Philosophical Exploration of the Human World
In the last article I briefly described what a 'philosophical argument' means. This article continues on this, so far, short series and looks at how we can assess the quality of an argument and what it means to say that an argument is valid or sound. As often is the case, it starts with some …
Continue reading Philosophical Argument – how to evaluate its quality?
In this article, I would like to explore what is a philosophical argument and what it is made of. It is worth clarifying that by 'argument' I do not mean an angry exchange of accusations or any other type of emotionally heated conflict. So, for starters, we should be clear about what philosophical argument is …
This last weekend I was working on my first academic philosophy writing, an essay on Hume's views of the "self". He was a convinced empiricist and was sceptical about rationalism and its assumption that we can know things based on and thanks to our reason alone. Hume thought that the only way we can develop …
Recently I had an interesting conversation over lunch with a few colleagues, all of us with many years of experience in the same industry. Initially it all went the usual way - we complained about the lack of demand for our products and how the clients didn't understand the real value of these products. The …
What do I want right now? To sleep, to be at home or in a cozy forest hut with a crackle sound of fireplace and a smell of chocolaty cacao, to be reading something that engages my mind and stimulates my imagination, to be writing driven by my inspiration, to have my friends, family, cat …
Are you the same person you were 10 years ago? What about when you were a child? And what about yesterday? And since we are talking about it – will you be the same person tomorrow? Perhaps we should start by asking what does it mean to be the same person and what a “person” …
Continue reading What makes you You? An imaginary dialogue with John Locke
There is nothing new about it - people misunderstand each other regularly, we all know it and we all do it. However, recently I have been reminded just how easily we fall into the simplest traps of misunderstandings. So easily that when we realize it afterwards (if we do), we are surprised to the extent …
Continue reading Automatic Misunderstandings and how to avoid them
In one of my previous articles (Why Philosophy), I briefly mentioned a book: A Brief History of Thought, a philosophical guide to living, by Luc Ferry. Now I have finished reading it and would, therefore, like to share my thoughts on it in more detail. A very short summary of my impressions, however, is this: …
Continue reading Thoughts on “A Brief History of Thought” by Luc Ferry
It is official – I have become a student of philosophy! As of October this year, I am taking an introductory course in philosophy offered by the Open University. It is an absolutely new and exciting adventure for me and I cannot wait to get started, although, I must admit it is also a little …
