Suppose the following expresses a strict implication: If H then O The letter H is supposed to remind you of “hypothesis”, and the letter O of “observation” (or better, a datum or description of an observation). But H needn’t be thought of as a singular hypothesis in isolation — it might be a large conjunction [...]
“Professional philosophers” get a lot of practice applying their favourite moral “theory” — i.e. their moral principles plus some other assumptions — to various situations, real and imagined. Does such a theory ever “hit the brick wall” of the real world, the way proper scientific theories do when observations of the world refuse to comply with them? In other words, [...]
The etymology of the word ‘philosophy’ tells us that a philosopher is a “lover of wisdom”. There are at least two reasons why ‘lover of wisdom’ is a fairly good guiding description of what a genuine philosopher does. Briefly, a philosopher is a lover of wisdom as opposed to a purveyor of knowledge. I’ll try [...]
Most philosophy students and academics have become so habituated to thinking about morality in terms of rights that a “denial of moral rights” sounds to them like a rejection of morality itself. If you read what follows, please resist that thought. To understand why I reject the idea of “human rights”, or any other variant [...]
Plato thought that most of us do not really see objects outside our own heads. Instead, he thought that all we really see are mere representations of things — mental representations that exist entirely within our own minds. According to a famous passage in Plato’s Republic, these representations are like shadows on the walls of [...]
Like my hero David Hume, I have a serious problem with technical philosophy. A lot of people don’t like to admit that, because if you have a problem with technical philosophy, the real problem might be that you are an idiot. (“Frankly, you are an idiot”, as Dr Peter King of Pembroke College Oxford [...]
The Guardian bookshop has a pro-evolution book on offer at the moment, and the first line of the blurb goes like this: Why Evolution is True focuses on the hard evidence that proves evolution by natural selection to be a fact. I remarked that I think almost every word in that sentence is misleading, dishonest, wrong, [...]
A philosophical friend asks: Imagine if an advanced life form was discovered on another planet. We learn that it has the potential to end our own existence (by some manner or other: war, disease, colonisation, etc.). Bear in mind that the threat is only potential. Indeterminate. This life form may threaten our own existence (for [...]
After months of inactivity, and the grand total of exactly one genuine unsolicited comment, I’ve re-started this blog in new webspace. Please note the new address. You can easily access the blog by visiting www.bowmangraphics.co.uk , then clicking the “My blog” button under “LINKS”. I hope you will feel free to contribute.
In politics, conservatism is the pragmatic urge to stick with the tried and trusted. Conservatives think that in politics it’s best to hold on to ( = “conserve”) what we know works tolerably well in practice. The opposite, idealistic approach is to throw caution to the winds and make “root and branch” changes, all for the sake of [...]