Philosophical Essays
Philosophical essays are descriptions or treatises involving
either concepts, explanations, or ideologies attempting to
express the understanding of the human predicament within a
context of the universe, life in the world, or even narrower
contexts as in routine day-to-day living.
Numerous philosophical essays originally trace from the
Ancient Greek philosophers of Aristotle, Socrates, and
Plato. Philosophy
has been grouped into categories, such as
Value Theory
which addresses the topics of goodness, beauty, and justice
and includes the subject of Ethics.
Another category is
Logic, Science &
Mathematics coinciding with “natural philosophy”
which dates from Aristotle through the 19th century.
Natural philosophy encompasses astronomy, medicine
and physics; and Newton's 1687
Mathematical
Principles of Natural Philosophy later became classified
as a book of physics.
The category of
Epistemology is
the study of knowledge, which gives consideration to the
source of knowledge including intuition, a priori reason,
memory, perceptual knowledge, self-knowledge, and testimony.
Many consider the subject of Ethics as a primary branch of
philosophy to understand.
Ethics, or "moral philosophy", studies what is good
or bad, right and wrong, or good and evil. The term
ethics is derived from the Ancient Greek word
“ethikos” or “ethos” (meaning “habit” or "custom").
The study of Ethics involves systematizing,
defending, and recommending concepts in
defining right and wrong conduct. It deals with values, and investigates how to live a
good life and identify moral standards.
Certain debates revolve about such issues as
consequentialism
(the judgment of actions resulting in maximizing happiness)
or the
free will
versus determinism paradox.