Author: Bob Fischer Categories: Epistemology, Metaphysics Word Count: 998 Alice hits Betty, and Betty gets mad. Is her anger justified? Betty thinks so. After all, Alice didn’t need to hit her; Alice could have controlled her temper. This justification for Betty’s anger seems reasonable. However, it isn’t reasonable unless we know that Alice could have behaved differently, and we don’t know that … Continue reading Modal Epistemology: Knowledge of Possibility & Necessity
Category: Epistemology
Idealism Pt. 2: Kant’s Transcendental Idealism
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
Idealism Pt. 1: Berkeley’s Subjective 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
The Problem of Induction
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
The Gettier Problem & the Definition of Knowledge
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
Moral Testimony
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
Practical Reasons
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
