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Notes and Thoughts on Thomas Aquinas’ Summa TheologicaFavourite Quote of the Reading: “Consequentially it is evident that the proper effect of a law is to lead its subjects to their proper virtue; and since virtue is that which makes its subject good, it follows that the proper effect of law is to make those, to […]
Read More Zumba Theologica Part 1: Aquinas Gets Down with Natural LawHamdi vs. Rumsfeld: Is The Detention of US Enemy Combatants Lawful?OverviewIn the immediate aftermath of 9/11, Yaser Hamdi an American citizen was captured by the Northern Alliance, then turned over to the US military in Afghanistan. The US government declared him an enemy combatant and detained him without access to legal council or the opportunity […]
Read More Citizens Can Be Lawfully Detained: Oxymoron?Notes and Thoughts on Imre Lakatos’ ‘Science and Pseudoscience’My favourite quote:“But the history of thought shows us that many people were committed to absurd beliefs. If the strength of beliefs were a hallmark of knowledge, we should have to rank some tales about demons, angels, devils, and of heaven and hell and knowledge. Scientist, on […]
Read More Thaaaats Not Science: Part 2G. E. Moore’s Open Question ArgumentReviewIn the previous post we took a look at G. E. Moore’s naturalistic fallacy which, if you recall, is (short version): (1) Simple ideas/concepts cannot be defined by their properties because then they would be the same as their properties. Eg. ‘Yellow’ cannot be defined as ‘bright’ because ‘yellow’ and ‘bright’ […]
Read More Maybe It’s Good that Helping Old Ladies Across The Street Brings About Happiness? But, Is It Good That It’s Good?G. E. Moore: The Naturalistic FallacyOverviewG. E. Moore marks the beginning of contemporary meta-ethics. Vas is meta-ethics you ask? It’s the branch of philosophy where we study the origin and meaning of ethical concepts. We try to answer questions like, what does it mean for something to be good? bad? evil? What is a […]
Read More What’s the Definition of ‘Yellow’?Random Thoughts On PrayerI don’t know why it popped into my head, but while I was making a snack I had this thought that prayer makes even less sense than I previously thought. Maybe someone out there can explain things to me.Lets suppose for a moment that there is indeed a god, and (lucky you) […]
Read More Why Do People Pray? (Just to Make It Today?)The Demarkation Problem: Notes and Discussion of Karl Popper’s Falsificationism OverviewOne issue in the philosophy of science is known as the demarkation problem. That is, where do we draw the line between genuine science and pseudo-science? What’s the difference between astronomy and astrology? Chemistry and alchemy? Medicine and homeopathy? Psychology and Freudian psycho-analysis? Evolutionary biology and creation […]
Read More Thaaat’s Not Science!Notes and Thoughts on H. L. A. Hart’s Grudge Informers and the Rule of LawOverviewWithin philosophy of law, the traditional main positions are what’s know as natural law and legal positivism. Simply put, natural law is the idea that there is some sort of relationship between the law and morality (usually, law arises out of […]
Read More Is it Ever OK to Break the Law?Welcome back to my philoso-posts er’body. This semester I, and by extension you, will be learning about the philosophy of law (amongst other things). Since, the last philosophy of law course I took was in the summer of 1998 I’m basically starting from scratch. Until I get further into the course my first few entries […]
Read More Are We Better Off Without A Constitution?PreambleHappy new year, everyone! Now is the time of year when gyms make all their money from people signing 1 and 2 year contracts and only showing up for the first 2 or 3 weeks. Don’t become a statistic! I’m here to help you avoid this fate and to help share some ideas on how […]
Read More No Nonsense Fitness Guide
Wrestling with Philosophy 