Official Website for Amitabha Palmer
IntroductionIf I had a nickel for every time I hear something like “Well, if it’s right for him, who am I to judge?” I’d still be poor. Not because I don’t hear it a lot but because I’d donate all those nickels to charity. Anyway, relativism–the position that values are relative to an individual or […]
Read More Relativism, Nihilism, and Realism: You Think You’re a Relativist but You’re Not.PreambleHere’s a paper I maked for filosofy of sciences class. i maked it myself.There’s an inside joke with my professor Dr. J. Brown that needs some explaining to understand part of this paper. Every time he uses hypotheticals he always says “I could have come to class in a bear suit”. Anyway, the grad students […]
Read More Realism vs. Antirealism on Theoretical Entities: Maxwell vs van FraassenNotes 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 […]
Read More Realism vs. Anti-Realism 2: Arguments Concerning Scientific Realism by Bas Van FraassenNotes 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 […]
Read More Realism vs Anti-Realism: Ontological Status of Theoretical Entities by MaxwellOverviewIn part 1 we looked at how Boyd draws an analogy between scientific realism and moral realism. The first parallel is that there is a progressively recursive relationship between theory and experience. The second is that there is a progressively recursive relationship between theory and method. Check out part 1 if you’d like further elaboration…I’ve […]
Read More Want to Discover Moral Truth? Part 2 "How to Be a Moral Realist" by R. Boyd
Wrestling with Philosophy 