Many people believe in horoscopes. The reason for this is that they tend to confuse a true belief with knowledge proper. Horoscope claims are sometimes true. If my horoscope says that I will meet a dark and handsome stranger, and I actually do meet a dark and handsome stranger, my horoscope claim is true. And …
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Denoting non-existent objects
If I point to an object and say ‘table’, I can be said to be denoting the table. Now, how is it possible to denote objects that do not exist? It might be said that unicorns do not exist. This could be construed as inconsistent, since it effectively says that there are unicorns, but they …
What does art represent, if it does represent?
If art does represent something, does art represent physical reality, or does art represent the mind’s eye, or some other thing? Physical reality. It might be thought that art represents physical reality, since it is often depicting objects or scenes from the world. An artwork can depict a scene- a cafe or a restaurant, or …
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What makes something a work of art?
There is usually agreement that something is a work of art, but what causes this agreement? Is there something objective in the arrangement of the artwork that causes some kind of aesthetic experience in each of us? Or is it entirely a subjective interpretation, hence that only some people will evaluate and understand something as …
What is the relation between consciousness and reality?
One approach is to say that reality causes us to have perceptions of how reality is like. So, the apple causes us to have a perception of the apple. We see the appearance of the apple- its red skin, its round shape. The appearance of an apple is what allows us to infer the apple. …
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How do we know that what we know is true?
Traditionally, we come to know things either through sense experience or through rational inquiry. We come to know the concept “chair” by looking at various chairs, and by seeing how chairs are used, namely, for sitting on. We come to define the concept “physical object” through rational thought- a physical object is a tangible entity …
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What is human nature?
What differentiates us humans from animals? What motivates or what is the driving force for us as human beings? Are humans essentially thinking or intellectual beings? Is a sense of self what makes us human? In our Focus Inquiry, we tended towards the idea that human beings are naturally desiring- they desire to create buildings, …
Scepticism about the external world
The Dream Argument for Scepticism about the External World: (1) Subjective experience is either a dream or reality. (2) If subjective experience is a dream, then it is caused by the mind. (3) If subjective experience is reality, then it is caused by the world. (4) There is no difference between the experience of a …
Should madness be treated?
In this article, I associate madness with psychiatric medical conditions. For example, people who are diagnosed with schizophrenia, depression, or manic-depression have mental illnesses and have shown symptoms of madness. Symptoms of madness include psychosis- being out of touch with reality. The terms ‘mental illness’ and ‘medical condition’ imply that there ought to be some …
What is?
‘What is’ is a question that may be re-phrased as ‘what is there?’ But we may equally ask the question, what is ‘is’? It is the second question that I will address in this article. ‘Is’ can be described in terms of three associations. ‘is’ is associated with being, with identity, and with existence. I …
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