Everyday Ethics

Most people generally take for granted that there is such a thing as a self, and that they have one.  The three major monotheisms would be lost without the concept of self, and most of us would have no idea how to describe who we are without making reference to something like this entity.  However, [...]

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As we continue our discussion of the way in which metaphysical questions apply to everyday problems, we turn to the complicated relationship between causation and value.  Most individuals don’t give much thought to what value is, or what makes certain things valuable but not other things.  Subjectivism and objectivism are two metaethical views that offer [...]

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Freedom is one of the most challenging and important questions in metaphysics.  In our own freedom-loving society, it is often taken for granted that we are free to do what we want, at least for the most part.  But there is an important distinction between political and metaphysical freedom, and how we address the second [...]

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Philosophy is constantly in a state of having to defend its legitimacy to both the rest of the academic community, and to the world at large. This is evidenced by the common reply of people finding out that I study philosophy, “what are you going to do with that?” Our society assumes, with [...]

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