Hume’s problem of induction is a problem, which still pervades philosophical thinking today. It is, in essence, a problem of how we may ‘know’ from prior experience, that the past is conformable to the present and future. How, for example, we may know that tomorrow the sun will rise.

When a human being is conceived he or she begins existence in a state of unparalleled intimacy. The body of a mother holds the child in continual contact as the child’s body develops. For months the child remains in this safe and constantly embracing space. The initial occurrence of separation takes place in the experience of childbirth. Children feel the first painful rejection when they get forcefully disconnected from their original sanctuary of perfect safety.

Existence before the big bang

The Crito features a dialogue between Socrates and Crito, a dear friend, in which Crito attempts to persuade Socrates to escape from prison thus avoiding his imminent death. This is a fictional dialogue based on real events, and it therefore ends with Crito being persuaded by Socrates and Socrates dies from poisoning by hemlock (as records show to have actually happened). It is the case however that the arguments Crito offers for Socrates’ escape are weak “straw-man” arguments and Socrates commo

‘Brecht’s and Okigbo’s work represent two different political approaches to modernism’. Discuss with reference to Bertolt Brecht’s Life of Galileo and at least two poems by Christopher Okigbo.

Plato’s Theory of the Forms comes, in the main, from The Republic as well as, in part, from the dialogues Phaedo, Meno and Euthyphro. Plato never described or set forth a single a universal argument for the Theory of the Forms and so it is something that has to be patched together from various sources. However, from looking at a number of Platonic texts we can construct what appears to be his argument for the Theory of the Forms.

How lost e-mails effect us

During his trial Socrates argued that human wisdom came from the acknowledgement of human ignorance (Plato, 1969, P. 52), a position arrived at via the traditional account of knowledge as justified true belief. Because of such conclusions this account, which leaves us without a useful “knowledge”, is not without its detractors.

This article probes the role of Nation-States and Core and Periphery relations within the 20th century. In order to understand how the concept of Imperialism fits into the history of the 20th century.

Before Thales, any explanation as to the nature and origins of the Cosmos and the Earth within it was solely from mythological accounts. Hesiod’s Theogony tells us,

(116ff) “At first Chaos came to be, but next wide-bossomed Earth…”

The arrival at truth involves considerable personal risk. Herd mentality predominates cultural acceptance and so free thinkers seeking their own truths frequently face ostracization and isolation. Religious conformity and meaningless daily distractions constantly challenge those who seek to discover meaning of emotions, drives, and human will. This article explores the meaning of such a solitude as explained by Nietzsche in "Beyond Good and Evil."

Ability of the uneducated to process thought

To what Extent does Freud's Theory of the Psychical Apparatus Reflect his Evolutionary Thinking?

Edmund Gettier wrote an argument against the idea that justified true belief constitutes knowledge. Gettier’s argument defines knowledge using the form:
(a) S knows that P if and only if (i) P is true, (ii) S believes that P, and (iii) S is justified in believing that P. Gettier then claims that this definition of knowledge is not sufficient. Gettier argues that it is possible for a person to be justified in believing a proposition which is in fact false, thus undercutting the ability of that pe

For all existentialist philosophers and thinkers anxiety or anguish (as I will refer to it from now) is of great significance for two separate reasons. Firstly, it is important because it arises out of the existential ontology of being and, as such, as the natural progression of their conception of what it is for us to be. Secondly, it is significant, particularly for Sartre, because of its ethical ramifications and the concept of anguish is one that underpins his whole (albeit hard to solidly f

In his Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes famously claims that without a central authority, the life of man would be ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short’. In a state of nature in which man is competitive, diffident and vainglorious, cooperation would never be rational and as a result, mankind would be doomed to a perpetual war of all against all.

‘Seeing is believing’ is a commonly held opinion. This proposition represents “naive realism”, which neglects the active role of individuals in interpreting perceptions (Gal, 2002, p 529). This is akin to naïve psychology where the individual functions without grasping the mechanism behind his/her observations.

In Theatetus Plato sought to formulate an absolute theory of knowledge, one that is “unerring” or possibly objective. He sought to unify or transcend the presocratic philosophers, particularly the contrast between Parmenides and Zeno’s monism and the pluralism of Heraclitus and Protagoras. Plato’s answer is the dualism of the senses and the Forms, the search for knowledge consisting of the discovery of or participation with innate ideas.

The following essai, is precisely that. An attempt, or a try if you prefer, to reckon, or deal with the possibility that even when I am dealing with what I think is my own thought, I am actually already dealing with the thought of another. A rudimentary attempt to deal with the linguisticality of transcendental subjectivity.

In the writings of Plato, one is introduced to the philosophic teachings of Socrates. Socrates is famous not for what he knew, but precisely for what he claimed he did not know. There are many dialogues with Socrates and his fellow Athenian citizens and in the vast majority of them, Socrates maintains a position of ignorance when speaking with others about certain ideas. Socrates’ scheme of argument is one in which he raises questions about the positions that the others may hold to be true. Duri

Beyond love. The regions beyond romantic love

What does it mean for someone to be morally responsible for his actions? One could say that someone is morally responsible for his actions if it is appropriate to make a moral assessment of his action. Examples of such assessment might include praise, blame, resent, punishment etc. If it considered appropriate to, for example, punish or reward someone for a given action then they can be considered morally responsible.

"I shall suppose, therefore, that there is, not a true God, who is the sovereign source of truth, but some evil demon, no less cunning and deceiving than powerful, who has used all his artifice to deceive me."
(Descartes 1641)

There has been a long philosophical dispute concerning the relation between analytic and synthetic truths. The distinction of these terms goes as far back to at least Leibniz. Leibniz distinguished conceptual truths from factual truths with the distinction between truths of reason, and truths of fact. Simply speaking, truths of reason are those truths that are necessary and its opposite is impossible, and those of fact are contingent, and their opposite is possible.

This project was originally conceived as being much larger than it resulted; to include all the major contributors to Western Philosophy from Thales to Derrida. This would take months of work to shell out. Given the conditions of gathering the data, editing it and managing it in a presentable format is tougher than it sounds. Then again, it is of no consequence to the project. I caved in to time conditions and the result focused upon one man whom has become more important now than when he lived.

The human brain weighs approximately three pounds and influences everything a person does. You may not realize it, but your brain is not the same today as it was yesterday or last month. The brain is a continuously changing collection of cells. When you learn something new or have a new experience, new synapses form. Some synapses get stronger, or some synapses may even disappear.

Before this question can be answered it will be important to define a few things. What do we mean by utilitarianism and what does it mean to say it is, or isn’t an acceptable ethic for animals ? On what criteria is ‘acceptable’ being judged? I shall leave the former definition for the opening part of this essay and deal now with the latter. I shall understand the phrase “an acceptable ethic for animals” as an ethic which is rational to apply to animals and one which is practical when applied to

Marion Morrison’s representation of the American experience in Wayne shaped our perceptions. Wayne represents the ideal of masculinity, self-sufficiency, strength, justice, and liberty; and we act in accordance with that shared knowledge. In order to understand the significance of John Wayne, and the discourse which is informed by him, we should investigate how Wayne was constituted of Morrison’s experiences through his life, and also how the Wayne persona acts upon our discourse.

Peter Singer’s “Animal Liberation” is an interesting insight on how we should view humans in comparison to animals. The article discusses the tyranny of humans over animals. This article exemplifies Singer’s utilitarian belief. Singer’s belief combines the equal consideration of interests with the idea that the right action is the one, which yields the largest rate of satisfaction.

This piece presents an elucidation and evaluation of Hebdige’s theory of sub-cultural style. To achieve this aim we have considered Hebdige’s intellectual antecedents to build a coherent picture of his sub-cultural theory. Then to evaluate his claims on the nature of sub-cultural style we ill consider it in relation to the punk sub-culture.

Heraclitus’ ontology can be interpreted as based either on an incorporeal rationality or on material substance. While both are arguable, it is undeniable that both operate on an account that in either interpretation, the human soul and the world operate on a doctrine of flux.

Baudrillard’ss most famous contribution to philosophy is his theory of hyperreality. In this essay I shall first explain this theory and then describe how it is relevant to the news media of late capitalist society.

An old Luftwaffe pilot remembers a clear day

The question of whether or not our ethical judgments have an objective basis is a question that has been grappled with intensely since the time of Plato. There has been a great deal of literature produced on the subject and the avenues of argumentation that have been pursued are copious in number.

A Critique of Superempirical Virtues as Indicators of Objective Truth in the Selection of Scientific Theories

A car burning in 1932

death of reality

1. Prima facie at least, there are differences between the notion of freedom analysed from a first-person’s perspective from that analysed from the third-person’s perspective. But are there really differences between them? If not, why not? If there are, what exactly are the differences?

Any answer to this question must include a study of Voltaire’s attitudes towards politics, society and religion, each of which we will be examining in turn, and which are likely to reveal inconsistencies in the traditional view taken of Voltaire as a subversive. In doing so we must also offer commentary on sources relevant to this topic. These include Voltaire’s extensive correspondence and works such as 'The Age of Louis XIV', 'Philosophical Dictionary', 'Letters on England', and of course 'Can

In this paper I will be arguing that true a priori knowledge is only possible in a way such that any belief formed totally a priori will be merely trivially true.

“Let me tell you why you are here. You have come because you know something. What you know you can’t explain but you feel it. You’ve felt it your whole life, felt that something is wrong with the world…it is this feeling that brought you to me. Do you know what I’m talking about?” Morpheus. (Larry and Andy Wachowski, 2000) Everyone can identify with this feeling represented in the quote at least once in their lives.

In his 2004 book Mind, philosopher John Searle attempts to provide a solution to Descartes' mind-body "problem". No solution is needed, however, because there really is no problem.

There is a commonly-held view amongst contemporary scientists that Freud's theories are unscientific. This essay argues that Freud's theories are no less scientific than other theories in science, and that their dismissal is not only unjustified, but also impractical in psychological theories of the mind.

Descartes argument for existence is now incredibly famous, it claims, “Cogito ergo sum.” The usual English is, “I think, therefore I am.” Descartes uses the cogito argument as a deductive proof of his existence, a method to know that existence is indubitable and certain, and escape global scepticism. This is important as it not only enables knowledge of the self (one serious epistemological problem), but also allows certain knowledge (another serious epistemological problem). It is hardly surpri

The wrong side of time

The following text is based on mainly on the ideological political thoughts of Marx and Gandhi. What is claimed here is by no way new, however it is felt that these kind of ideas are losing popular ground to a more violent approach and hence need to be said again. This article aims to discuss how a socialist state could be brought about without the need for a violent revolution and what an alternative could be.

This Essay presents the argument that Youth Culture, with its emphasis on consumerism is superficially rebellious and politically conservative in the last analysis.

One of the central tenets of all existentialist philosophy is that of freedom and choice. Man, by his very nature, is a free being and he must choose and choose for himself alone. In the existential world, God or No God, one must choose and accept responsibility for that choice. It is this entire and heavy responsibility that is Anguish in existentialist philosophy. In The Fall by French-Algerian existentialist writer Albert Camus the central character Jean-Baptiste Clamence remarks,

A look at two theories of love, one put forward by Aristophanes the other by Diotima.

The question of whether voluntary amputations should be performed is a difficult one. Within this essay, I will argue that, given certain conditions, satisfying an apotemnophile’s desire for surgery is ethical. I will first examine the issue of patient autonomy, both doctor and patient initiated, and how it informs the apotemnophilia debate. In discussing the second type of patient autonomy – I will explore the trend towards a service oriented commercialism within medicine and why this should be

Sensorial poem

THESIS:
This paper will show that as the dust settles over the Carnap-Quine dispute, the double standard concerning meaningfulness for ontological questions and scientific hypotheses that Carnap created has collapsed. This paper will challenge the verification theory of meaning as ultimately self-destructive, that is to say, meaningless under its own criterion. Finally, it will offer a view of metaphysics that may well withstand the pragmatic demands of philosophers such as Carnap and Quine.

The concepts of alienation and surplus-value are central to Marx’s criticisms of capitalism. The current mode of production, that developed and is developing by expansion of the commodity exchange system. The relation of individuals to the means of production and therefore the production of commodities is indispensable to Marx’s notion of alienation and surplus-value.

Albert Camus is regarded as the premier illumination of the philosophy known as Absurdism, which is often considered a pessimistic version of Existentialism and sometimes the division is not even recognised. The optimistic existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre was a friend of Camus; the two met during the Nazi occupation of France in the resistance movement.

As Russell asks: “Is there any knowledge in the world which is so certain that no rational man can doubt it?”

A definition of knowledge, first given by Plato in his ‘Meno’, states that knowledge has three criteria. He claims that one only knows something if one believes in it, if it is true and if the belief that it is true is justified.

Throughout history, starting from Judeo Christian until present modern day, women was treated and thought as she is a property that has no human rights whatsoever, but only treated as if she is here to exist only to satisfied men’s desire and procreate. In the Judeo Christian text, the book of Judges speaks for itself. There is a story of a concubine that was handed over ,by his husband to a mob, only to be raped, beaten, tortured, and die at the end in the hands of his husband’s doings.# The be

In The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche dichotomized human nature into two basic elements; the Apollinian and Dionysian. The Apollinian is image that gives form to, or expresses, Dionysian raw emotion. The unity of Dionysian and Apollonian elements in the tragedy ultimately allows the spectator to experience the ecstasy of Primal Unity, as specific images are understood to be universals, and these universals are identified with on a universal, rather than individual, level.

On classic Liberalism and the justification of Colonialism.

“The right of property is the guardian of every other right, and to deprive the people of this, is in fact to deprive them of their liberty.” – Arthur Lee

In his “The Second Treatise on Government”, John Locke argues that we do have a natural right to private property and it is this argument that will be primarily focused on. His aim in the text is to defend the right of individuals to own external things, privately and almost without limitation.

THE PROBLEMS:

Story inspired by the draft EU constitution.

Ronald Munson, in his essay “Why Medicine is not a Science,” argues that although medicine may be scientific it is not a science. He provides three main arguments to support his claim and it these arguments that I will focus on primarily to assess whether his claim is successful. I will also supplement his third argument that surrounds the reducibility of medicine to science with arguments from Kenneth Schaffner who provides a slightly different argument to Munson. Ultimately I will attempt to s

History is pregnant again; ready to foster the future the present is unwilling to bear. A future in which relativism will, yet again, be forced by rationalism to lay bare all miscarriages conceived by its innate inability to rationally nurture ever-expanding life/existence. And first among the stillborn to be exposed will be the Noble Savage – a myth that has, in the West, been the lop-sided smile of cultural relativism.

This article is a reflection on Walt Whitman´s inclusion of a multitude of voices in Song of Myself as, for example, the urban, marginal and forbidden voices. The inclusion of these voices is connected to the author´s ethical position of regarding the values of equality, respect, universality, freedom, diversity and, specially, responsibility.

Two of Peter Abelard’s works, Ethics (or “Know Thyself) and the Dialogue are concerned with positioning ethics (i.e., the discipline of morals) in relation to various methods of human assessment, encompassing rules imposed by civil and religious institutions.

This paper outlines the materialist conception of history and its relation to other theories of history and social change.

In this paper, I will examine Steven Emmanuel’s reasons for denying that Kierkegaard’s affinity with pragmatism can be established by way of a comparison with Pascal (rather than, or in addition to, James). These reasons are (1) although there are important similarities between Kierkegaard and Pascal, Kierkegaard does not present a straightforward Pascalian wager-style argument; (2) he does not argue that it must be rational to believe in Christianity; and (3) Kierkegaard emphasizes sin and red

Poem about age and beauty

Back in the 1930s various socialist and Marxist groups decided that orthodox-Western civilization could only be destroyed from within. Gramsci, the Frankfurt school, Derrida and the post-modernists along with others observed that a flanking movement which took over the media, the political elite and the university system, was the only feasible plan to achieve Marxist domination of the Western nation state. We can see the results of their insight today. A vibrant 5th column of socialistic thought

It is my thesis that Lucretius is wrong in his insistence that the fear of death is irrational. In his symmetrical belief that we should be as indifferent to the time of our death as we are to the time of our birth he does not have to defend against any accusations that are not born of arguments relating to the self; namely those arguments that attempt to undermine Lucretius’ argument by way of denying the validity of some common epicurean beliefs surrounding this fear of death.

One of the key dynamics of human social interaction is the polarity between trust and distrust. Trusting in another is having faith in them. Having faith in another person is always a leap of faith. We must act as if we know the result when the result is still unknown. We jump into the void of the unknown and hope that something is going to catch us.

The relationship between the indigenous people of Australia and their native lands are essential to their traditional culture. The colonization of their nations by Europeans has lead to a destruction of this relationship and therefore of indigenous cultural practices and norms. This process was predicated upon European cultural norms and established a cultural hegemony of European culture over indigenous culture.

In the Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle sets out to posit what a happy man is. He claims that many things are important to happiness, but the most important thing is Virtue. Thought virtue alone doesn’t make a man happy, it is the main cause of happiness. In the larger since Aristotle defines virtue as that which allows something to do it’s function well, and that which is the good state of something. He means by this, that the virtue of something is to achieve its end; virtue is goal directed. For

Poem about homosexual oral sex

An examination upon the plausibility of philosophical zombies.

Over the years I have seen and read many things pertaining to the morality or immorality of sexual practices, and all seem to lack, beyond simple rhetorical mechanisms, an ability to convince. This suggests there is something fundamentally wrong with using morality and sexuality in the same sentence.

Perhaps we should take things right back to the beginning and build from there..?

All human beings crave intimacy. As infants we are born into an intimate relationship with our caregivers. This desire for intimacy changes over our lifetime, but never completely goes away.

In, “A Paradox in the Theory of Democracy”, Richard Wollheim explains his paradox using a hypothetical example. He says:

“Let us imagine a citizen who feeds his choice for, say, A, into the democratic machine. On the present interpretation, he is to be regarded as thereby expressing his opinion that A ought to be enacted.

This essay attempts to answer the question, is the only intrinsic good pleasure?

Short video about Islamic fashion in Holland.

In The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche contends that we live under a “sublime metaphysical illusion.” This illusion was introduced into the world by Socrates. The illusion consists of faith in knowledge, in the belief that knowledge is virtue, and “that thought, using the thread of causality, can penetrate the deepest abysses of being.” This illusion is like a mirage of water in the desert, leading the scientist toward the false promise of knowing, of mastery of this world.

Childhood years are the best times to learn. Somehow, a person’s comprehension is at its peak during childhood. Parents should take advantage of these learning years to ingrain the values of life in their children.

Linda Nicholson says that the “major theoretical debate of the 1990s” for feminists is identity politics, or “essentialism.” Linda Alcoff explains that the current status of this debate is between cultural feminism, a form of essentialism, and a post-structuralist alternative, which emphasizes sexual difference. It is my contention that Beauvoir’s The Second Sex and her notions of freedom and bad faith in The Ethics of Ambiguity offer the possibility of a way through the political and theoreti

Ludwig Wittgenstein and W. V. O. Quine attempt a similar resolution to the problem of the logical form of intensional propositions (often referred to as prepositional attitudes or reported speech). Some examples of intensional propositions include “Genet said that crime is the highest form of sensuality”, “Mary thinks that Henry is in love with her”, or “Amy believes Tom is a killer.” Intensional propositions are mental states, that is, what is stated is the thought of the speaker.

It is an often-held view that physics is the one elementary science that deals with the basic laws of nature, whereas all other sciences are merely involved in the arbitrary classification of phenomena that are, in principle, reducible to these basic laws. This essay argues against this viewpoint, and proposes that other sciences can also be considered to be elementary in their own right.

There are many types of insanity in the world. We will talk about five common ones:

The shortcomings of the prevailing paradigm of philosophy originate from a faulty definition of what philosophy is all about. This definition is essentially "scientific" in nature, and thus tends to exclude things that smack of Religion ... and Art. To many philosophers this is taken as a strength, but it may in fact be a weakness. Does Art have an important role to play within Philosophy? According to this article it does indeed!

A critical component for the elite of the current nation state is the statist and populist desire to control the resources of production and to manage the distribution of wealth and to a lesser extent consumption. This has meant that in the West we have seen an increase in the practice of private property (income streams) and capital (taxation, regulation, foreign investment controls, regulation and control of key industry sectors, FDI limitations), expropriation by the state.

A man's descent into insanity, almost taking his wife with him.

The morning is cool. The rain from the night before has left the garden damp and everything has a fresh coat of moisture clinging to it. A few stubborn clouds drift lazily off to the eastern sky and meet the rising sun. Grudgingly, they disappear into the horizon leaving the sun dominion in its azure kingdom. Slowly, mist begins to rise with the warmth of a new day, and Charles awakes with the sunlight creeping across the bedroom floor, up on the bed, and into his weathered face.

Poem about memory and fish

She wanders down the littered streets of Vancouver, B.C., pushing a battered shopping cart with emaciated hands and a loping gait. Her eyes are vacuous, unblinking, as she asks passers-by if they could spare a little change because, she claims, she has not eaten for several days. She is yet another panhandler who will spend whatever earnings they eke out on drugs. People pass her without acknowledgment, with the superior air of those who have not fallen victim to the weakness of drug addiction.

This article explores whether the amount of thought humans are capable of is too much.

Futurists place great emphasis on the technology of artificial intelligence as the key to a bright future. Computers can be very fast and efficient at solving large, complex problems that are far beyond the capability of any unaided human mind. However, the human mind has the property of sentience, which not even the most advanced computers of today have at all. Suppose human brains are eventually replaced with artificial minds that are much faster and far more efficient for development of futur

The immoralist poses a serious threat to contemporary ethics. None of the major moral paradigms—Kantianism, Utilitarianism or even the more recent theories of virtue-based ethics—can currently answer the question, “why be moral?” They must all assume that a commitment to morality precedes moral discussion.

"What is most needed in a mans life?" asked a young boy. "My son, you asked a good question.

Short story based around the Many Worlds Theory

In the mundane of everyday life, we rush to and fro, constantly making decisions without thinking twice. These decisions are often made subconsciously, allowing our biases to influence our judgment. Our decisions are always heavily influenced by our overall all view of reality. We call this a worldview; others call it a perception of reality, and still
others, both. Interestingly, a worldview is not the same as a perception of reality. Many people consider them to be one and the same thing. More

Story based around working in a sachet packing factory.

LAWS OF MAGNETIC ACTION.