Author: Daniel Peterson Categories: Epistemology, Philosophy of Science, Logic and Reasoning Word count: 998 Imagine that Beauty takes part in an experiment: on Sunday night, she is put to sleep. Then, the experimenters flip a fair coin. If the coin lands heads, Beauty is awakened on Monday, then is put back to sleep until the … Continue reading The Sleeping Beauty Problem
Author: Jamie Carlin Watson Category: Epistemology, Ethics, Social and Political Philosophy Wordcount: 989 Want to improve your golf or tennis game? Take lessons from a local “pro.” Got an obscure medical problem? See a specialist. Nasty divorce? Hire a good lawyer. In short, if you’ve got a hard question or problem, you should seek the guidance … Continue reading Expertise
Author: Thomas Metcalf Categories: Epistemology, Philosophy of Science, Logic and Reasoning Word Count: 1000 Suppose that Lemmy is playing poker, and the only card he needs in order to win is the Ace of Spades. If he’s drawing randomly from a standard deck, it’s easy to figure out how likely he is to draw the … Continue reading The Probability Calculus
Author: Thomas Metcalf Categories: Epistemology, Philosophy of Science, Logic and Reasoning Word count: 996 Consider this exchange from the 1994 American film Dumb and Dumber: Lloyd: What do you think the chances are of a guy like you and a girl like me ending up together? … Mary: Not good. Lloyd: You mean, not good like … Continue reading Interpretations of Probability
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: 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
