William of Ockham, born around 1285, was a controversial 14th century English Franciscan friar, scholar and author of mostly in the subject of logic in a small village of Ockham. Ockham were believed to have joined the order of Franciscan friar since early age and then attended University of Oxford for seven years but he never completed his degree. He was known as a fundamentalist Franciscan, which he have rather extreme view on the vow of poverty applying to everyone in the church. Later, he was charged with heresy for having those controversial views. His conspiracy with other fundamentalist Franciscan have resulted to his excommunication by Pope John XXII and so he fled to Bavaria and died few years later at a convent in Munich. His heretical views were later used as a useful tool of logic in the history of science and technology although he was not the first to write on that topic.
It is already a well-known fact that William of Ockham promoted the principle of philosophical parsimony, which according to his words translated from Latin, “Plurality ought never to be posited without necessity” and “entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity”. The principle of philosophical parsimony suggests that when there are many possible explanations, start with the simplest explanation first. It is also being referred to as ‘razor’ from ‘Ockham’s razor for it represent as a very sharp object to cut remove the excess as to remove the unnecessary assumptions from an argument. However, this idea is not something new because Thomas Aquinas already wrote about this in 13th century, “if a thing can be done adequately by means of one, it is superfluous to do it by means of several; for we observe that nature does not employ two instrument...
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...there was a great deal of incoherence in that different categories and did not believe in the Scotus position and have fairly number of reasonable arguments against them. For example, if common human nature is present in us, then if one person dies, then all human beings would die too because of that common human nature that is part of us. He has a lot of arguments of that kind against Scotus. Furthermore, Duns Scotus have also push Thomas Aquinas’ thought a little bit further in devising an elaborate metaphysical system, which is supposed to tell us a great deal about God and cosmos we live in. For Ockham, in many Christian doctrines such as trinity, predestination, communion, he thought that this will implicate a complex metaphysical complications in order to understand this but also concluded that this is the work of God and so this should be believe in anyway.
"Selfishness is the greatest curse of the human race,” as quoted by William E. Gladstone, supports my thought that selfishness is what causes most of our problems in the modern world. Currently, we are living in an era that is filled with much gluttony and selfishness. However, selfishness is a trait that all of us possess, but the amount of selfishness that we have can determine the type of person we are. For instance, parents should always put their children’s needs before their own. Selfish parents would rather buy materialistic items for themselves than anything useful for their children. In Sophocles’s “Oedipus Rex,” the protagonist is literally blinded by his own arrogance. This attitude begins before he even travels to Thebes, and that is apparent due to the circumstances of his father’s death. Oedipus seals his own fate with his egotistical attitude and he cannot change his destiny after everything is set into motion. During his journey on the road to enlightenment, Oedipus’s selfishness causes him to transcend from being completely ignorant of his fate to holding on to the last shreds of denial to having an overwhelming sense of realization.
Even though "fate" seems to determine Oedipus' life, he does, in fact, have a free will.
At Oxford Wycliffe was known for being an English theologian, philosopher, church reformer, and promoter of the first complete translation of the Bible into English (Wycliffe). He was not able to get his doctorate of theologian until 1372 because of periodic eruptions of the Black Death (Wycliffe). He because the most recognized theologian in all of Europe. Oxford was later blamed for Wycliffe’s actions (History). In 1374 he finally received the Crown of rectory of Lutherworth, with which his name is forever connected. There he lived continuously after his expulsion from Oxford in 1382, there he wrote his later works and collected his friends and missionaries (Trevelyan, 170). Throughout his lifetime, five papal edicts were issued for his arrest. Since England was distancing itself fr...
Oedipus the King: Reason and Passion In the play, Oedipus the King, there are dual parts of reason and passion. Oedipus primarily acts with both reason and passion at different stages in the play. There are several points in the play where Oedipus acts with reason. The first such point occurs when he is asked by his followers to help save Thebes. He acts with reason when he immediately decides to heed to their demands and find help for them.
Being in a position of great power, can cause one to think they are the ones in control. Oedipus and Creon in Sophocles’ plays, The Oedipus Cycle, find out that being a king is nothing in comparison to being a god. Throughout their lives of triumph that ended in misfortune, they learned great value from changing their ways and recognizing their stubborn pride. Oedipus was able to see his faults much sooner than Creon, though their fate was inevitable. A tragic hero is one who makes a judgement error that ultimately leads him/her to their own destruction while also learning from the experience. They both are deemed tragic heroes, after facing their fate, accepting the responsibilities of their actions, and recognizing the Gods are the ones in
Oedipus Rex, also known as Oedipus the King, is one of the most ironic plays ever written. Sophocles, the author, is a famous philosopher of the ancient times. The Play is about Oedipus, the king of Thebes, who unwittingly killed his father and married his mother. An oracle warned Laius, the king of Thebes prior to Oedipus, that his son would slay him. Accordingly, when his wife, Jocasta, bore a son, he exposed the baby on Mt. Cithaeron, first pinning his ankles together (hence the name Oedipus, meaning Swell-Foot). A shepherd took pity on the infant, who was adopted by King Polybus of Corinth and his wife and was brought up as their son. In early manhood Oedipus visited Delphi and upon learning that he was fated to kill his father and marry his mother, he resolved never to return to Corinth. Travelling toward Thebes, he encountered Laius, who provoked a quarrel in which Oedipus killed him.
Throughout the play Oedipus Rex the King, Oedipus protects his pride by trying to make everyone see that he is in every way perfect, but it affects many more people than just himself. Oedipus protecting ‘morality’ has a trickle down effect. Oedipus’ actions affect everyone from his loyal subjects to both of his mother 's, Jocasta and Merope. If someone was to look at Oedipus’ life chronologically then they would see that Oedipus starts trying to protect his pride as a young man and continues even when he has no pride to hold on to, other than to just do what he said he was going to do.
Rene Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy is considered to be one of the most important works in modern philosophy. John Locke, Immanuel Kant, and countless other philosophers wrote largely in response to Descartes. Yet there are serious doubts related to the treatise's major argument. In the Objections and Replies, a collection of objections to the work along with Descartes personal and often very detailed replies to said objections, the philosopher Antoine Arnauld raises the question of whether or not Descartes was guilty of circular reasoning. In this essay, I will examine the arguments that Descartes used to reach the work's major conclusion, the objection made by Arnauld, and the validity of the treatise in light of Descartes' response.
Hume, D. (1748). Skeptical doubts concerning the operations of the understanding. In T.S. Gendler, S. Siegel, S.M. Cahn (Eds.) , The Elements of Philosophy: Readings from Past and Present (pp. 422-428). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
According to Aristotle, the protagonist in a tragedy must have a tragic flaw that ultimately becomes the cause of his ruin. Oedipus in Oedipus the King by Sophocles tragic flaw that caused his downfall was his pride. Three examples of when Oedipus’ pride got the better of him were: when he left his adopted parents in Cornith, the second is when he goes against Creon, and the third is when Oedipus is demanding that the messenger tell him all he knows about who his real parents are.
An interesting aspect of the famous literary work, "The Canterbury Tales," is the contrast of realistic and exaggerated qualities that Chaucer entitles to each of his characters. When viewed more closely, one can determine whether each of the characters is convincing or questionable based on their personalities. This essay will analyze the characteristics and personalities of the Knight, Squire, Monk, Plowman, Miller, and Parson of Chaucer's tale.
Moore, Brooke Noel., and Kenneth Bruder. "Chapter 6- The Rise of Metaphysics and Epistemology; Chapter 9- The Pragmatic and Analytic Traditions; Chapter 7- The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries." Philosophy: the Power of Ideas. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2011. Print.
The Oedipus complex originates from the classical era and was seen as pejorative due to the afflictions of hatred, jealously and a desire to kill the father. It is where a boy unconsciously develops a desire and lust for his mother considering the father as his ultimate rival whom he must eradicate. The death of Hamlet's father to his envious adversaries hand, stimulates Hamlet's deep affections for his mother from his childhood. Hamlet's Oedipal desire leads him to procrastinate in killing Claudius: in doing so, it would be an obvious admittance to his Oedipal lusts: his enemy has already fulfilled his Oedipal desires in murdering Old Hamlet and sleeping with Gertrude.
The tragedy of Hamlet by William Shakespeare is about Hamlet going insane and reveals his madness through his actions and dialogue. Hamlet remains one of the most discussed literary characters of all time. This is most likely due to the complex nature of Hamlet as a character. In one scene, Hamlet appears happy, and then he is angry in another and melancholy in the next. Hamlet’s madness is a result of his father’s death which was supposedly by the hands of his uncle, Claudius. He has also discovered that this same uncle is marrying his mom. It is expected that Hamlet would be suffering from some emotional issues as result of these catastrophes. Shakespeare uses vivid language, metaphors, and imagery to highlight how Hamlet’s madness influences several important aspects of his life including his relationships and the way he presents himself.
This period progressed in surgery, medical chemistry, dissection, and practical medicine. The Middle ages laid the groundwork for later discoveries. In the later half of the 14th century there was great thinkers such William of Occam that developed a theory known today as Occam’s Razor. Occam’s Razor is where two possible explanations occur from an occurrence. Where the simpler one from the two is usually better. “Another way of saying it is that the more assumptions you have to make, the more unlikely an explanation is.” Today, Occam’s Razor is used in modern medicine to between two or more undetermined