Hume criticised the teleological argument in plenty of ways as he believed that the argument was deeply flawed.…
In Powerful Ideas, An Introduction to Philosophy, aesthetics means "coming from the senses" which is a derivitive of the Greek word, aisthetikos (241). David Hume's believed that emotions are significant in both aesthetics and ethics. In addition, he stated that aesthetics involves both contemplation and judgment. He strongly believes that not everyone is suitable or qualify to judge art.…
Point of interest of the text is the description of the weakness in the existence of miracle and as far as I see is the revelation that every man may have at the end of time. The author says that it is far too easy, it somehow illogical. In comparison to the reality that we usually talking about are, nothing is free in this world, at least you need to do a thing to get something, and something is not coming from nothing. Something should be a granted in order for human to get in to the heaven, if it is really exist. In the creed’s inconsistency, improbability and irrationality against the reason posses by the human minds the author make a distinct comparison to the Deism.…
Ruth Park’s Australian literary classic, Playing Beatie Bow (1980), highlights how we can arrive at a more empathetic and tolerant view of the world, once we are able to interact in our relationships with a greater degree a perspicacity and altruism, and move away from a self-interest and mean-spirited approach to life. One of the main themes Ruth Park displays is a change in behaviour in children but especially Abigail. She shows her developing perspicacity, altruism and empathy for others.…
At the turn of the twentieth century, the world was looked at as a new place. Coming with the new century was many new theories and ideas. Many novels of this time era were written to depict different theories, one in particular: Social Darwinism. As some novels are written solely fictional, Frank Norris’, McTeague, took facts and ideas from an the Sarah Collins murder case of 1839, while still adding his own ideas and theories from the upcoming new century in which he lived. Frank Norris wrote the 1902 novel, McTeague, in order to accurately portray the theory of Social Darwinism, popular in the time period, through his characters actions.…
J. L. Mackie claims that there are no objective values in the world that is to say that there are no such values that have been by default built into the structure of the universe. When Mackie claims that there are no objective values, he clarifies that his theory is not a first-order form of subjectivism or skepticism, but a second-order one. This means that his position is not one of a moral skeptic who would argue that we ought to reject all conventional moral judgments. According to Mackie, there are two things that are required for values to be objective:…
Determinism is defined as “the doctrine that all events, including human action, are ultimately determined by causes external to the will. ”, there have been many cases where philosophers determine that determinism implies that beings that have no free will, cannot be held morally responsible for their actions. David Hume’s definition of necessity is similar to the definition of determinism because it shows that what is necessity is constant or always necessary, plainly put his definition states that necessity is the “constant conjunction of objects and the inference of the mind from one object to the other“ William James thought was that his will was free so he was considered a indeterminism. James believed that each being held moral responsibility…
There have been a number of challenges questioning Hume’s sympathy. Some questioned the subjectivity of sympathy, since there should be an objective basis for moral evaluation, and sentiments, being the product of sympathy which is subjective to some extent, is not entirely an objective basis for moral evaluation. Some others challenged Hume with the “virtue in rags” argument, which suggests that sometimes good motives do not bring about pleasure in anyone, but we still approve of such motives, which is inexplicable by Hume’s sympathy. Another challenge is called the weak sympathy problem, which challenges Hume’s sympathy by pointing out that Hume only allows us to sympathize with others at a particular instant, and the object of sympathy is…
The view of interest here holds to the objection that personal identity is anything but ubiquitous, but rather the set of characteristics in question form a personality, which a person merely possesses as a holding, a constitutive of personal consciousness. On this view, a person can change their personality without having their identity annihilated in the strict sense implied by Hume, because one’s personality as well as the personality traits is constitutive of personal identity. Based on how this idea has been refined in recent paragraphs, I propose we rename it personality as a constitutive of personal identity or personality as a constitutive for short. The basis for personality as a constitutive has been that personal identity as a static…
Pornogophy "turns a woman into a thing to be acquired and used." And that it is primarily concerned "with whether women bleed"(199) She Martian that there is no legitimate distinction between rape and pornography, describing pornography as "sexual terrorism" () Implicit to virtually every aspect of Mackinnon's arguments is the assumption that women are unmitigated, unequal perpetual victims of human sexuality. This argument is harmful to the feminist cause because it divorces women from their sexuality. It creates a double standard in which women are inherently degraded by sex, but men are not. It perpetuates the notion…
Mill’s perspective on the human condition is one that I favor immensely opposed to Schopenhauer, because it displays an appreciation for what it means to be a human in its truest form. The fact that we are able to innately enjoy pleasures and reflect on the experience is unique and should be valued. Furthermore, we also are capable of enduring mental suffering and advancing through the struggle as a better being on the other side. Both of these situations effectively demonstrate the privilege we are granted by being human. In this paper I will present why Mill makes a strong argument for this case, and also contribute some of my own ideas to towards the concept.…
Mackie’s ‘Ethics: Inventing right and wrong’ critically assesses the idea that there are, or even can be, objective moral truths, and exposits Mackie’s ‘moral relativist’ stance. I intend also in this essay to criticise the idea of moral objectivity, and to deal with the objections that could be potentially raised to a relativist stance.…
Sympathy, under Hume’s definition, clearly varies in terms of degree with the different connections the objects of sympathy have with us: we are more able to sympathize with a person close to us than with an indifferent stranger, and we sympathize more readily with our compatriot than with a person from another country with a different color of skin, as implied by the principle of association of ideas. Moral evaluations, on contrary, should not vary with the relationships the person, whose character trait is being evaluated, has with us. It is therefore counterintuitive for Hume to have his account of morality based on sympathy, which apparently possesses such a biased character. When two persons, with different relationships with us, share…
The contents of “Amazing Grace” are overwhelmingly powerful. In the first paragraph, John Newton used words to describe who he was and how a certain sound changed his life. “Amazing grace! How sweet the sound, / That saved a wretch like me! / I once was lost but now am found, / Was blind, but now I see.” (cited in Clugston, 2010). In this paragraph, Newton used words such a wretch to describe himself. He also stated that he was lost, but the sweet sound helped him and guided him to see, which to me meant that he began to differentiate between right and wrong.…
If death is the perpetual and permanent end of our existence, the question comes up, if suicide is morally right or wrong. Should death even be feared? Suicide rates are increasing, in fact, 2015; there was a suicide rate of 11.4 per 100,000 people, or in perspective, 800,000 in the world. My standpoint on suicide is that it is morally acceptable to do it under any circumstances.…