30 Phil, Chapter 28, Kant, Touchstone 73: Categorical Imperative. The Categorical Imperative says you should act only in a manner that you would be comfortable seeing transformed into a universal law.
Categorical Imperative Read More »
30 Phil, Chapter 28, Kant, Touchstone 72: Transcendental Idealism. The Split and Three-Tine Fork: Transcendental Idealism is Kant’s view on epistemology. His distinction between phenomena and noumena and his three-tiered approach to knowledge. Kant introduced a crucial distinction between phenomena—the world as we see and understand it—and noumena—the world as it exists independently of our
Transcendental Idealism Read More »
30 Phil, Chapter 27, Hume, Touchstone 71: Hume’s Fork. Hume’s Fork is a philosophical tool that categorizes meaningful statements into two distinct types: relations of ideas and matters of fact. It offers a clear demarcation between different kinds of truths. Relations of ideas are statements that are necessarily true, such as “all bachelors are unmarried.”
30 Phil, Chapter 27, Hume, Touchstone 70: The Problem of Induction. The logic behind induction is inherently circular, hence, the problem of induction. We expect future events to be like past events because this has generally been true in the past. This justification itself is inductive, making the whole process circular and self-referential. Although induction
The Problem of Induction Read More »
30 Phil, Chapter 27, Hume, Touchstone 69: Skeptical Empiricism. Skeptical Empiricism challenges the idea of innate knowledge, asserting all we know stems from our experiences.
Skeptical Empiricism Read More »
Journalism is a public truth system. When done right, the public can rely on its accurate reporting and journalists can write stories about what it all means.
You need a fully free press because public truth needs watchdogs, not just officials and institutions.
When publicly discussing spirituality, distinguish thought of the material world, what we directly experience, from the spiritual interpretations beyond it. Organize each spiritual idea into agnostic, non-theistic, and theistic.
Material-Spiritual Framework Read More »
Spinoza’s monism says there is only one substance: God or Nature. Everything that exists is part of this single, infinite reality.
Checks and balances embody an enduring piece of wisdom: power should check power. Separate centers of authority make it harder for tyranny to take root.
Checks and Balances Read More »
30 Phil, Chapter 24, Locke, Touchstone 61: The Social Contract. The social contract emerges out of natural rights and civil government. A government formed by the “collective will” of the people specifically to protect these rights. Citizens consent to be governed, but this consent comes with the stipulation that their inalienable rights must be respected
The Social Contract Read More »
Legal power is not the same thing as legal truth but when a claim carries legal force, pay attention to it, evaluate the legal process, if fair, the judgment deserves weight.
30 Phil, Chapter 24, Locke, Touchstone 64: Natural Rights. Natural Rights are the inherent rights in our nature that all people have simply by being human. They are not externally granted.
A wise person understands that liberalism is the political idea that people should be free to live their own lives, protected by rights and restrained government.
Your mind belongs to you. Neither church nor state has legitimate authority to dictate what you must believe.
Separation of Church and State Read More »
30 Phil, Chapter 22, Descartes, Touchstone 56: Mind-Body Dualism. This concept splits the universe into two different substances. Cartesian Dualism splits the mind and body into separate entities that interact with each other. It fundamentally challenged the Aristotelian view that the mind and body are inseparable, laying the groundwork for modern explorations of the unknown
30 Phil, Chapter 21, Galileo, Touchstone 54: Modern Cosmology. The story of Galileo is also the story of Copernicus, and the story of modern cosmology. To properly tell the story of Copernicus, we need to mention Aristarchus of Samos, a Greek astronomer and mathematician born around 310 BCE. Aristarchus put forth a heliocentric model, proposing
30 Phil, Chapter 21, Galileo, Touchstone 53: Infinitesimal. The infinitesimal is a form of infinity representing a theoretical value that is infinitely close to zero but not zero itself. Galileo Galilei discussed concepts related to the infinitesimal in his work “Two New Sciences”. In this work, he explored the foundations of kinematics and the strength
30 Phil, Chapter 20, Francis Bacon, Touchstone 51: The Scientific Method. Science is the ongoing study of nature through observation. It’s that simple. If you see something new in nature, that’s science. Many definitions of science tend to intertwine the “how,” but the “how” is perpetually evolving, just like science itself remains a continual journey, never settling
The Scientific Method Read More »
