Nature or Nurture: Depends on the Circumstances

If a baby is born with either tremendous talent or some other favorable trait, then maybe nature gets a bit more credit, but if the baby’s early life is extremely bad or extremely good, then nurture is a strong force, possibly undoing all of nature’s gifts or compensating for her...

The Question Is – Who Am I?

Introduction In life, there are a million questions that we persistently seek answers to. One of the most pressing and most elusive answers is one that can answer the age-old question; who am I? In more than one way, all our endeavors seek to answer this question. Psychologists study behavior,...

Influences of Americans’ Belief in Individualism on U.S. Policy on Welfare and Education

Americans’ belief in individualism is a significant factor that has an overarching influence on the United States policy on welfare and education. It constitutes Americans’ value system which orients members of American society towards what is desirable for their society. The United States policy on welfare and education delivery is...

Murdock and Nietzsche: Religion and Morality Relations

Introduction Morality and religion – what is the relation between these two notions? Are they interconnected or mutually exclusive? Can religion exist without morality and, vice versa, can morality exist without religion? These are difficult questions to answer but we are going to make an attempt to do it in...

Cosmological Argument: St. Thomas Aquinas and Kant

The Cosmological Argument for the existence of God, as propounded by Thomas Aquinas, hinged on the five general principles. This, in Aquinas’ masterpiece, was entitled “The Summa” (The Five Ways). In what follows, we would be critically discussing the first, second, fourth, and fifth pillars of his argument while reserving...

Political Predictions: Is China About to Collapse or Fall Into Crisis?

People always attempted to raise the curtain of the future and foresee the course of the events. At the basis of the interest in political predictions lie sufficiently strong vital motives. The practice of control of sociopolitical processes confirms: the higher the prognostication level, the more effective, more successful planning,...

Theory of Ideas: Plato the Originator of Idealism

Plato is rightfully considered the originator of idealism. Explaining in details about the concept of idealism represents a great difficulty and demands great effort. Idealism can merely be defined as a philosophy which reduces all existence to forms of thought, or in Plato’s case, idea. The word “idea” is originated...

Philosophy. Ontological vs. Teleological Argument

The ontological argument by Anselm starts from the Bible where he uses a fool who denies that God yet he acknowledges the fact that God is something that which nothing greater can be thought. The ontological argument in my view is of great importance because from a theistic point of...

Hume’s “Skepticism” About the External World

In Plato’s allegory of the cave, he describes a scene where a group of individuals is trapped in a cave facing away from the source of light. Meanwhile, all sorts of objects and people parade on a raised path, casting their shadows on the wall they can see. For these...

Global Peace Studies Review

The book –”The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People”, by Jonathan Schell, points out the relationship of violence to political power. It states that, by the end of World WarII, the future is of peaceful co-operation among countries. The author says that the ethics of Virgil...

Morality: What Does It Mean to Live Well?

This paper would seek to analyze the concept of beliefs and what it means to live a life that is concentrated on not only doing good deeds on an individual level but also on acting for the welfare of others; on a societal level. This paper would analyze the concept...

Philosophers’ Views on Body and Mind Relationship

Introduction Philosophy is the examination of the causes and fundamentals of realism, principles, or facts which have a basis on rational reasoning instead of pragmatic techniques. There are various philosophers who may have differing views on some particular issues and these differences are influenced by the different experiences that they...

Plato and Aristotle on an Ideal State

Introduction Since ancient times, philosophers try to define and develop the concept of an ideal state and government, which meets the needs of both citizens and state rulers. Plato and Aristotle created their ideal in accordance with the rules and traditions of their historical period and its values. In a...

Dignity and Freedom Theories by Immanuel Kant

Introduction In his criticism of previous ethical theories, Kant was reacting to two major movements in the history of early modern philosophy which are Empiricism and rationalism. He argued that both movements contain flaws which are of serious concern because Empiricist tried to use senses to obtain knowledge from the...

Gaining and Losing: Lifewide Discussion

Life and death, gaining and losing…The most abstract and, at the same time, the most important things in life. I do not say “human life” because not only human beings, although they also do, feel the pain of a loss of something and the pleasure of gaining something else. Not...

The Philosophical Discussion of Free Will

The philosophy of logic plays an integral role in the lives of rational people. We use logic in our everyday endeavors. For instance, when you want to sell out your old car to a potential buyer, you must provide arguments that will make the buyer believe that indeed your car...

Abortion: Does a Fetus Have a Right to Life?

Introduction In today’s world, many things are often a point of contention and it comes as no surprise that abortion features on this list. Abortion arouses serious religious, social, political, legal and ethical debates. On one side is the pro-choice group who propose that the decision of whether to proceed...