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Philosophy: An Introduction

Hyper Smash According to Aristotle , philosophy studies the whole Being. Rest of the sciences study slices of Being, but philosophy studies whole Being and as Being as such. For example physics studies matter in respect of its physical qualities. So physics is a partial study of matter, for though it studies matter as such, it studies its physical properties alone, and not, for example, its biological properties. Similiarly, sociology studies society, psychology studies psyche. Each science has a limited field of studies. But philosophy is the most generalized studu of Being, of the whole universe. Philosophy studies Being as such, whatever is, and it does not study it in its partial attributes , but in respect of its essential attribute , an attribute that applies to Being in its capacity of what it is and not in any other sense. And that attribute of Being is "to be." The most essential attribute , that applies to Being in what Aristotle calls a commensurate Unive

A Critique on Saussure's Theory of Linguistics from a Nietzschean Point of View: Abstract

Abstract Saussure's theory of linguistics has an overwhelming influence not only on the understanding of language but also on philosophy and human sciences. However, viewed from a Nietzschean perspective the basic tenets of Saussure's theory seem dubious.His principles of the arbitrariness of the relationship between signifier and signified, his emphasis on the synchronic study of linguistics and paradigmatic structures appear to be inappropriately formulated when viewed from a Nietzschean perspective. Nietzsche , in his essay 'On Truth and Lie from an Extra Moral Sense', says that instead of signifying the thing itself, the concept part in the sign signifies the human relationship with the the thing. Moreover, the concept , the signified, is formed after overlooking so many differences that exist among the members of the class for which the concept is formed. Thus, the concept , the signified, is an equality of the unequal. No two leaves in the world are exactly sim

Grounded Theory Method of Research

Ground theory method was developed by Glaser and Strauss (Barney G. Glaser, 1967). This method is used as a qualitative research method to develop a theory that can explain events, behavior, give predictions and control over situation. According to Glaser and Strauss (1967): "The basic theme in our book is the discovery of theory from data systematically obtained from social research." Grounded theory method follows a stepwise procedure; a procedure that is repeated till such a time when a researcher feels that he or she is no longer able to gain any further knowledge or insight from new data. The procedure is repeated until a researcher decides that whatever he finds from new data is a repetition of the previously collected data and nothing new is known. Steps involved in Grounded Theory Method: In order to understand the steps involved in grounded theory method one can follow the analogy of a botanist who is preparing taxonomy of herbs found in a certain location.
The day Benazir was Killed That was really an ordinary day that turned out to be the most extraordinary day of the history of Pakistan.   Benazir   was killed just before the sunset on 27th of December 2007. Most of the people now remembered that incident as a political Tsunami that caused a great havoc in the country. People's experiences of that day were weird and every Pakistani individually , in his or her own-most capacity experienced a life threatening situation. Following is a description of how   Pakistanis   experienced that murder. Individual experiences can be described under the following themes: 1. Experience of a life -threatening element in the Environment 2. future worries 3. Adjusting with the situation Experience of a life -threatening element in the Environment Most of the people who were out on the streets that day faced a threat to their lives. Importantly most of them did not know the cause of this changing environment and,without knowing what was happening ,

Sheikh Chilli : A Person who Does not Understand the Law of Gravity

A Tale of Two Generations: A Story from the Ancient Indus Valley Civilization Sheikh Chilli, a famous character among children in the subcontinent of India, is notorious for his follies and simplicity. One thing that people of the subcontinent always attribute to sheikh chilli is that he never cared about laws of nature. He built castles in the air and in his imagination established great businesses, empires, became a prince, married a princes-and in the end of the story the castle in the air vanished and Sheikh Chilli found him surrounded by the people laughing at him. One day, Sheikh Chilli, needing a few logs of wood, went to the woods with an axe in his hand, along with his friends. He climbed a tree and sat on a bough. Looking at the tree and the woods he started fancying, as usual.  He closed his eyes and thought that he would cut a log from the tree and sell it in the market. In return he will earn some money and save it somewhere. He will work day and night and save some mo

Rousseau: Freedom and Moral Development in Children

Rousseau: Freedom and Moral Development in Children For   Rousseau   freedom is necessary for the well being and development of a child. Freedom is so essential to a child's life that if it is not properly bestowed upon a child then it can completely spoil a child to render his life miserable both in childhood and in the later years. To understand this importance of freedom we have to look at Rousseau's concept of weakness and power. For Rousseau weakness and power are relative concepts. Anyone who wills something beyond his powers is weak. So, if a person wants to undertake a task that lies completely beyond his powers , then that person is weak. Rousseau writes, " be it a man , an elephant a brute or anyone , if he wills beyond his powers he is weak." So, a person is weak when he or she wills beyond the capacity. Before understanding the relationship between weakness, freedom and their impact on the moral development and well being of a child, it is good th

Kashmiri Sapphire: A gem of gems

Kashmiri Sapphire: A gem of gems     A Tale of Two Generations: A Story from the Ancient Indus Valley Civilization People already know the story of the unfortunate gem called" Kohinoor" , whose story bears similarities with  that of Helen of Troy, for whom Greeks sailed in thousand ships to sack the city of Troy. Kohinoor so much attracted the British crown that they captured India for it. Indian subcontinent is famous for its rich deposits of precious stones . From the early Vedic periods , gemology has remained a great important art to learn , and there are thousands of years old texts on this subject . Right from the beginning , three stones are ranked as the highest among the gems of the subcontinent; these are Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald. Out of these Ruby being affiliated with the Sun god, is considered as the most precious , and Sapphires come next. Kashmiri Sapphire, in the word of Keats,  is famous for its " sapphire regioned star" of five point

Eternal Recurrence and Noah's Deluge: A Platonic Perspective

Eternal Recurrence and Noah's Deluge: A Platonic Perspective It is on two occasions , in his dialog The Laws and in Timaeus , Plato gave a hint towards an understanding of history as recurrence. And on both occasions a mention to the   great deluge   of Noah is also present. The Idea of   eternal recurrence   in its current form is attributed to Nietzsche. According to this idea , everything , every moment will recur eternally, so what one is doing now , he is likely to do it again and again eternally. The same life will repeat itself after death and nothing will change, everything will happen in the same manner and order. It is strange that   Plato   also had a similar idea of history and the emergence of human civilization. In his Laws, Plato answers the question about the beginning of the city states. He says that city states don't come into being from nothing , they always already exist. The reason is that the earth has seen a lots of disasters, in the forms of deluge , ea

Emergence of Human Consciousness in Homo Sapiens: Nietzsche's Point of View

Emergence of Human Consciousness in Homo Sapiens: Nietzsche's Point of View According to Hegel human consciousness emerged hundreds of thousands of years after human beings appeared on the face of earth. So, Nietzsche's saying that human consciousness is still something new on this earth seems highly plausible. And being something new, it is not as reliable as our primitive instincts and unconscious derives and knowledge are. So what is the reason behind the emergence of consciousness in humans?Nietzsche attributes it to some sort of change of habitat. In the primitive habitat humans were at home, they knew everything about their environment beforehand and there were no worries there. Instincts were sufficient for them to decide all type of issues and problems. As soon as humans were compelled to leave this old natural habitat, they confronted the new land or terrain, or the new world as a problem in itself. In the new place humans were not at home . Nietzsche writes in

Dream Interpretation and savage Psychology: Nietzsche's Perspective

Dream Interpretation and savage Psychology: Nietzsche's Perspective In this article we are going to discuss the psyche of a dreamer   from Nietzsche's perspective, and owing to Freud's indebtedness to Nietzsche, we can also assume that this is the only interpretation of dreaming that we have. So, let us come back to our question. What is the psyche of a   dreamer   and how does it differ from the waking state? The only difference between the waking and dreaming states is that in dreaming state our critical faculty is no longer operational, while in the waking state our critical faculty works. But to grasp this phenomenon we have to understand a peculiar ability of our minds. Our mind has a peculiar ability that whenever it receives a message through senses, it immediately does two things: 1. It interprets that message and, 2. It hypothesizes about the cause behind message So, if you are sitting inside your home and you hear a knocking sound, you inte rpret   it