...Adrian Lurie 12/13/11 Per. 1 Self-Evidence In 1776, the Deceleration of Independence was signed by our founding fathers. This document had been previously written to break free from the grip of Britain and become an autonomous nation. It obtained the most fundamental ideas of our country, and helped shape what it is today. The most important group of ideals in this Declaration was the self-evident truths, which stated essential laws about man and its organization. These self-evident truths of the Declaration of Independence were derived from the ideals of natural rights, an undefined Creator, and establishing government. Throughout the history of the world, natural rights have been widely believed in, and were a large factor in the creation of our country. One source that shares the ideas of the Declaration is Cicero’s De Legibus, in which Cicero wrights that man, “has been given certain distinguished status…” This directly relates to the self-evident truths, meaning that Man has been given special rights and is therefore above all the other animals. Another example of natural rights in history is the signing of the Magna Carta. The king acknowledged that he had been repressing people’s natural rights, so they created the Magna Carta to protect them. This is yet another example from which the Declaration of Independence claimed ideas. Finally, the famous philosopher John Locke, “called the new-born mind a tabula rasa, a blank slate.” He believed that all men were created...
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...The Deceitful Truth In the passed, present and future people in society over millions of years have always buried their sinful truths deep down inside of them and confined them from the wretched eyes of society, so they can not be painted their true colors from the outside. In the duplicitous short story “Was it a Dream?” by Guy de Maupassant begins a marvelous piece of literature that tells a very twisted yet truthful story. This short story wrestles with the idea that often people become blind by the quest for the “truth”, so mesmerized by its light they also become obliterated of what else may wait beyond that one “truth”. Firstly, this two sided manipulative truth is evident when the dead rise from their cemeteries and start to expose what they actually are like compared to what others portray them as. This event is encrypted when one of the dead rise and write “here reposes Jacques Olivant, who died at the age of fifty-one. He hastened his fathers death by unkindness, as he wished to inherit his fortune, he tortured his wife, tormented his children, deceived his neighbors, robbed everyone he could, and died wretched”(Maupassant 152). This horrifying truth of the dead coming back from the afterlife to prove a point of how the perspectives of there loved ones is incorrect compared to how the dead truly are from the inside, referring to there motives, thoughts, and aspirations they had while they were living. This relates back to how people blind themselves and...
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...Our country’s founders didn’t come up with the ideas of our government’s structure and beliefs by themselves; they all were greatly influenced by many different people, including some of the philosophers of the Enlightenment period. However, one of these philosophers in particular shaped a founder’s ideas more directly than the rest. Ultimately, John Locke directly and greatly influenced Thomas Jefferson’s political philosophy and agreed with the majority of his beliefs, which can be seen especially in the Declaration of Independence and the fundamental ideas each man emphasizes in his works. While there are a few small differences in their works, they are still so similar that Jefferson has even been accused of plagiarizing parts of Locke’s compositions....
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...with which to discover truths about the world. Descartes claims that all systematic knowledge based on unquestionable foundations is evident, certain and felt that the only way through which his agenda could be met was by uncovering the faulty foundations of philosophical thought and shoring them up by laying a new foundation. Descartes considered his mind to be the most knowledgeable of his beliefs, and sought to infer an external world including matter from such introspection. Descartes contrasts with probable cognition, and regards arithmetic and geometry as a paradigm. In the first mediation after entertaining the dream and the powerful deceiving god hypotheses, Descartes adopts the strict policy of regarding all his ordinary opinions as they were false. The justification of this is that he points out that although most of his previous beliefs are in need of a solid foundation, they are highly possible. He doubts his out thoughts and skeptical those hypotheses are needed to counteract what he feels and thinks of how he views the world, and feels that he can never get out of the habit of assenting to these opinions unless he can in fact claim them to be what they are that is highly probable opinions. His opinions which he feels in a sense that they are doubtful, it is still much more reasonable to believe than to deny. Descartes raises some really good possibilities that even the most trustworthy of our faculties might deceive us at some point in time; we can...
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...Salesman By definition, an entrepreneur is a person who organizes and manages any enterprise usually with considerable initiative and risk. Although different entrepreneurs have different accomplishments, they all have some personality traits in common. In The Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, Biff and Happy do not have the integrity, willingness to learn, and commitment to a venture required for entrepreneurs. Alexander Becker, a distinguished business journalist, wrote in his article that “Your business depends on your integrity while your integrity depends on delivering what you promise.” It is important that Integrity is embedded within the entrepreneur and his business that customers can easily distinguish it and are easily drawn to it. However, this essential trait of an entrepreneur is not seen in either of the Loman brother. Happy has great capacity for self-delusion; being only an assistant to the assistant buyer, he constantly brags to his family that he is the assistant buyer at his store. When Biff tries to free him from this self-delusion by saying that “you’re one of the two assistants to the assistant, aren’t you?”(Miller 131), the statement “Well, I’m practically…” (Miller 131) indicates that he is still attempt to cover up the exposed truth. In another occasion, he tries to lie to Linda that Wille had a great dinner with them by saying that “Boy, what a night you gave me!”(Miller 124) Even though he is aware that Linda already knows how the Loman brothers...
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...derived from a set of unprovable, yet self-evident axioms. Among these are that logic and mathematics are at the core of truth, that the scientific method is effective in discerning the truth, and that observable phenomenon is a reflection of reality. These I take on faith so long as they yield results which are self-consistent. I also allow myself beliefs which are not provable even from these axioms, but for which there exists no contradictory evidence. However, there is no conviction I hold so strongly that I consider it infallible. All beliefs should be challenged, and I am constantly revising my beliefs to cater to logic and nature. Still, I can and must have some beliefs for which there is no proof, but none for which there exists evidence that contradicts them. Above all, we must believe logic and mathematics are the keys to truth. All provably true results are a result of logic, and all results are consistent with one another. This must be taken on faith, for it serves as our only way of objectively approaching truth. Some people have suggested the possibility that we may someday find that logic and mathematics do not govern truth and that indeed there is some more accurate approach we ought to be taking. This, of course, would be a very difficult point to argue to someone who believes logic is key to reality. That aside, logic is embedded in the human brain. It seems to govern thought itself. We accept logic and math as the path to truth because the results they yield are...
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...1- Throughout chapter three, Sophie talks about the facts that you exist. The idea that this fact depends on other facts, such as the fact that your parents existed? (24) Facts depend on other facts, which makes them contingent. With this being said then every fact would depend on several other facts that must be present. (for example, “The fact that I am male depends on certain other facts, such as my genetic makeup, and so on.”) On the other hand some facts are necessarily and not contingently. This is based on the idea of the Principle of Sufficient Reason that states that every truth is either necessary or contingent, but the principle it follows is neither. The idea is that God is the only being that necessarily exists. (26) Sophie stated it the best by saying “A necessary truth couldn’t conceivably be false. It is, in that sense, self-evident.” (27) There must be a reason for the truth of every fact. It is either based on the idea of the facts it lies upon itself or based on some other true facts. Oscar did not buy into any of this. He felt as though everything seemed to good to be true. How can all these facts just depend on each other but do not explain anything? David added that either God exists or the universe is inexplicable (28), which Oscar then agreed upon. However if the universe is not inexplicable, then God exists. Therefore, is the universe explicable? David made a good point by saying, “The belief in God is irrational, but now it looks as if the...
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...31st 1596 in La Haye, France he was first credited with being “the father of Modern Philosophy”. Throughout Descartes years of study he was plague by the decision to question how much of his knowledge were true and how much were false. He set out to establish a system of knowledge on a foundation of beliefs whose truth could not be doubted. Descartes basic strategy was to consider anything false that present even the slightest doubt. This form of doubt is called the “hyperbolic doubt” and serves to clear the way for what Descartes considers as the unprejudiced truth. It was from this point that Descartes sets out in search for what lies beyond all doubts. Throughout this philosophy essay I will divulge more into what foundationalism is and how it attempts to address the problem of the infinite regress with respect to justification. Foundationalism has a long history; some view it as a structure of justification that we consider as a factor of what we take for granted based on knowledge. Foundationalism can also be defined as the search for the first cause; the search for beliefs that can serve as justifications for other beliefs, it is like searching for the truth; to a foundationalist knowledge is dependent upon justification. The idea of justifying what we belief and how we come to belief what we know puts us in a position to question our beliefs, not everything that we believed in life is known, and nothing can be known without other things such as acceptance. The structure...
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...Truth and Knowledge Many philosophers have defined truth in different ways. Truth has been linked with the normal understanding of existence. The reality of truth can be described by the possession of common sense which is defined as the capacity to grasp and possess immediate and self-evident aspects of reality. St. Augustine stated that we can certain that we exist because if we are mistaken then we exist since a non-existent being is incapable of being in error. To understand fully what truth is using the knowledge of existence, several principles have tried to explain it. They include: primordial certitudes, principle of identity, principle of non-contradiction, principle of excluded middle and the principle of causality. However there exist some few causes of errors in what is perceived as truth. One of the causes is immanence which is defined as a property of being which the result of something is within. It argues that in what a person considers is truth, his or her perception is based on the neurology, society, culture, education and historical circumstance. The mind of the person is shaped by the environment which consists of the social-cultural-historical contexts. Scepticism is another cause of errors as far as accepting the truth is concerned. Sceptic person knows that as long as he understands and acknowledges true beliefs about getting it right, then he or she will be upset if something is put forward as truth and it is outside his or her network of experience...
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...celebrate this day every year, and July 4th is known as Independence Day. The purpose of the document was to announce the colonies' independence to the world and list the reasons why the American Revolutions was legitimate. By the time the Declaration of Independence was adopted in July 1776, the Thirteen Colonies and Great Britain had been at war for more than a year. Relations between these two countries had been deteriorating since the end of the Seven Years' War in 1763. Throughout history, there were very few documents that changed the way our nation views politics and carry on with our everyday lives. The Declaration of Independence changed the course of history by giving America freedom from Great Britain. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness. One of the best known sentences in the English language comes from the Deceleration of Independence (Lucas). The passage has often been used to promote the rights of marginalized people throughout the world, and came to represent a moral standard for which the United States should strive. (As of November 13, 2011 the Charters of Freedom listed on their website) “Drafted by Thomas Jefferson between June 11 and June 28, 1776, the Declaration of Independence is at once the nation's most cherished symbol of liberty and Jefferson's most enduring monument. The political...
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...Analyzing Erik Erikson Erik Erikson brought to the field of psychology a great insight development of person through ones lifespan with his well-known concepts, the Stages of psychosocial development, as well as his Identity crisis at each stage. For Erikson, his theories were influenced by his childhood and his obsession over his identity. It led to the development of his theories. Erikson was born June 15, 1902 in Frankfurt, Germany. He never saw his birth father or his mother's first husband. His young Jewish mother raised Erik by herself for a time before marrying a physician, Dr. Theodor Homberger. The fact that Homberger was not in fact his biological father was held from him for many years. When he finally did learn the truth, he was left with a feeling of confusion about who he really was. This early experience helped spark his interest in the formation of identity.(Erik Erikson) In his stages of Psychosocial development, at the stage of Identity vs. Role confusion, Erikson stressed that this stage is important for the adolescent as he is transitioning to adulthood. The individual wants to belong to a society and fit in. It is during this stage that the adolescent will re-examine his identity and try to find out exactly who he or she is. During this period, they explore possibilities and begin to form their own identity based upon the outcome of their explorations. Failure to establish a sense of identity within society ("I don’t know what I want to be when I grow...
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... | | | |By Rev. David F. Austin | |3/6/2012 | |Pragmatism - an American movement in philosophy founded by C. S. Peirce and William James and marked by the doctrines that the meaning of | |conceptions is to be sought in their practical bearings, that the function of thought is to guide action, and that truth is preeminently to be| |tested by the practical consequences of belief. | 1 Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition centered on the linking of practice and theory. It describes a process where theory is extracted from practice, and applied back to practice to form what is called intelligent practice. Important positions characteristic of pragmatism include instrumentalism, radical empiricism, verificationism, conceptual relativity, a denial of the fact-value distinction, a...
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...Study Guide: Lesson 4 A Little Logic Lesson Overview Logic is the primary tool or methodology in studying philosophy. Philosophy is about analyzing and constructing arguments and a good understanding of the basics of logical reasoning is essential in performing that task. The next 3 lessons will focus on logic and analyzing arguments. In this lesson, you will first be introduced to the laws of logic. These are the first principles for all reasoning. We will then discuss the specialized terminology we use in logic. Finally, we will examine 2 major kinds of logical reasoning: deductive and inductive. We will consider different forms of arguments under each and discuss how to evaluate these arguments. Take note that a large part of this lesson is about learning the terminology for logic. Tasks Read and take notes from chapter 5 of Philosophy: Critically Thinking about Foundational Beliefs, “A Little Logic.” As you read, make sure you understand the following points and questions: * Why are the laws of logic foundational? * The Law of Logic makes discourse possible. If they are not recognized as true, than nothing we claim makes any sense. Therefore, it is important to have a firm grasp of these laws. * List and explain the 3 laws of logic. 1. Noncontradiction – “Something cannot both be and not be at the same time and in the same respect. Expressed symbolically: ~ (P•~P).² It reads, “It is not the case that there can be both P and non-P”. 2....
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...Sophocles plays out representations of power through the key characters of Oedipus, Jocasta and Teiresias; particularly evident in ways in which the characters interact and respond to prevailing circumstances whilst trying to resolve their own dilemmas. The actions of these key characters expose the nature of power in Oedipus Rex as corrosive and destructive. Oedipus is destroyed by his passion for the truth and the power he wields in seeking it and, his destruction is tragic in consequence. As the play opens, Oedipus’ powers are formidable. Oedipus is the leader of the city of Thebes; the “City of Light”. He is a noble man entrusted by the people with the kingship of Thebes; a power bestowed upon Oedipus when he “broke [the] bondage [of Thebes] to the vile Enchantress” with the “[stopping] of the riddler’s mouth”. Oedipus is granted the power of “Cadmus’ ancient line” which comes with the responsibility for caring for the citizens of Thebes. When the supplicants appeal to King Oedipus to rid Thebes of the deadly pestilence, Oedipus responds willingly to their needs; “I will start afresh; and bring everything into the light.” This thirst for truth is destructive and his actions driven by self-promotion. Whilst Oedipus is reminded by the Priest that he is not “the equal of gods, but the first of men”, Oedipus is oblivious to their pointed words and instead continues to self-promote; “I, Oedipus, whose name is known afar” he cries. Oedipus is ignorant of the “pestilence and famine” which...
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...the world we live in today and everyone who resides on Planet Earth. Knowledge has traditionally been understood as “justified true belief”. This is the idea of people initially having faith in something they believe to be true and then logically thinking about in order to justify their belief. Once agreed it is a justified true belief it becomes common knowledge between everyone. This later introduces the idea of Epistemology which is how beliefs can be verified. Some beliefs are justified through epistemology making them a true belief thus disproving the fact that there is no such thing as a true belief. People who believe them have good reason to believe them. For much of what we believe however, we do not have any good reasons: we make guesses; we take things on faith. Epistemology is important because it is fundamental to how we think. Without some means of understanding how we acquire knowledge, how we rely upon our senses, and how we develop concepts in our minds, we have no coherent path for our thinking. Some beliefs would appear to be justified solely by the use of reason (WOK). Justification of that kind is said to be a priori: prior to any kind of experience. Coherentism is a theory of epistemic justification. It implies that for a belief to be justified it must belong to a coherent system of beliefs. For a system of beliefs to be coherent, the beliefs that make up that system must cohere with one another. Foundationalism holds that beliefs are justified...
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