Are We Social Beings?: Identity and Culture
"Are We Social Beings?" looks at the relationship between personality and culture while contrasting the atomistic and societal views of the self represented by Descartes and Hegel. Using the endangered culture of the Laplanders in Sweden as the basi...
How Do We Encounter the World: Phenomenology
The philosophical tradition that attempts to describe the world and the way we experience it without relying on abstract theories is called phenomenology. The term took on new significance with German philosopher Edmund Husserl whose work focused o...
Does the Mind Shape the World?: Does the Mind Shape the World?
Immanuel Kant, born in 1724 sought to resolve a controversy that had been brewing for over a century. Rationalists argued that knowledge is based on reasoning inside our minds. Empirists disagreed saying that all knowledge must come from the senses....
What Justifies the State?: Call for Reasoned Public Debate, A
Communitarians have been accused of being conservative, of attempting to maintain a way of life that includes discrimination against women and minorities. For communitarians, such problems can be solved by reasoned public debate, as long as the subj...
Is Ethics Based on Character?: Virtue Ethics and Modern Psychology
Virtue ethics parallels many features of modern psychology. One such characteristic is a high regard for emotion, considered to be in close alliance with reason. Virtue ethics recognizes how we become who we are through relationships with others. Th...