The skeptic that maintains that we entirely cannot trust our senses and that they are illusionary and counterfeit falls into a logical error. We should ask the skeptic how is it he imputes the quality of being counterfeit or being illusionary to the senses when, apparently, all our senses are indeed illusionary. For illusionary to have any meaning ( Read more... )

Here is the first essay of the semester for history of philosophy. Not too great, but it is decent at least and should garner me a good enough grade at least.

( Naturalism vs. Supernaturalism )

It has been a long time coming but I have at last come to the conclusion that to fully apprehend the truth behind the free-will/determinism debate is beyond my abilities. Not that I ever pretended to be fully able find an answer, but I had formerly felt much more secure in my deterministic conclusions. Psychology first led me to believe in a ( Read more... )

Okay, at first I did not believe this was true but it comes straight from a biography on the man himself. Sir Alfred Jules Ayer (A.J. for short) the eminent British philosopher, logician, and heir of Russell wound up in the following hilarious and wonderful, yet true, situation:At yet another party he had befriended Sanchez [Fernando Sanchez, a ( Read more... )

Okay, sorry for not updating. I have been preoccupied with other matters and fervently trying to resolve some issues in logic and the philosophy of language. Anyhow, Seattle was decent. It would have been better if I had gone alone or with good friends rather than with family. I'm also starting school next week. Yippee. I'm actually excited at the ( Read more... )

Well, I'm off to Seattle for the weekend. Be back Sunday sometime, I think. Adios.

Thanks to nonexistent I have been inspired to lay out my thoughts on the matter of metaphysics with relation to an empiricist doctrine.

( The Question of Metaphysics )

( Two random pics of my room )

I believe the confusion that has led to the philosophical doctrine of idealism lies within the nature of sense-data in distinction to a sensation. A sense-datum is a logical object which stands distinct from any subject. It merely is and nothing more. Whereas a sensation is logically complex and involves a subject, the one perceiving, and the ( Read more... )

Some humor from Russell:
"I am sometimes shocked by the blasphemies of those who think themselves pious - for instance, the nuns who never take a bath without wearing a bathrobe all the time. When asked why, since no man can see them, they reply, 'Oh, but you forget the good God.' Apparently they conceive of the Deity as a Peeping Tom, whose ( Read more... )