The Meditations are one of Descartes most important works. They consist of his views on sensory perception, God and Nature. He considers the problems of the sources and nature of knowledge; the validity of truth; the nature and destiny of man; the existence of god, and the creation of the universe...

Perception and Its Effects As we grow older we learn new things and start to build new opinions about them. It is not necessary that every one has to share the same opinion. As a child I was taught in school that every story has a fixed moral and that is the one that the teacher talks about in t...

What are the methods of psychology practiced? Which is the best method? These are the types of questions along with others that I will be answering in this essay. I will proceed to explain the advantages and disadvantages of as well as define psychology terms such as structuralism, functionalism, ...

Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by destruction of a fertilized egg, embryo or fetus before birth, prior to the time when the fetus attains viability, or capacity for life outside the uterus (Encyclopedia, 1995, p.43). Currently almost twenty-five percent of pregnancies in the United Stat...

The Question of Certainty We are living in a world where there are various theories, views and opinions about many different issues. These theories, views and opinions are changing, as everyday new scientific discoveries are made and new theories conducted. Consequently, our knowledge and what we ...

In David Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, Cleanthes' argument from design is successful in supporting the idea that the universe has an ordered arrangement and pattern. This argument is not sound in its ability to prove the existence of the Christian God. However, Cleanthes...

Can the mind (or the soul) exist without the body? If it can, how is that possible? Is there something beyond the physical world and if the answer is yes, what could it be? Rene Descartes thought so and he was a dualist. Why was he a dualist and was he right in being one? In this essay, I will expla...

When I was born, I did not know the difference between right and wrong. Now, I do. The word philosophy means the love of knowledge. One type of knowledge is propter quid, which ask the question why or how. In this paper, I will demonstrate how Socrates, Hume and Aristotle, three well known philo...

There are many shapes and sizes of people that follow a mass movement, but according to Eric Hoffer in his book The True Believer, all the people have some peculiarities in common with one another. No matter if it is religious movements, nationalist movements, or social revolutions, each perso...

In order to properly critique the quote "Reason is the slave of the passions", by renowned philosopher David Hume, we must first examine the definitions of what we perceive as reason, slaves, and passions, and why we perceive them as such. Each term takes on an automatic, assumed quality by most ...

In reality, psychoanalysis is an effective technique of exploring repressed or unconscious impulses and anxieties, as well as internal conflict. This technique can often be quite effective when used on the characters in various fictional texts, such as Shakespeare's, Othello. By applying such a...

Educating America Rachel Carson's Silent Spring compares to environmentalist Barry Lopez's views of how we are presently ruining the land today. She writes about how our use of DDT to kill insects is also having an effect on the land as well as ourselves. In her book, she points out...

The Origins of Cognitive Behavior Therapy Cognitive behavior therapy was devised in the late 1950s and early 1960s by Albert Ellis, Ph.D. in New York and by Aaron Beck, M.D. in Philadelphia. Although they worked independently of each other, both Ellis and Beck had grown dissatisfied with the tradit...

Throughout time, humankind has always had to struggle with control. At first, we learned to control one's self, so that one may think and act independently and intelligently to survive. Then humankind has learned to control most aspects of the awesome power known as nature. From taming animals, ...

The intention of this paper will be to examine Descartes' argument for the existence of God. First, I will review Descartes' proof for the existence of God. Then, I will discuss some consequences that appear as a result of God's existence. Finally, I will point to some complications a...

John Locke, the foremost English philosopher of the early period of modern post-Cartesian philosophy, published in 1689 his Essay Concerning Human Understanding. In this paper I shall look a little at the life of John Locke and the Essay¾ the work for which he is best known. JOHN LOCKE Not a...

1.In the sixth chapter of his work "Meditations" Descartes makes a distinction between the mind and the body as two things which are fundamentally different, referring to the body, he calls it "res estensa", a finite, limited thing which does not have the capacity to think. The m...

In the essay, "The American Indian Wilderness", Louis Owens presents a personal story to show a dramatic change in his point of view. His story revolves around a mind-altering experience in which he uses himself as the straw figure, allowing us to effectively see how he came to choose his ...

Rene Descartes, a French philosopher, departed to Holland in order to pursue his dream of writing. During this period while he was in Holland, he wrote many works including one of his most known, Meditations on First Philosophy. In this work Descartes uses a specific method, sometimes referred to as...

Subliminal Messages in Advertising Advertising has been part of the American economy for some time. Over that time advertising has grown significantly from a single page ad with one black and white photo to today's million dollar multi-media campaigns, including TV and magazine adds designe...

The concept of freedom is not a skill to be learned, practiced or improved upon. Nor could it be utilized or withheld upon volition. It is only optional either in its existence or in its exercise. It can either be increased or diminished by wish or labor. The idea of being free begins when we ...

Rajivkuma I.B. English Period A Mr. Mc Ternan The Dominance of the Physical A theme is presented in every novel to give the readers an idea of the subject matter being discussed. Both novels, Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquirel and Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Ma...

The dictionary definition of colour describes the phenomena as 'a sensation produced on the eye by rays of light when resolved into different wavelengths, as by a prism, selective reflection, etc.'1 ; inferring that the perception of colour is produced by a 'sensation' caused b...

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...

Of all the topics that are currently occupying the attention of philosophers, the mind-b`ody problem is at center stage. It is one of the classical metaphysical issues concerning the relationship between that which is mental and that which is physical. The simple question asked is: what are we? Ar...