Essays on Philosophers

438

"Good" and "God" Concept Comparison

2 pages / 858 words

The central argument in Euthyphro implies that the concept of 'good' must be independent of the concept of 'God' such that "God must love that which is good because it is good." Grube argues that the implication of this is that God has no choice...

Euthyphro Plato

439

Socratic Method of Elenchus in Plato's Five Dialogs

3 pages / 1433 words

The Socratic method of investigation, the elenchus, is explained by example in Plato’s Five Dialogues. In Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito, Plato’s character of Socrates employs the elenchus as a way to challenge interlocutors. If an Athenian claims to be knowledgeable about a subject, Socrates sets...

Plato Socrates

440

Understanding of Virtue in "Meno"

3 pages / 1438 words

A seemingly excited lad initiates Plato’s Meno. Meno appears to have learned what virtue is and is eager to share this knowledge with the renowned Socrates. Thus, Meno tactically lays out calculated questions to Socrates: “…is virtue something that can be taught? Or does it...

Meno Plato

441

"Meno" and "Leaves of Grass": The Comparison of Ideas

8 pages / 3537 words

There are several parallels between the ideas presented in the Socratic dialogue Meno by Plato and the ideas suggested by Walt Whitman’s poetry in the first edition of his work Leaves of Grass. Though the Meno is presented as a work of philosophy, and the...

Meno Plato Walt Whitman

442

Eliminating Differences: Socrates and Euthyphro

4 pages / 1752 words

Socrates found Euthyphro in the agora and after very brief rapport launched straight into asking the question of what is virtue; in the case of Euthyphro, the specific virtue being discussed is piety. Socrates was able to look at his subjects, including Euthyphro, in such...

Euthyphro Socrates

443

Philosophy before Death: Socrates in The Phaedo

2 pages / 969 words

Socrates, the father of modern Western philosophy, once said, shortly before his own death that “[Those] who happen to have gotten in touch with philosophy in the right way devote themselves to nothing else but dying and being dead” (Phaedo 64A). In other words, Socrates...

Phaedo Socrates

444

The Idea of Civil Disobedience

3 pages / 1430 words

Civil Disobedience in the Mind of Socrates 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 Civil disobedience is a practice that has been studied and exhibited for thousands of...

Socrates

445

The Virtue of High-mindedness

3 pages / 1422 words

Aristotle’s definition of the virtue of high-mindedness in Nichomachean Ethics, and of what constitutes the excess and deficiency of this virtue, poses a problem when applied to Socrates’ in Plato’s Apology. On one hand, Socrates is high-minded when he accepts his death sentence, despite believing...

Socrates

446

Fearing The Unknown: Death in The Apology

3 pages / 1223 words

Novelist Rossiter Worthington Raymond once said, “Life is eternal; and love is immortal; and death is only a horizon; and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight.” A horizon, by definition, is no more than the range of one’s knowledge or experience....

Socrates The Apology

447

The Root of All Wrongdoing: Trial and Death of Socrates

2 pages / 991 words

The four dialogues Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, and Phaedo were all authored by Plato in order to give insight into the trial and death of the famed philosopher Socrates. Each work focuses on a different aspect of Socrates’ personal teachings and ideals, ranging from questions about...

Socrates

448

From Socrates to Nietzsche

4 pages / 1688 words

Alternatively dubbed that “despotic logician” and “the vortex and turning-point of so-called world history,” Socrates represents a radical departure point in the history of philosophy. To Friedrich Nietzsche, the father of rationalism puts forth a worldview that is ultimately incapable of putting forth values that...

Socrates

449

Social Order as an Evil in "Emile" by Jean Jacques Rousseau

4 pages / 1643 words

Jean Jacques Rousseau’s Emile (1762) consists of a series of stories, and its teaching comes to light only when one has grasped each of these stories in its complex artistic details and in its entirety. The interpretation of this hybrid text, the first ‘bildungsroman’ requires...

Rousseau

450

True Nature and Corruption in Jean Jacques Rousseau "Emile"

2 pages / 1014 words

In Rousseau’s Emile, all naturally-created things are inherently good. Rousseau states that man and society are what corrupt Amour de son (or self-love that is innate and worthwhile), turning it into Amour proper (or self-love under social pressure). In order to be a good man,...

Rousseau

451

The Problems of Historical Materialism in Foucault's Discipline and Punish

5 pages / 2420 words

In “Two Lectures,” Michel Foucault criticizes historical materialism for inadequately explaining social phenomena. He derides academics that use bourgeois domination to explain a diverse range of social trends, including the exclusion of madness and the repression of infantile sexuality. Foucault calls this kind of social...

Michel Foucault

452

Analysis of Criminal Punishment in Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault

3 pages / 1141 words

In Michel Foucault’s Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison, the author revels in tales of past penal methods involving brutal torture of the convicted criminal as a popular public spectacle. He subtly denounces the rigid yet humane schedules applied to contemporary imprisonment and...

Michel Foucault

453

The Role of Reason in Society: Rousseau, Locke, and Mill

2 pages / 881 words

The state of nature and the emergence of the human capacity to reason has been a common interest for writers throughout history. John Stuart Mill, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and John Locke, all address these issues in their works, “On Liberty” , “Discourse On The Origins of...

John Locke John Stuart Mill Rousseau

454

The Views of Rousseau and Hobbes on The Value of Language

4 pages / 1953 words

Jean-Jacques Rousseau and his predecessor, Thomas Hobbes, both encounter the issue of language while constructing a concept of the state of nature and the origin of human society, a favorite mental exercise of seventeenth and eighteenth century philosophers such as themselves. The two agree that...

Rousseau Thomas Hobbes

455

The Divergent Opinions of Smith and Rousseau: Natural Sociability and Criticisms of The Division of Labor

6 pages / 2765 words

Although Adam Smith is considered a great defender of commercial society and Jean-Jacques Rousseau one of its prominent critics, both thinkers share certain criticisms of the division of labor. The two acknowledge that splitting tasks among people leads to the creation of social distinction and...

Divergent Rousseau

456

Power and Spatial Discipline in The Case Study of "Little Hans"

7 pages / 3024 words

In her article “The Taming of Michel Foucault: New Historicism, Psychoanalysis, and the Subversion of Power,” Suzanne Gearhart describes what she calls “Foucault’s critical ‘dialogue’ with Freud,” specifically in his “analysis of the relation between pleasure and power” (459-60). Interestingly, she notes that, in Discipline...

Michel Foucault