Epistemology is the study of knowledge.
“Apparently, there is a 50-50 chance that we live in a simulated world. What does philosophy make of this possibility?” Thank you, Wynn P Wheldon. Actually, this question has been central to philosophy for a very long time now, and, as usual, there is no simple answer to it. It raises attached questions, such as: […]
What if it’s all just a simulation? Read More
“Does knowledge have intrinsic value or is its value respective to how applicable it is?” Thank you, Arjun Sambhi, for another corker of a question. Aristotle is famous for saying that we all naturally desire knowledge. But do we always want to know the truth? (Cue Mario Winans’ “I don’t Wanna Know”.) Imagine you had
Does knowledge have intrinsic value? Read More
“If you are influenced by the idea of someone, then you acquired it without acknowledgement, can it be considered plagiarism?” Thank you, Jong Camallere, for a tricky question. A very large part of what we think and say comes from our interactions with others: what we have seen, heard, learned and read from them. Yet
Is unacknowledged influence plagiarism? Read More
Thank you, Sajad Ali, for this interesting question. Aristotle famously believed that virtue is a mean between two extremes—for example, courage is a mean between recklessness and cowardice. Does this work for the desire for knowledge, too? In particular, can there be an excess of such a desire? There is no name for the virtue
Can the desire for knowledge be considered greedy? Read More
If we do, how do we actually determine that the self exists? Thank you, Danica Aposaga, for such a fundamental question. First, if I may, I think it would be helpful to reverse the questions: how do we actually determine that the self exists, and, if it does exist, will we ever understand it? After
Will we ever understand the self? Read More
Thank you, Arjun Sambhi, for this important and profound question. This is an important and profound question. Hitler did horrible acts, but did he think his actions were bad? To answer that question, we need to be honest about how we think about moral issues. Popular culture has instilled in us a simplistic vision of
Did Hitler know he was a bad person? Read More
Thank you, Zeeshan Ahmed, for an intriguing question. What it means to ‘comprehend’ something is its own interesting philosophical question, and one that’s received less attention that might be expected. However, we can probably say a couple of things to shape our thinking without much controversy. One is that comprehension involves appreciating the structure, or
Thank you, TG Dee, for this perennial question. To understand why this seems to be the case, we have to understand what it is to be good or to be evil. It seems to me that to be good involves acting, desiring, feeling, in accordance with certain standards. For multiple reasons it is not easy
Why is evil consistent and the good is faltering? Read More
Thank you, Aditya Pandey, for an important and enduring question. We have here two distinct but intimately related questions. The first question really concerns whether we know when life begins, while the second pits life against body autonomy. Both require a substantial answer to the question of what constitutes life. I will therefore briefly explore
Thanks to Mojahid Gauraki for the question. This is an interesting question, because while on the surface it seems to be about a single individual and whether they are ‘smart’, it is in fact about what it means for someone to be smart or stupid, and the different ways either might be recognised, or even
Is Jordan Peterson a ‘stupid person’s smart person’? Read More
