Electric Agora (archive)

Tag: Epistemology

  • Why I am Not a Rortyan but Would Like to Be

    By Jay Jeffers ___ There is no rivalry like an intrastate rivalry. In the state of Pragmatism, the game of the week is always Richard Rorty vs. Hilary Putnam. Nothing ever gets settled, but the effort is there. This is the third and likely final entry in an ongoing attempt to settle a few things.…

  • Does Philosophy of Art-Criticism Rest on a Mistake?

    by Daniel A. Kaufman §1. In “Does Moral Philosophy Rest on a Mistake?” H.A. Prichard observed that mainline moral philosophy is essentially an exercise in epistemology, since its primary concern is with providing proof of the soundness of our moral responses — our feelings of obligation and duty — and we might very well say…

  • In Defense of Philosophy: Analytic, Pragmatist, and Transcendental

    by Preston Stovall ____ [1] In a recent essay that got some attention in online circles in philosophy, Liam Kofi Bright foretold the end of analytic philosophy – characterizing it as a degenerating research program – and the exhaustion of a Kripkean understanding of what analytic philosophy has been up to. While reading Liam’s essay,…

  • On the philosophy of religion

    by Daniel A. Kaufman Megan Fritts of Utah State and I discuss the Philosophy of Religion and in particular, my allegation that in today’s day and age, the subject is a matter of purely historical interest and not a live concern. https://youtu.be/e6-qHREldQ0

  • Foundationalism, Gettier Cases and Wittgenstein — A Conversation with Joshua Rasmussen

    A dialogue with Joshua Rasmussen of Azusa Pacific University, in which we discuss a number of topics in Epistemology, including: Foundationalism and criticisms; Gettier Cases; Internalism and Externalism; Transcendental Arguments; and Wittgenstein’s “On Certainty.” This dialogue will also appear as part of the Sophia program at MeaningofLife.TV. https://youtu.be/5EZeUqm3iUI

  • Debating Standpoint Theory

    Crispin Sartwell (Dickinson College) and I discussed/debated the relative merits (or lack thereof) of Standpoint Theory, in light of my recent essay on the subject. This dialogue first appeared on MeaningofLife.TV, as part of the Sophia program. https://theelectricagora.com/2020/10/07/social-justice-discourse-and-the-question-of-standpoints/ https://youtu.be/r2AGlQ9aG2U  

  • A Defense of Knowing Nothing

    by Robert Gressis ___ Introduction In this essay, I argue against the idea that in order to count as knowing some proposition P, P should be true, you have to believe P, and you should have some justification for believing P. I have several arguments for this view, but honestly, I don’t need any because…

  • Course Notes: Three Lectures on Knowledge

    by Daniel A. Kaufman ___ As readers of Course Notes will know, I created an entirely new Introduction to Philosophy course this year. Profound changes in the student population over the last several years, including an apparent inability to understand or even just read classics from the history of philosophy, as well as a troubling…

  • Belief and Knowledge Reconsidered

    E. John Winner How did we ever come to use such an expression as “I believe . . . “?  Did we at some time become aware of a phenomenon (of belief)?  Did we observe ourselves and other people and so discover belief? — Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations (1) §1. Recently, while reading Section 10…

  • Course Notes – H.A. Prichard, “Does Moral Philosophy Rest on a Mistake?”

    by Daniel A. Kaufman http://www.hist-analytic.com/PrichardObligation.pdf We have finished with our survey of traditional ethical theories, in my Theories of Ethics course, and the students have been given a whopper of an exam on Aristotle, Hume, Kant, and Mill.  I don’t envy them.  (Though neither do I envy myself, as I will be spending a good…