Philosophical Reflections on Power, Happiness, and Society
Philosophical Reflections on Personal Motivation
Hobbes, Power, and the Pursuit of Happiness
Since I was a kid, my parents didn’t pay much attention to how I was doing things in general; they were more focused on my older brother. While studying in school, I understood that happiness was all I was looking for, and all my actions caused and helped decide my purposes in life. Aristotle discusses the importance of virtue and happiness through daily life, but also conducting yourself in a way that accustoms
Read MoreEssential CPA Ethics, Independence, and Professional Judgment Concepts
Case 1-2: Giles & Regas Independence Conflict
A romantic relationship between a supervising partner and an audit team member on the same engagement jeopardizes the audit and creates a conflict of interest, risking independence in appearance.
Threats and Analysis
- Threats: Familiarity (Primary), plus possible Undue Influence / Self-Interest.
- Analysis Lenses: Virtue (favors avoiding risky relationships at the outset) and Responsibilities/Duties.
Risk-Based Approach Steps
- Identify and evaluate threats.
Rationalism vs. Empiricism: Descartes’ Dualism and Locke’s Theory of Ideas
Descartes: Existence of Material Fact
The existence of God warrants the correspondence between being and knowledge. God is perfect because He is omnipotent.
Three Areas of Reality (Substances)
Descartes established three areas of reality. One area is identified with Extended Substance (Res Extensa), which is characterized by extension and motion. That is, the world is a physical entity that occupies space.
The Mechanistic Worldview
Descartes defines the world as mechanistic (a quantity of matter with
Read MoreAristotle’s Philosophy: Ethics, Causality, and Knowledge
Aristotelian Ethics: The Pursuit of Eudaimonia
Aristotle addresses ethics in works such as the Nicomachean Ethics and the Eudemian Ethics. For him, the ultimate goal of humanity is the search for the best life possible—the happy life (eudaimonia).
He poses the question: What is happiness, and how is it achieved?
- Happiness as a Means: If happiness is merely a means, or dependent on external means, we fall into relativism. Aristotle argues that this view would prevent the establishment of a universal
Kant’s Transcendental Philosophy: Aesthetic and Analytic
Transcendental Aesthetic: Sensory Knowledge
The Aesthetic is the part of Kant’s work devoted to analyzing the functioning of our sensory knowledge capacity. Furthermore, Kant calls transcendental the knowledge we possess of a priori intuitions and concepts, and how these are related, allowing experience to organize knowledge. Joining these concepts, the Transcendental Aesthetic is the transcendental knowledge of how our sensibilities operate. It demonstrates how our sensitivity utilizes elements
Read MoreCore Concepts in Ethical and Political Philosophy
Material Ethics
Eudaimonism: Aristotle
- Aristotle would not agree with the elementary hedonism that affirms that good is simply sensible pleasure; this type of good is characteristic of animals and plants.
- Three Types of Soul:
- Vegetative soul (owned by plants).
- Sensitive soul (characteristic of animals).
- Rational soul (exclusive to human beings): Gives us radically different potentials than those of other living beings. Therefore, only by developing our rationality can we achieve a good human life.
- According