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Intro Ramble: The Purpose of Philosophy in Morality It’s funny how things work sometimes. After making my last post–“What Philosophy Is and Isn’t”–I encountered the following passage in Kant regarding the role of philosophy (in ethics, anyway): It is here that she [i.e., philosophy] has to show her purity as the authoress of […]
Read More Do I Have to Do What I Know Is Right? (Part 1)This entry was prompted by a conversation I had with a good friend the other day. Out of the conversation it became quite evident that outside of my ivory tower the unwashed masses have a misconception of the very important world…nay…universe-changing work that philosophers do. I was actually surprised at how worked up I […]
Read More What the Crap Is Philosophy?p { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; } This is a short reflection I wrote for my Kant Seminar: p { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; } Kant argues that making false promises and committing suicide are both contrary to the Categorical Imperative because they are non-universalizable. To demonstrate both acts are immoral he employs to both acts an […]
Read More Is it Always Immoral to Commit Suicide?Kant on Lying Preamble Recall that in Kant’s moral philosophy acting morally is a matter of acting out of duty to the moral law. Let’s break that down. First, the moral law (AKA the Categorical Imperative) as I’m sure you all recall is “I ought never to act except in such a way that […]
Read More Is It Ever OK To Lie?This section of the sixth and final meditation is for me the most interesting and raises the most philosophical issues. I still remember when I first encountered it 12 years ago in my second philosophy class. Arguments For What My Senses Can and Can’t Tell Me About the World and Myself There is nothing […]
Read More What Can A Pain in Your Butt Teach You About Metaphysics?A long time ago I read a humour piece in a local newspaper (this was pre-internet). The article was entitled something like, “Random Interjections to Throw Into Any Conversations That Will Make You Sound Smart”. Anyway, as you might gather from the title, the author, with humour intent, had come up with a list […]
Read More Well, That Just Smacks of Dualism!Descartes: Second Meditation Recap Lets very briefly recap the 1st meditation. Descartes says that if we really think about it, pretty much everything we know can be called into doubt. Knowledge is typically viewed as what we learn from experience but everything we experience when we (think we) are awake is exactly the same […]
Read More What is the Only Thing You Can Know For Certain?Chapter 2 How Can We Discover A Moral Law? One of the overarching goals of Kant’s Metaphysic of Morals is that there is a moral law that all rational beings ought to follow–even when they are tempted to do otherwise. The problem is, how do we discover such a law, if one even exists? […]
Read More If You Were Purely Rational, How Would You Behave?Unfinished Business (Sounds like a bad 80s action movie…) Before I continue with Kant I realised I forgot to make an important point in the previous post. It has to do with Kant’s formulation of the “golden rule” (the categorical imperative–in philoso-speak) versus other past formulations, such as “do unto others as you’d have […]
Read More Problems With The Golden Rule and Scantily Clad WomenKANT…Kant…kant… There are several philosophers that are notoriously difficult to interpret–one of the guys that falls squarely in that category is Immauel Kant. His name strikes fear into philosophy students around the woooooorld. Being the glutton for punishment that I am I decided to take the Kant seminar that is being offered at U […]
Read More Kant, Libertarians, and The Bible, Oh, My!
Wrestling with Philosophy 