George Easton

It is 2024, and Keith Richards is about to be sworn in as the next president of the United States. President-Elect Richards, a member of the new Republican Tea Party, is intent on spreading a new message of hope between the warring parties now in power. The public is thrilled. His party is irate. Just as he takes his oath and America begins to celebrate, shots ring out. Seconds later, the new president is dead, and the vice president elect is now...

William James, who has been called the "father of American psychology", was one of the most influential thinkers of the 19th century. Along with Charles Sanders Peirce, William James established the school of thought known as "Pragmatism", a philosophy which rejected the idea that language and thought exists simply to represent nature, but rather it must be useful in transacting with nature, in predicting outcomes, and solving problems. First published...

Of all the writings of Plato the Timaeus is the most obscure and repulsive to the modern reader, and has nevertheless had the greatest influence over the ancient and mediaeval world. The obscurity arises in the infancy of physical science, out of the confusion of theological, mathematical, and physiological notions, out of the desire to conceive the whole of nature without any adequate knowledge of the parts, and from a greater perception of similarities...

OUR next task is to study coming-to-be and passing-away. We are to distinguish the causes, and to state the definitions, of these processes considered in general, as changes predicable uniformly of all the things that come-to-be and pass-away by nature. Further, we are to study growth and 'alteration'. We must inquire what each of them is; and whether 'alteration' is to be, identified with coming-to-be, or whether to these different names there correspond...

After a brief military career, the illustrious Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky quickly turned to writing as a profession with the publication of his first novel, "Poor Folk," in 1846. This novel sparked a literary career that would eventually cement Dostoyevsky's reputation as one of the greatest novelists of the nineteenth century. Early participation in a literary/political group landed the writer in exile in Siberia for nearly a decade, an experience...

Ranging from a few words to a few pages, the aphorisms in Human, All Too Human present Friedrich Nietzsche's thoughts on a variety of subjects, including the nature of reality (metaphysics); moral feelings, especially the concepts of good and evil; the argument that great art is the product of hard work as opposed to 'genius' and inspiration; free-thinking; the evolution of men, women and children; and the limitations that people put on their own...

The "Sophist" is a Platonic dialogue from the philosopher's late period, most likely written in 360 BC. Its main theme is to identify what a sophist is and how a sophist differs from a philosopher and statesman. Because each seems distinguished by a particular form of knowledge, the dialogue continues some of the lines of inquiry pursued in the epistemological dialogue, Theaetetus, which is said to have taken place the day before. Because the Sophist...

The Cratylus has always been a source of perplexity to the student of Plato. While in fancy and humour, and perfection of style and metaphysical originality, this dialogue may be ranked with the best of the Platonic writings, there has been an uncertainty about the motive of the piece, which interpreters have hitherto not succeeded in dispelling. We need not suppose that Plato used words in order to conceal his thoughts, or that he would have been...

At the present day no clear and consistent opinion seems to be held regarding Classical Philology. We are conscious of this in the circles of the learned just as much as among the followers of that science itself. The cause of this lies in its many-sided character, in the lack of an abstract unity, and in the inorganic aggregation of heterogeneous scientific activities which are connected with one another only by the name "Philology." It must be freely...

"Taking the form of a dialogue between Socrates, Gorgias, Polus and Callicles, the Gorgias debates crucial questions about the nature of government. While the aspiring politician Callicles propounds the view that might is right, and the rhetorician Gorgias argues that oratory and the power to persuade represent 'the greatest good', Socrates insists on the duty of politicians to consider the welfare of their citizens--a duty he believed had been dishonoured...