Saint Thomas Aquinas: Key Concepts in Knowledge, Ethics, and Politics
Saint Thomas Aquinas: Theory of Knowledge
1. The Human Intellect Always Starts with Sensory Knowledge
In understanding, as understood, that is, in terms of spirituality, one can know all things, all truth without any limitation. But substantially, it is attached to a body endowed with material respects, that is, understanding, as humans, have as their object itself and given the nature of corporeal things. The link of understanding endowed with body organs imposes that intellectual knowledge starts
Read MoreKarl Marx: Alienation, Ideology, and the Roots of His Thought
Karl Marx: The Three Sources of His Thought
Marx’s thought was shaped by three primary intellectual currents:
- English Political Economy: In his mature years, Marx rigorously studied the works of economists like Adam Smith and David Ricardo.
- German Idealist Philosophy: During his university years and beyond, he engaged with the ideas of philosophers such as Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, and Feuerbach.
- Utopian Socialism: After leaving Germany, Marx encountered the predominantly French school of utopian socialism,
Richard Hoggart’s Cultural Analysis of the British Working Class
Anthropological and Ethnographic Influences
The fundamental to an anthropological approach was to view culture as that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. It is possible to see Hoggart as viewing the working class he describes in terms of a complex whole, but he doesn’t claim to be using the intellectual tools of anthropology. Another way Hoggart borders on approaches associated with
Read MoreUnderstanding the State: Branches, Sovereignty, and Citizen Rights
Understanding the State and its Role in a Democracy
The State: The state is the set of institutions through which political power is exercised in a given society. In a democracy, the rule of law serves to ensure the rights of all citizens. As citizens, we must also fulfill our duties. The state has supreme authority, exercised as sovereignty over the entire population inhabiting a certain territory.
Sovereignty in a Democracy
In democratic regimes, sovereignty resides in the people, that is, all the
Read MorePre-Socratic to Kant: Key Philosophers & Ideas
Pre-Socratic Philosophers
Philosophy comes from the Greek words “philo” (love) and “sophia” (wisdom). The first recorded use was by Pythagoras in the 6th century BC. The first philosophers were from Miletus: Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes. They searched for the natural beginning of things (arche).
- Thales believed the arche was water and that all things were full of gods (hylozoism).
- Anaximenes believed the arche was air.
- Anaximander based the arche on the apeiron (the unlimited or indefinite).
The
Read MoreTotalitarianism: A Regime of Terror and Ideology
Totalitarianism is not only more radical but also different from other known forms of political oppression since it has created completely new institutions and destroyed all social traditions of the countries in which it came to power. Beyond its ideological form, both in the Stalinist and Hitler forms, it has transformed classes into masses, has replaced the party system with a new mass movement, transferred the center of army power to the police, and pursued a foreign policy openly directed to
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