Philosophy

Introduction

Philosophy many early scholars contributed a source of knowledge. In the effort to promote their views, some met criticism while others flourished until their ideas are used up to date. This paper will look at the agreement on Aristotle philosophy on logic and Ralph Waldo Emerson’ philosophy on spirituality then end with disagreement with William James’ view on religious experiences.

Aristotle Philosophy of Logic

The Aristotle’s philosophy covers his understanding of reason and the various disciplines as well as how they function. His logic gets connected to metaphysics, understanding of the human nature as well as the understanding of the knowledge. To him, the work of philosophy is to broaden knowledge. Therefore, we can divide logic field to methods of getting experience, sharing knowledge as well as objects of knowledge (Parry & Hacker, 1991). He gave us two ways of acquiring knowledge in which he said dialectic and deduction. Dietetics starts with the opinions prevalent as well as accepted then explores its logical consequences of the ideas. In agreement with this idea of Aristotle, this method is used in refuting ideas with problems. On deduction, it often leads to greater knowledge. Perhaps the reason we call scientific. This process means that scientific knowledge starts with the sense experience then ends in the knowledge and utilizes deduction and reason doing so. Aristotle divided knowledge into three categories. They include theoretical sciences, the good sciences then the productive sciences. Theoretical sciences aim to discover the truth. They are natural sciences, math, and philosophy. The moral ones tell people what is right. They are usually ethics as well as politics (Parry & Hacker, 1991). The productive ones make new things. They encompass English, rocket science and many alike. Sciences find what they want.

Theoretical physics seeks the truth; real mathematics tells people the right thing while productive sciences give people intentions. I strongly agree with his thinking because when these sciences go differently the factor is usually non-compliance in use. He divided the objects of our knowledge into ten categories. The first is either the known truths of substances or the facts on various accidents. It becomes a preliminary view of his philosophy. He also asserted that when the elements become prior in the knowledge to the accidents, then, the definitions of the accidents always have substances. This Aristotle philosophy poses implications on what makes the descriptions excellent and explains the reason logic get tightly joined to the metaphysics. Therefore with this in mind I support that his philosophy has supported thinking of today.

Emerson and Spirituality

Emerson used spirituality as the primary theme in understanding religion and nature. He believed in the reimagining divine like something massive as well as visible. Emerson referred to it as nature. This idea is called transcendentalism. The idea perceives a new God as well as their body and turns to one in their surroundings (Thoreau, & Albanese, 1988). These views are strongly useful in the explaining spirituality. Emerson confidently explained transcendentalism, stating that from the shore to the earth he looked out over the silent sea. He seemed to partake its quick transformations. The functioning enchantment reached his dust, and he dilated and conspired with morning wind. He postulated that human as well as the wind is same. Emerson viewed nature as the Universal Being. Emerson believed in the existence spiritual sense of the natural world around people. Depicting the Universal Being sense, Emerson stated that the nature aspects were devout. From his view of spirituality, I agree that the happiest person is the one who learn from the life of worship lessons. Therefore, I agree that there exist three spiritual problems that get addressed by nature for people to solve (Thoreau, & Albanese, 1988).

These include the definition of matter, Where is it? And where does it go. The matter is usually a phenomenon and not substance; but, nature is one thing that gets experienced by people and develops their emotions. Whence and similar questions can get answered with one answer, the spirit of life get expressed in humans. This situation shows that the spirit is the Supreme Being, which doesn’t build up the environment around people, but it puts it forth through people. Emerson c depicted that everything needs to be spiritual as well as moral through which there must be goodness shared between nature people. This religious philosophy of Emerson can be used to explain difficult questions that surround religion

William James Philosophy on Religious Experiences

James surveyed various religions and their experience and presented the findings of the study and the implications for the theory (Proud foot, 2004). The religious experience according to James belongs to the heart of the religion whereas religious the teachings, practice as well as the attitudes are the second-hand religion. He analyzed the forms of experience like conversion, prayer as well as saintliness. James viewed conversion being transforming from the divided or the little self to a unified consciousness. Much his religious view concentrated on the firsthand accounts of the experiences but, skeptics see many of the as psychological disorders. James used them central to knowing any religion. He believed that every religious experience indicated the probability of God. He became particularly focused on the effects of the religious experience of people and thought that the rightfulness of experience rests on the effects it bears e.g. has the lives changed? This situation became his testing way (Proud foot, 2004). James got concerned with ‘can it work?’ instead of ‘is it true?’ He desired to examine the religious experiences objectively without proving them. James ended up offering an argument that God is the phenomena of the religious experience. I reject James view of religion in that the statements that can’t get tested empirically are always meaningless. I would reject James’ analysis of the religious experiences through the results of an individual’s life.

James religious views are too subjective since they focus more on the truth of religious experience of an individual instead of the relationship to an idea of a God existing in a ‘real world’. James never showed that there must be a true God. Therefore, James could have focused on other causes of the religious experience (Russell, & Rouben, 1959). Worshipers in many faiths assert that their experiences validate the truth of the faith but, all cannot be right. Believers also tend to interpret the experiences in light of particular traditions. This situation makes them subjective as well as personal. For this reason, I disagree with William James on his ideas of religious experiences

Conclusion

Aristotle remains a point of reference in the study of philosophy since his ideas are common in the academic fields. Emerson, on the other hand, helps to understand nature that has the difficult question when it comes to spirituality. William James, on the contrary, did not explore much on religious experiences in explaining religion. All the three case studies reveal that schools of thought continue to attract support as well as criticism. It’s, therefore, wise for continued such of knowledge to improve our knowledge.

References

Parry, W. T., & Hacker, E. A. (1991). Aristotelian logic. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Proud foot, W. (2004). William James and a science of religions: Experiencing The varieties of religious experience. New York: Columbia University Press.

Russell, B., & Rouben Mamoulian Collection (Library of Congress). (1959). The problems of philosophy. New York: Oxford University Press.

Thoreau, H. D., & Albanese, C. L. (1988). The Spirituality of the American transcendentalists: Selected writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Amos Bronson Alcott, Theodore Parker, and Henry David Thoreau. Macon, Ga: Mercer University Press.

Sherry Roberts is the author of this paper. A senior editor at Melda Research in nursing paper writing service if you need a similar paper you can place your order for a custom research paper from legitimate research paper writing services.