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Essays in Philosophy and Theology category
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"Skeptical scrutiny is the means in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from nonsense" Carl Sagan
... There are many controversial topics which science and religion cannot explain. One of these sorts of topics is the argument on the existence of god. People like Descartes said that if you could think of god the there might be ...
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"The body soul distinction is a myth derrived from philosophers such as Plato" - Discuss.
... e.g. a fairytale. There is no technical usage for the word myth in philosophy, each field of study has its own meaning of the word. The modern usage of the word does not have an inherent link between myth and ...
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"The Fourth Evangelist's Purpose in Recording Jesus' Signs was to Reveal the Person and Work of Jesus" Explain and Evaluate this Claim with Reference to Evidence from John's Gospel.
... from the temple as he would be considered unclean. The signs also reveal something about the person of Jesus. For example at the Wedding at Cana, Jesus is revealed as "the Transformer". Jesus transforms Judaism, symbolised by the Jewish purification water, ...
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"The sinner is often the saint", in what ways does Green convey this paradox in regard to Scobie?
... and Scobie could be seen as both. R.D.Smith states in his book "Graham Greene: The Novelist" that "In Scobie we have a man no worst than most and better than many, who is betrayed by his natural inclination in a ...
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"The term 'social science' is a misnomer which masks the necessarily different epistemic methods and ontological realities consistent with natural and social realms respectively" Critically appraise this claim.
... society and human relationships...The designation of an area of study as a social science usually carries the implication that it is comparable in many ways to a natural science" (1994 :493). The implication here is that natural and social reality ...
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"The Ultimate Bad Parent"
... a good parent in this text are reflected as present-day American culture understands them. By these standards, The Lord (as evidenced from The Book Of Genesis) must be seen as a totally, embarrassingly, and unquestionably awful parent. First of all, ...
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"To think of the body and soul as two separate entities is to make a category mistake." Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of this claim.
... contend that those features generally attributed to the soul are all explainable in terms of neurophysiological reactions. In "Confessions of a Philosopher", Brian Magee supported this view, claiming: "The human body is a single entity, one subject of behaviour and ...
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"What Christians believe in life is up to them. They should not try to make others accept their position." Do you agree? Give reasons for your answer, showing that you have considered more than one point of view.
... differing views on moral and religious issues. A quote from the play 'Hamlet' highlights the idea that morality and other beliefs are in the mind of the beholder, "There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes them so." ...
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"What I tell you three times is true" (Lewis Carroll) Might this formula, or a more sophisticated version of it, Actually determine what we believe to be true?
... called 'absolute knowledge' by Buddhists and is knowledge through the experience of the senses. Intuition is a delicate kind of knowledge, and Thompson defines it as "direct knowledge, not the result of conscious reasoning or evidence". Carroll appears to believe ...
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"What I tell you three times is true." (Lewis Carroll) Might this formula – or a more sophisticated version – actually determine what we believe to be true?
... this could happen. Particularly in Mystical paradigms, but also in most religions, the religious leaders control their follower's beliefs, by telling them what to believe. This is paramount to telling them what to think, as Antonio Machado says; "Under all that ...
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"Why this is hell nor are we out of it?" How does Grahame Greene depict human existence as hell in Brighton Rock, is there any hope?
... with a stolen childhood brought up to fear God. His religion is really looked in to in the book by Grahame Greene really searching the depths of Catholicism and the very existence of heaven and hell. Good examples of this ...
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"You cannot know what it is like to taste Marmite unless you've tasted it - even if you knew everything physical about what happens in a person when they taste Marmite." Is this true?
... we can claim to be able to know everything physical about what happens to a person when they taste something. We could observe all their bodily functions, specifically, the molecules of Marmite causing taste buds on the tongue to send ...
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‘Unless we assume that everyone is free to make moral choices, we have no right to punish criminals’. Discuss
... have created every other creature in the world. Man is not independent of the rest of nature. Hard determinists maintain that everything in the universe, including human action, has a cause which precedes it. This is the Theory of Universal ...
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“In nova fert animus mutatus dicere formas corpora;”
... to experience life without restrictions. Euripides uses him as the embodiment of all that the Hellenistic society feared: the irrational, the primal, the exotic, the Other. His followers retreat to the woods where they have orgiastic festivals, feed upon livestock ...
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“Innocent suffering is only possible to explain if there is life after death”. Discuss
... dying and those who grieve. The moral law needs to be balanced, good rewarded and evil punished. Since this is manifestly not done in this life, an after life (overseen by a divine moral commander) is necessary in order to ...
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'(If I) Say stealing money is wrong' I produce a statement which has no factual meaning - that is, expresses no proposition which can be either true or false' - Explain and discuss the reasons Ayer puts forward for this view of ethical judgements.
... 'You acted wrongly in stealing that money', I am not stating anything more than if I had simply said, 'You stole that money'. In adding that this action is wrong, I am not making any further statement about it. I ...
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'Assertions such as "God is love" cannot be falsified, and so are completely meaningless.' Discuss.
... of falsification made some philosophers believe that this could be the basis for developing a different criterion of meaning. As well as applying falsification as a test for the truth of scientific theories, it was thought that it could also ...
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'Dr. Faustus is a morality play without a moral.' Discuss.Let us first deal with the categorisation of the play. To
... There is nothing in the text which precisely determines which view is correct. However Faustus' speech in Act II scene i, implies they are externalisations of his conscience; Why waver'st thou? O something soundeth in mine ear, 'Abjure this magic, turn to ...
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'Identify reasons that might lead individuals to make a study of religion and discuss ways in which these reasons may relate to assumptions about the kind of thing religion is.'
... Personal reasons for studying religion are those that are bound up with our own beliefs and the furthering of our knowledge for purely individual needs. Social reasons for studying religion are those that enable us to form an understanding of ...
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'If evil occurs, is it any more difficult to explain if God exists than if Gods does not exist?'
... the world. God exists. God is Omnipotent, Omniscience and Benevolent.' To begin we will deal with whether evil exists as that is what all arguments concerned hinge upon. If evil exists then the contention is that a good God cannot. If ...
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'In the last ten years, you have changed both physically and mentally in countless ways - In what sense, then, have you remained the same person?'
... is a point where a human can change so much physically that it cannot be claimed that they are the same. This is where the physical criterion is very important. What is necessary is not the contiued existence of the ...
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'It is impossible to reconcile any kind of determinism with the concept of freewill.' Discuss
... and behavior were a result of chemical reactions in the brain. He argued against Descartes who thought our thought were free and this made us who we are "cognito ergo sum" I think therefore I am. Hobbes thought that science ...
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'Nous sommes tous condamnés à être libres' (L'Age de Raison.) To what extent do the short stories 'Le Mur' and 'Érostrate' illustrate Sartre's paradox on freedom?
... for a cause, values which he deems worth while, and Hilbert fights solely against humanity it is my view that one theme ties each story together; rejection. Both protagonists have been rejected by the majority and are thus forced to ...
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'Religious Language is about Facts' Discuss
... the basis for all major religions, in that someone had to discover the religious 'truths' and set them down for others to learn. In Judeo-Christian terms, the words written down in the Old Testament are the very words used by ...
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'The body/soul distinction is a myth derived from philosophers such as Plato.' Discuss.
... everyday experiences such as walking down the road or eating an apple. Some philosophers manage the mind and soul problem by using a dualist approach. This theory sees the mind and body as two entities that are somehow interrelated. This notion ...