This historical metaphysical concept dictated a belief in real essences- or the thing in any object that makes that object what it is. This idea originated with Aristotle in The Metaphysics. According to Aristotle, all natural kinds possessed essential properties that could not be changed or transformed because they are innate. He states, “Each thing [...]

“I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…yes, I have a dream that my [...]

In A Dream Deferred, Shelby Steele tries to delineate the “victim focused racial identity” that permeates post-sixties liberalism. He feels that this popular attitude has “stifled black advancement more than racism itself”, and that it has caused a shift in focus “from protest to suppression”(Steele, 4). Additionally, he feels that an unhealthy contingency [...]

Within the context of the current race debate, the question of whether race is a legitimate term rests on how we define it, and how, in turn, we deploy it. Can we use race to mandate a belief in biological determinism, or should we use it as a genetic surrogate to achieve equality? And, importantly, [...]

In Plato’s The Republic, Socrates’ argues that a just city-state is comprised solely of just individuals. Consequently, Socrates is able to define who a just individual is by first defining what a just city-state is, since in his viewpoint, it is impossible for a just [...]

Seventeenth century philosopher John Locke, born in England as the son of an attorney, was one of the first political advocates to espouse the benefits of individual freedoms and of a tolerant liberal justice. For Locke, the sole purpose of political institutions was to insure basic rights and peaceful security under the watchful eye [...]

Eighteenth century philosopher, Immanuel Kant, explicated through his deontic moral theory that our ethical obligations are derived via rationality. In other words, what we know and understand of our ethical obligations must be conceived of a priori, or without regard to the observation of dismal human behavior. From this viewpoint, since the morals of [...]

In The Republic, Socrates fabricates a myth. A myth that, according to Stephen Jay Gould, although designed to preserve a stable society, has unintentionally become the root of biological determinism, and consequentially, Herrnstein and Murray’s The Bell Curve. The myth, as told by Gould, [...]