Ask anyone, and they will admit to the importance and power that art has on the world. Indeed, art can be admired for art’s sake, however the admiration of art goes much deeper. William Faulkner described what his work—his art—meant to him in his Nobel Peace Prize banquet speech, “I feel that this award was [...]
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An Inquisition into Beauty & Art through Plato
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Leibniz and the Problem of Evil
The problem of evil has perplexed even the most prominent of philosophers for centuries. How is it that a being that is all-knowing, all-powerful and all-good could allow evil to exist? Some contend that God cannot exist merely for this obvious contradiction between evil and an omnibenevolent being. Furthermore, the very existence of evil leads [...]
May 13th, 2011
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Spinoza’s Account of Ethics
Throughout the third part of Spinoza’s Ethics, Spinoza address two very serious exigent matters: one, he attempts to illustrate to the reader that humans merely follow nature’s order. According to Spinoza, human beings operate according to their casual nature, which is no different than any other finite modes. Thus, human behavior and the behavior of [...]
April 26th, 2011
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Free Speech: Utility vs. Autonomy
Free speech is a concept that can be respected in two main lights: first, an individual ought to have the ability to speak freely to insure his or her autonomy is respected, and second, an individual ought to have the ability to speak freely to insure that society has access to this speech. Presumably, the [...]
April 26th, 2011
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Socrates’s Critique of Tragedies
Socrates’ critique of Greek tragedy is primarily focused on the mimēsis characteristic of poetry; that poetry is third from the truth and is a mere imitation of appearances. In Book X of The Republic, Socrates immediately begins to explicate the serious deficiencies of his contemporary poets, including Homer. He states that the product of poets [...]
March 18th, 2011
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