How Do We Encounter the World: Phenomenology
The philosophical tradition that attempts to describe the world and the way we experience it without relying on abstract theories is called phenomenology. The term took on new significance with German philosopher Edmund Husserl whose work focused o...
Is Time Real?: Time as an Inner Sense
Immanuel Kant considers time a human creation. Like space, it is an inner sense our minds use to organize our experiences and structure reality. But if there really isn't any time, what is it? As Augustine said, "if I want to explain it to someone w...
Is Time Real?: Origins and Functions of Time
In 1870 the world does not have standard time. Each county, each city, sometimes each village keeps its own time. In 1884, representatives from around the world meet in Washington D.C. to establish a common standard for time, the time zones that are...
Does All Knowledge Come from Experience?: W.V.O. Quine and Contemporary Empiricism
W.V.O. Quine, one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century, is a naturalist and an empiricist. Quine views science as a vast web of interconnected beliefs which is related to the sensory experience only "along the periphery." Vital c...