When I was a child I viewed everything from a child's point of view. If I was afraid of the dark it was because I believed that monsters dwelled under my bed and in my closets. If I was afraid of loud noises it is because I believed with all my little heart that they led to danger. As I aged an...

In Rene Descartes Meditation V, he distinguishes the existence of God, believing he must prove that god exists before he can examine any corporeal objects outside of himself. By proving that the existence of God is not a sophism, he also argues that God is therefore the Supreme Being and the omnipo...

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 ...

Bernard is a main character who is not a scientist and has basically no scientific background. From the moment he is introduced, he is portrayed as eccentric and odd. Here Bernard is described for the first time: "Bernard, the visitor, wears a suit and tie. His tendency is to dress flamboyan...

Throughout the play Arcadia by Tom Stoppard there is a distinct difference between the characters who have a science background and those who do not. One of the recurring themes is that those characters and actions of those characters which are against science often lead to conflict and disaster...

Pythagoras: A Great Man (or A Great Myth) Pythagoras, my adopted philosopher, was a man of great stature, a man who had a cult of followers, a man who is believed to be a product of the school of Anaximander , a man whose beliefs lead to his exile from his communities home in Kroton , and a man wh...

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...

Putting the Allegory of the Cave into my own words seems comparable to the Christian idea of using the lord's name in vain. First, I'd like to introduce a phenomenon I have observed throughout my life time. I call it soul resonance. Bear with me here. When two objects emit sympathetic vibrati...

Meno\'s paradox is an argument in the form of a question. As it is written, Meno asks, \"How will you look for something when you don\'t know what it is.. or even if you come right upon it, how will you know that what you have found is the thing that you didn\'t know?\" Socrates states it more simpl...

Can You Show That We Don't Know Anything? Most people go through life without ever questioning the idea of knowledge. We all make statements every day such as 'I know X', and 'We all have knowledge of Y', yet when we truly examine what it means to 'know' some...

Science has always been seen as a quest for knowledge that quenches man's thirst for the ultimate truth. This is actually a statement that really can't just be stated but must be followed with a deep explanation as not everyone would agree with this saying. Even if the statement is ag...

Abstract This short paper is to analyze the possible answers given by David Hume and Renee Descartes to the question by Betrand Russell "Is there any knowledge in the world which is so certain no man could doubt it?" Descartes thorough his theory would show the existence of person bey...

Lightness in Kafka: How does Kafka lighten each of these stories? How is reality dealt with? What animates these stories (pushes them forward, provides conflict and finally resolution?) How does the title impact our reading of the story? In "Unhappiness," what does one make of the...

When I was a child I remember having a vivid imagination. One Sunday morning, when I was but a mere four years old, we learned about the devil at Sunday school. We were taught there was an evil being with incredible power that loved nothing more than for people to do wrong. He was a tyrant of the...

Aristotle Aristotle was a famous ancient philosopher and scientist that lived from 384 to 322 B.C. He was born in Macedonia to a physician of the royal court. He moved to Athens when he was 17, to study with Plato, another famous philosopher of his time. Aristotle is said to have loved hi...

Descartes Descartes believed that we should ask what it would mean to know about reality, and to examine what reality meant. He claims that unless we know first whether our belief itself is justified we can't know. To determine whether our beliefs are justified, we have to be able to trace them back...

Meditations is a discussion of metaphysics, or what is truly real. In these writings, heultimately hopes to achieve absolute certainty about the nature of everything includingGod, the physical world, and himself. It is only with a clear and distinct knowledge ofsuch things that he can then begin und...

What does it mean to know something is true? - Why is it necessary to differentiate between what you know and do or can not know? - When do you doubt what you thought you sincerely knew? This critical essay of epistemology focuses on skepticism, and why philosophers such as John Hospers challenge a...

The 1999 science fiction movie, \"The Matrix,\" is interesting because it addresses some important philosophical questions. The existence of human being, the reality of this world we live and the questions of the reliability of human mind are examined during the movie. When examined deeply, it is fo...

Most definitions of philosophy have been fairly controversial partly because what has been called philosophy has changed drastically in the course of history. What used to be a part of the philosophical inquiries detached themselves from it. This is why most academic subject began as some aspect as ...

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." ~Albert Einstein Throughout time, man has taken for granted, that his reality and things that have appeared true, are real. At one point man has ventured to challenge those things asking, what is reality? What is real? What is truth o...

Tyler SamplePL 10103/20/01Can Doubt lead to Understanding?Descartes opens his Meditations indicating his desire to have only true beliefs. One way to accomplish this is to doubt everything he has learned that might be subject to error. He does not intend to doubt the truth of every specific idea t...

As we as a society strive to attack that endless void of unknown that is our lack of knowledge, we have been confronted by and fascinated with the notion of the indefinite, whether we have fully known so or not. As we seek to discover the unknown in the world, we find ourselves truly attacking what...

Krissy Robinson September 24, 2004 UNIV 3581: Faith Reason & Imagination Essay#1 When I first enrolled in this course I was unsure of what to expect. I was unsure of what Faith Reason and Imagination were; when it came to the educational realm of the word. I say that, because Faith and Rea...

"Enduring Love," as written by Ian McEwan is the story of a disturbing incident, and how the central protagonists deal with the consequent events. The reader is told this story through its main protagonist, Joe. Through out the novel there is a lack of trust between the reader and Joe as h...