Past Futures are the New Past Pasts

Do you find yourself obsessed with Hume's question of what could justify inductive reasoning? Boy, do I have a link for you:

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: The Problem of Induction
If you're tired of that one, there's also a new problem of induction. Or, you could watch this video of Lewis Black describing his failure to reason inductively every year around Halloween:


Finally, here's a stick figure comic about scientists' efforts to confirm that the future will be like the past.

Optical Illusions

Julian Beever creates sidewalk art that looks three-dimensional when viewed from a certain angle. Here's one of his creations:

More pictures of his stuff are available here and here. It's pretty hard to tell that these are two-dimensional drawings. Oh, senses! Why won't you stop deceiving me?!?

ALSO: One response to computer simulation skeptical scenarios like the Matrix is to say that the computer simulation just is our reality. That's what we'd be referring to, after all. When someone stuck in a computer simulation says 'clock,' she's referring to the computer simulation of a clock. Here's an article on that response.

Paper #1

Due Date: Wednesday, October 24th, 2007

Worth: 5% of final grade

Assignment: Write an argumentative essay on one of the topics below. Papers must be typed, and must be between 300-600 words long. Provide a word count on the first page of the paper. (Most programs like Microsoft Word & WordPerfect have automatic word counts.)

1. Criticize skepticism of the external world. Describe what you take to be the best argument for external-world skepticism. Then evaluate this argument. How is this argument unsuccessful? What is/are its flaw(s)? How can we avoid giving in to the skeptic’s arguments that we don’t know anything about the world? [NOTE: For this option, you don’t have to present a positive argument for the existence of the external world. Just explain why the skeptical argument you focus on is bad.]

2. Present and defend an argument for the claim that we can know that there is an external world outside our sense data. Be sure to consider and respond to objections to your argument that a skeptic would likely offer.

3. Defend external-world skepticism. Present an argument for external-world skepticism. Then consider and respond to objections to this argument. Pay special attention to your conception of knowledge: defend the conditions you believe are required for knowledge.

4. Write on an epistemological topic of your choosing. (Sean must approve this topic by Friday, October 19th.)

Link-Tested, Keanu-Approved

Now that we've finished going over A Rulebook for Arguments, we're ready to start diving into some philosophical topics in class. This means we're going to start reading some philosophers who are bad writers. Here is a guide to reading philosophy that might help you if you're having trouble understanding the assigned readings.

Jim Pryor's Guide to Reading Philosophy

Our first topic is epistemology (the study of knowledge). Here are some links on knowledge and skepticism. The first is about the philosophical implications of the movie The Matrix.

The Matrix: Dream Skepticism

The last link is a more advanced version of the Nick Bostrom article that we're reading for class on the likelihood that we're really in a computer simulation.

Nick Bostrom's Simulation Argument

By the way, if you have any links you think I or others in class might find interesting, let me know. And feel free to comment on any of these posts.

Fallacy Comics

Here are some comics and a video about two of the fallacies we've discussed in class. The first is one of Ryan North's Dinosaur Comics on the fallacy of begging the question. (Click on the comic to enlarge it)


The next two are Jonathan Ichikawa's comics on hypocrisy and the ad hominem fallacy. (Again, click on the comics to enlarge them)


Finally, here's the video for Mims's logically delicious song "This is Why I'm Hot":

All Mammals are Emo

So maybe all emo kids are lame, but what about emo cats?