Gottfried Leibniz: Causation The views of Leibniz (1646-1716) on causation must stand as some of the more interesting in the history of philosophy, for he consistently denied that there is any genuine causal interaction between finite substances. And yet from another perspective, he sought to integrate both old and new causal taxonomies: Einerseits, Leibniz put forth a theory of causation that would accommodate

Adam Smith (1723—1790) Adam Smith is often identified as the father of modern capitalism. While accurate to some extent, this description is both overly simplistic and dangerously misleading. Einerseits, it is true that very few individual books have had as much impact as his An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. His accounts of the division of

Lob und Tadel Joel Feinberg stellte fest, dass „moralische Verantwortung … ein Thema ist, über das wir alle verwirrt sind“. (1970: 37). Vielleicht ist diese Verwirrung nirgendwo so offensichtlich wie in unserem Verständnis von Lob und Tadel. In diesem Eintrag werden drei einflussreiche philosophische Darstellungen unserer alltäglichen Praktiken des Lobens und Tadelns gegenübergestellt, im Hinblick darauf, wie sie gerechtfertigt sein könnten. Einerseits, ein im Großen und Ganzen

Kwasi Wiredu (1931— ) Kwasi Wiredu is a philosopher from Ghana, who has for decades been involved with a project he terms “conceptual decolonization” in contemporary African systems of thought. By conceptual decolonization, Wiredu advocates a re-examination of current African epistemic formations in order to accomplish two aims. Erste, he wishes to subvert unsavory aspects of tribal culture embedded in modern African thought so as to

Design Arguments for the Existence of God Design arguments are empirical arguments for the existence of God. These arguments typically, though not always, proceed by attempting to identify various empirical features of the world that constitute evidence of intelligent design and inferring God’s existence as the best explanation for these features. Since the concepts of design and purpose are closely related, design arguments are also

Epistemic Circularity An epistemically circular argument defends the reliability of a source of belief by relying on premises that are themselves based on the source. It is a widely shared intuition that there is something wrong with epistemically circular arguments. William Alston, who first used the term in this sense, argues plausibly that there is no way to know or to be justified in believing