Does History "stop", "start", and "accelerate"?
Essay - 4 pages - Philosophy
The fall of the Berlin wall symbolised the end of communism, and the victory of liberal democracy. The suddenness with which the soviet empire collapsed, without any resistance, authorised the idea that democracy was going to triumph all over the globe. Fukuyama exposed in a very controversial...
With close reference to any two poems on this course, critically discuss different conceptions of American-ness
Thesis - 3 pages - Literature
One can find a great variety of themes in American poetry, whatever the period one is interested in: poems about love or about war, about the self or about nature, about reality or about dreams. But the common point of all these is that they convey a sense of American-ness - that is, they can all...
The double personality in Edgar Allan Poe's tales: William Wilson and The Cask of Amontillado
Essay - 3 pages - Literature
Edgar Allan Poe's stories often reflect some of his own personal problems. William Wilson and The Cask of Amontillado are usually classified with the label “tales of the double (or evil) personality”. They reflect one of the strangest aspects of Poe's life. He actually had a blurred...
What exactly is the difference between act-utilitarianism and rule-utilitarianism? Can rule-utilitarianism succeed where act-utilitarianism fails?
Essay - 6 pages - Philosophy
According to the meaning we give to ‘actions', we get two different theories under Utilitarianism. And there is a great debate between those two schools of utilitarianism about how exactly the individual utilitarian should make their moral decisions. The choice for the individual is between...
Oscar Wilde and Aestheticism
Thesis - 9 pages - Philosophy
The 19th Century in Europe, and especially in England, is marked by the appearances of new artistic movements. Aestheticism is one the most important because it embodies a real change in the mentality and in art, considered as self sufficient. Immanuel Kant is one of the pioneers of it, and...
Democratic equality. Are Rawls's principles of economic justice too egalitarian or not egalitarian enough?
Thesis - 5 pages - Philosophy
The question is, therefore, whether Rawls's egalitarianism is not enough egalitarian or too egalitarian. After having exposed the main points of Rawls's view of economic justice, the analysis of its major criticisms, both from the left and the right sides, is necessary to bring out the...
Life, death and politics : A run-down of the abortion debate
Thesis - 5 pages - Philosophy
Few issues have fostered such controversy as has the topic of abortion. The participants in the abortion debate not only have firmly-fixed beliefs, but each group has a self-designated appellation that clearly reflects what they believe to be the essential issues. On one side, the pro-choice...
