Human Nature, Culture, and Dualism: A Philosophical and Scientific Exploration
Artificial Intelligence: a scientific discipline studying the possibility of creating thinking machines or computers that mimic human activity. Behaviorism: all we know is affecting and encourages the organism and answers physical questions. There are two separate realities, but a single one integrates both physical and psychological aspects of functionalism: the mind refuses to be a substance and reduces to a function carried out by the brain. Substances: in philosophical language, reality exists
Read MoreConcepts of Divinity and Society
Enigmas of Man
Who are you? Where are you from? Where are you going?
Characters of Religious Consciousness
Feeling of absolute dependence (or feeling creature).
The man realizes he is a creature of God, and absolutely depends on God’s being.
Feeling misunderstood (the mystery).
Sense of “religious awe.”
This is not the “fear of being punished” but the consciousness of knowing oneself impure before holiness. (Otto said the word “fear” is inadequate, but there is no better.)
Feeling of love.
Character of the
Read MoreAristotle’s Metaphysics: Substance, Form, and Knowledge
Ultimately, the primary substance is the truly real, the substance in the strict sense: it is the ultimate subject in which all other things have their existence. Following Plato, Aristotle considers the nature of a thing—what makes it what it is—to be its form, not its matter. Aristotelian forms, like Platonic Ideas, possess a qualitative nature. However, unlike Platonic Ideas, which are transcendent and exist above the world of sensible things, Aristotelian forms are intrinsic to things themselves.
Read MoreHuman Evolution: From Darwin to Modern Synthesis
Anthropology: Derived from the Greek words anthropos (human being) and logos (study or discourse), it’s the science encompassing human biology and behavior.
Biological Anthropology:
Anatomical studies and the physical transformations of humans throughout their biological development. Its focus is on humanization.
Socio-cultural Anthropology:
The study of humans as organic beings in relation to other living things. It examines different social systems and group behaviors.
Philosophical Anthropology:
Read MoreTwelve Theses on the Nature of Politics
Thesis 1: The Autonomy of Politics
Politics has its own meaning; its nature is specific. Heller: Policy is a specific law, differing from social life. Leibholz: Politics has its own basis and doesn’t mask other realities.
Some believe politics is merely a reflection of other fields (economics, etc.). However, politics has its own substance and is not solely dependent on other activities.
Thesis 2: Politics as Human Activity
Politics is an Activity of People
- People engage in politics.
- Politics is not essentially
Ethical Principles, Values, and Decision-Making in Healthcare
- Describe four principles and how they nest.
- Principle of Autonomy: The right of everyone to decide for themselves on all matters that affect them in any way, knowingly and without coercion of any kind. This determines the duty of each to respect the autonomy of others.
- Principle of Beneficence: The right to live according to one’s own conception of life, ideals, and happiness. Related to the principle of autonomy, this also determines the duty of everyone to seek the good of others, not in their own