Essays on Philosophical Movements

The spirit of the Age of Enlightenment is embodied in our texts with examples of reason, equality for all, and rationality. Moliere’s Tartuffe and The Love Suicides at Amijima by Chikamatsu Mon’ Zaemon both show these characteristics through the characters and the plot each story...

“Wide Open Spaces” by the Dixie Chicks is a clear example of a song with Transcendental lyrics. It is about a girl leaving home to achieve her goals in life, an example of the American dream. “A place in the clouds, a foundation of stone”...

Transcendentalism is a philosophical and social movement that was developed by different philosophers and first applied in New England. It stands in opposition to rationalism, which emphasizes reason and logic. In contrast, individualism is the capacity to achieve freedom through self-control and personal knowledge, as...

Utilitarianism is a philosophical view or theory about how we should evaluate a wide range of things that involve choices that people face. Among the things that can be evaluated are actions, laws, policies, character traits, and moral codes. Utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism...

In one’s lifetime, it is quite hard to meet a lasting friendship. Being a witness I beg to differ from those who believe that in a week your life can be positively impacted. I went into this situation very skeptical but willing to explore something...

The dilemma of whether or not the Death Penalty is ethical is major problem facing society today. The death penalty is given to those who commit crimes deemed by society and government as deserving the infliction of death with crimes such as murder earning this...

The Enlightenment was a period of intelligence and growth. During the Enligtenment, people started to believe that all men were free people. The declaration of rights of Man states “men are born free and are equal in rights.” This was a new concept of that...

After the long-standing power that religion had over people, the Enlightenment brought a stark change in culture. The once superstitious people of the time were now finding explanations for things that religion once explained, losing faith in the monarchy, and could use art not only...

Hilda “H.D” Doolittle uses heavily-allusive imagist poetry to redefine gender-roles and contradict the characterization of women as delicate and fragile. H.D pulls from ancient Greek literature to write strong not-traditionally-feminine women into her own current culture and re-inscribe traditionally feminine figures — Helen of Troy,...

Introduction to Happiness and Utilitarianism Happiness is a concept that exemplifies the American dream. People go to any means by which to obtain the many varied materials and issues that induce pleasures in each individual; this emotion remains the ultimate goal. John Stuart Mill correctly...

Often referred to as the leading writer of transcendentalism, Unitarian Ralph Waldo Emerson directed thousands in the 19th century to rediscovery of self through his literature. Among them, young New Englander Henry David Thoreau mirrored Emerson’s revolutionary ideas yet simultaneously brought new ideals. In their...

In an attempt to amend the traditional Benthamite hedonic calculus in which simply the quantity of pain or pleasure is considered, Mill, within his Utilitarianism, postulates an additional qualitative distinction resulting in the notion of a ‘higher’ or a ‘lower’ pleasure. Scholars have since questioned...

In Utilitarianism, John Stuart Mill advances the “greatest happiness principle,” which “holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to produce happiness…[and] by happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain.” [1] Mill supplements the “greatest happiness principle” with the argument in...

It is widely accepted that Utilitarianism, as a discipline, is not as unifying or as straightforward a moral theory as it might at first appear; as Crisp highlights, there are, in fact, ‘many variations, some of them subtle, others quite radical, between different forms of...