History of Virtue Ethics
Philosopher Martha Nussbaum briefly traces the history of virtue ethics, from Aristotle through Kant. She notes that the major theories of virtue have all included strong criticism of traditional social norms, and rejects the notion that virtue ethi...
Human Nature: From Kierkegaard to Sartre
Philosopher Hubert Dreyfus talks about Kierkegaard's views of the self and human nature, including such concepts as "present age," "spiritlessness," passionate commitment," and the "aesthetic sphere." He then discusses Heidegger and Sartre, both of ...
Humans As Rational Animals
Philosopher Daniel Dennet talks about the argument that humans are unique because we are rational. Professor Dennett points out examples of other animals which are also capable of taking actions based on rationality. The difference, he notes, is tha...
Scientific Method: From Bacon to Popper, The
Philosopher Ian Hacking talks about the impact of Sir Francis Bacon and Karl Popper on scientific inquiry. Ultimately, Professor Hacking concludes, science is neither all theory nor all experiment but, rather, an intimate interaction between what we...
Self in Historical Context (Part Two), The
Continuing his discussion of the self in historical context, philosopher Charles Taylor talks about the progression of ideas about the self from Descartes through John Locke. It was from Locke that what Professor Taylor calls the "punctual self" tha...
Significant Others
Philosopher Charles Taylor talks about George Herbert Mead and the distinction he made between the "I" and the "me." The fundamental idea here is that we don't discover who we are simply from the inside. Rather, we discover who we are by how we're r...
Inner Self and External World
Philosopher Hubert Dreyfus talks about the views of multiple philosophers concerning how the inner self encounters the every day reality of the external world.
Intentionality
Philosopher John Searle talks about intentionality ("the capacity of the mind to be directed at or to be about or of objects and states of affairs of the world other than the mind...") and consciousness, which he believes are the most important prop...
Innate Ideas: Plato and the Meno
Philosopher Ian Hacking notes that Plato was fascinated by mathematics, and explains that his theory of innate ideas is based on the simple mathematical proof in his famous Socratic dialogue called the Meno.
Reason, Reflection and Language
Philosopher Daniel Dennett talks about the power of language. He observes that it is language that gives humans the ability to look into the future, as well as to reflect and reason in ways other organisms cannot.