Sometime around twenty years ago when I was in my early twenties, I read a book called “Truth: A History and a Guide for the Perplexed” by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto. I can’t seem to put my hands on it now, but I remember the preface opened with a bit about Santa Claus. The author was wondering…
I ran across an article called “The Peculiar Math that Could Underlie the Laws of Nature“. It’s an interesting article. It goes way beyond any math I ever took, but it’s still interesting. What really struck me was the title. The idea that math underlies the laws of nature. That seems to be a common…
I’ve been looking back over some old posts that I’ve written and one thing struck me. I have written very few explicitly philosophical posts. That surprised me. When I first started blogging, I figured most of my posts would be philosophy posts. Philosophical thinking is my default. Even before I knew what philosophy was, people…
On the morning of March 14, 2018, students all over the country participated in a school walkout to protest gun violence and to honor the seventeen children killed in Parkland, FL. In a lot of ways, this was inspiring, seeing thousands of kids believe in a cause and actually try to do something about it….
In the Republic, Plato sets out to answer the question, “What is justice?” Along the way, Socrates* and his interlocutors raise the question of who leads the more pleasant life, the just or the unjust. They bring it to extremes. They assume that the unjust person gets away with it, so to speak. People don’t…
Since at least the time of Plato, people have generally accepted that knowledge is justified true belief. Sure there are some who disagree by raising Gettier Problems or denying the possibility of knowledge, but for most people, most of the time, justified true belief is knowledge. Lately, though, I’ve been questioning that definition. It sure seems like…
[For a brief explanation of this project go here. And for bibliographical information go here.] BOOK 1 – On laws in general. Chapter II – On the laws of nature Chapter 2 is short, just a little over one page, but Montesquieu covers a decent amount. He starts by saying that the laws of nature…
[For a brief explanation of this project go here. And for bibliographical information go here.] BOOK 1 – On laws in general. Chapter I – On laws in their relation with various beings. Here is my second entry in my public reading series. I must apologize for the delay. My life has been challenging lately. …
[For a brief explanation of this project go here.] I am starting my public reading project with Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Laws. I had a few reasons for picking this. First, it is an absolute classic, but I’ve never read it, not even excerpts. Second, this is a presidential election year and I know…
There is a concept in philosophy called relevant difference. Basically, this means that a principle must hold across cases unless there is a relevant difference between the cases. So, if you believe that boys and girls should be treated equally, but you make your son do outdoor chores (mowing the lawn, raking leaves, shoveling snow) and your…
