How do you know things that you are certain you know? You may have a strong believe in a god, but how can you be certain that god exists? Perhaps you know for certain that you are love with your partner, but how are you to know what love truly is? How do we know what is real? Questions s...

Qualitative research is any research method or design that does not rely on numerical findings but instead relies on findings that can be termed subjective. Some examples of qualitative research are oral histories, open ended (rather than numerical) question answering, interviews that end in materia...

Gravitating around the epistemological and psychological spheres, postmodernist theorists, amongst other things, make two fundamentally crucial claims when discussing twenty first century computer mediated communications (CMC). The epistemological claim is that the search for the ultimate foundation...

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...

IMANUEL KANT1724-1804Born in Konigsberd in East Prussia on April 22, 1724, Immanuel Kant has been one of the most influential philosophers in the history of Western philosophy. His contributions to metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics have had a dynamic impact on almost every philosophi...

EXPLAIN WHAT PLATO MEANT BY THE FORM OF THE GOOD. Plato, (427 – 347 BCE), was the second, and probably the most famous of the three ancient Greek philosophers. it has been said that all later philosophy is merely a "footnote to Plato" (A.N. Whitehead). Plato is the first p...

To Hume, the concept of morality was not a universal concept, but a human construct founded on reason and human sentiment. The fact that individuals dispute whether an action is right or wrong and use a rational form of discussion to reach a conclusion is strong proof in favor of morality being foun...

This is the best new book I have read this year. Kelley is by no means a new author but this is a more sweeping work revealing the author's keen grasp of the philosophy of history and particularly of Western civilization. Kelley positions the roots of Western civilization in the Homeric and Platoni...

Descartes meditations are based on the epistemological theory of rationalism: that is if someone truly knows something then they could not possibly be mistaken. He provides solid arguments for what his meditations stand for, and how he obtained a clear and distinct perception of "innate" ideas. In h...

Throughout history, homosexuality and those perceived to be homosexual has been the center of condemnation, ridicule and hatred. Many of society; priests, teachers, celebrities and even family members were and continue to be homophobic. But where does this fear and hatred of homosexuality begin? H...

Reflections on andragogy Remember the first time you learned to bake brownies, replace a light bulb, or change a tire? Chances are you learned these skills, not through formal education, but through your own initiative, motivated by desire or need. You may have learned the skills on your own; or p...

The human nature of students attending my school would be honest and good at heart. This is because I believe that when everyone is born their mind is a blank slate and are taught or conditioned by their surroundings to become a virtual good or bad person. The students attending my school are born i...

Effects of Postmodernism in relation to communication and society The movement occurred after 1945 is postmodernism which had shown it's powerful effects in every aspect of life. It's a movement that can't be defined with a simple sentence because postmodernism has lots of co...

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...

Emotion, language, perception and reason are natural processes and in order to have a sense of self it is vital to be acquainted with the world. Epistemologies are essential to the development of schemas, concepts and bias that establish self. Without metaphysical curiosity and collective knowledge ...

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 foundationalism, where...

TREATMENT OF MIRACLES – DAVID HUME AN ENQUIRY CONCERNING HUMAN UNDERSTANDING Miracles are upheld by subjective sense perceptions of past experiences. They are described from the standpoint of an individual's own reality, and perhaps influenced by religious beliefs. In the strict sense...

Raphael The School of Athens by Raphael has been admired during the course of nearly five hundred years. Nowhere was this more evident than during the unveiling of the restoration of this masterpiece on April 22, 1996. Patrons and their guests from all areas of the United States joined Mrs. Henry J...

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...

India is home to many distinct populations; however, the beliefs of these peoples have common origins. The lifestyles dictated by the beliefs of these different cultures often lead to journeys and pilgrimages to holy places such as the Narmada River: \"The Narmada River is considered the mother and...

KARL POPPER vs. THOMAS KUHN Science can be defined as knowledge and theory on the nature and operation the universe and all things in it, in which facts are organized into a systematic and meaningful pattern developed as a result of experiments, observations, tests and many other methods it uses....

In 1984, by George Orwell, the reader sees a primary theme of political allegory and satire. Orwell is presenting the world of 1984 as a satiric statement of what might come to pass if the world did not become aware of the terrible problems facing it, not in 1984, but here and now. Orwell wrote th...

"Science Fiction in Late Victorian England: The Wellsian Influence on Science and Technology" Intro: Science fiction as a genre was not referred to as such until 1926 and the publication of the magazine Amazing Tales even though the format dates back to Lucian the Greek historian and aut...

n the history of the play's criticism, the problem of its genre produced the most controversy. I submit here that this critical conflict is based on confusion: the discourse meaning (textual) and the interpretative meaning (contextual) have been mistakenly separated. I regard the monologic understa...

Though the result of the Black Plague is initially deterioration, seen in Boccaccio's Decameron, the decline stimulates efforts at reform and renewal. In 1798 the English clergyman Thomas Malthus published the first edition of his influential Essay on the Principle of Population. In it, Malthus co...