A Philosopher’s View

• Philosophy
  • Philosophy is the investigation of fundamental issues by rational argument.
  • It’s defined by:
    • Its subject matter: Any Fundamental Issue.
    • Its method: The Analysis of Arguments
    • Its mindset: Skepticism.

• Analysis of Knowledge
  • Knowledge is more than just believing correctly that something is the case. But what more is it?

• Applied Philosophy
  • Application of the philosophic method — the analysis of arguments — to matters of public concern

• Arguments
  • An argument is a piece of reasoning, from premises to a conclusion.

• Democracy
  • The idea of democracy is simple: rule by the people. But functioning democracies are complex, for good reason.

• Epistemic Pitfalls
  • How reasoning goes awry

• Epistemology
  • The investigation of knowledge and rational belief

• Ethics
  • The investigation of right and wrong, good and bad, and what should be

• Free Will and Determinism
  • “The most contentious question of metaphysics, the most contentious science” (David Hume)

• History of Philosophy
  • The History of Philosophy is the history of philosophic arguments

• Logic
  • Tools for formulating and evaluating arguments

• Probability
  • Nature of probability and the mathematical theory

• Political Philosophy
  • The normative and conceptual inquiry into forms of government

• Scientific Theories
  • A scientific theory is
    • designed to explain certain kinds of phenomena,
    • defined by its postulates,
    • supported or disproved by its predictions.
  • Big Bang, Electromagnetism, Energy, Evolution, General Relativity, Global Warming, Mendel’s Heredity, Newton’s Gravitation, Plate Tectonics, Thermodynamics, Quantum Mechanics, Special Relativity

• Skepticism
  • The disposition to believe based only on rational argument

• Statistics
  • The branch of mathematics dealing with presenting, summarizing, and making inferences from data
  • Two philosophies of statistical inference: Bayesian and Frequentistism

• Supreme Court Decision-Making
  • Philosophies of SC Decision-Making: Originalism v. Living Constitutionalism

• Current Classes
  • Behind the News
  • Free Will, Determinism, and Neural Networks.

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