Key Concepts in Cartesian and Spinozian Philosophy
René Descartes
Method: A set of safe and simple rules that serve to guide reason and allow its proper use. In the Discourse on Method, these rules can be reduced to four.
Evidence: The clarity and distinction with which certain ideas are held by our mind. An idea is clearly known if present and expressed with a sharp mind and taken with distinction if it is as accurate and different from all others that it cannot be confused with any other.
Innate Ideas: Those ideas that do not emanate from sensory
Read MoreUnderstanding Social Norms, Contracts, and Cultural Diversity
Social Order Rules
Various types of rules guide human behavior. No society exists without them.
Moral Standards
Moral standards have a universal character and affect human beings. Violations of moral standards may lead to remorse, but not necessarily external punishment.
Legal Norms
Legal norms are not universal; they apply only within a given territory, state, or community. Actions against legal norms result in punishment. The set of laws in a place is called law.
Social Practices
Social practices are
Read MoreLegitimacy of Political Power: Theories and Modes
Legitimacy of Political Power: Legal and Social Validity
- If we ask whether a rule is legal or illegal, we face the question of its legal validity or legality. This aspect corresponds to the right to discuss the legal validity of a rule, as used in Constitutions and international treaties.
- When we ask about the social validity of a rule, we refer to the social effectiveness that the standard may have. This aspect is of interest to sociology. The opinions of people change, so the force of a social norm
Understanding Love: Fromm’s Theories and Concepts
Basic Elements of Love
Care: Love involves caring about the well-being of the other person. Respect: Accepting the other person as they are. Both are possible through understanding the other person.
The Concept of Separateness
Separateness is the feeling of being alone, a separate entity. People often seek to overcome this feeling because it causes distress.
True Love Explained
True love is mature love, where two people become one while remaining two individuals. This love can overcome separateness and
Read MoreMarx’s Theory of Alienation and Ideology
Marx: Alienation and Capitalism
Marx: The Alienation and Capitalism. Ideology.
For Marx, man is essentially a social and historical being whose main activity is work.
Defining Alienation
Marx defines alienation as the phenomenon of suppressing the individual’s personality, controlling, and reversing their free will, with the aim of making a person dependent. In relation to capitalism, alienation is established as an imbalance in the production process that originates in the division of labor and private
Read MoreFriedrich Nietzsche: Life, Philosophy, and Historical Context
Friedrich Nietzsche: A Life of Philosophy
Friedrich Nietzsche was born in 1844 into a family of Protestant pastors. He studied ancient philology at Bonn and Leipzig, where he encountered the philosophy of Schopenhauer and became a friend of the composer Wagner. He participated in the Franco-Prussian War between 1870 and 1871, where he contracted a serious illness. In 1889, he suffered a mental breakdown and lived under the care of his mother and sister until his death in 1900.