Author: Brandon Boesch Category: Ethics, Social and Political Philosophy Word Count: 998 Imagine you are walking by a shallow pond and see a drowning toddler. Do you have a moral obligation to save the child, even if it means ruining your clothes? It seems so. Now consider that there are millions of people suffering and … Continue reading Ethics and Absolute Poverty: Peter Singer and Effective Altruism
Author: Thomas MetcalfCategory: Logic and ReasoningWord count: 1000 An argument is a set of statements (the premises) intended to provide evidence for, or prove, some conclusion.[1] Formal logic is a tool we can use to present and evaluate arguments. Some arguments are better than others and formal logic can help us see exactly how some … Continue reading Formal Logic: Symbolizing Arguments in Sentential Logic
Author: Chris Ranalli Categories: Epistemology, Metaphysics, Historical Philosophy Word count: 1000 External world skepticism is the view that we cannot know anything about the external world: we can’t know that we have hands, that there are other people, or, in general, know that anything external to our minds exists. Such skeptics commonly argue that we … Continue reading Moore’s Proof of an External World: Responding to External World Skepticism
Author: G. M. Trujillo, Jr. Category: Ethics Wordcount: 999 Suppose that you have an ethical problem in medicine or science. How would you solve it? Some ethicists appeal to an ethical theory, a general explanation of when and why actions are wrong or not.[1] For example, Kantians argue that you should treat all people with … Continue reading Principlism in Biomedical Ethics: Respect for Autonomy, Non-Maleficence, Beneficence, and Justice
Author: Anthony Sean Neal Category: African American Philosophy, Phenomenology and Existentialism, Historical Philosophy, Philosophy of Education, Philosophy of Race, Ethics Word Count: 996 Race today is often presented as a social construct. But social constructions, as Black people know all too well, can create real existential crises. Philosophers of the Black Experience[1] writing during the … Continue reading African American Existentialism: DuBois, Locke, Thurman, and King
Author: Kiki Berk Category: Phenomenology and Existentialism, Ethics Word Count: 989 “Hell is other people” is a famous line from No Exit (1944), a philosophical play by the French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980). No Exit is popularly understood as arguing that human relationships are essentially fraught with conflict. This interpretation seems to be supported by … Continue reading “Hell Is Other People”: Sartre on Personal Relationships
Author: Mark Satta Category: Social and Political Philosophy, Philosophy of Law, Ethics Word Count: 999 Want to criticize your government? Burn a flag? Wear a t-shirt that says f**k the draft? Thanks to freedom of speech, in many places you can.[1] But what exactly is freedom of speech? And what does it permit us to say? … Continue reading Free Speech
Authors: Dick Timmer and Tim Meijers Category: Social and Political Philosophy, Ethics Word Count: 994 As we write this, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is worth $188 billion.[1] That is about $1 billion more than the day before. And $1 billion is more money than you would have had you earned $1,000 a day, every day, … Continue reading Distributive Justice: How Should Resources be Allocated?
Author: Liz Jackson Categories: Philosophy of Religion, Epistemology, or Theory of Knowledge, Historical Philosophy, Logic and Reasoning Word Count: 996 Should you believe there’s a God? To answer this, we might examine arguments for theism—like first-cause and design arguments—and arguments for atheism—like arguments from evil. These arguments offer evidence for and against God’s existence.[1] Pascal’s … Continue reading Pascal’s Wager: A Pragmatic Argument for Belief in God
Author: Jared Millson Category: Epistemology, Philosophy of Science, Social and Political Philosophy, Ethics Word count: 997 NASA faked the first moon landing.[1] The US government orchestrated the attacks on 9/11.[2] A cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles running a global child sex-trafficking ring is plotting against Donald Trump, who is battling them. [3] Each of these claims … Continue reading Conspiracy Theories
