Plato uses the myth of the cave to address several important concerns of philosophy, the role of the philosopher and his journey to Knowledge. The story presents a group of men living in an underground cave. They are chained to a wall such that they can only see the back wall of the cave. There is...

Abstract The debate between idealism and realism is a complex and often contentious area of philosophy and ethics. On the one hand idealism is related to a transcendental view of reality that places emphasis on mental ideas and on the motivation to attain high levels of perfection. On the other h...

"The Soul" In book VIII of The Republic, Plato insinuates that the five types of souls are most likely to digress into lesser souls, or stay the way they already are. Plato is saying that there is very little positive mobility in the caste system of the soul. In The Confessions, St. Au...

Beauty and WomenSince the beginning of man and through the rise and fall of many different civilizations there have been differences of opinion on what makes someone beautiful, or more importantly what characteristics of women are attractive to men. The answer to this question is perhaps the billio...

Descartes and Socrates -- What Knowledge Is Two Approaches to KnowledgeThe concept of knowledge, what it is, what it means, and how it is gained, has been debated for literally centuries. Philosophers, historians, social scientists have questioned the components of knowledge and its acquisition and...

Individuals who possess the ability to lead the thought patterns of the masses shape culture and society and are responsible for the way philosophy is viewed and lived presently. A figure in the history of classical Greek philosophy is Aristotle. Some of his major contributions to Western philosop...

When questioning the issue of our existence one must go to the basic question of \"If we exist, then who created us?\" Many religious and spiritual people would have a very simple answer: God. So this leads the questioning philosopher to ask how do we know that God exists? This is a question that ...

The origins of Western philosophy lie with a set of men whose extraordinary contributions date as far back as 600 BC. Frequently, they are identified as Presocratics because these truth-seekers are predecessors of Socrates, the gifted Athenian thinker who greatly influenced the course of Wes...

William if Ockham was a philosopher and theologian born is southern England (1285). He joined the Franciscans and eventually became prominent in that religious order. Ockham studied at Oxford University and went on to teach theology there. The tradition that he was Duns Scotus' pupil was probably co...

Sophie's World Sophie's World, by Jostein Gaarder, is a fantasy novel that explores the history of philosophy. It takes place in Norway in the 1990's. Some of the themes in the book are philosophy and free will. Dreams in the book often foreshadow events that occur later. Sophie is ...

\"The second sort of philosophy, practiced by Aristotle and Locke, among others, is abstruse and accurate. It studies the human being as a reasoner rather than a doer. Its issue is metaphysics, which yields the most general first principles of things. Unfortunately, it is not popular for several rea...