...fine examples of philosophical writing. Reproduced here are essay portfolios which have received the Associate Award, as well as dissertations successfully submitted for the Fellowship Award. For shorter essays by students taking the six Pathways to Philosophy programs, follow the links at Pathways to Philosophy: the six programs. All work is copyright of the original authors. No material may be transmitted or reproduced without permission. For further information, e-mail klempner@fastmail.net. Geoffrey Klempner Director of Studies [pic] Associate Award • Paul Meakin • Mary Jennings • Andrew Watson • Kenneth Head • Stuart Hopkins • Tony Bellotti • Oliver Leech • Alan Bradnam • Shirley Hughes • Terence Kuch • Fr. Seamus Mulholland • John Eberts • Gordon Kennedy • Justin Woods • Neil Munro • John Dudley • Samuel Thorpe • Jürgen Lawrenz Fellowship Award • Tony Fahey • Martin Jenkins • Peter Jones • George Brooks • Samuel Michaelides • Mike Finch • Rachel Browne • Jürgen Lawrenz back [pic] Paul Meakin: Associate Award Essay One Heidegger, Dasein and the quest for authentic Being-in-the-world Essay Two 'I am Condemned to be free': Sartre, Freedom and Bad faith Essay Three 'Hell is other people': Sartre and being-for-others Essay Four Generating a meaningful existence: A Nietzschean based...
Words: 1030 - Pages: 5
...Critically assess the claim that free will and determinism are compatible (35marks) Free will is when you make an independent choice or voluntary decision, put in philosophical terms it is the art for a particular sort of capacity of rational agents to choose a course of action from among various alternatives. Free will is also known as libertarianism or non-compatibilism, this theory also states that you are responsible for your actions, as does soft determinism. Hard determinism and predestination state that you are not responsible for your actions because your life is predetermined and out of your control. This essay will explore the ways in which freewill and determinism work together and the ways in which they oppose one another, including the views of philosophers. According to Baruch Spinoza; “In the mind there is no absolute or free will; but the mind is determined to wish this or that by a cause, which has also been determined by another cause and this last by another cause, and so on to infinity”. This tells us why Spinoza and other hard determinists are called ‘hard’; their position is very strict. Hard determinists believe that all of our actions have prior causes and we are therefore neither free nor responsible, making hard determinism incompatible with free will and moral responsibility. John Locke provides an example which perfectly demonstrates how free will is simply an illusion. He states; ‘say a man wakes up in a room that, unknown to him, is locked from...
Words: 1464 - Pages: 6
...Free will is not an illusion. Critically discuss. This essay defends the claim that free will is not an illusion. The first supportive argument for this claim by Aristotle is that we are all responsible for our actions (Aristotle & Taylor, C.C.W. 2006) and also we also responsible to the formation of our character. The second argument to support that free will is not an illusion, whether we like it or not we are free as stated by Sartre arguing that we are condemned to be free (Bernasconi 2007). Together with this view Augustine argue that there is a higher power but we are still free to make choices, those who are predestined to the heaven and those who are not. However this does mean we have free will but it’s a matter of clarification of how this relates to our free will. If determinism were to be right and that some of our decisions are predetermined it is true to say that our decisions are also based upon fate. In a certain aspect, by the person that we are, our gender, race, and religion and status and past experiences, we have been explained that these things do affect our decisions, and that we always have a minimum of two choices for everything we need to do. If someone at any point of time, anywhere was to make a choice that is truly free and voluntary then it can be proved that we have free will. Libertarianism argues that free will is an action involving true devised commands where human beings are free in their action as they are able reason without any physical...
Words: 1500 - Pages: 6
...‘Race is a historically and culturally specific notion, embedded in a constellation of economic, political, and cultural discourses and uniquely linked to specific relations of power and authority’ (Hirschfield, 1998, p.34). It has been argued that race was an Enlightenment project that resulted from the desire to classify (Cohen, 1974, p.207). Racial thinking certainly existed before this period, but the modern concept of race is a more recent one that has developed from the encounter of more Europeans with other peoples (MacDonald, 1973, p.241). There is some disagreement as to when the construction of race took its current form. First, it has been suggested that the descriptions of race in ancient literature demonstrate that it originates in xenophobic beliefs (Hirschfield, 1998, p.34). The system of natural classification that developed in the Eighteenth Century is also seen as an important contribution (Hannaford, 1996, p.188). However, almost all studies agree that a distinctive development of racial thinking began to take place in the Nineteenth Century (Hirschfield, 1998, p.35). The Nineteenth Century saw the search for the historical and biological origins of race (Hannaford, 1996, p.235). It went beyond the simply classification of race and towards a more significant delineation of race into one that embodies characteristics, personalities and even mental abilities. Several key developments were relevant to this progression. These will be examined as follows: first...
Words: 2989 - Pages: 12
...Religion Natasha Smith PHI 208 Ethics and Moral Reasoning Instructor: Christopher Foster 2/10/2014 There are a couple philosophers that believe in different situations when I comes to the existence and the belief of God. The essay will explain the philosophers view points on the religion of God. There are a few arguments of which existence is the strongest. It will explain many aspects on science and religion, atheism, moral and human freedom on God’s existence. Believing in God and believing in God’s existence can have many aspects with different views from philosophers, the arguments will explain which philosopher is more compelling than the other. When it comes to the existence of God, some philosophers believe that it is necessary to have proof and some believe that proof is not necessary if we have faith. One philosopher named, Thomas Aquinas believed that God is from faith and first cause is the proof of God. Let’s take a look at what Thomas had to say, “that the existence of God is not demonstrable: that God's existence is an article of faith, and that articles of faith are not demonstrable, because the office of demonstration is to prove, but faith pertains (only) to things that are not to be proven, as is evident from the Epistle to the Hebrews, 11.” (Paul Halsall, 1988.) Therefore, I don’t believe that we need proof of God’s existence. I agree with Thomas that God is faith. No, proving God’s existence is not necessary because God is faith, we have to believe...
Words: 1578 - Pages: 7
...initiative. Please Read How You Can Help Keep the Encyclopedia Free Author & Citation Info | Friends PDF Preview | InPho Search | PhilPapers Bibliography Kant and Hume on Morality First published Wed Mar 26, 2008; substantive revision Sun Aug 12, 2012 The ethics of Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) is often contrasted with that of David Hume (1711–1776). Hume's method of moral philosophy is experimental and empirical; Kant emphasizes the necessity of grounding morality in a priori principles. Hume says that reason is properly a “slave to the passions,” while Kant bases morality in his conception of a reason that is practical in itself. Hume identifies such feelings as benevolence and generosity as proper moral motivations; Kant sees the motive of duty—a motive that Hume usually views as a second best or fall back motive—as uniquely expressing an agent's commitment to morality and thus as conveying a special moral worth to actions. Although there are many points at which Kant's and Hume's ethics stand in opposition to each other, there are also important connections between the two. Kant shared some important assumptions about morality and motivation with Hume, and had, early in his career, been attracted to and influenced by the sentimentalism of Hume and other British moralists. The aim of this essay is not to compare Hume and Kant on all matters ethical. Instead, we examine...
Words: 24372 - Pages: 98
...rationalisation through our conscience (Enrich Fromm). There are major flaws to this statement as it could be suggested that ‘ethical’ behaviour is an influence of external factors such as natural laws, religion, primary and secondary carers and prior events. Therefore, the question could be raised, do we actually any have any freedom to act ethically or is it just a result of what we have already learnt (Piaget)? Then again, what is ethical behaviour to begin with? A universal idea of what is right or wrong that is decided by a group of people? The concluding opinion that will be formed is: we do have a genuine amount of freedom however this notion is only supported to a certain extent as I believe we are influenced by external factors. This essay will discuss points that would approve and disapprove of this statement because I believe it is a combination of both, going with a soft determinist approach. Hard determinists would suggest our choices are determined by prior events. This is a logical statement because a choice we make today could affect the choice we would make tomorrow. For example, a levels are picked accordingly due to prior grades we received in GCSE. Aquinas’s cause and effect theory is applicable to this notion of everything have an efficient cause: nothing can be efficient or cause itself. However, despite this approach making total sense as it is an intelligible to suggest that prior events do effect the choices we make today, resulting in a restriction, resulting...
Words: 1488 - Pages: 6
...A2 Religious Studies Revision Booklet To be used alongside the textbook and your classnotes. Contents G581: Philosophy of Religion Religious Language......................................................………p.1 Religious Experience........................................................…...p.7 Miracles..................................................................…………...p.12 Nature of God............................................................………...p.16 Life and Death.........................................................…………..p.20 G582: Religious Ethics Meta-ethics...........................…………………………………….p.25 Free Will and Determinism………………………………….……p.28 Conscience.......................…………………………………….…p.32 Virtue Ethics………………………………………………………..p.36 Sexual Ethics…………………………………………………...….p.40 Environment and Business Ethics……………………………….p.44 Religious Language Introduction The problems of religious language: • If we use language univocally about God, then we are limiting him / making him like a human • If we use language equivocally about God, we cannot be sure what the word means when applied to God • Are statements about God supposed to be cognitive – if so, what evidence proves / disproves them? • Are statements about God supposed to be non-cognitive – if so, do they have any meaning? The Verification...
Words: 22600 - Pages: 91
...mTELECOURSE STUDY GUIDE FOR The Examined Life FOURTH EDITION author J. P. White Chair, Department of Philosophy Santa Barbara City College contributing author Manuel Velasquez Professor of Philosophy Santa Clara University This Telecourse Study Guide for The Examined Life is part of a collegelevel introduction to philosophy telecourse developed in conjunction with the video series The Examined Life, and the text Philosophy: A Text with Readings, tenth edition, by Manuel Velasquez, The Charles Dirksen Professor, Santa Clara University. The television series The Examined Life was designed and produced by INTELECOM Intelligent Telecommunications, Netherlands Educational Broadcasting Corporation (TELEAC/NOT), and Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company (UR) Copyright © 2007, 2005, 2002, 1999 by INTELECOM Intelligent Telecommunications All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of INTELECOM Intelligent Telecommunications, 150 E. Colorado Blvd., Suite 300, Pasadena, California 91105-1937. ISBN: 0-495-10302-0 Contents Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v Lesson One — What is Philosophy? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....
Words: 78103 - Pages: 313
...ABRIDGED GIVING WINGS TO WORLD ECONOMIC RECOVERY THROUGH MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION INNOVATIONS. BY DR ISAH MOMOH, 16 AUGUST, 2011 Tels: 234 803 196 1363; 802 325 8362; 809 569 3433 Email: imomoh@smc.edu.ng; isahmomoh3@yahoo.com; isahmomoh@gmail.com. School of Media and Communication (SMC) Pan African University, 2 Ahmed Onibudo Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria Tels: 01 4616170-2; 2711617-20 Email: info@smc.edu.ng Abstract This paper posits that the current economic recovery of the world from the recent economic melt down is largely due more to more honest, humble and sincere forms of communication and similar changes in the global information system. It holds that the pace and strength of recovery and its sustenance would be accelerated by innovations in global communication and information systems as well as orientation towards more honesty, consideration and concern for the world as one global economic, political and environmental system of linked and inter-dependent parts. Traditionally, journalism and mass communication as a whole demand that news and all professional communications be truthful and factual. They require that opinions be clearly stated and separated from facts through the doctrine that “facts are sacred” and “opinions are free”. It has also been the tradition, under the developmental communication theory to insist that news and professional communications as reports...
Words: 9363 - Pages: 38
...experience - The strengths and weaknesses of the view that claims about what exists must ultimately be grounded in and justified by sense experience. This is an analysis of the "empiricist" view: both Hume and Locke are empiricists as they argue that all knowledge depends on experience. Note that the first item asks us to evaluate empiricism as an explanation of the origin of ideas, and the second asks us to evaluate the claim that knowledge must be justified with reference to experience. Locke on the origin of Ideas AO1 Position and its implications: The mind is a tabula rasa or "blank slate" at birth, empty of all ideas and knowledge; it is gradually filled through experience AO1 Detail, Illustration: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding II.1 Locke's definition of "idea" = "the object of thinking" He gives examples: "such as are those expressed by the words whiteness, hardness, sweetness, thinking, motion, man, elephant, army, drunkenness, and others" We might say concepts rather than ideas, the basic mental building blocks of propositions or declarative sentences Ideas are acquired through two processes, sensation or reflection; each is a type of perception, the first of external objects, the second an inward perception of mental processes. Sensation The senses "convey" perceptions into the mind, or rather "they convey into the mind what produces there those perceptions". These are the ideas of "sensible qualities" e.g...
Words: 8854 - Pages: 36
...Using a conceptual framework in setting accounting standards Ian Dennis Business School Oxford Brookes University Abstract The paper examines the nature and role of a conceptual framework for financial reporting. Although much has been written about such frameworks and their purported role and the FASB and IASB are currently revising and converging their frameworks there are still questions about the kind of thing it is and how it is used in setting accounting standards. Using insights from the philosophical literature this paper considers the nature of the statements that appear in the chapters of the conceptual framework on objectives and qualitative characteristics. It then considers how these statements are used by standard setters in reasoning towards accounting standards. The kind of reasoning involved and the type of statements that are used in such reasoning is examined. The idea that some of the statements in the conceptual framework express desires that are to be fulfilled by financial reporting regulated by accounting standards is explored. These should be conceived as expressing general desires that are used in practical or instrumental reasoning towards accounting standards rather than as universal desires that enable the deduction of such standards. The need for the exercise of judgement in such reasoning is explored. The nature of the other statements in the conceptual framework is ambiguous. They are sometimes taken to be empirical statements about...
Words: 12464 - Pages: 50
...Using a conceptual framework in setting accounting standards Ian Dennis Business School Oxford Brookes University Abstract The paper examines the nature and role of a conceptual framework for financial reporting. Although much has been written about such frameworks and their purported role and the FASB and IASB are currently revising and converging their frameworks there are still questions about the kind of thing it is and how it is used in setting accounting standards. Using insights from the philosophical literature this paper considers the nature of the statements that appear in the chapters of the conceptual framework on objectives and qualitative characteristics. It then considers how these statements are used by standard setters in reasoning towards accounting standards. The kind of reasoning involved and the type of statements that are used in such reasoning is examined. The idea that some of the statements in the conceptual framework express desires that are to be fulfilled by financial reporting regulated by accounting standards is explored. These should be conceived as expressing general desires that are used in practical or instrumental reasoning towards accounting standards rather than as universal desires that enable the deduction of such standards. The need for the exercise of judgement in such reasoning is explored. The nature of the other statements in the conceptual framework is ambiguous. They are sometimes taken to be empirical statements about...
Words: 12464 - Pages: 50
...In the seventeenth century, European intellectuals developed a new understanding of scientific endeavor, namely to discern natural causes through quantitative measurement. Galileo first challenged the Scholastic supposition that mathematical astronomy was merely ancillary to natural philosophy, and by the middle of the century, both the Cartesian and Newtonian mechanical systems had placed mathematics at center stage, disdaining qualitative physics as irrelevant, unknowable, and misleading. Consistent with their methodology, the mechanists tended to reduce the ontological reality of the natural world to its quantitative aspects, implicitly or explicitly eliminating all categories other than extension, time, space, and motion. In this interpretation, Descartes’ treatment of matter as extension merely formalized an intellectual aesthetic that even his adversaries held in practice. We can easily see this penchant for quantification in Newton’s belief that all physics is mechanical, but we might not expect to find a mania for quantity among those who held a more poetic view of reality. Such an enigma is precisely what we discover in Blaise Pascal, a man who intensely contemplated the ineffable qualitative aspects of human and divine reality, yet remained as thoroughly mechanistic in his treatment of the natural world as Descartes himself. By exploring this dual reality of Pascal’s intellectual life, we can examine how his brand of fideism synthesized the enchanted world of his...
Words: 3358 - Pages: 14
...Metaphysics From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to:navigation, search This article is about the branch of philosophy. For the work of Aristotle, see Metaphysics (Aristotle). |Philosophy | |[pic] | |Branches[show] | |Aesthetics | |Epistemology | |Ethics | |Logic | |Metaphysics | |Social philosophy | |Political philosophy | |Eras[show] | |Ancient | |Medieval | |Modern | |Contemporary | |Traditions[show] | |Analytic | |Continental | |Eastern | |Islamic | |Marxist | |Platonic | |Scholastic | |Philosophers[show] | |Aestheticians | |Epistemologists...
Words: 48829 - Pages: 196
