Rationalism is based on logic, or -- rather -- the proper ordering of things. That order, according to Plato, is necessarily hierarchical and his Allegory of the Cave explicitly shows it: the philosopher is one who has striven to leave behind the shadows and worked to climb the hill, until he has reached a revelation of sorts. It is then his duty to go back and instruct the ignorant who still live in the darkness of the cave by appealing to their intellect. While empiricism explains all knowledge as deriving from experience, Rationalism explains all knowledge as logical. In other words, experience is not necessary to gain philosophical wisdom, for the life of the mind allows one to logically grasp one conclusion from the next. Platonic Rationalism emphasizes the intellect over sheets of data. In conclusion, I prefer the Platonic theory of knowledge because I find many of the modern scholarly articles which I read to be tedious and full of information that seems like it should...
But because logical thinking is so distrusted in academia, one must "prove" by way of empirical knowledge that such-and-such claim is "true." Platonic rationalism would, I believe, put an end to the endless amount of research put in to "proving" that, for example, television influences human behavior. That conclusion seems perfectly attainable through logic. Nonetheless, time and energy must be spent interviewing, testing, and gathering data. Perhaps if we applied our energies to being logical as much as we do to being empirical, we might find better solutions to real problems than merely spending all of our time "proving" whether or not problems actually exist.
Plato, Thomas Aquinas and Jeremy Bentham have exerted great influence over our ideas of justice and have spawned various schools of thought. This paper compares views on justice by looking at their writings on the ideal state and what constitutes moral behavior. Plato (427-327 BC) is one of the most famous philosophers of antiquity. In The Republic, Plato wrote of his concept of individual justice as an offshoot of what he
Plato and Kant Plato's life span was between 427 BC and 347 BC. As a youth Plato possessed political visions, but he turned out disenchanted by the political authority of the city of Athens. He slowly turned out a follower of Socrates, adhering to his fundamental theory and conversational pattern of argument: the pursuance of virtue through inspection, results and additional inspection. The self-explanatory custom is one-minded in its inspection
Philosophy Nietzsche often identified life itself with "will to power," that is, with an instinct for growth and durability. This concept provides yet another way of interpreting the ascetic ideal, since it is Nietzsche's contention "that all the supreme values of mankind lack this will -- that values which are symptomatic of decline, nihilistic values, are lording it under the holiest names" (Kaufmann 1959). Thus, traditional philosophy, religion, and morality
Political Obligation When it comes to political science and philosophy, there are many subjects and points of analysis that are very intriguing, widely discussed and heavily debated. There are also certain people, both past and present, that have proved themselves as scholars on those political subjects. Such is the case with both John Locke and David Hume. One particular subject that both men weighed in on was the role of consent
Reality and Knowledge Epistemology (the study of knowledge) has occupied philosophers and laypeople alike for as long as human beings have had a conception of reality and knowledge. Many philosophers, beginning with Plato, have argued that reality and knowledge are essentially abstract concepts. Aristotle argued, in contrast that knowledge and reality must be based on the senses and inductive reasoning, while Hume argued that our understanding of reality and causation is
The research too has to be reliable and valid cohering to an internal and external scientific definition of reality that is more physical and eschews the metaphysical and the abstract. Ontological Basis Positivism accepts a certain reality of existence and insists that this reality can be discovered by universal and immutable scientific / mathematical principles (Tribe, 2009) . Epistemological Basis The researcher has to distance himself as much as possible from his research
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now