Can We Know God Through Experience?: Religious Experiences and Their Recurrent Features
People who report having had a religious experience often say that the encounter provides meaning and direction to their lives. It even gives proof of a Higher Being despite the fact that some may question the validity o..
Can We Know God Through Experience?: Will to Believe, The
Nineteenth century philosopher William James does not advocate ignoring evidence, but he does suggest three conditions in which you should believe even though there is not sufficient proof: when it is a forced option, th..
Changes in Our Conception of Human Nature (Part One)
Philosopher Ian Hacking talks about changes in the way human nature has been viewed over time. From the time of Aristotle through the Enlightenment, human nature was seen as being an essential characteristic of what it i..
Changes in Our Conception of Human Nature (Part Two)
Philosopher Ian Hacking continues his exploration of changes in the way human nature has been looked at over time. He notes that as cities began to grow so, too, did crime and poverty. As a result, resources which might ..
Character
Philosopher Daniel Dennett talks about character, which he describes as the collection of phenomena, behavior and activity that is unique to each of us.
Charles Darwin and the Problem of Continuity
Philosopher Daniel Dennett talks about the Darcy Thompson statement that "everything is the way it is because it got that way." Calling that a very fundamental Darwinian idea, Professor Dennett explains that it means eve..
Chess: Humans vs. Computers
Philosopher John Searle talks about how a computer plays chess. He states that the computer playing chess doesn't actually "think" in the way a human does. What the computer does, Professor Searle explains, is perform a ..
Chomsky and Language
Philosopher John Searle agrees with Noam Chomsky's contention that a child could not learn a language without some innate mechanism that enables the child to do so. But Professor Searle disagrees with Chomsky's claim tha..
Classifying and Conceptualizing Human Life
Philosopher Ian Hacking expands on his remarks about the link between the classification of actions and the way actions are viewed and how that, in turn, can affect subsequent actions. As an example, he talks about the t..
Coherence Theory
Philosopher John Searle talks about coherence theory, which he notes was part of idealism (the idea that there is no real world, there's just our system of representations). He adds that coherence theory was an "old-fash..