...God would keep his son safe. Abraham’s story is a prime example of reasoning and biblical faith. Biblical faith is being able to believe in something that one has not been able to experience with their own senses. Biblical faith allows one to have a reason to trust and have faith in God. Faith does not mean one is simply believing in something without reason. Reasoning is a tool that God gave humans to allow them to have intellectual thoughts. Reasoning is something that allows one to decipher the information that God has placed into the world He built. In today’s world there is this constant battle on whether a person should live by faith, by reason, or by both. Philosophy shows that it takes faith to have reason. Even though I knew when Abraham was called to sacrifice his son, Isaac, it was not an act of blind faith. Reading it in the context that Mr. Foreman put it in made me view it in a different way. When someone has blind faith in something, they are running full speed ahead without logical reasoning. It is almost like running into a fire with your eyes shut. This is not what Abraham did. Abraham was able to take a step back and realize that since God was found to be faithful at other times, there was not a logical reason to assume God would all of a sudden not be faithful. God made a promise to Abraham. When Abraham believed God would keep that promise, he was using faith. He was using faith with reasoning because he believed in something that could not been seen. God...
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...Practical Reason First published Mon Oct 13, 2003; substantive revision Thu Nov 6, 2008 Practical reason is the general human capacity for resolving, through reflection, the question of what one is to do. Deliberation of this kind is practical in at least two senses. First, it is practical in its subject matter, insofar as it is concerned with action. But it is also practical in its consequences or its issue, insofar as reflection about action itself directly moves people to act. Our capacity for deliberative self-determination raises two sets of philosophical problems. First, there are questions about how deliberation can succeed in being practical in its issue. What do we need to assume—both about agents and about the processes of reasoning they engage in—to make sense of the fact that deliberative reflection can directly give rise to action? Can we do justice to this dimension of practical reason while preserving the idea that practical deliberation is genuinely a form of reasoning? Second, there are large issues concerning the content of the standards that are brought to bear in practical reasoning. Which norms for the assessment of action are binding on us as agents? Do these norms provide resources for critical reflection about our ends, or are they exclusively instrumental? Under what conditions do moral norms yield valid standards for reasoning about action? The first set of issues is addressed in sections 1-3 of the present article, while sections 4-5 cover the second...
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...Enlightenment’s most important contribution to the age of Atlantic Revolution? * The establishment of reason, logic, and rationality in society was the Enlightenment’s most important contribution to both the age of Atlantic Revolution and to the future of society as a whole. * This is not to say that people of reason and logic did not previously exist; however, due to religious superstition, controlling governments, socioeconomic rank, poverty, and prejudice, society was not conducive to the development of new ideas, especially those that promoted change. * Many philosophers believed that reason alone could reveal archetypical truths about the world and life. * This led to the explosion of using science (thus logic and reason) to try to explain natural phenomena. * This implies that people went against the belief that the supernatural and godly works are solely responsible for every aspect of life (and outcomes of decisions) * Thus came the idea that we, as humans, can control our own destiny with our own decisions, and that we might not have a set, predestined life. * Atheism becomes an important aspect to the Enlightenment * God’s role becomes reduced in the minds of many people – from the ultimate controller of absolutely everything to an idle watcher of events and determiner of afterlife * Reason and logic also led to a literary explosion * Filled with novel ideas coming to life via dissertations...
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...German Philosophy: Kant’s concept of reason Critique of Pure Reason Prateek S Kolhar (EE10B109) 29th April 2014 1. Introduction During the period of enlightenment in Europe, there were 2 schools of thought that talked about the way we acquire knowledge: Rationalism and Empiricism. Rationalists like Leibniz claimed that knowledge is innate, that is, we are born with all the knowledge and the experiences that we have in this world just help us in uncovering/ remembering this knowledge. Empiricist believed that all knowledge is got only through experience in other words we are born with our minds/souls like a clean slate and the experiences write on them. With this struggle between the two schools of thought enlightenment Europe was striving to find ways to arrive at a consensus about some of these aforementioned central issues of theory of knowledge. And the champion of a philosopher who accomplished with task was Immanuel Kant. Kant borrowed many concepts from both empiricism and rationalism. But he felt that the many of the rationalist ideas were too simplistic and dogmatic and some of the empiricist ideas we too skeptic about the ability of humans to acquire true knowledge. As a part of his critical philosophy, with an aim to resolve this problem of theory of knowledge he wrote 3 critiques: Critique of pure reason, Critique of practical reason and Critique of judgment. Critique of Pure Reason talks about the process of knowledge acquisition in natural sciences, the way...
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...the difference between what Williams calls internal reasons and external reasons. Do you agree with Williams that there is no such thing as an external reason? Bernard Williams Started a long running well spoken about debate, about the nature of reasons in his seminal paper 'Internal and External Reasons' (Williams 1980) and the following publication 'Internal Reasons and the Obscurity of Blame' (Williams 1989). Williams famously argued that all reasons behind our actions are internal, and further proclaimed that there are no external reasons, which is in direct contrast with internal reasons as he has defined them in his literature. On close examination, his external reason claims turn out to be disguised claims about what would be good for someone to do, not claims about what they have reason to do. I will be describing Internal and External reasons according to Williams and discuss the merits of his claims and my beliefs towards them I have based my arguments on Goldsteins work as it a far more complete argument and analysis of internal and external reasons. Williams has defined two sets of reasoning which are in the world and that we can experience, one is an internal reason and the other being an external reason. He describes an internal reason as something that one has in light of one's own "subjective motivational set"- one's own commitments, desires (or wants) and goals Opposite to this is an external reason, which is one that which occurs independently of one's...
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...The uses and limitations of Reason in gaining knowledge. Reason is one of the main ways of knowing. To know is not just to be informed but to be critically aware of that information. Reason, as a tool, is the objective application of human cognitive ability to any and everything . Therefore,fundamental to this essay is the process of knowing anything, and the extent to which reason is applied in that knowing. I will attempt to explore one main question – ' how?' and in order to simplify, I shall attempt to put forth this exploration in the area of economics. When we draw a graph on the cartesian plan explaining rational human behaviour, with ceteris paribus, we suppose the unreal to be able to understand the real. Beyond the irony of it all, the knower is faced with a dilemma at heart – To what extent is this actually true? The presence of ideal and/or constant conditions and rational actors as a presupposition to explainations in economic theory from the very core – such as demand and supply- are clear examples of basing valid theories on certain assumptions. The arguments, the deductions and all inferences made from that theory– whether it is about equilibrium or social surplus – are valid. But a keen knower is bound to question the veracity of the core premise in place to know whether reason in economics is in confluence with truth or divorced from it! To examine the premise of the rational human, I am intrigued into exploring how we firstly define, and then generalize...
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...Discuss the roles of language and reason in history. History as the area of knowledge is virtually indivisible from language and reasoning. Language is one of the most potent means of interpreting and reporting historical information that is derived from the sources pertinent to the events and occurrences. The sources themselves, in their turn, are frequently presented by the written documents, recorded anecdotal experiences, and works of art, archeology, anthropology and photography which, yet again, are interpreted through the language in conjunction with the context of a historical event. It appears to be an endless loop, where language is the alpha and omega, the main vehicle of conveying history. However, to arrive to the valid interpretation of a certain historical event or development, historians frequently use reasoning to connect the factual data of the tangible sources since the latter ones often come in the form of fragments, related to a particular aspect of the happening. Ideally, reasoning, applied to the interpretation of historical data, should be impersonal, unaffected by predominant views and opinions and completely untainted by political agenda. Yet, it is hard to imagine that throughout the centuries those who held power would willingly allow the contemporary historians relate to the masses the adequate information on the details of their governing techniques and actions. As Winston Churchill pointed out, “History will...
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...Hume was a verificationist and approached miracles from an empirical view, relying on probability as a basis for his reasons for rejecting miracles. Hume defined miracles as a ‘violation of the laws of nature’, he believed that the laws of nature were set in stone, through the use of a posteriori knowledge Hume identified them as being universal and unchanging. Hume observed that some Biblical miracles, such as Jesus walking on water, violated those laws of nature. He then went on to identify the probability that a violation of these laws could occur, Hume argued that if the probability of an event occurring was low then there was little chance that the miracle had actually occurred. This would be true in the event of a baby falling from a 3rd floor window and escaping unscathed, the probability of this happening is extremely low thus Hume would state that a report of it happening was false and it probably did not happen. Through using the principle of probability a miraculous event should be labelled as a miracle only where it would be unbelievable for it to be anything less. Upon following this principle it is less likely that the testimony is false than the miracle occurred should you have a prior belief, however if you do not believe in a deity and the probability of a miracle occurring then the miracles happening is less likely than the testimony being false. This argument used by Hume is not an effective argument as there are cases in which the laws of nature have been...
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...Give at least 3 different reasons why companies conduct training program Training programs are a process of helping people to have more knowledge, skill, attitude for their job, better work relationship and also lift up their work. It has many reasons why companies should have training programs but in this report will show 3 reasons in my opinion. 1. maintain/improve efficiency Training programs will develop their knowledge, understanding, skill and attitude of employee. If employees have more of these things, they can respond to their work more quickly and can adapt to their situation when their facing problem better that will make the efficiency of their work improve also. Training programs also help companies know that people are doing the right job or not, also it will let companies choose and selecting employee or can find other way that what they job are they suitable and shift them into other department to have more efficiency in work 2. Increase profit margin and revenue Companies that have employees that understand their job or have knowledge to invent something new, more competency, have knowledge of raw material that they produce or modify will make company reduce the cost of manufacturing, reduce waste and have a quick responds to customer. This might lead companies to cost leadership, increase profit margin over competitor and maintain or increase customer loyalty 3. Reduce employee turnover At first time employees come with their full of heart...
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...During the 1790’s, over thousands of editions of Thomas Paine’s Age of Reason were produced and were sold out overnight. The man that is known of world shaping works through his writing is Thomas Paine. He demonstrates as an opponent of organized religion within his narrative the Age of Reason. The Age of Reason stirred up a theological firestorm amongst others and “... the reaction was remarkable, perhaps even unparalleled in American history” (Smith 775). Paine was a journalist that wrote words that change the history. Paine had an interest in raising many tensions between the different colonies through his writings. His writing fired others beliefs and caused individuals to attack his work. Paine’s Age of Reason was a two part book that was intended to diminish the pretensions and structures associated with the bible. Jay Smith’s Thomas Paine and The Age of Reason’s Attack on the Bible explains that “...the attack of the bible can be reduced to two major arguments, the first part being textual; the second is being moral” (Smith 753). Paine’s textual arguments shows alleged absurdities. The moral portion established the errors considered in Paine’s argument for rejecting the bible. Smith’s thoughts of Paine were that he acted against organized religion that targeted the accounts of the new and old testaments. Paine’s key idea was that the bible was a rejection to the word of God. He argues that the word of God should have no errors, no inconsistencies, cannot be morally unjust...
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...Anselm And Augustine Reason Of Faith Anselm And Augustine Reason Of Faith St. Augustine, who was also far and away the most influential Catholic theologian prior to St. Thomas Aquinas. St. Augustine’s mode of thought indicates perfectly that all knowledge upon all subjects must take into account the revealed truth of Scripture along with the insights of philosophy, since all knowledge is aimed at helping humanity understand God. He declared that “Faith precedes Reason” because unless you believe, you would not understand. St. Augustine like other Early Fathers of the Church, fully welcomed reason which was open to the absolute, and infused it with the richness drawn from Revelation. St. Augustine argued that reason and faith must be in concordance to know the truth and the stages of history. Moreover, he held that both help each other. Faith can help “illuminate” truths for philosophy and reasoning along the way to knowing God, and reason can help faith in understanding the perfections of God. St. Augustine, who was also far and away the most influential Catholic theologian prior to St. Thomas Aquinas. St. Augustine’s mode of thought indicates perfectly that all knowledge upon all subjects must take into account the revealed truth of Scripture along with the insights of philosophy, since all knowledge is aimed at helping humanity understand God. He declared that “Faith precedes Reason” because unless you believe, you would not understand. St. Augustine like other...
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...Ilona Apelsinov September 13th, 2015 Weekly essay #1 What is the point of music? Why do people listen to music and often tend to not understand what the lyrics are? Why do we like to listen to something we don't understand or is not inspirational? There are people in this world that like some songs for no apparent reason either because the beat is catchy or just because everyone likes it. Philosophically it is not possible to like a song for no reason because there is always a reason for our actions. For something not to have a reason, it is an action without thought. But since liking something has an idea behind it, it is impossible to like something without reasons. When you like something, it is like an emotion because emotions are caused by reasons. Everyone has reasons for liking songs, some are fond of their likings and some are not. That is why some people admit to liking the songs they listen to and some just keep it to themselves. Therefore, liking something for no reason is impossible. From my experience, I tend to listen to the songs that sound catchy. I have many reasons why I like the songs that I listen to because they are either catchy, have significant lyrics that have meanings behind them or because the words that are being sung in the song connects with the situations that I might be dealing with. People use some songs to express their emotions when they can't explain it by using their own words. For example, the song "Trap Queen"...
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...Ryan Perrin Research Essay 12/12/13 Othello William Shakespeare’s Othello could be viewed as an allegory that represents the frailty of human reason and the ease as to which a person can manipulate rational thought through the utilization of skillful rhetoric and deception. In the essay Allegory and Irony in ‘Othello’ by Antoinette B. Dauber, she says “he [Shakespeare] is not committed to the maintenance of allegory, and so he freely dramatizes the internal weaknesses and external onslaughts that lead to its destruction.” The readers, or viewers of the play, then are meant to be able to apply the stories moral problems to everyday situations and realize the harm that can be done by using rhetoric and deception to manipulate others. Rhetoric, when used as a tool of deception, can lead others to come to “reasonable conclusions,” yet these conclusions may be based upon irrational reasons and emotion; which in turn makes such a conclusion irrational. In reality these irrational reasons are only as rational as a persuader can convince a person to believe. In Othello, Shakespeare shows that even in the minds of people that are most confident of themselves, there is a self-doubt that can be increasingly apparent by very simple means of ignition. Iago ignites, or maybe even re-ignites this self-doubt by leading Othello to believe that Desdemona would prefer Cassio over him, which could cause Othello to believe that he is not worthy of having Desdemona since he is black. This situation...
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...behind all these academical scrambles. In most of the situations graduated persons doesn’t follow their way to a job. In general, numbers of determined people to supplement their academic life is one in million, isn’t it? Let’s ask you? How many of you have a sublime target of choosing this major? Or how many of you believe in reaching your aim? Your answers might be as same as mine. Now let’s describe the topic more with three reasons. First reason of registering university in our country is having a high social level, in my book. And one of the points which provides us this high level is college degree. Of course in new lifestyle of us. You might have heard that “ if you don’t go to the university, in the future how would you head off with your children. “ or for instance, narrations like these “ all of your contemporaries will have literate and grave characteristics in society, so, if you don’t study, you wouldn’t have that much social value. “ Some rivalries like these cases are the reason for part of people to getting college degree. Another reason is some needs like needs to have job, needs to have knowledge, etc… . For example, some youths need to make a job and there is no better way than choosing university for them. Another example could be communication needs , for instance, in majors related to English, participants may have some needs to know an international language to make a connection with other cultures and places. And that’s a good choice for travel addicts...
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...Why conflict occurs is less important than how it effects people. The world is less safe than it has ever been. The myriad of problems, conflicts, and catastrophes we find ourselves in are being documented hourly in blogs, in documentaries, on talk radio, and even with growing frequency, in the mainstream media. It is natural then that the question on all our lips is “why? “. If not, it should be. To reason is innate to human nature. When we encounter conflict we are obliged to “assume a pose”. Conflict’s inevitability and relentless nature necessitates a reaction; a choice. Unfortunately as Karl Marx famously elucidated, “reason has always existed but not in a reasonable form”. As 2014 has unfurled, the world has been forced to find reason in two incongruous disasters in a matter of months. In March, Boeing passenger flight 370, with 239 people on board, disappeared off radar. It seemingly vanished. Such an inexplicable event was understandably met with a public response which ranged from incredulity to disdain. We needed reasons why. So when the answers didn’t come, beyond the inevitable conspiracy theories, the collective reaction was one of resignation. But when the tragic horror of the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was reported only months later, with the additional loss of almost 300 lives, our reaction was not so passive. It was not just answers we sought, we also needed to apportion blame. Whether because of human error, mechanical error, or the...
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