“Three Issues Considered” Paper – Philosophy

“Three Issues Considered”

     Ten Central Philosophical Questions: Three Debates, Three Critical Evaluations

(Choose three of the following issues for Argumentation, Discussion and Analysis: See the content item in this unit, “Three Issues Considered,” for more details and submission procedures.)

  

1. Is there a universal purpose in human life? Is there a reason that humans can understand that explains why they exist?

2. Did the universe have a starting point in time or is the universe itself eternal?

3. Are there any facts about reality that are universally true, for everyone everywhere, for all time?  Or is all truth relative to social and cultural systems of interpretation, to time and circumstance, to an individual’s subjective grasp of things?

4. Is there a rational argument that shows, or at least makes it highly probable, that the universe and everything in it was created by a Supreme Being?

5. Does each human being have the freedom to choose whatever action she or he wishes to do, given that it is within the power and capability of the person to do that action? That is, do humans have free will, or are our actions as determined as any natural, physical event in space and time?

6. Is the conscious mind simply a product of brain parts and processes, or brain-body systems? Or is the mind identical with the soul, which, although causally connected to the body, is ontologically distinct from it?

7. Are science and philosophy closely interrelated disciplines, or are they very different in their goals and methods?

8. What is the best form of government? Is there, or has there ever existed, a type of relation between the individual and the state that might be considered ideal, or close to it? Could such an ideal state ever exist in the actual world?

9. Is beauty completely in the eye of the beholder? Is what counts as a work of art utterly subjective? Are there any universally agreed on standards of taste, beauty, and aesthetic value?

10. Do religion and philosophy answer the same questions and serve the same basic purpose in human life and in society overall? Or are the goals and methods of each quite different or even at odds?

 

Paper needs to be atleast 1500 words. APA Format. Referenced from the book

 

Wolff, R. P. (2012) About Philosophy. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.