Author: Andre Leo Rusavuk Category: Metaphysics Word count: 990 We frequently say things like, ‘This seems possible,’ ‘That can’t be done,’ ‘This must happen,’ ‘She might be able to . . ,’ ‘This is necessary for . .’ and so on.[1] Claims like these are modal claims. They involve the modal concepts of actuality, possibility, … Continue reading Possibility and Necessity: An Introduction to Modality
Author: Abiral Chitrakar Phnuyal Category: Philosophy of Race, Metaphysics, Philosophy of Science, Ethics, Social and Political Philosophy Word Count: 998 Various racial concepts have been employed at different times in human history – most prominently since the 17th century[1] – to classify humans into groups, often to great social, political, ethical, medical, and scientific significance. … Continue reading The Ontology of Race
Author: Taylor W. Cyr Category: Metaphysics Word Count: 1000 Time travel is familiar from science fiction and is interesting to philosophers because of the metaphysical issues it raises: the nature of time, causation, personal identity, and freedom, among others.[1] It’s widely accepted that time travel to the future is possible, but the possibility of backward … Continue reading Time Travel
Author: Marc Bobro Category: Historical Philosophy, Metaphysics, Philosophy of Religion Word count: 997 Imagine that your bicycle keeps dropping its chain. Annoyed, you take it to a bike shop to determine the cause in order to fix the problem. The mechanic informs you that the problem cannot be fixed because there is no reason why … Continue reading Leibniz’s Principle of Sufficient Reason
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
Abortion involves the intentional killing of a human being. Killing human beings is often deeply wrong, so is abortion wrong? If so, when? And why?
We’ve already discussed some of the experimental phenomena that inspire competing interpretations or theories of what’s going on in the real world during quantum-mechanical experiments. In this final installment of a three-article series, we’ll look in very broad strokes at some of the philosophical implications of these views of quantum mechanics.
