Epistemology is the study of knowledge.
Do you think all questions are valid? If not, what makes a question stupid? Thank you, Angela Geronimo, for this obviously valid and clever question. (While we could certainly differentiate validity and non-stupidity, I will here treat them as one.) Whether a question can to be considered stupid depends on what we mean by “stupid” […]
What makes a question stupid? Read More
Thank you, Gum Makur Gum, for such a perennial question! What does it mean to exist? Until Kant, many philosophers thought that existence was a property of a substance, much like color, weight, mass, etc. Saying that “This flower is red” was similar to saying that “This flower exists”, meaning that the flower had the
It seems so clear to me that living in rational way would benefit us way more. Thank you, Ayli Inrovdop, for this long-standing question. Your question already seems to imply a hypothesis that has had a long history in philosophy and continues to have a certain influence in everyday discourse, namely, the opposition between reason
Should we seek to live rationally rather than emotionally? Read More
Specifically, what makes a question or an answer philosophical? Thank you, Jom Olazo, for an excellent question! The answer depends on what you think philosophy is. I can only give you my take; others will defend a (very) different idea of philosophy – as far as I know, there is no unchallenged notion of “philosophy”.
What makes something philosophical? Read More
Thank you, Austin Birch, for a great question. When I say “great”, I mean not only “fantastic”, but also “great in magnitude”, because exegesis is a huge concept within the history of philosophy. After all, as Whitehead put it, Western philosophy is nothing but a series of footnotes to Plato’s dialogues. To start, I’d like
Thank you, Curtis L. Delyn, for such a significant question. It is generally agreed that Plato came up with the classical definition of knowledge as “justified true belief”. This has been incredibly influential; many philosophers have accepted some form of this definition by filling in the relevant concepts with various theories and interpretations. Here, truth
Can we ever really trust that we know anything? Read More
Thank you, Ian Castañares, for such a great question. I am pretty sure I know how to answer it. I believe I speak for most philosophers when I say that sceptics are simply the worst. No matter how well-reasoned and well-structured your argument, there is always somebody who just stands there with their arms crossed
How much doubt is reasonable? Read More
Thank you, Brian Eckelman, for such a perceptive question. It is a massive question. Here, I will focus just on what creates our understanding of reality within society. I want to draw a separation between ‘real effects’ and ‘reality’: something can have a real effect upon us, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it is
Does perception dictate reality? Read More
Thank you, Hannah Scollen, for a great question – this was fun to think about! The most important part of this question, the part that would most likely lead to an answer, the useful part (see what I did there?), is the relationship between utility and applicability. So, let’s have a look at that first,
Is knowledge useful if it isn’t applicable? Read More
Thank you, Mora Kaufmann, for such a fundamental and important question! In this answer, I hope to show why, as a philosopher, I can’t help but consider myself an anarchist. Let me premise what is to follow by saying that this is a very dangerous question for me and for many others on this blog.
