Hume argued that people always choose actions guided by emotion. The reason is a tool to help us understand why we feel certain emotions and to show us that they are reasonable given the situation. But when it comes to deciding what to do, we usually act out of...
Philosophy
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Is vs ought
The naturalist fallacy is when you jump from describing something as true to saying that it should be done. In his work, David Hume wrote that “Reason is the slave of passion”. His work was influential in making us question whether we can trust our emotions. For...
Knowledge: justified true belief?
The debate of rationalism and empiricism regarding how we acquire knowledge stands on the foothold that knowledge exists. But what is knowledge? In classic Green, philosophy knowledge is a justifiably true belief where three conditions must be met: You should believe...
Positivism
Positivism is a philosophical approach that believes in the value of evidence and experimentation, and that there is no other source of legitimate knowledge except through experimental means. Empirical thinking is the belief that we can only gain true knowledge about...
Sociological positivism
Sociological positivism was derived from the initial scientific idea of positivism. Comte believed that all knowledge must be verified with evidence, and those metaphysics were useless because there are no facts about the universe that cannot be observed. He,...
On the Origin of Species
In the 19th century, the impact of science on society became apparent when Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, changing humanity’s view of itself. Instead of seeing themselves as separate from nature and above all else, scientists and philosophers began...
Evolution, creationism and intelligent design
Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection widened the gap between science & religion that had opened since Renaissance. On Origin of Species clearly contradicted the bible's account of creation & reignited the faith vs. reason debate. On one extreme were...
British liberalism
In the late 1800s, Europe and America were seeing rapid changes in their societies. Industrialization and urbanization led to an increase in manufacturing jobs, often requiring large numbers of workers to complete a task at once. Workers wanted more say in how they...
Political economy
After David Hume’s influence on British politics, Adam Smith continued his work in political philosophy, particularly with regard to questions of economic growth and prosperity. His views on this were greatly influenced by the theories he had read about in France,...
Conservatism
Classical Liberalism, as it came to become known, generally recommends that the state should intervene as little as possible with our freedoms. However, some classical liberals did hold conservative views about who should govern, and how society should evolve. British...
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Buddhism
Buddhism is both a religion and philosophy that developed from the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama – Buddha, a teacher who lived in northern India between the mid-6th and mid-4th centuries BCE. He left his life of luxury as an Indian prince and chose an austere...
Christianity and philosophy
Religious dogmas of medieval Europe prevailed in the era, especially in the early period, and dominated philosophical thought. While authority and faith were more emphasized, philosophical thought and reasoning were looked down upon and regarded as suspicious. From...
Reconciling faith and reason
The first noticeable Christian philosopher was Augustine of Hippo. He studied philosophy and rejected faith, perhaps even delving into the Persian religion of Manichaeism for a duration. However, as he led a thorough study of Greek philosophy, the teachings of Plato,...
Existence of God: the teleological argument
For much of its history, Christianity has been concerned with the question of whether God’s existence can be established rationally (i.e., by reason alone or by reason informed by sense experience) or through religious experience or revelation or instead must be...
The problem of evil
An important statement about the problem of evil, a paradox attributed to Epicurus, was cited by the Scottish philosopher David Hume: “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? then is he impotent? Is he able, but not willing? then is he malevolent? Is he both...
Free Course in Semiology
A completely and truly free course on Semiology (Semiotics). Learn about the meaning of signs, how and why did the field emerged. What is the relationship between the street signs and the signs that we use every day - words.
