“Is it true that all people are the same? What about differences such as between man and woman, boss and servant?” Thank you, Agar Mayor Gai-Makoon, for a timely and timeless question. In my opinion, people are not the same. First, let’s consider differences between man and woman, boss and servant. I’ll add some other […]
Are we all the same? 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
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, 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, 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
