Author: philosophami

Philosopher, judoka, coach, traveller, hiker, dancer, and dog-lover.

Mill’s Utilitarianism Part 3: Proof of the Principle of Utilitarianism

Mill’s Utilitarianism, Chapter IV:  Of What Sort of Proof the Principle of Utility is Susceptible Note: For criticisms of Mill’s Proof see my later posts “Sidgwick’s Criticisms of Mill’s Proof” and “Moore’s Criticisms of Mill’s Proof” Favorite Quote: “…[Virtue] may be felt a good in itself, and desired as such with as great intensity as any other […]

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Mill’s Utilitarianism Part 2: Mill’s Argument for the Ultimate Sanction (What Can Compel Us to Consider General Happiness when We Act? )

Yo check it.  Weez about to learn about why (Mill thinks) we should be compelled to adopt and adhere to utilitarianism as the ultimate moral standard.  That is, why does a utilitarian ethic have binding force? Overview and RecapOk, so…like…’member utilitarianism?  It’s the idear that the moral goodness of an action is proportional to the […]

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Mill’s Utilitarianism Part 1: John Stuart Mill’s Argument for Qualitative Hedonism

Updayt:Hey er’body…I’m baaack!  Before we get down to biniz and talk about Mill an’ stuff here’s a brief updayt.  First, my sincerest apologies to the throngs of my adoring fans that had to go the whole summer without reading a new post, but I needed a break.  Also, I was studying for the state and […]

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Realism vs. Anti-Realism 2: Arguments Concerning Scientific Realism by Bas Van Fraassen

Notes and Thoughts on Arguments Concerning Scientific RealismSummarizing quote: “The rigour of science requires that we distinguish well the undraped figure of nature itself from the gay-coloured (heh!heh!he said “gay”) vesture with which we clothe it at our pleasure.”–Heinrich Hertz quoted by Ludwig Boltzmann, in turn quoted by Van Fraassen, in turn quoted by me.PreambleIn […]

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Realism vs Anti-Realism: Ontological Status of Theoretical Entities by Maxwell

Notes and Thoughts on “The Ontological Status of Theoretical Entities” by Grover MaxwellPreambleOne of the big debates in philosophy of science is between realists and anti-realist.  Although there are many types of each, generally speaking we can say that realists think that our theories describe real entities while the anti-realist don’t.   Here’s an example […]

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Constitutional Interpretation: Dworkin’s Response to Scalia

Notes and Thoughts on A Response to Scalia by DworkinOverviewNote, some of the content in the article–as you might expect–refers back to the Scalia posts.Dworkin agrees with Scalia that the Constitution should be interpreted according to original textual meaning but distinguishes two approaches.  The first is semantic originalism: the idea that clauses ought to be […]

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Constitutional Interpretation: Originalism and Textualism (Scalia) Part 1

Notes and Thoughts on Interpreting the Constitution by Antonin Scalia I apologize for typos and such, I haven’t had time to thoroughly proof read this post yet.PreambleSo, I’m writing my philosophy of law paper on constitutional interpretation; “originalism” in particular.  At first, I thought the whole idea of originalism kind of silly, but after doing some […]

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