Archeology Constructing the Past
Case study - 4 pages - Philosophy
Archeological findings provide a way in which pieces of the past can be discovered. This information is useful for providing insight as to how we've evolved technologically and socially. However, it has become increasingly difficult in determining how this information should be circulated. The...
Afro-Modernity
Essay - 5 pages - Philosophy
Berger defined photography as “a way of seeing.” A photographer's “lens” represents their way of seeing. An image that is circulated amongst communities that produces a communal way of seeing. Thus, representations of groups of people have come to lie in the hands of those...
War on Drugs
Essay - 14 pages - Philosophy
For a culmination of years, scholars have argued the use of policing and other security strategies as risk management strategies to solve complex social criminality. Criminality is such a complex subject that governance have turned to producing risk management strategies that do not fix the...
The View of an Originalist
Book review - 7 pages - Philosophy
In Keith Whittington's book, Constitutional Interpretation: Textual Meaning, Original Intent, and Judicial Review, he uses a quote, originally articulated by Plato, that helps explain the diametrically opposing views the judicial system faces today: And once a thing is put in writing, the...
Examination of the My Lai massacre- one of the most infamous events of the Vietnam War Review of the book "My Lai: A Brief History with Documents" (James Stuart Olson, Randy Roberts)
Book review - 4 pages - Philosophy
This report will look at the book My Lai. Written by the history professors James S. Olson and Randy Roberts. Distinguished Professor of History in Houston, James S Olson is a historian whose main concern is recent American history. In this respect, he had been very interested in Vietnam, having...
Did you choose to answer this question?
Essay - 4 pages - Philosophy
In this essay I will argue that it is possible that I had the free will to choose this question even in the face of hard-determinist opposition. I will reach this conclusion after outlining Clarence Darrow's argument for determinism, suggesting that my decisions had no freedom in the choice of...
'Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals' - Applied Philosophy?
Essay - 4 pages - Philosophy
Immanuel Kant's presentation of the categorical imperative in 'Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals' is considered by some as his most famous work. His presentation is accompanied by examples intended to show the categorical imperative. In this paper, I present a critique of these...
The Ten Oxherding Pictures
Dissertation - 19 pages - Philosophy
The 'Ten Oxherding Pictures' are also known as jugyuzu and are the creation of 12th century Kakuan Shion Zenji, a Buddhist priest who lived on Mount Ryozan in China during the end of the Northern Sung Dynasty (1126-1279 AD). He taught that all beings are fundamentally endowed with...
The Earth as our Blanket: The Struggle for Human Importance, as described by Annie Dillard in 'For the Time Being' and Karen Armstrong in 'The Case for God'
Book review - 3 pages - Philosophy
Humans are neither individually special nor even so collectively supreme as we have lately been purporting to be. This is what Amy Dillard, in 'For the Time Being' and Karen Armstrong, in 'The Case For God', operating on the framework that God is unexplainable, focus on the human...
The Order of the Eastern Star: A Vehicle for environmental Good?
Essay - 9 pages - Philosophy
The Order of the Eastern Star is not, technically, a religion (or, at least, its followers refuse to designate it as such). In the words of the present day Grand Secretary, it is “not intended to replace a religion,” but to complement one. The Order is a fraternal organization that...
Why I'm More Important than You Are: A Case for Agent-Centered Prerogatives
Dissertation - 35 pages - Philosophy
We are acting permissibly when we do things like go to the movies once a year, or even once a month. Most of us would find it ridiculous if we were told we actually were not permitted to do these things. I consider anyone who disagrees with this claim to be outside of the accepted norms of...
The Problem with the 'Grue Problem'
Book review - 5 pages - Philosophy
Nelson Goodman, in his book 'Fact, Fiction and Forecast', presents a well known problem he calls “The New Riddle of Induction.” It seeks to criticize a basic kind of inductive reasoning most notably characterized by the phrase “all emeralds are green.” Goodman wants...
Sample Statement of Purpose - For a Philosopher
Course material - 2 pages - Philosophy
I haven't always wanted to be a philosopher. In fact, I've wanted to be many other things: a writer, a psychologist, an artist, perhaps even a scientist or doctor. As a child, I grew up imagining the things I wanted to be, but never what I wanted to do. "You can be anything you want to...
Women in Ancient Societies
Essay - 4 pages - Philosophy
The roles and treatment of women in ancient societies varied greatly. Depending on which society is observed, one would have witnessed many different rules for the female population. Some societies were cruel and others were much more lenient and fair. Women in ancient societies sometimes had...
Nietzsche's 'The Birth of Tragedy'
Essay - 4 pages - Philosophy
In Nietzsche's 'The Birth of Tragedy', he addresses a specific problem: how to establish a German nation-state in the modern social and political environment. Nietzsche begins with the question of how to model a state in the modern period that is not liberal, but, at the same time, is not...
Political philosophies of Edmund Burke and Jean Jacques Rousseau
Thesis - 4 pages - Philosophy
Jean Jacques Rousseau and Edmund Burke were great political thinkers with different views on human nature, civil society, government, religion, and the extent of human rights. Rousseau believes that men have inalienable rights and possess the ability to destroy and rebuild the government in...
Self-Love as it connects to the theme of "recognition"
Thesis - 4 pages - Philosophy
There is no concept of more importance to an individual's sense of recognition than the idea of self-love. Self-love helps one to better theorize recognition because it provides necessary contexts, reasoning and often difficulty to measure individuality in the topic of recognition. Self-love...
The Overman and the Eternal Recurrence
Thesis - 5 pages - Philosophy
In 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra', Friedrich Nietzsche concludes that in an infinite universe where there is no God, every finite event recurs eternally. As only the Overman can embrace this concept of eternal recurrence, it is necessary to attain mastery over the will to power. Since...
Market Islam: The other Conservative Revolution' by Patrick Haenni (2005)
Essay - 3 pages - Philosophy
The West, in the post September 11, 2001 days, is characterized by its mistrust of the currents of radical Islam, Islam is considered the new enemy. Among the hawks and those who fuel the enmity towards Islam, the confusion is common, and the lack of reliable information means that any...
"In twenty years' time, nobody will write letters"
Thesis - 1 pages - Philosophy
The advance of technology is more and more progressing. We use less paper and pen to communicate; these tools have been replaced by new technologies such as SMS or email. We can ask ourselves if in twenty years we will write letters. We'll see in the first part the advanced techniques which...
A new economic model: Development, justice and freedom - Amartya SEN
Thesis - 5 pages - Philosophy
From the beginning of the industrial revolution, development has been seen as the accumulation of capital. Several economists have tried to expand it, considering this definition to be simplistic and harsh. Until the sixties, the "human factor" was included in the concept of productive capital,...
Project of econometrics: Causes of infant mortality in Africa (2006)
Thesis - 20 pages - Philosophy
My study focuses on child mortality in Africa. According to UNICEF figures, the mortality rate among children under 5 years varies considerably from one country to another, and is amplified in certain countries. For this international organization whose responsibility is the protection of...
"Nagel argues that life is necessarily absurd" - An argument to prove the statement is wrong
Thesis - 3 pages - Philosophy
Nagel begins his article with a generic claim: “Most people feel on occasion that life is absurd, and some feel it vividly and continually” (Nagel, 1971) and then proceeds to offer standard arguments he feels are inadequate for the justification of such; the basic outlines (and...
If you were given a chance to create an ideal society, what would it be?
Essay - 2 pages - Philosophy
It always seems dangerous to talk about an 'ideal society' because this is exactly what all the totalitarian and authoritarian regimes have been looking for. It has also been the ultimate purpose of all politics since Antiquity and one of the biggest dream of humankind. First of all, an...
Hobbes and the question of Legitimate Authority in the Leviathan: liberalism or fascism avant la lettre?
Book review - 3 pages - Philosophy
Hobbes contends that the human state of nature exists where every man is at war with every other man and in order to free ourselves from this state, we must relinquish all of our rights to one unified authority. The intention of this sovereign body is supposedly to serve the good of the people,...
Analysis of Socrates' Crito
Book review - 4 pages - Philosophy
The Crito strikes us as an oddly shocking story simply because Socrates, who was once portrayed as a loyalist to the gods, now argues the importance and essentiality of obedience to the laws of the state. It is natural to find The Crito surprising because Plato had described Socrates in The...
Compare and contrast Rousseau's and Tocqueville's accounts of the civil function of religion in a democracy. Consider closely the respective merits of their case before offering your own assessment
Essay - 4 pages - Philosophy
Rousseau and Tocqueville fundamentally agree that the civil function of religion is to strengthen the bond that exists between the people and the law. However, the two men differ in their views on how this bond should be strengthened. Rousseau argues in favor of a new, civil religion being...
Comparing the ideas of sovereignty of Hobbes and Rousseau
Book review - 4 pages - Philosophy
As the study revolves around the notion of sovereignty, it is important to know what sovereignty is. Presenting the definition given by a dictionary might be of no use, but it could partially enlighten us of what we are discussing. Various dictionaries offer alternative definitions for...
Contemporary theories of Justice- Essay : is the principle of Fair Equality of Opportunity (FEO) defensible?
Essay - 4 pages - Philosophy
The principle of Fair Equality of Opportunity (FEO) is a part of Rawls' theory of justice, detailed in his Theory of Justice (1971) . This principle emerges from Rawl's distinction of the classical liberal of ?careers open to talents' -or "formal equality of opportunity?- from a more...
Race, culture, civilisation
Essay - 5 pages - Philosophy
As we can observe daily uses of concepts like race, culture, or civilization through newspapers, magazines, TV shows, etc. The need of defining them occurs repeatedly. What then are we talking about with respect to the concept of culture? Is it a political, artistic, or even ethnic pattern of...
