Philosophy Essays Examples For College & High School Students in PDF

10142 total results

The Genealogy of Morals by Nietzsche (444 words, 2 pages)

Like usual, there are many interesting themes worthy of discussion in this weeks reading. However, a major key is to be found right near the end of Ricoeur, Fundamentally, the Genealogy of Morals in Nietzsches sense, the theories of ideologies in the Marxist sense, and the theory of ideals and ... Read More

Theories and Interpretations of the World in the Works of Ancient Philosophers (2919 words, 12 pages)

All literary texts, including those from Ancient Greece, are philosophical(yes, even romance novels!) however, they are allegorical philosophy-orwhat could maybe better be called embodied philosophy. Which is to say,literature can be best thought of as literally embodying philosophicalissues. This is somewhat obvious the characters couldn't do anythingunless they had theories ... Read More

Ascetic Ideal in Genealogy of Morals by Nietzsche (2069 words, 10 pages)

In the Genealogy of Morals Nietzsche claims that science is thenewest form of the ascetic ideal. This seems to oppose the archetype ofscience - according to which, it seems to be a form of life bettering,sense refining, anti-religious magnificence that betrays only preciselywhat Nietzsche wants from people. But, that is ... Read More

A Critique of Socrates’ and Christianity’s Views on the Concept of Human Suffering in the Works of Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (2844 words, 9 pages)

To Nietzsche the world is flux, ever changing, lawless and can bejustified only as an aesthetic experience a tragedy. In so far as he wantsto say the world is inherently meaningless because there is no meaning tobe found in it - the world is free of "true" interpretation, one is ... Read More

The Equivalence of Friedrich Nietzsche’s Concept of the Will to Power and the Heraclitean Worldview (1259 words, 5 pages)

3 How 'will to power' is equivalent to a Heraclitean worldview For Nietzsche most things in the world crave power a.k.a self-betterment. He contrasts this with certain human beings that crave astable, static identity a.k.a weakness. The will to power is, forNietzsche, a will to more willing, a constant drive ... Read More

Apollo and Dionysos – What They Are and How They Are Combined in Tragedy by Nitezsche (1914 words, 8 pages)

1 Apollo and Dionysos - what they arehow they are combined in tragedy Nietzsche distinguishes between two principles, the Apollonian andthe Dionysian in his work The Birth of Tragedy. These two principles arefor the Greeks, at least according to Nietzsche, two ways of looking at theworld, i.e. philosophies, as well ... Read More

The Opinions of Socrates, Heraclitus, and Parmenides on the Concept of Change (2664 words, 6 pages)

Change has been thought of in several different ways throughouthistory What is change? Is change even possible? How so? etc. The more oneponders such a notion the more abstract and odd it becomes. Thinking aboutchange one says to themselves change is not A becomes A (A--A), that isonly continuity and ... Read More

The Imaginary Network of Self-Representations, Authorizations, and Inhibitions in The Sex of Knowing, a Book by Michele Le Doeuff (453 words, 2 pages)

Michele Le Doeuff argues, "every subject is caught up in an imaginarynetwork of self-representations, authorizations, or inhibitions" (Le Doeuff2003, 136). Which in the simplest reading is to say that all people careabout and live according to a set of beliefs about themselves, yeses(freedom, agency, ability, possibility, openness) and noes (restriction,oppression, ... Read More

A Review of Piaget’s Argument against Phenomenological Psychology in the Essay Philosophers and Problems of Facts (265 words, 1 pages)

Piaget, in the essay Philosophers and Problems of Facts in his Insights and Illusions of Philosophy, argues against a phenomenological psychology. For Piaget, philosophers have many problems, but a few salient ones are present moment consciousness doesnt account for the past or make the recollections necessarily correct, philosophers are too ... Read More

What Affects Art in the Republic by Socrates (1480 words, 3 pages)

Plato is deeply concerned with the effects of art how doesart affect people? is a major concern of Socrates in books two, three, andten of The Republic. He is concerned (1) that the arts, which he callspoetry, can endorse ideals and moralities directly opposed to his virtuebased morality (2) about ... Read More

The Notions of God, the Shadows of God, and the Death of God in Friedrich Nietzsche’s Philosophical Work The Gay Science (1055 words, 4 pages)

In his work, The Gay Science, Nietzsche differentiates between three(among many, many) notions "God", "the shadows of God" and "the death ofGod". All three of these play pivotal roles in his philosophy of a worldbeyond good and evil. The first, God, is the ultimate unchanging, univocaland for eternity-existing being that ... Read More

The Link between Philosophy and Science in Edmund Husserl’s The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology (400 words, 2 pages)

This weeks readings focused on the interlinked problems of science, reason, knowledge, philosophy, and truth in the 20th century. Husserl in The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology argues that transcendental philosophy and science are different endeavors that while sharing a similar root and goal have a difference of ... Read More

The Use of Phenomenology to Investigate Fiction (1229 words, 5 pages)

Husserl implores us to use phenomenology as its the only method that allows us to suspend the natural standpoint, and to look beyond the causes to the essential content of the experience (Solomon 134). And Butler offers us something greater than she lets on when she tells us about Natansons ... Read More

An Analysis of the Allegory of Human Nature in The Republic by Plato (3117 words, 11 pages)

In this paper, I take the stance that Plato's Republic is an allegory ofhuman nature, not a political text. It uses politics as a metaphor forauthenticity. Throughout, Plato tells stories to express a point in book7, he imagines a cave ... (514a) in book 8, calls on the muses like ... Read More

Cartesian Dualism by Descartes (5034 words, 14 pages)

1. Introduction In the 1600s Descartes "invented" Cartesian dualism there is abody, there is a soul, and they are as different as day and night. Thissoul is non-spatial and non-temporal it exists before our physical vesseldoes. And the physical vessel is nothing but a body, thus it has nothing todo ... Read More

The Feeling of Angst and the Concept of Authenticity in Martin Heidegger’s Philosophy (1195 words, 3 pages)

Angst, reveals the strangeness of our being-there-in-the-world and that we are not really das man and tranquilized and at-home-home-in-the-world rather, we are a being who is essentially essence-less and this revelation discloses the fact that we are all going to die and forces us to realize that we are thrown ... Read More

The Views of Foucault and Derrida on the Normative Reading of a Text of Idea and the Investigation of Its Structural Underpinning (449 words, 2 pages)

This weeks readings were snippets from Foucault and Derrida focusing on the ways these men tried to examine two things simultaneously the normative reading of a text or idea and an investigation of the structural underpinning which make such a reading a possibility (or an impossibility without socio-historic forces as ... Read More

The Philosophy of Kant, Hegel and Comte (401 words, 2 pages)

This weeks reading is and isnt about Kant, Hegel, and Comte. On a philosophic level, however, this issue returns over and over againso much so that Richardson quotes Bertrand Russell, Kants inconsistencies were such as to make it inevitable that philosophers influenced by him should develop rapidly either in the ... Read More

2 Similarities and Dissimilarities of ChristianityPlatonism In The Birth of Tragedy Nietzsche differentiates between threeworldviews Platonic optimism, Christian (weak) pessimism and Strongpessimism. All three of these have their similarities as well asdifferences. Platonic optimism posits that the world can be rationallyunderstood Christian pessimism embraces that life is inherently evil andnot ... Read More

The Philosophy of Aristotle and Pre-Socratic Philosophers (1944 words, 5 pages)

Aristotle attacked the problem of change after a chain of philosophershad already tackled the issue. This gave him a whole background of thoughton the issue as well as several people's ideas to reject. From his ventureinto the past he found where those before him were correct and where theywere mistaken. ... Read More

The Diffeing Views on the Role of Centrality of Vision to Experience in Martin Jay’s Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, and the Search for a New Ontology of Sight (314 words, 2 pages)

In Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, and the Search for a New Ontology of Sight, Martin Jay details the distinctions between Sartre (though his section is missing?) and Merleau-Ponty on the role of centrality of vision to experience. He tells us about the influence of Husserl Husserl taught the boys 1) that perception ... Read More

Care-Focused Feminism by Nel Noddings (1616 words, 6 pages)

Nel Noddings begins the discussion of care-focused feminism with the idea of moral reasonings prevalence in the socio-historical discourse Western philosophy calls ethics. She argues that focusing on moral reasoning makes ethics appear mathematical however, making ethics mathematical divorces the sphere of human activity and feeling from ethics and morality. ... Read More

A Religious Essay on Differing Perception of Time for God (628 words, 3 pages)

The Differing Perception of Time for GodIn Confessions Book XI, Saint Augustine asserts that for the Lord, eternity is yours (XI.1). Augustines perception of God is a being who is eternal, meaning He exists outside the human perception of time this should not be confused with sempiternity, a nature of ... Read More

The Use of Perception to Assert Descartes’ Own Existence in the Second Meditation (532 words, 3 pages)

In the Second Meditation, Descartes utilizes his perception of wax to further assert his own existence. Descartes argues that by thinking about the wax and perceiving various aspects of it, the ability to do so proves more about his intellect to understand the self. In this paper, I will argue ... Read More

Life in The German Ideology by Marx and Engels (695 words, 3 pages)

In The German Ideology, Marx and Engels write, Life is not determined by consciousness, but consciousness by life (MER 155). By this he means something rather familiar to a reader of continental philosophy, but not necessarily simple to understand. Essentially, he means a reversal of the mind-body split as well ... Read More

Tragic Hero in Antigone by Sophocles (907 words, 4 pages)

Sophocles play, Antigone, depicts a young girl who wants to bury her dead brother while the king has forbidden it. This story has had much controversy surrounding who exactly the protagonist is and which character is a tragic hero. The traits which each candidate possesses for the title of tragic ... Read More

A Comparison of Philosophy of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (6199 words, 18 pages)

Its true there are contradictions in the philosophy of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels! Further, these contradictions are essential to their work and they are one of many important reasons to read these two philosophers. What? This essay will explore this seemingly paradoxical claim, making it sensible by discussing the ... Read More

Solidarity or Objectivity by Richard Rorty (558 words, 2 pages)

In Solidarity or Objectivity, Richard Rorty argues that people made the turn from solidarity to objectivity in ancient Greece by beginning to search for Truth (objective truth) instead of a group or at least well-considered consensus, truth (truth to the best of our knowledge). The realists seek to explain reality ... Read More

Kant’s a Priori Frameworks and Their Significance in Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics (1403 words, 5 pages)

Kants a priori frameworks and their significanceIn Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics, Kant discusses the inherent human intuitions of space and time. He relates these forms to empirical and transcendental experiences, making sure to make a distinction between the two. In this paper, I will explain Kants meaning behind classifying ... Read More

Philosophy of Capitalism by Marx (1125 words, 5 pages)

For Marx, the proletariat is always alienated from the material world they create through their labor whether or not they feel alienated because the materialworld historical conditions are such that we are within a capitalist political economy. Capitalism uses the labor of the workers to objectify (externalize) the will of ... Read More

Philosophy Essay Examples