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.

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.

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.

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 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 [...]

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.

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

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 [...]

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.

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 [...]

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 [...]

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.

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

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 [...]

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.

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.

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 [...]

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.

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 [...]

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.

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.

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 [...]

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

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".

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.

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

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

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

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 [...]

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 [...]

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".

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.

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

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 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.

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 [...]

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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 [...]

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

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.

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 [...]

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 [...]

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

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 [...]

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.

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.

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 [...]

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

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 [...]

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 [...]

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

Through the way art is expressed, people have a way of understand the thoughts of the author as well as understanding the message the author was trying to communicate.

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.

I think the significance of metaphysic in philosophy is to explain the meaning of things that do not change. In such context, the society is observed as an individual.

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

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.

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'.

In conclusion, the allegory of the cave by Plato is a parable about knowledge, wisdom, and ignorance. The cave represents a world in which a person is placed initially, but by examining one's life and [...]

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.

The future of the Arab and Islamic world is dependent on the results of the battle between the teachings of al-Maududi and those of al-Ghazali.

Epicureanism constitutes an interdependent system that harbours the following views: the main purpose of human life as being the achievement of happiness as a result of absence of physical "pain and mental disturbance"; empirical approach [...]

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 [...]

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

The theory of rational egoism developed by Ayn Rand seems an optimal approach to the resolution of personal and societal issues from the moral perspective despite the presence of contradicting opinions in this regard.

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.

The most difficult thing is getting to know the truth, to know the truth it takes a lot and there is no prescribed procedure getting to know the same.

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".

Locke believes that the world is physical and thus in his account of solving the mind body problem, he says that the mind and body are just one and the same thing and continues to [...]

It is therefore important to point out the circumstances that led to the creation of the U.S.political system that incorporated the principles of utilitarianism and libertarianism.

According to Friedman, 1970 he believed that when organization engage in social responsibility, a closer analysis will reveal that it aims to improve its image in the eye of the consumers, the government, the local [...]

The concept of equality is significant in the discussion of liberty, property, and the role of government in the lives of people.

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 [...]

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.

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.

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.

What is right and what is wrong is not dependent on the object of interest or on the methods of justice, but in the eyes of the perceiver.

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

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 [...]

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

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

This essay examines Descartes' principle ideas of the utility of doubt for arriving at truths and the concept of dualism between the mind and the body.

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.

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 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.

Geertz's and Weber's argument is that religion influences the actions of various group members because it is larger as compared to the actions of any individual in a group.

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 [...]

Furthermore, due to the different laws and cultures in our world, it would be seemingly impossible to uphold such a rule According to Pojman, "the idea of rewarding the good and punishing the bad is [...]

The problem of determinism is that applying such a system to an individual would bring it to the point of absurdity.

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.

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.

This is the study of value that surpasses the ability of a man to reason over the universe and its state on the whole.

It tries to unravel the nature of truth and knowledge and to find out the basic values and importance of life.

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

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.

The two philosophers studied emotions to determine some of the common causes of this mental state, and the events that take place in the mind before one becomes emotional.

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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

Hochschild argues that the management of emotions in exchange for a wage leads to the "transmutation" of private life into a social one.

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 [...]

Many expert argue that Socrates was a representative and of "prototype of the theoretical optimist who with his belief in the explicability of the nature of things.

This great thinker had conducted a research on the issue and stood on the idea of physical inexistence due to the fact that is clearly detailed in his Meditations, in which he sought to establish [...]

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 [...]

It should be noted that unlike other reactions to these changes Adorno and Benjamin's stances have critical potential as both these authors can be placed within the Left tradition of philosophical thought.

The ideas of leadership and the responsibilities of those who decide to assume such roles have come to the attention of people many centuries ago.

The discussion addresses the query of whether continental philosophy considers that sensible human agency has the potential to alter the setting of people's 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.

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.