Immanuel Kant bases ethics on the autonomy of good will. Kant attempted to figure out the way we act according to our ability for free choice. Autonomy is any act that is done because of our own free choice. Kant views ethics as an intrinsic good rather than and an instrumental good, or as a good...

The Enlightenment describes a period in the European history, in the finals of 17th century beginning of 18th. It was used for several authors that explain how they were emerging from the darkness and ignorance into a new period of illumination. They could find this light using the reason science an...

The eighteenth century's most exciting intellectual movement is called the Enlightenment. It's powerful dedication to reason and rational thought that until quite recently the era was sometimes characterized as the Age of Reason. The turn toward what became known by 1750 as the Enlightenment began...

Beauty and Women Since the beginning of man and through the rise and fall of many different civilizations there have been differences of opinion on what makes someone beautiful, or more importantly what characteristics of women are attractive to men. The answer to this question is perhaps the b...

In Descartes' meditations, Descartes begins what Bernard Williams has called the project of 'pure enquiry' to discover an indubitable premise or foundation to base his knowledge on, by subjecting everything to a kind of scepticism now known as Cartesian doubt. This is known as found...

Understanding the World through the Study of Knowledge The study of knowledge, better known as epistemology, is the area of philosophy that investigates the nature, sources, limitations, and validity of knowledge. Epistemology was brought about during the time of the Enlightenment during the 17th-...

Descartes second consideration on the existence of God relies on his belief of the certainty of clear and distinct perceptions. In the meditations prior to meditation five Descartes emphasized the truth evoked by everything which is clearly and distinctly perceived. Descartes is able to theorize tha...

It has been well-established that every individual personality is the sum total of her or his life experiences. Since a person's life experiences usually represent a mix of influences such as family upbringing and values, religious teachings, and social culture, it follows logically that ea...

If you take a look up out in the sky on a seemingly clear night, try and ask yourself how the stars, the moon and everything else came to be. Again the question of existence takes over your mind the same way it did everyone else's years ago. How did the world begin? What was the cause? Who was ...