Essays on Metaphysics

Introduction to Philosophy 1. What are the three major branches of philosophy and what questions do they deal with? The three major branches of philosophy are metaphysics, epistemology, logic and axiology. Metaphysics is the study of the nature of reality. Epistemology is the study of the nature of knowledge. Logic is the study of the nature of arguments, while axiology is the study of the nature of value, indicating what is good and what does goodness mean. 2. Discuss the value of philosophy. Every human being lives on the basis of an overarching philosophy, whether through rational analysis or ...

1. Three major branches of philosophy are metaphysics, epistemology and axiology. Metaphysics investigates the reality, its value and structure. Epistemology studies the knowledge, its limitations, nature, as well as issues connected with the nature of truth. Axiology deals with the nature of value and determines what is good or bad. 2. Philosophy is an important part of every person’s live whether the person acknowledges it or not. It broadens the knowledge and understanding of the world and teaches to critically assess the reality, values and beliefs. Philosophy investigates the questions that are ignored by other disciplines and helps ...

Socratic problem consists in the precise determination of the contents of his teachings. The nature of the sources that we have greatly complicate our task: Xenophon’s book “Memoirs of Socrates”, the dialogues of Plato, various Aristotle’s statements, and "Clouds" by Aristophanes. For example, if we were to rely only on the work of Xenophon, we would have got the impression that the main Socrates’ interest was the education of decent people and responsible citizens, and he was not interested in the problems of logic and metaphysics. On the other hand, in Plato's dialogues, we can observe a metaphysician ...

Cesare Beccaria was native to an Noble household in Italy. He later became a jurist, criminologist, and a politician. However, he was recognized by most as a talented Jurist of Italy. He is well recognized for his works On Crime Punishment, which in high degree condemned torture and of convicted people. He is well remembered for his work on penology and the book on criminology. During his time, he ensured that that criminal justice and other forms of justice were promoted and adhered to. Beccaria was of the notion that cruel and arbitrary punishments should be condemned and done away with. His ...

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was born in Konigsburg, East Prussia. He attended a classical Latin School at age eight where he studied for the next eight years. He then moved to the University of Konigsburg where he studied mathematics, philosophy and physics. He left his studies for a while when his father died and earned a living as a private tutor. In 1755 he returned to the university and earned his doctorate. He became a professor there teaching metaphysics and logic. In 19792, the King of Prussia prohibited Kant from speaking or writing on religious subjects; Kant obeyed the order. As ...

Philosophy aims at creating a better understanding of life, nature, matter, God, and whole universe to us. The paper discusses the three aspects of philosophy such as metaphysics, epistemology, and political philosophy in terms of the theoretical framework laid down by prominent philosophers. The paper includes my own ideas regarding these aspects and also critically evaluates my ideals and the ideals of the philosophers so as to understand the distinction between both forms of ideas.

Metaphysics aims at exploring the reality of everything in this universe and countless theories and sub-categories have developed over the ...

A PHILOSOPHICAL DEBATE Ever since the beginning of time, Man has strived to discover the secrets of the Universe. From Aristotle to Socrates to the modern philosophers, every curious mind has tried to divulge answers from Mother Earth in order to satiate their burning thirst for the knowledge. Philosophy has solely existed to answer questions related to reality, existence, values, reason and mind. Philosophy has been divided into many subcategories. They include metaphysics, ethics, logic, aesthetics and epistemology. Whereas logic is connected with reasoning, epistemology attempts to garner the nature and scope of knowledge. Ethics refers to the ...

Rabbi Maimonides is a medieval Jewish philosopher who wields considerable influence on Jewish thought and on philosophy in general. He also contributed significantly to the codification of the Jewish law. His writings and views hold a prominent place in Jewish intellectual history. In the Guide for the Perplexed, Maimonides explores the concept of God and explains the plausible description of God according to Torah. Maimonides also spends significant amount of time in trying to understand the structure and characteristics of the universe. To this point, it becomes important that Maimonides wrote the book before scientific discoveries, so he draws from Aristotelian ...

Worldview refers to a set of suggestions and proposals that a person holds and deeply influences the life of people with similar believes. - The followers of Christian religion commonly regard their religion as a collection of ideas that may change their life and follow Christianity as a guideline to interact with society. Followers hardly comprehend their religion as a whole conceptual framework. - Following are the few examples of worldview narrated by different authors. - According to James Sire, the concept of worldview is just a conventional set of suppositions that one may hold of this world and its origin . ...

Ethics can be examined in many different manners, however, Kant’s model of ethics presents a framework to explain how people perceive ethics through reward and punishment. Kant feels that the only way to truly understand ethics is to experience a variety of ethical dilemmas and learn to solve them through emotional stimulus. Kant’s concept of moral obligation is that there is a priori concept of our minds. This essentially removes God as the basis for morality, and argues that we have free-will in regards to our own moral compass. Kant argues that ethics are learned throughout the course of ...

In this paper, I will discuss the present-at-hand and the ready-at-hand in Heidegger’s philosophy. Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) is a German philosopher who is often thought of in terms of the Existentialist movement in Continental philosophical tradition, but who did not prefer to be classified as an existentialist (McBride 131). Heidegger concerns himself with the deep metaphysical question of being in his book Being and Time — a job he never completed in his lifetime (Blattner 9). Heidegger has an ambitious project in his book — that is fundamentally to investigate being, a project he feels has been forgotten by philosophers (Heidegger 1). Theologians ...

Plato's Influence on Medieval Thought

Plato was born in 428/427 BCE in Athens, Greece. He was a Greek philosopher and Socrates’ student. Plato founded the Academy and best known for his efforts in philosophical works depicting unparalleled influence. Building on various demonstrations by individuals like Socrates that those considered as experts in every ethical matter did not have proper understanding necessary for a prompt human life, Plato came up an idea that the mistake were caused by their lack of proper engagement with a class of identities that he referred to as forms. Key examples of these forms include equality, beauty, and ...

The epigraph mentioned in the question has been taken from the journal The Medieval Church Encounters the Classical Tradition. This blame on medieval ages is most often credited to the Christian Churches for throwing away the minute sparks of science and other creative activities. However, the conformation of the scholars to this fact has proved to be a major hindrance to the real understanding of the medieval ages. It cannot be denied that the middle ages were the times of political and social turmoil and saw a steep decline in the fields of learning and literacy. But, it is the ...

The question of existence of God has been a bone of contention among many philosophers ever since philosophy existed. Earlier the arguments in favor of God dominated, but later, close to the time of modernity, it appears as if arguments against God’s existence have dominated, irrespective of the validity and plausibility of the arguments. However, even in the modern times, many philosophers tried to defend the existence of God. Among those Blaise Pascal was also one whose argument became famous with the name of Pascal’s wager. The main idea of the argument was that one must wager for ...

Two different moral philosophies, utilitarianism and Kant’s categorical imperative are utilized for analyzing whether J.’s action of embezzling her employer was correct, even if the end was to provide a better private tuition for her son. The utilitarianism philosophy is based on the principle of doing the greatest good for the biggest amount of individuals, while being free from pain and engaging in pleasure (Mill 220). However, the utilitarianism ethics provides that there should be clearly specified between simple, animal pleasures, and elevated pleasures, of which individuals with high intellectual capacities are capable. In this sense, Mill ( ...

1) Is Al-Kindi a fatalist? Can his position be reconciled with Islam (and if so how)? Based on his writings and teachings, the essential message of Al-Kindi (the earliest known Islamic philosopher) is that of fatalism – in essence, that our lives are conditioned in detail by a series of facts that are immutable and unchangeable. Al-Kindi’s perspective, which he outlines in his teachings, is that we can do nothing to change these circumstances and events, even when they are uncomfortable and painful to us. However, he also argues that we have the capability of joyfully affirming these circumstances and ...

The philosophical area in which this problem falls is the metaphysics because it raises the fundamental question of reality. The person who is existing after the accident has two personalities of a man and woman. They have mixed hormones and cannot be assumed to be male or female, me or my friend. It is against this backdrop that the question posed falls in the realms of metaphysics as it explains the nature of being, now that the personality is both male and female.

According to Descartes, the mind and body are two separate identities. They do not need each other ...

According to Habermas (1983), the notion of “project of modernity” came into focus during the period of the eighteenth century. It is worth mentioning that the spirit of aesthetic modernity discussed by the philosopher was extremely striking in the works of Baudelaire, avant-garde movements, Dadaism and surrealism. At this very time, Bergson presents his philosophy of the new time, showing the elusiveness, ephemerality and discontinuity of life. That’s is why the way of modernist representation of art is rather abstract and ambiguous. The representatives of modernism were rebelling against the whole normative system claiming that they have no ...

Philosophy is defined as something that is part of a person’s daily life. In ancient Greece, philosophy means love for wisdom, in which people invest deeply on knowledge than in any other matter on Earth. To them, intelligence is the most essential character of a person. One of the products of the great Philosophy is Socrates. Today, Socrates is known to be one of the fathers of Philosophy (Holbing).

Through the years, many definitions of Philosophy have persisted. One of these definitions that have been widely known in the field of Philosophy is the definition of Marcus Aurelius who is a ...

Copleston and Russell argued upon the metaphysical disagreement on the existence of God. This paper is an attempt to unravel the meanings behind Copleston’s arguments and to comprehend it further to be able to support the reality of God’s existence.

Copleston and Russell first agreed upon their understanding about the term “God”. By “God”, they mean the highest personal Being who is the creator of the world. The metaphysical argument was agreed upon by the two to be based from Leibniz’s argument about contingency.

Copleston explains that a 'contingent' being is a creature that possesses ...

Aristotle and Plato are two Greek philosophers well known for their profound and great contributions to academic knowledge not only through their philosophical theories, but also through their great insights in sociology and economics. Considering that the work incorporated by the two still stands affirm, this paper will argue in favor of the notion that the work of the two still remain relevant in the contemporary times or rather the 21st century evident through the application of the same.

Plato is a classical scholar who name is regarded highly in the field of academics. He was born Greece around 423 ...

1. Introduction The most of the people in the world was guided by some of the philosophers. The philosopher is the great thinkers that they can provide good advice to lead the good society. The ancient kings obeyed the advice of philosophers. The most famous among them are Socrates. The Socrates is a great thinker and philosopher; his sayings are still followed by most of the people. The one among the best philosopher is Confucius. The Confucius was born in 551- 447 BCE in the nation called china. The Confucius is the most influential philosopher in china. The thinking ...

Racism and ethnic discrimination in the West have been core issues of concern since the slave trade era and the colonial era. There was a form of legally sanctioned racism. Colonial powers used legislative institutions instituted and controlled by them to impose racism on the societies they colonized. In the United States of Americas the European Americas, particularly the Anglo Americans had privileges over the natives in terms of voting rights, citizenship, literacy, immigration, criminal procedures and land acquisition for a period spanning from 17th Century to the 1960s. These privileges were felt by the Anglo Americans and Europeans all over ...

Michail Bakunin was a great revolutionary and so was his political thought. He lived in Tsarist Russia in 19th century and was fighting against any form of state organization in favor of a common to mankind fraternity. Revolution for Bakunin was a key word of human existence. He is known for the idea of collective anarchism. The Russian revolutionary proclaimed that a will to revolt is the most natural thing in the world by stating that “Even a worm turns against the foot that crushes it”. In this essay I will connect this quote and its meaning to a reflection on Antient Greek tragedy and ...

Analytic summary notes Summary notes Mills contends in the book, that the most important task for social scientists and sociologists is to create a link between different social environments of individuals and social and historical forces where the experiences are entangled. The view challenges that of structural functionalist because it creates a new opportunity for a social scientist to inhibit in relation to the broad social structure. The broad social structure is produced through a combination of individual function. In essence, the author was trying to make an attempt of reconciling two varying concepts of social reality, the society and the ...

Aristotle was an ancient Greek philosopher born in 384 B.C. He was also a student of Plato as well as the teacher of one of the greatest leaders ever, Alexander the great. He is seen as one of the most prominent and significant founders in the western philosophy. He wrote a great deal of work that included ethics, biology, and physics among other fields. He was indeed versatile with information. It is from all the writings that were assembled later on that were finally given the name metaphysics. All these, however, are referred to as first philosophy according to Aristotle. This ...

A first look at nature shows us the existence of corporeal substances and the universal presence of change. We see that all bodily substances, whether living or not, are subject to generation and corruption. Every change has a starting point and a terminal point. As regards substantial changes, the terminal point is what determines its nature. Aristotle calls this terminal point as the form, understood not in the geometric sense, but as that, which determines the nature of the substance. The substantial form is the reality or perfection produced in any substantial change. Aside from the form, a substrate is also necessary ...

The death penalty is absolutely one of the most hotly debated issues in criminal law, and in national politics. The issue becomes one of whether or not the death penalty is successful as a deterrent, or if it merely kills inmates, some of whom may be innocent. There are those who believe that the death penalty, being the ultimate punishment for an offender, is a threat that can successfully discourage people from performing wrong doing (and therefore foregoing that fate). Philosopher Immanuel Kant is one of the loudest philosophical voices to advocate for the death penalty; his notions of Ethics involve ...

Introduction In simplest of words, theology is the study of religions and religious beliefs. Some scholars choose to call it the science of deities and divinity. But atheistic scholars do not very much approve of theology as a viable branch of study or ‘science’. Nevertheless, theology has been helping religious people understand, follow and even reform their religions with time. The great theologians in history have acted like a guiding star to bring changes in religious beliefs and rituals. And in the course of past several centuries, the major religions in the world have been modified mainly because of these ...

It started with the bullfighting. I had never been a fan of the sport itself; indeed, I had never really considered it; but there I was, in Valencia, watching the matadors wave their flags at the heads of the bulls. I had never seen anything like it before, and it was an image that will be seared into my brain as demonstrative of my time in Spain for the rest of my life. There is so much to say about bullfighting. There is a rich history of bullfighting in Spain and Portugal, but everyone seems to have an opinion about ...

Popper’s View on Science Applied to Management Theory

Popper’s view on science disregards the induction, considering that theories must be submitted to experiments before considered scientific, otherwise things, if they cannot be experimented, theories are not scientific, but of other nature, such as metaphysical, and the philosopher aims to differentiate between the empirical science and the metaphysics (Corvi, 2005). This perception contributes to expanding human knowledge, because taking knowledge for granted determines scientific stagnation, while testing proven theories as falsifiable leads to further discovery and learning new theories, generating scientific advancement. Applied to management, Popper’s view ...

Aristotle and Plato are two of the most famous philosophers of time. Plato was actually a teacher of Aristotle at his academy. Aristotle found a lot of faults in the philosophical theories developed by Plato even though he was his teacher. He became his teacher’s greatest critic. In spite of this criticism, Aristotle was significantly influenced by Plato. This makes it relatively easy to compare their works due to the fact that they target the same philosophical aspects even though the most of the points in their philosophies are contradictory. The philosophical aspects explored by the two included metaphysics, ethics, ...

Karl Heinrich Marx was born in a family of nine to Henrietta Marx and Heinrich in Trier in Prussia. He was born on 5th of May 1818. Karl Marx was brought up by a father who was a lawyer who was extremely successful Voltaire and Kant. The father was also a fervent Prussian reform activist. Despite his parents bringing him as a Jew in the ancestry of rabbinical, in 1816 his father converted to Christianity at 35 years of age. At school, Marx was never the best student. He was always an average student. For twelve years he was educated at home. After a ...

Socrates and Machiavelli are two great philosophers who believed in different ideologies about how people are supposed to live in a nation under administration and authority. However, the two had some merging points, where they could agree on some issues. According to Socrates, people in the community depended on each other for their survival since no person is complete without the other. He further postulated that people have different capacities to perform various tasks, and thus no person can have all the necessary art. Therefore, Socrates advocated for mutual interdependence among members of the society (Kreeft, 2002). On the ...

As far as the approaches and worldviews of the Buddha, Rene Descartes and Socrates are concerned, it seems that the Buddha would be most similar to Socrates. Both great thinkers started exploring a new aspect of metaphysics (reality) and epistemology of the truth more than two-thousand years ago. Even though a distance of thousands of miles separated these brilliant minds, however, the philosophies they developed were quite similar. Both observed the world around them and ended up realizing that people were doing things the wrong way, just like they are today. As both the Buddha and Socrates tried to make ...

I intend to discuss the ethical implications of euthanasia throughout the course of this essay. Firstly I will be touching on the German philosopher Kant regarding his theories on personhood and consciousness in terms of people in vegetative states such as Terri Schiavo. I then will be moving on to broader issues of euthanasia such as the right to die and the legality of assisted suicide refusal of treatment the utilitarian perspective and the Nicomachean ethics of Aristotle. The purpose of which is to determine whether or not euthanasia is an ethical approach to incurable illnesses or disabilities which ...

Kant is well known for his philosophy which he developed in three parts, with the first being the groundwork of metaphysics (Kant, 7). Here Kant looked at the relationship of the rational or knowledge of morality with philosophical knowledge. The second part of Kant’s work focused on the critique of practical reason and the last part of his philosophy looked at the metaphysics of moral. Through Kant’s philosophy he tried to establish the relevance of morals with the actions that people purpose. This is why he tried to convert what people believed, knowledge of morality into philosophical ...

This paper talks about the Nature of Philosophy and describes in detail the main inquiries of philosophy. An attempt has been made to explain areas that are widely accepted to be ‘main’ and of primary importance. These include the areas of Logic, Metaphysics, Epistemology, Ethics and Aesthetics.

The paper also delves into the approaches used by philosophers to address the numerous questions raised by each specific inquiry. These methods are described with respect to the modules of thinking or actions so used by contemporary as well as age-old philosophers.

The paper then goes on to explain how culture ...

Metaphysically and epistemologically, the philosophical view that human beings have both mind and body is termed as dualism. However, there is much philosophical disagreement (dichotomy) about the exact association between mind (spirit) and body (matter).

Idealists hold the view that the mind is distinct from physical objects while the materialists maintain the exact opposite. For the former, the self and personality are attributable to one’s immortal soul while for the latter, they assert that the mind (soul) is in some ways a product of the body. Furthermore, generally, idealists hold the view that the act of knowing takes place ...

When the sociological theory is mentioned, many people tend to think of the likes of Marx, Weber, Durkheim and others who are famed for having come up with these theories. However, what the people fail to appreciate is that there were other philosophers who equally contributed to the body of knowledge in this area. One of them is Auguste Comte. According to Besant 5), Comte was one of the philosophers who shaped the modern understanding of philosophy. He also has quiet a lot to do with the modern understanding of science, religions and positivism (Wernick 22). However, not much is ...

This theory was Immanuel Kant’s first contribution in philosophy. Kant made a great significance in his debut since he disagreed with theories generated by renowned philosophers like Aristotle. This theory was a unique theory that explained a new method of analyzing morals and responsibilities. Kant’s theory works from down the common sense then up to the laws that govern our deeds (Alison, 67). The theory tends to claim that acting right does not require rewards as it is everyone’s duty to do what’s right or what or what is required by law.

Kant’s theory is different from ...

Introduction to John Locke and Immanuel Kant John Locke was born on the 29th of August 1632 to John Locke (the elder) (a county lawyer and clerk) and Agnes Keene in Wrington, England. Locke and his only brother had to be raised by their father their mother having died while they were still very young (Bourne, 2008). Reportedly, during childhood, Locked had unusually poor health and had to be tutored at home in most occasions. His home tutoring was further occasioned by World War II.

At age 14, Locke was admitted into the Royal College of St. Peter in ...

1.0 Introduction The Punic wars are a group of three classical wars for supremacy in the Mediterranean region that were started in the year 264BC and eventually ended in the year 146BC. These wars were between the Roman Empire and the Empire of Carthage. These three battles were fought in three major places; portions of North Africa, Western parts of the Mediterranean Sea and parts of Sicily. It is important to point out that before the battle; Rome and Carthage were neighbouring empires who existed peacefully as a result of the existence of a peace treaty. For us to understand the ...

The musical drama Tristan und Isolde is Richard Wagner’s testament to his power to impart musical dominance. Regarded as one of the best musical dramas in history, Tristan und Isolde has imparted deep influence and inspiration due to its eclectic amalgamation of ideas circling on the realm of metaphysics. Musical aestheticism is the overriding force in the entire drama, the illustration of its overall poeticism being highly reliant on the way its musical scores are composed. The drama imparts its messages through Wagner’s emphasis on the drama’s entire musical agglomeration. Music strongly portrays various character emotions ...

Before Moses climbed Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments, justice existed. Before 2500 BC when the first ruler of the Babylonian Empire Hammurabi gave his people the first written law, justice existed. Fairness and justice are an inherent human quality. Therefore, swift and fair justice must always exist. Punishment is the cornerstone of justice in society. A crime should fit the punishment in an ideal society. The death penalty has existed for thousands of years. In the 21st century, emphasis was laid more on the question of humanity. Amnesty International believes "the death penalty is the ultimate ...

Chinese metaphysics is known to be one of the oldest and the most reputed of all the various spiritual and social theories that existed in the world. Decision making is an important part of the various theories that are developed in order to explain the reason behind the true spirit of any given discussion and therefore it is important to have logical understanding of theories in order to have a sound decision making technique. Ti and Yung are also one of the most well known terms in the Chinese metaphysics and where lot of concepts are hypothesized, they are extremely ...

This paper will argue that despite habit, custom, and the existence of God, one does not know in fact if the future will be a resemblance of the past. Basing on the works of famous philosophers Immanuel Kant and David Hume, we’ll come to the conclusion that no one can foresee one’s future even on the basis of strict knowledge of the past and even having habits and customs that presumably have to lead to some definite outcome. The two thinkers argued about those things, and using their ideas we’ll substantiate the thesis under consideration.

Hume was ...

Multinational companies like Nike have been accused of their insidious exploitation of labor. The practices of Nike with respect to its treatment of labors in third world countries have received considerable attention due to violation of labor laws. The reasons behind this is that several developing countries don’t have strict adherence to the labor laws, unlike Europe and United States and the business from multinational companies are promoted by the political system. The labor exploitation in third world countries are ignited by unresponsive government. Though, the activists across the world have been compelling Nike to follow labor laws ...

1) How can you tell if you are thinking about ontology and not epistemology? Ontology mainly deals with the study of nature or reality. It also involves a study on the relations of nature and mainly deals with questions concerning what entities exist and how they can be grouped based on the relationships in the hierarchy. Epistemology on the other hand aims at giving the definition of knowledge, how it is acquired and ways in which we can know what we know. Therefore if a person is thinking about nature and classifications of organisms, then he/she is thinking about ontology ...

Epistemology relates to the pursuit of knowledge and science – it raises questions about the nature of knowledge, the way in which we acquire it, and how to verify that this knowledge is, indeed, true. Plato’s thoughts on epistemology had a profound effect on his metaphysics, including the theory of Forms. According to Plato, the theory of Forms has a profound effect on how man interacts with the world around him. This manifests itself in graining true knowledge through Forms to understand the nature of being, as well as possessing strong ethics, which leads to living together gracefully through politics. This unique ...

Introduction Utilitarianism is a principle that the moral worth of an action is determined by its usefulness in maximizing utility and minimizing negative utility. Utility is the pleasure, preference satisfaction and knowledge. The moral worth of an action is determined by its outcome. In this study we are going to compare Mill, John Stuart’s work 'Utilitarianism’ and Kant, Immanuel’s work 'Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals.' The study will also come up with findings based on the comparisons if the end justifies the means. John Mill’s account on Utilitarianism is primarily influenced by Jeremy Bentham ...

It is hard to imagine that in our modern society, which is so materialistic, down-to-earth and at times does not trust even proved facts, a lot of philosophical ideas procreated in ancient times still remain very important and influential. Most of them are based on the substances that cannot be touched, heard or even seen, nevertheless, more and more people are involved in solving philosophical issues. Metaphysics is one of the most disputable branches of philosophy that bothers people all over the world, apart from their social status, gender or age. As the matter of fact, many of those ...

Alfred North Whitehead was born in 1861 and died in 1947. He is well acknowledged as one of British academic developers of the twentieth century. Basically, he was a logician, mathematician and philosopher and is greatly known for his work in philosophy of science and logic in mathematics (Victor, 1985). He contributed and pioneered in reasoning different logics through demonstrating how mathematics may be derivative from few rational concepts and further created wide ranging systems of philosophy. He authored the land mark three in collaboration with others which contributed to the logic of twentieth-century in metaphysics and philosophy of ...