Essays on Kreis

Responses

In Book VII of The Republic, now remembered as Plato’s greatest work, he talks of the benefits of an education and especially for those who are to govern a state. In this book, he relates most people to prisoners in a cave whose hands and legs are fettered. There’s no question that since they have been imprisoned in that cave since childhood, this is their interpretation of ‘reality’ and life which is not true if they get a chance to see the sun in broad daylight and in all its glory. Being able to see the light ...

English

The seeds of totalitarian ideologies were primarily planted by Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-78) during the French Revolution, in his criticism of private property. He promoted egalitarian and communal ownership of property. Francois Noel Babeuf (1760-97) another Frenchman believed ignorant masses have “to be organized to be made aware of their own interests and rights” (Kreis. The History Guide) by military means; those in power were justified in using “terror against the people, for the people’s own good” (Kreis). Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia were “both clearly totalitarian in practice” (Adams). National Socialism under Adolf Hitler is a prime ...

Biography of Karl Marx

Karl Marx's birth took place at the city of Treves in Germany on May 5, 1818. His father, a Jew, followed Protestantism. He was lawyer by profession. He belong to a middle class cultured family. He completed his graduation from gymnasium in Treves, Marx entered the University of Bonn. After that he joined the University of Berlin. He mainly studied there Philosophy, history and jurisprudence or the theory of law. After completion his course in 1841 he submitted the dissertation of his doctoral degree based on Epicurus. In Berlin Marx came in contact with Hegelian philosophy and he joined ...

The Renaissance was a time, as the name suggests, of rebirth and renewal in Europe; a time that led society into a new modern age. Inventions shaped society and brought it closer to what people would recognize today; and philosophical and religious enlightenment moved civilizations out of the dark ages and towards a deeper understanding of humanity. This essay will analyze the importance of these two features of the Renaissance as a portal to the modern age.

New inventions during the Renaissance still play a part in the modern age today, from everyday necessities such as the toilet to technological innovations like the microscope (“ ...

The Black Death was one of the most devastating episodes of plague to ever hit Europe; in the late 1340s, the Black Death raged through towns and cities.1 How the plague began, the vectors of the plague, how it spread, who it affected, as well as the social, political, and economic ramifications of the plague are all important topics to explore in understanding the overall impact of The Black Death during that time to western society. Many researchers believe the Black Death began in somewhere in China in the late 1930s, where its natural hosts, “various species of ...

Kant’s ‘Critique of Pure Reason’

Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason is generally accepted as the most influential work in “modern” Western philosophy. Coming at the end of the Enlightenment, and the opening of Romanticism, Kant’s great work offered a disciplined model for considering the great existential questions, such as whether or not God exists, whether there is an afterlife, a soul, etc. Reason, Kant argued, is the discipline by which such arguments, for or against, must proceed. Any argument that unduly relies on the theoretical, he reasoned, is highly suspect. Critique of Pure Reason offers provides a bridge between the traditional, religious orientation and ...