PhilosoFiles

Euthanasia: its varieties and its justification

Thomas Ash — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 10:21:47 +0000

A look at the different types of euthanasia, and the arguments for and against them

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Is Fitch's Paradox fatal for verificationism, or epistemic theories of meaning generally?

Thomas Ash — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 11:46:07 +0000

Verificationism is falsified by Fitch's Paradox, but other epistemic theories of truth and meaning, including a simple modification of verificationism, can escape it

For various reasons, dealt with elsewhere, philosophers have at various times felt themselves drawn to epistemic theories of truth. An epistemic theory of truth is one that defines what it is for a proposition to be true by reference to what it takes to know it to be true (the reference to knowledge here is sometimes replaced by a reference to justified belief or some other epistemic concept).
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How convincing is the ‘fine-tuning’ argument for God’s existence?

Thomas Ash — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 22:34:42 +0000

The alleged fine-tuning of the universe to support life is often cited as evidence of God's existence. Is it convincing?
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Is the difference between making something happen and allowing it to happen morally relevant?

Thomas Ash — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 12:36:23 +0000
Killing someone is almost universally regarded as worse than letting them die. But is that defensible? In particular, is it defensible on the grounds that making their death happen would be worse than merely standing by and allowing it to happen?
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How serious an evidential problem is evil for theism?

Thomas Ash — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 14:53:00 +0000

The volume of suffering in the world is, notoriously, a problem for those who believe in God. How serious is it, and how are we to evaluate this question?
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Berkeley’s central arguments for immaterialism

Thomas Ash — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 15:52:16 +0000

How did Berkeley argue for his striking philosophical position?
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Did Berkeley misunderstand Locke’s view of secondary qualities in a way which mattered to his project?

Thomas Ash — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 15:51:16 +0000
Berkeley's work was in part a reaction to John Locke's Essay concerning Human Understanding. Recent critics have charged that Berkeley misunderstood Locke's positions. Are they correct?
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Is Berkeley best understood as a phenomenalist?

Thomas Ash — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 22:24:56 +0000

Berkeley denied that objects like trees were material substances. Was he an early advocate of the phenomenalist account of what their existence involved?
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Welcome to PhilosoFiles

Thomas Ash — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 12:00:10 +0000

I hope you enjoy flipping through the latest files on philosophy from the collection below. 'Philosophy', as I use the word, refers to the rigorous examination of the most fundamental aspects of our worldviews, some of which we rarely question. The results of questioning them are often surprising; I hope that they are also interesting.
To follow the occasional updates to this site, why not bookmark this site, or subscribe by RSS? RSS is an easy, unobtrusive service you can use with Google Reader and mosts browsers and email clients. I only post carefully selected items to the RSS feed - for additional links, come back and browse the site. Subscribe now
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