The power of Socrates' technique is that it forces him to investigate many of his centrally held beliefs simultaneously with the person he is communicating; any questions that arise from his audience, or possible objections to his line of reasoning, must be addressed. This capacity is necessarily lacking when it is placed upon paper because any questions or objections that might be evoked in the reader inevitably go unanswered. For example, when Socrates argues, "So one may say this about everything; all other human activities depend on the soul, and those of the soul itself depend on wisdom if they are to be good. According to this argument the beneficial would be wisdom, and we say that virtue is beneficial?" Meno merely replies, "Certainly." (Meno, 89a). The issue here is that readers, viewing this line of reasoning from a differing perspective, could easily raise a number of questions that…...

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Bibliography:

1. Plato. "The Writings of Plato." Classics of Western Philosophy: Fifth Edition. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1999.

He points out that Filmer's essay had been written before Cromwell's victory over Charles I, and that the attitude towards government in general and the monarchy specifically had greatly changed. The way he describes the unique circumstance in England, too, especially in regards to the situation of religion, makes it clear that Locke's thoughts could really only have been possible in a given environment. This notion seems initially repugnant to me; if philosophy is logical, as it is purported or even required to be, then what is true in one situation ought to be just as true in another. What Russell seems to be suggesting in his description of how Locke's thoughts arose, however, is hat there is no such thing as eternal truth or even eternal or consistent logic -- that extrinsic realities will and do and even must affect internal reasoning.
I would have liked to see Russell…...

Our key clue in this passage is the reference to Dionysia, the festival in honor of Dionysus, God of Wine and Pleasure. Instead of philosophical study, this festival is held in the Spring for 6 days of plays, tragedies, feats, and wine. Dionysus, as the inspirer of madness and ecstasy, is hardly a recommendation for a true philosopher/king' instead, the preoccupation focuses on the sensualist who, in their own type of wisdom, has but two positions -- on and charming, or off and degrading (Dalby, 2005).

Knowledge, on the other hand, is necessary for any action to become more than that action alone. Ignorance turns away from knowledge; opinion is express of knowledge based on cultural truths or undocumented hearsay. Opinion, though, attempts to conceal fact being mere stories or boast, rather than considered introspective thought. The dream state is falsehood, inspired by emotion and the idea of greed and lust,…...

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REFERENCES

Baird, F. And W. Kaufmann. (2008). From Plato to Derrida. Prentice Hall.

Dalby, a. (2005). The Story of Bacchus. British Museum Press.

Plato, a. Bloom, trans. (1991). The Republic. Basic Books.

East/West
An Analysis of Eastern Influence in Western Art

The American/English poet T.S. Eliot references the Upanishad in his most famous poem "The Wasteland," a work that essentially chronicles the break-up of Western civilization and looks to Eastern philosophy for a kind of crutch in the wake of the abandonment of Western philosophy. Since then, Westerners, whether in literature or in film, have continued to look to the East for inspiration and representation of virtuous or right living. Hollywood, for example, has for decades been borrowing themes and narratives from Hong Kong cinema, whether in the works of artin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, or the Wachowski Brothers. This paper will look at the ways Eastern philosophy has influenced the West in terms of culture -- primarily through the medium of literature and film and the avenue of spirituality.

The Spirit of the East: Karma

Karma may be defined as the cycle of cause and effect.…...

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Morris, M. (2004). Transnational imagination in action cinema: Hong Kong and the making of a global popular culture. Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 5(2), 181-199.

Pollard, M. (2004). 'Kung Fu Hustle', Kung Fu Cinema. Retrieved from  http://web.archive.org/web/20070502050543/http://www.kungfucinema.com/reviews/kungfuhustle_082205.htm 

Sikora, J. (2002). Religions of India. Lincoln, NE: Writer's Club Press.

Philosophy
While there is plenty to criticize in the work of Descartes, Locke, and Hume, one cannot justifiably claim that Jose Vasconcelos criticisms of traditional Western views on the nature of knowledge apply to these theorists if only because Vasconcelos' criticisms do not really apply to anything, as his criticisms are largely based on straw men. This is not to say that traditional Western views on the nature of knowledge should be free from criticism, but rather that the problems with these traditional views are more fundamental than Vasconcelos realizes, to the point that Vasconcelos suffers from many of these same issues. Essentially, both Vasconcelos and the previously mentioned authors suffer from a simply ignorance regarding the functioning of the human brain, the nature of consciousness and memory, and the evolutionary processes by which organisms and ideas evolve, with this ignorance born out of an implicit or explicit maintenance of religiously…...

Western Humanities
The Prevalence of Homosexuality in Ancient Greek Society and Mythology

In any study of Western Culture, there are certain elements which must be addressed to fully understand the development of said culture over time. Among the early cultures that have had a significant impact on this development is that of Ancient Greece. Western philosophy, science, and art are all infused with ideas and innovations which began in Greek culture. In the world of architecture, for example, the Greeks revolutionized the use of cement and arches, bringing about a new era in building design. Scientifically, the contributions of such great men as Archamedes and Pythagorus are used as the basis for much of our modern mathematics and technology. Great thinkers of the day such as Plato and Socrates are considered to be among the greatest philosophers of all time, and they are used as a reference point for many of the…...

Unlike Plato, Machiavelli had a much less idealistic view of leadership in mind. or, rather, his view of leadership was not wrapped up in a personal view of ethics and virtue. Plato obviously believed, after all, that the best leader would be the wisest and the most moral. It was these qualities that should be encouraged and these qualities that would make said individual a superior leader. Machiavelli argued implicitly that this was an erroneous understanding of human nature and the characteristics that constitute excellent leaders. At the heart of Machiavelli's description of the perfect leader, his idealized prince, is the argument that personal virtue and ethics are completely unrelated to public success (Kemerling). Hence, from this we see that the good leader will not necessarily be the same as the virtuous individual. This assertion stands in stark contrast to Plato's argument about the nature of leadership and highlights the…...

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Works Cited

Kemerling, Garth. "Machiavelli: Principality and Republic." Philosophy Pages. 27 Oct. 2001. 17 Nov. 2007  http://www.philosophypages.com/hy/3v.htm .

Korab-Karpowicz, W.J. "Plato's Political Philosophy." The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Bilkent University. 2006. 17 Nov. 2007  http://www.iep.utm.edu/p/platopol.htm .

Western Religion
In his book, "Western Ways of eing Religious," (Kessler, 1999) the author Gary E. Kessler identifies the theological, philosophical and societal ramifications of the evolution of religion in the West. Christianity, Judaism and Islam can be traced to a single origin but their divergence has been very marked. Kessler sets his thesis very early in the book. He avers that there are two approaches to religion. One is to be immersed in it -- as a practitioner; the other is to study it as an objective observer, looking in from the outside. This work is unique. The author challenges the traditional notions with his own opinions then follows it with the views of an expert on that notion (in the form of a speech or an essay). He avers that a student of religion has to approach the topic with honesty and openness. This often involves imagining the other's…...

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Bibliography

Kessler, Gary E. Western Ways of Being Religious. Mountain View, Calif.: Mayfield Pub., 1999.pp.

Edwards, Rem Blanchard. Reason and Religion; an Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion. New York,: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1972.pp. 386

Paden, William E. Religious Worlds: The Comparative Study of Religion. Boston: Beacon Press, 1988.pp. 192

Proudfoot, Wayne. Religious Experience. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985.pp. 263

Western Ethical Theories
The objective of this work is to examine Western Ethical theories including teleological, deontological, natural law, and interest view and virtue ethics.

The work of Bennett-Woods (2005) states that while the words 'ethics' and 'morality' are "often used interchangeably, morality is more precisely used to refer to the customs, principles of conduct and moral codes of an individual, group or society." Ethics, is also stated to be termed "moral philosophy of the science of morals" and is the branch of philosophy that examines "morality through the critical examination of right and wrong in human action." (Bennett-Woods, 2005)

The study of ethics is generally characterized into three specific domains of study include those of: (1) metaethics which is related to the nature of right and wrong insofar as the where and how of the original of ethical judgments and what these judgments mean regarding the human nature and behavior; (2) Normative…...

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References

Virtue Ethics (2010) Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved from:  http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-virtue/ 

Eric Wingrove-Haugland (1999) The Foundations of the Core Values in Western Ethical Theories. Retrieved from:  http://isme.tamu.edu/JSCOPE99/Wingrove99.html 

Lovin, R.W. (2004) Moral Theories. Blackwell Publishing Company. Retrieved from:  http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/content/BPL_Images/Content_store/Sample_chapter/0631216340/Schweiker_sample%20chapter_A%20companion%20to%20religious%20ehtics.pdf 

Bennett-Woods, D. (2005 ) Ethics at a Glance. 2005 Regis University. Retrieved from: http://rhchp.regis.edu/HCE/EthicsAtAGlance/EthicsAtAGlance.pdf

Philosophy
In his discourse, The Republic, Plato describes the "ideal state" as composed of three social classes: the merchant class, military class, and philosopher-kings. The merchant class maintains and provides service to the society by safeguarding the people's economic activities, while the military class provides the society's security needs. However, in order to establish a stable society, the class of philosopher-kings must govern, having the knowledge, skills, and talent to govern and lead over the society politically. Moreover, the philosopher-king is appropriate for the role of a political leader because he (Plato assigns the role to men) possesses virtues of temperance, courage, wisdom, and justice. These three classes provide balance in the society in terms of the security, prosperity, and leadership, thereby establishing what Plato calls the "ideal state."

Aristotle's philosophy on happiness and the good life is illustrated in his discourse, the Nicomachean Ethics, wherein he posits that in humans achieve…...

) and towards the more practical needs for Aryan survival.
c. hy did a growing number of Germans support Hitler and the Nazi Party in the years leading up to his appointment as chancellor?

There are many arguments to this question, but one that surfaces more often than others focuses on economics and self-preservation. The German people were humiliated by the Treaty of Versailles -- their military and economic system had been stripped away, their debt unbearable, and their economy was being controlled by other countries. The ideas of National Socialism were attractive to many: unification of the German Volk, reestablishing the German lands as a country dedicated to certain ideals, focusing on ethnic and linguistic similarities, the overthrow of Versailles, the idea of German self-determination, lebensraum (room for Germans to live, grow and prosper), and an improvement over the crippling inflation and economic woes of the eimar Government, seen by many…...

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Works Cited

Burke, Edmund. Reflections on the Revolution in France. Primary Source

Documents, History 100.

Hitler, a. Mein Kampf. Primary Source Documents, History 100.

Marx, Karl and F. Engels. The Communist Manifesto. Primary Source

Philosophy and Psychology of the Mind and Body
Throughout human history, philosophers, doctors, and most recently, psychologists, have attempted to understand the relationship between the mind and body and how it results in human beings' awareness and perception of reality. At least since the golden age of Greek philosophy, thinkers have been aware of an ostensible distinction between the mind and body, a distinction that nonetheless allows for some intermingling such that physical issues affect the mental state just as mental issues may result in physical symptoms. Thus, if one desires to truly understand how contemporary estern psychologists and philosophers consider the nature of consciousness via the interaction between mind and body, one must trace the history of these concepts starting with the Greek philosophers, moving through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and on to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when psychology first began to develop as a formal discipline.…...

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Works Cited

Bunge, M. (2010). The mind-body problem. Matter and Mind, 287(2), 143-157.

Hergenhahn, B.R. (Ed.). (2009). An introduction to the history of psychology. Belmont, CA:

Wadsworth.

Kendell, R.E. (2001). The distinction between mental and physical illness. British Journal of Psychiatry,178, 490-493.

Jacques Derrida has been accused of writing in a deliberately obtuse and obfuscated manner, so the relationship between his work and that of Plato's might not be immediately discernible. Perhaps the clearest connection between the two can be derived from Derrida's of Grammatology, especially as it compares to Plato's aesthetics and view of reality. In this rather dense treatise, Derrida first outlines the phenomenon of what he calls logocentrism -- the attitude that speech (logos in Greek) is the most basic and essential form of language, while writing is secondary in development and its ability to reflect meaning. Derrida claims that logocentrism has long been a silent and foundational part of Western thought, even from the time of Plato.

Plato believed that truth and meaning existed in a pure state somewhere, with the shadows of meanings existing in our own world. Derrida sees this as a flawed worldview, though not without…...

Knowledge and truth were considered absolute and immutable by these two, though for very different reasons, which is the complete antithesis to the empirical theories of Popper, Peirce, Kuhn, and James. The progression of knowledge in the face of such certainty could only result in pure growth from previously established claims, as no truth could ever be said to exist that was not thoroughly and absolutely proved by careful extrapolation from a priori conclusions.
Several interesting anthropological occurrences have convinced me that the empirical method, with its possibility for the adjustment of truth based on the framework or paradigm from which the determination of truth is made, is a much better way of understanding truth and the concept of "absolute certainty." Cultures exist that have no concept of, or words for, time. "Yesterday" and "today" are meaningless concepts that do not exist. The extreme difficulty of communication that this presented…...

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Works Cited

Burch, Robert. "Charles Sanders Peirce." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2006.  http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/peirce/#dia .

Kessler, Gary. Voices of Wisdom: A Multicultural Philosophy Reader, 5th Edition. New York: Wadsworth Publishing, 2003.

Pinter, Harold. "Nobel Lecture: Art, Truth, and Politics." 2005.  http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2005/pinter-lecture-e.html ,

Thornton, Stephen. "Karl Popper." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2009.  

His floating away at the end of the movie seems to suggest that he is indeed dead, and that the film has been the final moments of his brain creating illusory perceptions. The fact that this is not explicitly decided reveals the film's perspective that this doesn't really mater -- perception is the method we use to interact with "reality;" the realizations that Wiley comes to and the knowledge he receives is not mad any less valid or important by the fact that none of the encounters he experiences might actually have happened.
The fact that we have such strong intellectual and emotional responses to fictive films is an indicator that perception, to a large degree, creates reality. The nature of truth is also explored in the documentary Standard Operating Procedure. The main philosophical issue in this film is how the framing of an event can affect truth, or at…...

Here are some options for essays on Plato and Aristotle:

1. Comparative analysis of Plato and Aristotle's views on ethics and morality
2. A historical exploration of Plato and Aristotle's contributions to Western philosophy
3. A research-based essay on the ways in which Plato and Aristotle influenced each other's ideas
4. A persuasive essay arguing for the superiority of either Plato or Aristotle's philosophy
5. An exploration of the political theories of Plato and Aristotle and their implications for modern governance

Please let me know if any of these options appeal to you, or if you have a specific type of essay....

The dynamic intersection between philosophical ethics and Christian theology is a complex and rich area of study that involves examining the moral principles and values that guide human behavior and decision-making, in both secular and religious contexts. This paper aims to explore this intersection, tracing the historical development of ethical thought in Western philosophy and Christian theology, and examining the ways in which these two disciplines have influenced each other over time.

One of the central themes in this exploration is the concept of moral realism, which asserts that moral values and principles are objective and independent of human beliefs or....

1. Paragraph:

Plato's Meno is a foundational dialogue in Western philosophy that explores the nature of virtue and knowledge through a lively debate between two renowned philosophers: Socrates and Meno. This seminal work provides a rich tapestry of ideas that set the stage for subsequent inquiry into the complexities of human understanding and the pursuit of ethical conduct. In this essay, we will delve into the multifaceted landscape of Meno, examining its pivotal role in shaping Plato's philosophical framework and its enduring implications for our modern-day reflections on virtue and knowledge.

2. Meno's Paradox: Knowledge's Enigma:

Meno opens with a perplexing inquiry....

1. Socrates: The Wisest Man in Athens

2. The Paradox of Socrates: The Wisest Man Who Claimed to Know Nothing

3. Socrates and the Delphic Oracle: A Divine Appointment or a Mortal Error?

4. The Wisdom of Socrates: Lessons from the Wisest Man in Athens

5.....