Metaphysics

What is real?
Is the physical world more or less real than the spiritual or psychological world?
Is there such a thing as a soul? And if so, how does it survive outside of a physical body?
Do all people have free will, or are lives determined by fate?
Epistemology:
How is anything known?
What is the basis for knowledge? Is it innate reason, experience, or something else?
Is all knowledge subjective, or are there some universal truths?
What is the relationship between faith and reason?
What can artificial intelligence teach people about knowledge?
What are the limits of human understanding?
Ethics:
What is the right thing to do?
What does it mean to be a good person?
Does virtue lead to happiness?
Do the ends justify the means, or is a virtuous action virtuous in and of itself?
How does living in a society affect morality?
Is morality culturally based, individually based, or is there a universal morality?
Aesthetics:
What is beautiful?
Is beauty truly in the eye of the beholder, or are there some things that all cultures find beautiful?
What is the purpose of art?
How can a piece of art be successful or valuable? Does beauty matter?
Political philosophy:
What is the best kind of government?
How much power should the government have?
What kind of people should be in power?
How involved should the common citizen be in government?
Social philosophy:
How should humans behave in a society?
Do people give up certain rights when they choose to live in a society?
How do social values affect individual beliefs? Do people behave differently in a crowd than they would individually?
How does society affect language and other types of communication?

Aristotle thinks that it is no accident that the natural world is essentially knowable. Here is one way of putting the overall argument:

If the world were unknowable, that would mean that it was not sensed either. And if it is not sensed (or at least available to sensation) then it does not have the power to change anything, or affect anything outside of it. If you don’t change anything (including yourself!) then you might as well not exist at all because “nobody knows that you are there”. A world that exists but that was not sensed by anything would be a world utterly unaware of even its own existence, like a sleeper who never wakes up.

Your task is to explain and expand upon this basic argument. Lay out the details, give examples, and fill in the gaps, to prove that the“logic”of sensation leads us inevitably towards knowledge, or the articulation of the first principles of things.

-Normal, college-level expectations for essay-writing apply.

-You need to have a thesis (stake a claim about the topic)–the more interesting, the better.

-You need to argue in favor of that thesis―persuasively lead your leader towards you conclusion.

-You need to provide concrete, evidential support for that argument (this evidence should primarily come from the texts that we have read and discussed).

-And you need to present your ideas sympathetically, with the reader in mind, in a clear and compelling way.

-Your paper should be no more than 1000 words long, with 12 point font and double-spaced