The Brain in a Vat Argument The Brain in a Vat thought-experiment is most commonly used to illustrate global or Cartesian skepticism. You are told to imagine the possibility that at this very moment you are actually a brain hooked up to a sophisticated computer program that can perfectly simulate experiences of the outside world. Here is the skeptical argument. If you cannot now be

Xenophanes (c. 570—c. 478 B.C.E.) Xenophanes of Colophon was a traveling poet and sage with philosophical leanings who lived in ancient Greece during the sixth and the beginning of the fifth centuries B.C.E. There are a significant number of surviving fragments for such an early figure, and the poetic verses available to us indicate a broad range of issues. These include comments on religion, knowledge,

Modern Morality and Ancient Ethics It is commonly supposed that there is a vital difference between ancient ethics and modern morality. For example, there appears to be a vital difference between virtue ethics and the modern moralities of deontological ethics (Kantianism) and consequentialism (utilitarianism). At second glance, however, one acknowledges that both ethical approaches have more in common than their stereotypes may suggest. Oversimplification, fallacious

Time Time is what clocks measure, Einstein once said. Information about time tells the durations of events, and when they occur, and which events happen before which others, so time plays a very significant role in the universe’s structure, including the structure of our personal lives. But there are many unresolved issues, both philosophical and scientific. Consider this issue upon which philosophers are deeply divided:

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) Michel de Montaigne, the sixteenth century French essayist, is one of the most renowned literary and philosophical figures of the late Renaissance.  The one book he wrote, Les Essais de Michel de Montaigne, is not a traditional work of philosophy.  Having begun work on it around 1572, he published the first edition in 1580.  He then went on to publish four

Synesthesia The word “synesthesia” or “synaesthesia,” has its origin in the Greek roots, syn, meaning union, and aesthesis, meaning sensation: a union of the senses.  Many researchers use the term “synesthesia” to refer to a perceptual anomaly in which a sensory stimulus associated with one perceptual modality automatically triggers another insuppressible sensory experience which is usually, but not always, associated with a different perceptual modality