Refutation Essays

  • Feminist Refutation Of The Deconstruction Of The True Confessions

    1582 Words  | 4 Pages

    A Feminist Refutation of the Deconstruction of The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle   As Captain Jaggery’s ostensibly moral imperative from Avi’s The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle implores, we the readers “protect the natural order of the world” through our disbelief in our heroine as reflected in our intuitive reflection upon and deconstructionalist critique of the book.    In fact, it is likely that our disbelief of Charlotte’s story is as much a comment on our attitudes towards

  • Reflections on Nagarjuna’s The Refutation of Criticism (Vigrahavyavartani)

    3795 Words  | 8 Pages

    Reflections on Nagarjuna’s The Refutation of Criticism (Vigrahavyavartani) ABSTRACT: In verse nine of the Vigrahavyavartani, Nagarjuna gives a defense of his skepticism by insisting that he makes no proposition (pratijna) concerning the nature of reality. B. K. Matilal has argued that this position is not an untenable one for a skeptic to hold, using as an explanatory model Searle’s distinction between a propositional and an illocutionary negation. The argument runs that Nagarjuna does not refute

  • Refutation: The Story of Bigger Thomas ( Native Son )

    1133 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Darryl Pinckney’s discerning critical essay, “Richard Wright: The Unnatural History of a Native Son,” Pinckney states that all of Wright’s books contain the themes of violence, inhumanity, rage, and fear. Wright writes about these themes because he expresses, in his books, his convictions about his own struggles with racial oppression, the “brutal realities of his early life.” Pinckney claims that Wright’s works are unique for Wright’s works did not attempt to incite whites to acknowledge blacks

  • Hegel and Kant on the Ontological Argument

    1745 Words  | 4 Pages

    Hegel and Kant on the Ontological Argument ABSTRACT: I intend to present Kant's refutation of the ontological argument as confronted by Hegel's critique of Kant's refutation. The ontological argument can be exposed in a syllogistic way: everything I conceive as belonging clearly and distinctly to the nature or essence of something can be asserted as true of something. I perceive clearly and distinctly that existence belongs to the nature or essence of a perfect being; therefore, existence can

  • John Locke's Second Treatise on Civil Government

    1183 Words  | 3 Pages

    and primarily is derived from it. Locke begins his philosophical examination of knowledge by trying to disprove the claim that some of our knowledge is original, in the sense that it comes from ideas which are innate or inborn. Locke's attempted refutation depends on a questionable assumption: if an individual has an idea, then that individual would understand it and assent to its content. Also, Locke believed in religious freedom and the separation of church and state. He thought that God established

  • The Horizons of Theory: Jameson, Marxism, and Poststructuralism

    2018 Words  | 5 Pages

    Horizons of Theory: Jameson, Marxism, and Poststructuralism Fredric Jameson's The Political Unconscious is a work which crosses theories' boundaries, which walks (or polices?) Marxism's border on poststructuralism. It may easily be read as a refutation of poststructuralism, or as an embrace of it; as a flight from Marxism (though under its own banner), or as its theoretical redemption – this is not a contradiction (we might read Jameson as replying), but a dialectical, productive exploration of

  • Exercise For College Students

    1953 Words  | 4 Pages

    a part of university requirements throughout the United States and specifically at Iowa State. I will do this by first stating a concession to those who do not believe exercise classes should be a part of the curriculum. Next, I will include a refutation section where my claims are supported against the opposing claims. Then, I will include the presentation of why universities need to require exercise classes. Last, I will conclude my paper by giving the solution to the problem of lack of exercise

  • Plato's Antipaideia: Perplexity for the Guided

    3120 Words  | 7 Pages

    institutions at the basis of what Greeks understood paideia to be. Without resorting to skepticism, Plato problematized the ordinary; without straining logic, he declared every premise and every conclusion radically open to further discussion and refutation and all this not only without dogmatism, but against dogma. For Plato, education was more fundamental than tradition or literature or civilization or culture, for education determined how all the others were to be acquired, appreciated, and criticized

  • Self-knowledge and the Sciences in Augustine's Early Thinking

    2719 Words  | 6 Pages

    knowledge as a synthetic capacity that points to a transnumerical unity as the main ontological feature of the intelligible world. The insight into this kind of unity reveals the meaningful interwovenness of all beings and events and, thus, leads to a refutation of all objections against divine providence. Augustine's early dialogues are works of a special sort. Written soon after ... ... middle of paper ... ...unt of Augustine's understanding of dialectic, cf. Pépin, J., Saint Augustin et la Dialectique

  • Tom Comes Home in The Mill on the Floss

    3906 Words  | 8 Pages

    coloured with the most decided intention. But that same Nature has the deep cunning which hides itself under the appearance of openness, so that simple people think they can see through her quite well, and all the while she is secretly preparing a refutation of their confident prophecies. Under these average boyish physiognomies that she seems to turn off by the gross, she conceals some of her most rigid inflexible purposes, some of her most unmodifiable characters, and the dark-eyed, demonstrative

  • Narrative and Narrator: An Analysis of Joseph Andrews

    3069 Words  | 7 Pages

    what the narrator allows him or her to see. In this manner the narrator serves as a lens through which all events and characters are viewed. For example, the narrative structure of Joseph Andrews was consciously constructed as a reaction to and a refutation of the ethical system espoused in Richardson's novel Pamela. Fielding connects his novel directly to Richardson's fictional world, using such devices as Joseph's letters to Pamela. He revives the memory of these characters and events, however,

  • Analysis Of A New Refutation Of Time

    1600 Words  | 4 Pages

    touches, would be the extensionless present” (“A New Refutation of Time”, 289). This being the case, however, he elaborates in the final paragraph that “denying temporal succession, denying the self, denying the astronomical universe, are apparent desperations and secret consolations…Time is the substance I am made of…The world, unfortunately, is real; I, unfortunately, am Borges” (“A New Refutation of Time”, 290). In essence, Borges, despite his refutation, accepts his role in a universe that is irrevocably

  • King's Refutation Toward the Clergymen

    1493 Words  | 3 Pages

    Martin Luther King, Jr. is known to be a civil rights activist, humanitarian, a father, and a clergyman. He is well known for fighting for the equal rights of colored people and ending discrimination. King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail is an important part of history that showed King’s opinion of a letter that he happened to read in the newspaper written by a group of clergyman. In this letter, the group of clergyman report that colored people, also known as black people, are being violent towards

  • Conjectures and Refutations by Sir Karl Popper

    1106 Words  | 3 Pages

    Conjectures and Refutations by Sir Karl Popper In a broad sense science is a systematic quest for knowledge. With this working definition in mind one can see that many areas of human endeavors could qualify as science. Therefore, Popper attempts to find a point of demarcation between science and psuedo-science. "Is there a criterion for the scientific character or status of theory."(1) The most widely accepted answer to this problem Popper says is induction and empirical method. At this point

  • Kant's Refutations of the Proofs of the Existence of God

    782 Words  | 2 Pages

    Kant's Refutations of the Proofs of the Existence of God There are three types of proof for the existance of God: The Ontological Proof: God is the most perfect conceivable being. Existence is more perfect than non-existence. God by definition exists. The Cosmological Proof: Everything contingent must have a cause. If this cause is also contingent, then it too must also have a cause. This chain of causes and effects must have a beginning - a necessary cause. This

  • Comparing Aquinas And Hume's Refutation Of God

    1909 Words  | 4 Pages

    considered many ideas, however for the duration of this paper I will focus on two core ideas. These are the ideas that God is the first efficient cause and whether God is good. For the duration of this paper I will look at Aquinas’s five ways, Hume’s refutation of God being the efficient cause. Also Dostoevsky’s and Hume’s explanation that God is not good because of the abundance of pain. Throughout the class what I have come to learn and was most impacted by is that God is not what we prescribe him

  • The Refutation Of St. Thomas Aquinas And Immanuel Kant

    816 Words  | 2 Pages

    Refutation of St. Thomas Aquinas and Immanuel Kant “The Trolley Problem” poses different situations that are difficult to answer. Readers question their morality on multiple levels while reading about events that speak of maximum happiness, whether it is a human’s right to “play” God, and intuition. While the original trolley problem was created by philosopher Philippa Foot, the book focused on the case of Daphne Jones who threw a switch and diverted a runaway train onto a siding. She turned the

  • Karl Popper: Conjectures And Refutations, The Growth Of Scientific Knowledge

    1028 Words  | 3 Pages

    Karl Popper was a 20th century Austrian-British Philosopher who authored the paper Conjectures and Refutations, The Growth of Scientific Knowledge. In this paper, Popper discussed several questions and issues that he had with the philosophy of science. He first discussed the difference between science and pseudoscience. He defined science as using an empirical method (induction) that follows observations or experiments. Pseudoscience (metaphysics) also relies on observational methods, but does

  • Analysis Of Alan Goldman's The Refutation Of Medical Paternalism

    1121 Words  | 3 Pages

    In his essay, “The Refutation of Medical Paternalism,” Alan Goldman discusses his argument against differentiation in the roles between physicians and patients. He says the physician may act against a patient’s will in order treat the patient in their best interest. Goldman makes his whole argument around the assumption that a person’s right to decide his or her future is the most important and fundamental right, saying, “the autonomous individual is the source of those other goods he enjoys, and

  • Analyzing MLK's Refutation of Alabama Clergymen's Criticisms

    1241 Words  | 3 Pages

    Eight Alabama clergymen made a public statement directed towards Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. containing many criticisms against the civil rights movement. The criticisms were as follows: (1) The issue of race relations should be handled by local leaders instead of “outsiders” like himself. (2) Pressing the court and negotiation among local leaders is a better path. (3) The Negro community should be more patient, for the workings of the legal system take time. (4) The demonstrations are “unwise and