Zack
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Posts by Zack
Wittgenstein
Oct 29th
Wittgenstein is by far one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century. He is strongly associated with the birth of analytic philosophy, along with such notable figures as Bertrand Russell and Gottlob Frege (both of whom were close acquaintances of Wittgenstein). He was born to an enormously wealthy Jewish family in Vienna in 1889. His name survives in infamy for many and maybe even most philosophers, for it was his self-appointed task to end philosophy as we know it. He saw philosophy as an affliction of the mind, to which he himself was particularly susceptible, and sought to More >
Aristotelian Ethics: Doing Good, and Feeling Good doing it
May 31st
Aristotle was an ancient Greek philosopher who lived from 384 to 322 BCE. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest figures in the history of philosophy, with treatises spanning all the way from aesthetics to metaphysics. However, he is perhaps best known for his ethical system, which he expounds in the Nicomachean Ethics. This system of virtue ethics focuses on the character of the moral agent, rather than the types of acts said agent ought to perform. This is because Aristotle believed it impossible to establish a completely objective and universal set of ethical rules. Accordingly, most More >
The JTB Account and The Gettier Problem
Apr 21st
Knowledge is traditionally defined in philosophy as Justified True Belief. The truth condition is necessary because it seems impossible to know something false; for instance, I may believe that I am an extraterrestrial, but philosophers don’t want to say that I know it. The belief condition is, of course, necessary because philosophers want to avoid situations where you know something that you’ve never even considered. In fact, the belief condition can be viewed as the means of attaching knowledge to the knower. The justification condition is, probably, the less obvious of the three conditions. However, it is necessary in order to rule More >
Duty to Survive
Feb 16th
I’ve often noticed the contempt people express for those who kill themselves, but have been struck by its restriction to the abstract. In other words, you hear people condemning “people who commit suicide”, but rarely do you hear them condemn a particular person for the act. Perhaps this is merely a reflection of social tact, but I am inclined to think otherwise. I am, in fact, more inclined to think there is something fundamental that people tend to leave out of their considerations of the matter, which becomes inseparable from this fundamental element when engaged in the particular. Thus, I More >
The Regress Argument tnemugrA ssergeR ehT
Jan 18th
The regress argument (or the argument of infinite regress) is a philosophical concern held in epistemology. The worry follows from the structure that we use to arrive at justified beliefs, namely that every conclusion requires a premise. In other words, when you ask someone how he/she arrived at a given conclusion you expect them to provide some rationale or evidence supporting it; if he/she tells you that there is absolutely nothing to support that conclusion then you would probably disregard it. This is more succinctly displayed in formal logic, i.e. if p then q, p so q; to merely say More >
Skepticism?
Dec 24th
Skepticism refers to a school of thought categorized by rational doubt. In philosophy, the type of skepticism usually referenced is epistemic skepticism, which is what we will focus on here. This consists in doubting that we have knowledge about the world; in fact, it can even be viewed as asserting that we can’t have knowledge about the world. However, rather than actually believing this doctrine, most philosophers see skeptical arguments as signs that our theory of knowledge must be modified. Thus, skepticism is commonly used as a tool to test epistemological theories. I will presently outline some of the major More >
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