Referring, Knowing, and Skepticism What would it take to defeat the skeptic? What conception of knowledge is best suited to fending off the skeptical challenge? If knowledge were simply identical to reality, then presumably skepticism would be impossible, since whatever reality contains knowledge does too. How could knowledge fail to match […]
Necessity and Infinity Certain concepts lead naturally to the concept of infinity; arguably they entail the concept of infinity. Thus God, space, time, and number: anyone who grasps these concepts is apt to entertain thoughts of the infinite. God is infinitely powerful, space is unending, time goes on forever, and numbers […]
Materialist Idealism In Berkeley’s system there are two kinds of entity: ideas and spirits (finite and infinite). What we call “material objects” are not material at all but ideas in minds, our own and God’s. There are no material entities, only ideas and immaterial spirits. God is the basis of […]
A Disproof of God’s Existence The traditional definition of God credits him with three attributes: moral perfection, omniscience, and omnipotence. These are supposed to be logically independent, with none entailing the others. But that is not obviously correct: How is moral perfection possible without omniscience and omnipotence? How is it possible to […]
Induction about Induction When we reason about the future we use induction. The sun has always been observed to rise, so we infer inductively that it will rise in the future. The skeptic questions the validity of such inferences. But can’t we apply inductive skepticism to induction itself? Is there any […]
Truth, Goodness, and Beauty The members of this hallowed platonic trinity are supposed to belong tightly together like a family. What I want to point out is that theories of these three things also form a family; in particular, theories of truth find counterparts in theories of goodness and […]
Unity and Variety in Language The idea of linguistic universals should not seem surprising if we consider that language is the expression or externalization of thought. Given that thought contains universals, and language expresses thought, language should contain universals. If there is an innately (genetically) determined language of thought, […]
Knowledge of One’s Visual Field The human visual field is limited and known by us to be limited. It is possible to establish its extent and shape by the strategic placement of stimuli: about 180 degrees and roundish (corresponding to the optics of the eye). We normally don’t pay much […]
Bacteria Epistemology Epistemology has been shaped around the case of adult humans, as if these were the sole epistemic agents. Thus we find invoked such concepts as belief, judgment, reason, reflection, rationality, inference, ratiocination, justification, doubt, certainty, fallibility, and so on. But what about human children, infants, […]
Induction Reconfigured Some critics of induction have charged that it is simply a logical fallacy to reason inductively. If induction is inferring a general conclusion from particular cases, then the conclusion patently doesn’t follow from the premises. How can we validly infer that all swans are white from the premise […]