Sample essays on philosophy
Sample Essay
Descartes reasoned that to understand the reality around him he had to deconstruct everything that he had learnt earlier. He maintained that it is necessary “to demolish everything completely and start again right from the foundations” (Med. 1, AT 7:17).
Sample Essay
Descartes started with defining knowledge in terms of doubt. He made a clear distinction between rigorous knowledge and lesser degrees of conviction by stating “I distinguish the two as follows: there is conviction where there remains some reason which might lead to doubt, but knowledge is conviction based on a reason so strong that it can never be shaken by any stronger reason” (1640 letter, AT 3:64-65).This quote clearly demonstrates the nature of quest of certainty for Descartes. Certainty for Descartes had to be absolute. Ultimately this quest led to his famous cogito ergo sum which is foundational for understanding the basis upon which we build our knowledge. This wants of absolute certainty also marks a new approach at looking at things because it starts with emphasizes on doubt, rather than beginning with certainty which was the norm of looking at things in those days. Below we shall attempt to outline how Descartes, by discarding all types of knowledge arrived at his conclusions.
Sample Essay
One of the key works explaining Thoreau’s transcendental philosophy and the only work to be published in his lifetime(the other work was published by him only) was ‘Walden’. Because of its now recognized importance this section draws heavily from this work ‘New England Transcendentalism’ began when a need was felt for greater spiritual depth in religion. Transcendentalism focuses on understanding God and his mysteries through the senses rather than simply rationalizing all that we see. It is about understanding ourselves better and realizing that God is within us and in the good that we choose to discover in ourselves. As Emerson[1] describes it in one of his journal entries on his way back from Europe (a journey in which he met many intellectuals and writers such as Wordsworth and John Mill, whose philosophies and worked helped evolve his)
Sample Essay
‘This American government—what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man can bend it to his will. It is a sort of wooden gun to the people themselves. But it is not the less necessary for this; for the people must have some complicated machinery or other, and hear its din, to satisfy that idea of government which they have. Governments show thus how successfully men can be imposed on, even impose on themselves, for their own advantage. It is excellent, we must all allow. Yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way.’ (Thoreau D. Henry ‘WALDEN, and ON THE DUTY OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE’)
Sample Essay
James Marsh was published Coleridge’s work ‘Aids to Reflection’ in America and added his own introductory essay to the publication. This work was important in starting of Transcendentalism in America and laid the base for further literary works expounding this philosophy. Thoreau was introduced to this philosophy when he met Ralph Emerson. Emerson took an interest in Thoreau who attached himself to the Emerson household. With this association he was introduced to many key literary figures of the area and had access to Emerson’s. Some of the people who Emerson introduces him too included Nathaniel Hawthorne and Margaret Fuller with whom his philosophy developed further and he wanted to write more and more. The Emerson library gave him access to the works of very well-known American and European authors.
Sample Essay
‘He was bred to no profession; he never married; he lived alone; he never went to church; he never voted; he refused to pay a tax to the State: he ate no flesh, he drank no wine, he never knew the use of tobacco; and, though a naturalist, he used neither trap nor gun. He chose, wisely, no doubt, for himself, to be the bachelor of thought and Nature. He had no talent for wealth, and knew how to be poor without the least hint of squalor or inelegance. …. Thoreau was sincerity itself ‘(Emmerson, Bigraphical Sketches- http://www.online-literature.com/thoreau)
Sample Essay
Just like Transcendentalism Thoreau’s book is all about going beyond the experiences that our rational mind can bring and experiencing the beauty of life and allowing it to lead us to a greater truth. In his book we can sense the presence of the ‘Divine Soul’ which Emerson talks about. This Divine Soul implies a more spiritual and intuitive divinity.
Sample Essay
‘for all the motions of a squirrel, even in the most solitary recesses of the forest, imply spectators as much as those of a dancing girl—wasting more time in delay and circumspection than would have sufficed to walk the whole distance—I never saw one walk—and then suddenly, before you could say Jack Robinson, he would be in the top of a young pitch pine, winding up his clock and chiding all imaginary spectators, soliloquizing and talking to all the universe at the same time—for no reason that I could ever detect, or he himself was aware of’’ (Thoreau D. Henry ‘WALDEN, and ON THE DUTY OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE’)
Sample Essay
‘There was something cosmical about it; a standing advertisement, till forbidden, of the everlasting vigor and fertility of the world. The morning, which is the most memorable season of the day, is the awakening hour.
Sample Essay
Perhaps the practical experience that Thoreau had with nature exploring a side of nature that others had not the ‘wilder’ side as it were. Eventually Thoreau’s work progressed to another level beyond that of the transcendental philosophy at the time. For example Ann Woodlief in a paper compares Emerson and Thoreau. She explains how eventually Thoreau recognized nature as a separate entity, unlike Emerson who treated the exploration of nature as an exploration of the human mind. She writes