and Text Relationships

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 [...]
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 558

Philosophy: Free Will of Aristotle and Lucretius

The philosopher says that every action having place under the influence of the external force is not a free will, which comes from the inner desire and motivation of an individual. Moreover, the movie is [...]
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 608

Material Monism: Nature of the World and Universe

However, the evolution of society and human thought resulted in the increased efficiency of cognition tools and the appearance of new ideas to describe the main regularities according to which the world and universe function.
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 559
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