Author: Addison Ellis Category: Historical Philosophy, Epistemology Word Count: 1000 Editor’s Note: This essay is the second of three in a series authored by Addison on the topic of philosophical idealism. Part 1 on Berkeley's Subjective Idealism can be read here. In the 18th Century, what has become known as the empiricist picture of knowledge took the mind to have … Continue reading Idealism Pt. 2: Kant’s Transcendental Idealism
Author: Addison Ellis Category: Historical Philosophy, Metaphysics, Epistemology Word Count: 1000 Editor’s Note: This essay is the first of three in a series authored by Addison on the topic of philosophical idealism. Part 2 on Kant's Transcendental Idealism can be read here. We often take it for granted that we have some knowledge about the way reality is. For instance, … Continue reading Idealism Pt. 1: Berkeley’s Subjective Idealism
Author: Kenneth Blake Vernon Category: Philosophy of Science, Epistemology, Logic and Reasoning Word Count: 1000 1. Aulë’s Artifacts Suppose you are an ethnographer newly arrived in Middle Earth, making land on the western shore, at the Gray Havens. You follow the East Road, traveling over the Misty Mountains and through the Mirkwood, eventually reaching Erebor, … Continue reading The Problem of Induction
Author: Andrew Chapman Category: Epistemology Word Count: 1000 1. The Traditional Analysis of Knowledge What is knowledge?1 To get clear on the notion of knowledge, many philosophers have proposed that we provide an analysis of the concept of knowledge. To provide such an analysis would be to lay out and explain each of the components of that concept. The … Continue reading The Gettier Problem & the Definition of Knowledge
Author: Annaleigh Curtis Category: Epistemology, Ethics Word Count: 957 We often trust each other to provide information about the world. What is the weather like? Are the noodles good here? What is the best way to get downtown without a car? We routinely ask these sorts of questions and rely on the responses of friends, … Continue reading Moral Testimony
Author: Shane Gronholz Category: Ethics Word Count: 1000 We make choices about what to do all the time. When we deliberate about what to do, we consider reasons for various actions. Imagine you are deciding whether to attend your grandmother’s 90th birthday party or stay home and work on a big term paper, which is … Continue reading Practical Reasons
Author: Andrew Chapman Category: Epistemology Word Count: 1000 1. Introducing and Motivating External World Skepticism Look around your environment—turn your head this way and that and really take in everything around you. Let’s use a variable for the sake of ease and say: Things seem to you to be P. P is just a complete … Continue reading External World Skepticism
Author: Spencer Case Category: Epistemology Word Count: 995 Consider two lives. Helen Keller was born blind and deaf, but her access to the written word enabled her to succeed as a writer and activist. Peter the Wild Boy, discovered near Hanover, Germany in 1719, possessed sight and hearing, but was innocent of language. He left the world … Continue reading Take My Word for It: On Testimony
