From the Paper "Candide, or Optimism (1759) was and is Voltaire's most popular philosophical novel, in part because of the wickedly clever way in which it satirizes the optimistic creed of Liebnitz and his followers ? "All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds". Voltaire, that keen voice of the Enlightenment and champion of the importance of rationality as a defense against the vices of the befuddled past, wrote Candide to show the many ways in which all was not for the best in the world of France at the end of its monarchical period ? but did not necessarily have to remain that way. The moral of Voltaire's work ?- that we must cultivate our garden ?- might be better translated as ?We must cultivate our garden because we can -? because we can make things better.? That extended meaning is often ignored or diluted, perhaps because while Voltaire?s..."
From the Paper "The concept of natural law was first developed in the Greek world and has been carried through to the present day. There are a number of different approaches to this concept. The Graeco-Roman tradition held that there was a natural law that was accessible to mankind through reason. Christian theorists adopted aspects of Cicero's Stoic philosophy, an example of natural law, because of its emphasis on moral content. The Christian legal philosophy that developed was in many ways a fusion between the fundamental Christian teachings and the adapted teachings of the Stoics (Kelly 102). Most recently, the idea of natural law stands in opposition to the positivist school. Natural law requires a minimal moral content as a prerequisite for viewing something as in contravention of the law, while the positivist school holds that the law is whatever..."
From the Paper "Aristotle argues in Book III of The Politics that there are three types of just constitutions: kingship, aristocracy, and military. Each type of constitution requires different duties from its citizens and the definition of a "good citizen" under each varies as a result. The best of each type of constitution must be administered by the best possible ruler or rulers under that constitution. Such a ruler under any constitution must possess the quality of moral wisdom of both the good man (ordinary citizen and subject) and the good citizen (office-holder and ruler)."
From the Paper "The purpose of this essay is to examine Locke's and Marx's similar views on the labor theory of value and their divergent positions on the nature of private property. For Marx, labor power is the "mental and physical capabilities existing in a human being." (Marx 336) Locke envisions labor as part of a human being's "own person" to be used as his or her "property." (Locke 18-19) These are closely related assumptions about the nature of labor power--in essence both agree that humans innately own their labor power and this ownership is transferred to its object. It is in the result of labor, what becomes transformed through labor to become private property, that Marx and Locke will ultimately part ways.
Locke argues that labor is process through which humans create property out of that "which God gave to mankind in..."
From the Paper "Life and death are inextricably intertwined, a fact noted by various religious and philosophical schools around the world. Life is an essential components in the dynamic of the world, but all life eventually dies. In broad terms, all life also comes from death, or from a lack-of-life, as if life were being created out of nothing. At some point in the past, it must indeed have been created out of lifeless material, and since that time life and death have alternated, the one creating or contributing to the creation of the next. The idea of the relationship between life and death is often expressed better in Eastern philosophy than in Western, which is less given to finding the unity in the world and more to differentiating between elements and behaviors.
The question of immortality is an ancient one and is key in philosophy and religion. Man lives a span of years and then ..."
From the Paper " HUME & KANT
This research compares and contrasts the theories of knowledge of David Hume and Immanuel Kant. First, each philosopher's general views are discussed individually. Then their specific theories of knowledge are discussed individually. Finally, their theories are compared and contrasted.
David Hume was a philosopher and historian. He wrote A Treatise of Human Nature in 1739, which was considered his most important work for psychology; he later changed the beginning of the Treatise into what was called An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Hume defined his investigation as the science of human nature. He believed that people were natural objects in the world of nature which could be studied by methods of natural science. He believed that the operations of mental life could be.."
From the Paper " Introduction
Over the last several decades, philosophers have grappled with religious claims focusing in particular on the questions of: (1) whether such claims can be proven true or false; and (2) even if they cannot be proven true or false, whether they are, nonetheless, reasonable? This paper examines these philosophical views.
Verifiability and Reasonableness of Religious Claims
Many contemporary philosophers agree that neither empirical investigation nor deductive reasoning can, with certainty, verify or disprove religious claims such as the claim that God exists (see: Ayer, 1956; Dewey, 1966). In other words, in so far as a religious claim---such as "God exists"---is intended to be making an empirical claim, most philosophers would not expect the truth.."
From the Paper "Following the lead of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau returns to the idea of the social contract in his treatise of the same name. As with Hobbes and Locke, Rousseau begins with a consideration of man in a state of nature. He finds that all men are born free but that all around can be seen men in chains, and he asks how this can have come about and how this change can be seen as legitimate. The right that Rousseau holds in highest regard is the social order, and he says that this is a right that does not come from nature but that is rather founded on conventions. Identifying these conventions is the issue, and one of the important forces expressed by Rousseau as being the motivator for the development of these conventions and for the agreement resulting in a social order is the general will. Rousseau was less interested in individual freedom and.."
From the Paper "Plato's Republic is a dialogue in which Socrates investigates the nature of the city-state and what the ideal city-state should be. The philosophical inquiry in this dialogue can be seen as addressing two primary conceptions, conceptions which are linked under the heading of idealism, with one detailing Plato's epistemology and the other his political philosophy. The first is a more metaphysical consideration of the nature of life and the world and how we can know what we know, while the second is the practical application of various concepts to the state to demonstrate the relationship between the individual and his or her society in a utopian city-state such as Plato would create but which does not exist. Plato's Republic describes a society that is completely rational, based on Plato's concept of the good life and developed to create and protect that..."
From the Paper "The focus of this paper is on Alexis de Tocqueville's observations on religion in America and on how he developed them in his thinking about the role that religion can play in defending freedom in a democracy. The paper will consider some possible reasons why he may have been concerned about such questions, as well as why his observations and conclusions continue to be relevant for America today.
Biography of Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis Charles Henri Maurice Clerel, Comte de Tocqueville, was born in Paris on July 29, 1805. He was a descendant of a proud Norman family that had been considered to be among the lesser nobility for many centuries. A Clerel had fought with William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. His maternal grandfather, the Marquis of Rosambo, as well as other noble.."
Reviews Aristotle's "RHETORIC", his description of the observed rules of persuasive speech. Focuses on his discovery of three types of speech: the political, the ceremonial & the legal.
675 words (approx. 2.7 pages), 0 sources, 1999, $ 23.95
From the Paper "The Rhetoric of Aristotle has been highly influential through the ages. It is predominantly a manual to a practical art, but it also has an interesting philosophical orientation. Aristotle affirmed that rhetoric is a subject to be studied systematically and not a random collection of common sense rules. It is an art of general scope that is applicable to all fields of human concern. Aristotle offered a systematic rhetoric and defined rhetoric as the art of discovering the means of persuasion available for any subject. The rhetor must investigate systematically both the situation with which he is presented and his own inner resources for dealing with it. Aristotle's approach to rhetoric can be seen operating in the media today.
Speech itself comes in different types according to its purpose.."
From the Paper " John W. Gardner wrote Self-Renewal: The Individual and the Innovative Society in 1963. That was a time of great hope for both the individual and society, before the assassination of President Kennedy (for whom Gardner worked), the Vietnam war, Watergate, and the general decline of the American Dream. The book has not stood well the test of time. Twenty-five years later, in a very changed world, Gardner's simple optimism seems naive. Of course, optimism is a good attitude for anyone hoping to live and be creative in a troubled world. However, the idea that "toughminded optimism" is "immensely important" (xii-xiii) does not make a great book, or even a great slim (127 pages of text proper) book.
Gardner's work, therefore, should be viewed in its historical context and should be taken for what it is. .."
From the Paper "The purpose of this research is to examine I Can I Will by Frederick G. Elias. The plan of the research will be to set forth the pattern of ideas in the book and then to discuss how the ideas are developed and how they build to a prescription for seizing and maintaining control of life experience.
IC is a book that must be classified as a self-help manual with an orientation toward both material and psychological success. Indeed, it is not too much to say that the overriding objective of the book is to formulate a plan for what could be called self-actualization. That is because of the action orientation of the text, which offers specific advice about how to achieve personal power and to apply the feelings of power to the project of achieving specific goals. Elias frames this advice in terms of imputing creativity and potential to the reader with a.."
From the Paper "Thomas Hobbes's method and aims in civil philosophy in general, and in Leviathan in particular, lead him to leave the "seeds of religion" out of the War Argument because to include those seeds of religion would be counter-productive to his method and aims.
Hobbes's method is based on science, logic, reason, materialism, and empirical observation, none of which is useful in analyzing God or religion. For Hobbes to include the intangibles and mysteries of religion and God in his rational analysis of human nature and politics would have been to poison the entire project with uncertainty.
Hobbes's aim is to construct a philosophy, built on what he hopes are the air-tight bricks of reason and mathematical logic, which convinces human beings that they should immediately form a ..."
Abstract This study will discuss the life of Jean-Jacques Rousseau as he examines it in his Confessions and in a way which St. Augustine would understand. The thrust of the study will be the religious component present in Augustine's own Confessions and absent from Rousseau.
From the Paper "This study will discuss the life of Jean-Jacques Rousseau as he examines it in his Confessions and in a way which St. Augustine would understand. The thrust of the study will be the religious component present in Augustine's own Confessions and absent from Rousseau. Augustine would likely have read Rousseau's work, identified with his very human failings and longings, and suggested that the French revolutionary turn to God and Jesus Christ for the solace and serenity he obviously has not found in politics, writing, philosophy, and other wholly earth-bound pursuits.
In the middle of his Confessions, Rousseau stops to assess the first thirty years of his life, and to briefly preview for the reader the next thirty years, drawing a stark comparison between the two periods..."
