Essays on Philosophers

400

Nietzsche on Homer: Borne Back Ceaselessly into The Past

2 pages / 986 words

Nietzsche’s short work Homer’s Contest is part of his attempt to develop an axiology that reinstates morality within the realm of aesthetic existence, grounding lofty ideas like “good” and “evil” within a naturalistic framework. In this essay, he puts forth an interpretation of the structure...

Friedrich Nietzsche

401

Lockean Ideals in The Declaration of Independence

3 pages / 1282 words

In devising the Declaration of Independence, the founding fathers used the work of John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government as an ideological framework. The similarities are mainly notable in the claims against the King, but can also be found in other important respects. Locke’s concept...

Book Review Declaration of Independence John Locke

402

How John Locke's Philosophy is Torn Between The Acceptance and Condemnation of Slavery

3 pages / 1229 words

The examination of philosophy requires an in-depth look at two aspects of the philosopher. First one must examine their writings to grasp their points and perspectives, and then one must be able to examine the philosophers’ personal lives to see whether they maintain their written...

John Locke

403

Individual Identity: Locke on The "Sameness of a Being"

6 pages / 2676 words

In defining “sameness of a being”, Locke distinguishes between the idea of the “same man” and the “same person”. Although he acknowledges that the words are often used interchangeably, he states that “person” is in fact representative of personal identity, which is defined by consciousness...

John Locke Personal Identity

404

Prerogative Power: John Locke’s Dangerous Yet Obligatory Concession

3 pages / 968 words

John Locke’s theory of the social contract is often interpreted as a framework that promotes individual freedom while limiting authority. At first glance, Locke’s Second Treatise of Government appears to elevate personal liberty above all, suggesting that any authority must yield to the will of...

John Locke

405

Allegory of The Cave, Descartes’ Meditations, and The Truman Show

2 pages / 994 words

In his Allegory of the Cave, Plato asks us to consider that the world we are living is the equivalent of a cave; in order for us to enter into this “sensible realm” of truth and knowledge we must actively pursue these values. In his...

Allegory of The Cave Rene Descartes The Truman Show

406

Descartes’ Proof for The Existence of God and Its Importance

2 pages / 958 words

Descartes’ Philosophical Quest for Certainty Made-to-order essay as fast as you need it Each essay is customized to cater to your unique preferences + experts online Get my essay Method of Doubt and the Evil Genius Hypothesis In Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes describes his...

Rene Descartes

407

An Ontological Oversight: Descartes’ First Argument for The Existence of God

4 pages / 1854 words

Over the course of his Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes suspends belief in all material and metaphysical substance before rebuilding from the foundational element of the thinker’s existence, eventually concluding that God exists alongside material things and that the soul and body are distinct. However,...

Rene Descartes

408

Hume: Criticism of Descartes

2 pages / 975 words

David Hume, a Scottish philosopher and historian, thrived during the Enlightenment era. In this segment of history, which is also known as the Age of Reason, European scholars attempted to find the root of knowledge, often by working through one of two prevalent schools of...

Rene Descartes

409

Mind Or Matter: a Critique of Descartes’s Philosophy

4 pages / 1935 words

In the Second Meditation of The Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes addresses the question of identity: “I am, I exist… But this ‘I’ that must exist––I still don’t properly understand what it is.” (Descartes 4) The only circumstance helping establish identity is that Descartes thinks––in...

Rene Descartes

410

The Conception of God in Descartes and Leibniz

3 pages / 1091 words

René Descartes and Gottfried Leibniz present distinct conceptions of God that profoundly influence their respective philosophical frameworks. Both thinkers agree on the attributes of God being infinitely powerful, knowledgeable, and benevolent; however, they prioritize these traits differently, leading to divergent implications for their understanding of...

Rene Descartes

411

Descartes’ Aims in The Meditations

3 pages / 1526 words

In “The Meditations,” René Descartes sets out to establish a firm foundation for scientific knowledge and defend rationalism by demonstrating that the true source of knowledge resides in the mind rather than the senses. To achieve this, he subjects all sensory-derived knowledge to rigorous doubt....

Rene Descartes

412

The Separation of Mind and Body

4 pages / 2171 words

Since the publication of The Discourse on the Method, Renes Descartes appears to have become the poster boy for the position of mind/body dualism. Throughout the Discourse and his later works, Descartes postulates several arguments for the absolute distinction and, thus, separateness of the mind...

Rene Descartes

413

The Role of Senses to Rene Descartes

2 pages / 1178 words

In Rene Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy, he argues that the senses do not accurately help us understand the world. Descartes writes that he has begun to doubt all of his ideas. He decides that all those ideas come from the senses, which are not...

Rene Descartes

414

Thomas More's Utopia and Modern Socio-political Conditions of Subject Formation

6 pages / 2732 words

Thomas More’s Utopia involves circumlocutory ways of distanciating the author’s self from Hythlodaeus’s delineation of the exemplary city. More wanted not only to obfuscate his agency as the author, but also lend a unique credibility to the conceptual hypothesis that he sought to fabricate. By...

Thomas More Utopia

415

Right Action and Eternal Truth

3 pages / 865 words

“What good would it do me if truth stood before me, cold and naked, not caring if I recognized it or not?” This poignant question by Soren Kierkegaard invites us to contemplate the essence of truth and its relationship with human existence. As the “father...

Kierkegaard

416

Loving Reflections: The Effects of Mirroring in Shakespeare’s Sonnets and Plato’s Phaedrus

3 pages / 1451 words

Though they were written centuries apart and in completely different societal conditions, Plato’s Phaedrus and several of William Shakespeare’s sonnets share distinct similarities. The more obvious, surface correlation is that they each describes a relationship (sexual or otherwise, depending on one’s reading of Shakespeare) between...

Plato William Shakespeare

417

A Combined Analysis of Abelard’s Accounts of Sin and Atonement

7 pages / 3066 words

Throughout his tumultuous career, Peter Abelard faced a series of vehement backlashes against his theological work as well as the manner in which he conducted his personal life; indeed, his affair and secret marriage to Heloise famously culminated in a physical castration, and his conflicts...

Peter Abelard

418

Plato’s Ideal Society in Oryx and Crake

4 pages / 1737 words

Stories are an important part of society, an element that provides humanity with a way to connect, separate, cry, laugh, be happy or be sad. In fact, life is nothing but a story. Human history is a story. The universe is just a massive collection...

Novel Oryx and Crake Plato