When a person is born, they do not know the difference between right and wrong. The word philosophy means the love of knowledge. In order to gain any substantial amount of knowledge, people must question the events in the world around them by asking how or why questions. Socrates, and Aristotle, two well-known philosophers, would explain how someone would acquire knowledge by explaining the principles of right and wrong.
Socrates thinking is told through his student, Plato, who wrote down his teachers’ thoughts, since Socrates did not write anything down. Socrates believed that things are born with knowledge intact much like instinct. Therefore, he believed that before we are born our soul knows everything, but when we are born our mind is a “blank slate”. As we grow day by day, we recollect the knowledge from our soul. The only logical place knowledge from the soul would reside is in the un-conscience depths of the human mind. Before this knowledge can be recollected, it must first be aquatinted with the world of “forms”, also referred to as experience. Plato believed that people lead past lives. His theory was based on the idea that a person’s mind contains knowledge from past lives deep in
. . .
This type of recollection allows people to have ideas which they become conscience of and then form a judgement of right or wrong. " (Stumpf 288) According to Hume, when you initially make a decision, right or wrong, this would be your impression. Matters of fact, which are the second objects of human reason, are not ascertained in the same manner; nor in the evidence of their truth, however great, of a like nature with the foregoing. Many significant philosophers have followed the theories presented by Aristotle. His theory was based on the fact that as we grow, we learn the difference between right and wrong from our experiences. Therefore, it would be Aristotle’s opinion that knowledge, as in right and wrong, would be derived by experiencing situations and using the wisdom learned from these situations to make future decisions. It would be an idea when you needed to recall this decision. Socrates was able to show that young uneducated people know some truths not because someone taught the uneducated person, but because the person naturally knew the relationship of various ideas and how those ideas related to each other. Once we have obtained wisdom from an event, we would be able use that wisdom to our advantage in the future. He wrote about many areas of philosophy, including ethics. Socrates believed that once knowledge is learned, people will remember that knowledge and apply it when the need arises by focusing on other forms of conscience knowledge and using our minds abilities to recollect past knowledge. All reasoning concerning matter of fact seem to be founded on the relation of Cause and Effect (Stumpf 294) The principle of cause and effect would indicate that you would need to actually experience a situation before being able to determine if it were right or wrong. In order to make sound decisions, people need wisdom which can only be gained over time through experience. "Impressions and ideas make up the total content of the mind. Based on the theories presented, Aristotle’s theory would best support a persons understanding of right and wrong.
Approximate Word count =
1142
Approximate Pages =
5 (250 words per page double spaced)
Simply subscribe to view this paper, and 100,000 others.
| CREDIT CARD |
ONLINE CHECK |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
JOIN BY PHONE
|
|
|
