Religion and Medieval Philosophy: Text Analysis 2

• February 23, 2003
• James Skemp

This paper was written for a Religion and Medieval Philosophy course. The material of this text analysis will be Peter Abailard and his work The Glosses of Peter Abailard on Porphyry. As Abailard tells us, “There are then three questions, as Boethius says, secret and very useful and tried by not a few philosophers, but solved by few. The first is as follows, namely, whether genera and species subsist or are placed in the naked understandings alone, etc.

Read More

The Problems of Perception and Thought as Discussed by Michael Corrado

• February 16, 2003
• James Skemp

In Michael Corrado’s Analytic Tradition in Philosophy: Background and Issues, we are introduced to the analytical tradition in a way that has not been attempted since the time of this book. Instead of bundling philosophical works into an anthology Corrado attempts to explain what the fundamental characteristics are that tie these thinkers together. For this paper, I focus solely on the problems of perception and thought in the earlier analytic tradition, as Corrado discusses in this work, particularly on the first part, in which he discusses the background of the tradition – and therefore the earlier tradition.

Read More

Religion and Medieval Philosophy: Text Analysis 1

• February 10, 2003
• James Skemp

The following was written for a Religion and Medieval Philosophy course. In Augustine’s The City of God, Augustine discusses what he thinks the City of God would be like. While there is no one particular page or passage that especially stuck out for me, I’m going focus on what Augustine says about other gods/religions and how that compares to what many people think in today’s society. For this analysis, I would like to show some of the reasons that I think this.

Read More

Philosophy, Politics, and Law Final Regarding Justice and Various Philosophers

• December 18, 2002
• James Skemp

For over 2500 years, philosophers have debated on such issues as rights, reality, freedom, and justice. In all of those years, one decision on what is meant by these terms has never been set in stone; a final definition - or answer - has never been reached. Therefore, when someone asks the philosopher, or even one who has merely studied philosophy, what justice is, or what any of the other terms mean exactly, there is typically not one answer that is prevalent to all.

Read More

Husserl's Phenomenological Epoché and Theory of Intentionality

• December 16, 2002
• James Skemp

Edmund Husserl, in his Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and to a Phenomenological Philosophy, begins by discussing natural cognition and experience. Husserl explores experience, believing that experience is how we view the world around us. However, it is not enough to know that experience gives us insight. According to Husserl, we must, primarily, know how we are conscious of the world around us, before we can talk about the actuality of what we see.

Read More

The Increase of the Power of Man and Science as the Main Theme of the Nineteenth Century

• December 15, 2002
• James Skemp

The nineteenth century could be described as containing three major movements; Romanticism, Realism, and Modernism. Each movement has its own important features and major themes that have had an effect on the present day world. If I had to state one of the major themes of the entire nineteenth century, it would be the increase of the power of man and science. The beginning of the nineteenth century saw writers such as Mary Shelley, with her work Frankenstein.

Read More

Science and Human Values Final: What makes an experiment ethical?

• December 8, 2002
• James Skemp

Part I The question of what it is that makes one particular experiment ethical while another is unethical is a troublesome question. Is the ethicalness of a scientific experiment based upon whether the subject is harmed, whether the subject's rights have been in some way infringed upon, or is it based upon some other criteria? In this paper, I will take the position that it is not whether the subject was harmed, or whether their rights were infringed upon, but rather that it is ultimately power that determines the ethicalness of an experiment (position IV).

Read More

Can Man and Society Exist Without Religion?

• November 27, 2002
• James Skemp

One of the most prevalent themes in the readings for this class has been religion, or mysticism, and its influence on and necessity for both man and society. The question that keeps arising is, however, can man and society live do without religion, or something similar? The modern man has more trust, for the most part, in science then he has in religion. However, what does this mean? First, I would like to take a look at what religion has done for man, in relation to the readings in general.

Read More

Philosophy, Politics, and Law Final Prospectus

• November 27, 2002
• James Skemp

See also my paper tiled: Philosophy, Politics, and Law Final Regarding Justice and Various Philosophers. For my paper, I was going to attempt to answer what justice is. Obviously, Plato's Republic will be of use for this topic. Particularly his discussion with others, as well as how he thinks the state should be setup. I'm not going to put any of Machiavelli's The Prince in my paper, because I wasn't too much of a fan of him, and he doesn't really go into what justice 'really' is.

Read More

The Three Kinds of Inference

• November 12, 2002
• James Skemp

Recently, while listening to a philosophical discussion, I came to hear that there were not two kinds of inference (deductive and inductive), as I thought before, but instead that there were three kinds; deductive, inductive, and abductive. Wanting to know more about abductive reasoning, I did a little search, finding the following information.

Read More