In this essay, I will first proceed to contextualize the preface written by Hegel. The main crux of the argument will be to assess Hegel’s social and political life philosophy in tandem with his holistic and scientific outlook towards philosophy.
The preface to Philosophy of Right is the most subjective part of his book. It is deeply rooted in the context in which Hegel was writing this book. Indeed, Hegel wanted to keep it that way,
‘As a preface it is its place to speak only externally and subjectively of the standpoint of the work which it introduces.’
The preface therefore serves as a rationalization for what the book aimed to do. Hegel was at a crossroads with philosophers like Jakob Fries and Johannes Müller, both of them being openly
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Perhaps, this is what has led me to question the popular narrative of Hegel being a holistic philosopher, since science necessitates a degree of reductionism to measurable objects. Although philosophy as a science doesn’t necessitate the same conditions, but reductionism does help make it more viable. I will defend the claim further when we analyze Hegel’s philosophy in line with his dialectic approach.
Everything in Hegelian philosophy follows a dialectic pattern. The dialectic approach leads to advancement of human thought, science and society. Nothing is reduced to mere parts of itself, as would be done by a strong reductionist. Instead, Hegel takes a holistic approach to every idea and human alike. The master-slave dialectic, for example, explains how to individuals can attain self-consciousness only in recognition of eachother. None of the two are reduced to their parts, rather infact they complete a journey towards actualizing their self-consciousness. But the process of attaining self-consciousness is reduced into parts of
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It is transcendence from mere objective or subjective freedom. It is the sublation of both of them, to preserve them together. As such, any step towards sublation of particular and universal to create individuality is a step towards ethical life. In a broad dialectic of the emergence of state, the particularity is that of family, ‘ethical mind in its natural or immediate phase.’ The opposite universal is formed by the civil society, where unlike in a family, individuals have no conscious sense of unity or membership but are motivated purely by self-interest. To reconcile, ‘The state is the actuality of the ethical Idea,’ and the state secures the freedom of particularity of individual pursuits along with a sense of the importance of the whole or universal
John Paul Secrest Professor Tinsley Essay Review December 7, 2016 In this essay, the historical work that will be analyzed and reviewed is the story of Sacajawea by Harold P. Howard. This book recounts the story of Sacajawea and her journey with Lewis and Clark. Howard mainly tells the story of the Lewis and Clark expedition while focusing in on a few points about Sacajawea. The story also talks about the history of her husband Toussaint Charbonneau and son John Baptiste.
Through analysis of a few of the proposed necessities of personhood–consciousness, intelligence, and self-awareness–the
Thomas Nagel’s paper Sexual Perversion details his perspective on sexual desires and perversions, in which deems to be very specific. Nagel continuously specifics what is considered perverse through pre skeptical arguments, a Romeo and Juliet bar interaction and examples of deviant relations. Other philosophers such as Robert Solomon contribute counter arguments towards Nagel’s philosophies on the basis of what love is and sex is. Though Nagel does specify many attributes and cases of perverse circumstances, he as well does not reflect on other contradicting scenarios.
Everybody seems to have a different opinion on whether or not there is a definitive human nature, and if it is possible for people to make important choices regarding their lives. Humans are very complex creatures, and it is often difficult to generalize to the entire population because we are so complex and different from one another. People have been trying to figure out others since humans first started to communicate, but humans are a living paradox because they are predictable yet unpredictable. On one hand, human beings are typically creatures of habit, but on the other hand, sometimes they will do something unexpected at the drop of a hat and surprise everybody. Humans as a whole have come along way in figuring others out, but yet there is so much that is not known about humans, because it is impossible to know what others are truly thinking.
What would you do if you needed protection and no one would help you. Respected poet, essayist, and writing teacher, Linda Hasselstrom wrote an essay about how she protects herself when no else will. This essay, A Peaceful Woman Explains Why She Carries a Gun, was originally published in Land Circle (1991). This essay was meant to provide reasons on why she chooses to carry a gun vs other means of protection. Hasselstrom effectively uses rhetorical devices through out her essay to draw in her readers convince them of her argument.
Hegelian Dialectic is founded on socioeconomic phases. According to the German philosopher Goerg Willhelm Friedrich Hegel, there are three phases that make up the Hegelian Dialectic which evolve into a cycle. The first phase, being the “thesis” is what is considered to be the economic norm. What Sylvia is accustomed to based on her social-economic class. The thesis is then contravened by a “antithesis”.
Both social contract philosophers defended different views about moral and political obligations of men living in the state of nature stripped of their social characters. The state of nature illustrates how human beings acted prior to entering into civil society and becoming social beings living under common legitimacy. The state of nature is to be illustrated as a hypothetical device to explain political importance in the society. Thomas Hobbes, propounded politics and morality in his concept of the state
Introduction to the topic Martin Heidegger (1889- 1976), an important 20th Century German philosopher is considered one of the most influential theorists. Heidegger’s work has extensive contribution in the fields of philosophy, theology and humanities which were important in the development of Phenomenology, Post Modernism and other related fields of knowledge. Many scholars reveal that Heidegger’s theories are difficult to interpret and understand. He is known to use difficult vocabulary, syntax, coin new words to explain complex concepts. Expounder is an individual who elucidates a concept, theory in detail.
The other in the civil rights movement as represented in literature in harper lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird The world is created out of oppositions, divisions and separations between the one and the Other. When people collide or meet, in that sense, in the meeting between different cultural backgrounds they tend to define the others by defining themselves. Jacque Derrida puts it in his essay Archive Fever: Freudian Impressions “every Other is every other Other, is altogether Other “(p.77). Alternatively, as Harper lee sets it clearly in her novel To Kill a Mockingbird “you never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in It” (p.32) It is always relevant
Meaning of Life What is life? What is the meaning of our existence? These existential questions were asked by almost every individual alive at some point in their life. Over the years many philosophers have come up with individual explanations to why they believe life can be unreasonable, futile, the will of god, or just simply meaningless.
In Nagel’s “What Is It Like To Be a Bat?” he attempts to refute reductionism by stating that in order to understand the relationship between mind and body, one must address consciousness and reductionism fails to do that. Nagel lays strong emphasis on what he calls ‘subjective character of experience’ which states that everything has its own interpretation of what it is like to be themselves. Fundamentally, each organism has a unique subjective perspective and conscious experience that is only understandable from the organism’s point of view.
The Other infiltrates our existence to the point at which we question ourselves about our very own Otherness ,escaping the self is impossible and in that sense we can never know the other and perceive their universe from their point of view. Othering is due less to the dissimilarity of the other than to the point of view of the person who perceives the Other as such. In this context, Otherness is defined as the unknown, as the opposite to oneself or as the outsider marked by outward signs like race and gender. As such, Otherness has also been associated with marginalized people, those who by their difference from the leading group, have been rejected, casted-away and robbed of their voice in the social, religious, and political world.
Alper ÖZESMER Martin Heidegger’s notion of ‘Death’ in Being and Time ABSTRACT: The purpose of this paper is to consider the relation between death and authenticity, and accordingly to investigate the position of ‘death’ in Martin Heidegger’s understanding of authentic existence in line with his existential analysis of Dasein. This exploration is inspired by the emphasis on concept of authenticity in Heidegger’s overall philosophy and is based on the perspective that his project the grasp of Dasein as a whole through the analysis of ‘Being’ as being-towards-death. The main argument of this paper is that Dasein’s authenticity can be revealed only the acceptance of one’s own death, -namely its being-towards-death.
Philosophy as a department of knowledge has evolved over time. If we look at the timeline of philosophical history, Modern Philosophy (1500-1900) seems to be the most prolific one. From Empiricists Locke, Berkeley, and Hume to Rationalists Descartes and Spinoza, to Romanticists and German Idealists Kant, Hegel, and Nietzsche, there came many thinkers who dealt with topics such as reality, existence, knowledge, morality, and God. Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Hegel, commonly known as Hegel, is arguably one of the greatest thinkers of all time, and one of the pioneers of German Idealism. Many people argue if Hegel had his own philosophy and suggest that he only had a method to understanding the progress of history.
Debate surrounding the question of citizenship, and the ensuing ideals about what makes a good life, has existed for as long as citizenship itself – providing many contrasting views and interpretations about the peak of human flourishing. Aristotle himself recognizes this fact, stating that “…there is often dispute about the citizen…since not everyone agrees that the same person is a citizen” (Politics 65). This is indicative, then, of the fact that there will be many different interpretations of human existence and its purpose; due to the fact that there is not even agreement on citizenry and what the ideas of it reflect for human life. The juxtaposition of two such views, those of Aristotle and Locke, allow thinkers to evaluate not only two