Most controversial philosophies…ahem! Philosophical theories are notoriously confusing and needless to say, they are quite often things that do not really matter to us in our daily lives.
For instance, we don’t really need to ponder over whether time existed before the creation of the universe or not! We can continue our daily lives without devoting a single moment to think about that question.
But, at some point in time or the other, almost everyone of us have at least once, pondered over questions for which no one has any definitive answer.
Interestingly though, there are theories attempting to answer such questions. Those theories are philosophical but sometimes, science gets dragged into them as well.
Several theories have been presented to define one’s perception of these unraveling questions by well-known philosophers making these broad topics somehow manageable. First, let us understand what is a philosophical question?
It generally means inquiring about something that has no tangible or definite answer, like “What is life?” , “Why does [something] exist?”, etc.
There has been significant debate on deep philosophical questions, and this article will analyze some of the most controversial philosophies that exist today. Ready?
Most Controversial Philosophies – What Are the Qualities of Any Medium (Essentialism)?
Or does it have an organic form? The debate on this matter in art is called ‘Essentialism’ and has captured known philosophers’ attention for quite a while.
It is essentially built on Platonic Idealism (theorized by Plato) that established that all things have an ‘essence’ or an ‘idea.’
This philosophy deals with the dispute that each medium has its own set of particular strengths and weaknesses, depending on the mode of communication.
For example, a car chase scene may prove to be an exciting event in the movie, but it does not have adequate standing in poetry.
Why so? Simply because the essential components of a poetic medium are not best suited to deliver the information (of a car chase scene) to the reader.
To clarify this idea, it can be stated that a Haiku, which is poetry with a short form (Japanese poetry in three phrases usually characterized by three qualities) is a poor vehicle for something as heavy as a lover’s affection.
On the other hand, a sonnet as a medium can carry that weight properly. It can neatly describe the affection of a lover.
All human beings have an intellectual caliber that makes them ask critical questions, especially students during thesis writing which is a tough job and can be done with extreme skill and specialty.
Many students nowadays look for thesis writing services on this philosophical topic (Essentialism) as it requires a lot of background reading which is not possible with the amount of homework they get.
Although artists have flirted with this philosophy as it delineates the role of art and media, they have also prescribed ways of evaluating art.
The basic question this critical philosophy asks is “What the medium of poetry is?” Or, “What is the organic form in art?”
However, questions about organic form and the definition remain controversial to date.
Most Controversial Philosophies – Do We Need to Create Art?
You can write a thesis on this, as all human beings enjoy art in one form or another.
Art can be a good painting, a beautiful sculpture in a museum, an art theater, music, or any piece of exotic architecture.
We just keep creating art and have applied basic artistic principles to things in our daily life like sex, cooking, and everyday living.
Despite the presence of art in our daily life, its existence has been questioned. The real thought provoking idea is why we need something that is a complete luxury or is good for someone who is a specialist.
Let us accept the fact there has been art that some of us could not understand. Did you notice some painting in a museum that made you think, ‘is it art?’ So if it is that unnecessary, why do we create it?
A possible answer could be that art is part of things humans naturally crave in one way or another.
All human beings strive to enjoy and create art, but the question remains unanswered, why?
Aristotle believed that the purpose of life was to gain happiness and that creating or enjoying art makes us happy and content.
Maybe humans strive to achieve happiness from something beautiful, maybe they seek to acquire a sense of accomplishment by creating something complicated, or it may have another explanation.
This controversial question is still under debate, and none have come up with a definite answer.
Most Controversial Philosophies – Does Free Will Prevail?
It has been one of the oldest and most common philosophical questions. Do we exercise actions on our own or are they controlled by a chain of preceding events or by some greater force?
Though philosophers and now even scientists have debated on this deep philosophical question, there has been no apparent end sought so far.
If we accept a religious take on the perception that all our decisions are influenced by a destined series of events, then determinism is true which makes us conclude that we cannot exercise free will.
What is free will actually? Why do we need it? Do these chain of events ruin things for us? Would things be different if they had no connection whatsoever with each other?
These are all the questions that keep some of us awake at night.
However, since scientists have become interested in the debate, we can turn to advances in neuroscience which show that our brains make subconscious decisions, meaning that it has the ability to foresee events before we are even conscious of them.
On the other hand, quantum mechanics aggravates the situation by suggesting that we live in a universe of probability making the entire hypothesis more complicated.
Most Controversial Philosophies – What Is the Origin of Time?
Time is of the essence and one of the greatest philosophical mysteries that has baffled philosophers in all ages.
There have been numerous discussions about the origin of time but can we actually ever trace it?
Some debaters suggested that time can be traced if we assume it travels in a circular pattern.
Unfortunately, this approach has its limitations because a circle has no tangible beginning or end.
The other approach is to believe in the school of thoughts to which Aristotle belonged. According to this school of thoughts, time travels in a linear fashion.
If we accept the linear travel of time then we will have to accept that the margin’s end may be impossible to detect and we will be unable to gauge where the origin of time lies.
Also, Aristotle argued that the line of time could not have a fixed point of origin and to trace time’s origin we need to know the origin or the first moment of time.
Thus he argued that time exists in nothingness. It is only possible to trace time from the moment of the origin of the creation process.
This literally brings us back to the assumption that we perhaps cannot track the exact point of origin of time.
Conclusion
We are done with our list of 4 most controversial philosophies of our times. You may argue that we didn’t talk about the origins of life. Yes, we didn’t because covering that in this small article is not a possibility. We also do not claim that is list is quite comprehensive.
There are many more such philosophies and paradoxes that have no definitive answer till date and perhaps, they will never have a proper and satisfactory answer. What do you think? Let us know through the comments section.