Do We Have Free Will?: Question of Free Will, The
In Chicago in the 1920s, two 18-year old college students charged with killing a school boy are on trial for murder. Their defense attorney, Clarence Darrow, argue that they were doomed long before they committed their t..
Do We Have Free Will?: Theory of Determinism, The
The theory of determinism contends that human behavior, like every other physical phenomenon in the universe is determined by the laws of cause and effect rather than free will. The scientific advances of the 17th centur..
Does All Knowledge Come from Experience?: Berkeley's Solution to Locke's Gap
George Berkeley, the next major empiricist after Locke, makes the gap between the external world and our mental images of it central to his philosophy. Berkeley's solution is to say that bodies are simply collections of ..
Does All Knowledge Come from Experience?: Empiricism's Alliance with the Natural Sciences
Empiricists from Locke to the present feel a close alliance with the natural sciences, inspired by Newton's theories of science "inferred from the phenomena." One of the things that distinguishes empiricists from rationa..
Does All Knowledge Come from Experience?: Existence of an External Word...Real or Imagined?, The
Can we be certain our perceptions are backed up by an external world? Hume is skeptical. "Here experience is, and must be entirely silent." According to Hume we have no good reason for believing in the existence of an ex..
Does All Knowledge Come from Experience?: Hume and Causal Relationships
Consider the motion of billiard balls on a table. Can reason analyze how they will move a priori without previous experience as rationalists contend? Hume insists that the only way we know about patterns like cause and e..
Does All Knowledge Come from Experience?: Hume and the Necessity of Experience
David Hume, the third major empiricist starts from the premise that all knowledge of the world must come from experience. He underscores this point by emphasizing how much more vivid sense impressions are than the copies..
Does All Knowledge Come from Experience?: John Locke's Empiricism and Its Troublesome Gap
John Locke and later empiricists dispute the rationalists' claim that pure reason could grasp truths about the world. They argue that all knowledge of the world must come through the senses and experience. Locke compares..
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 "..
Does God Exist?: Belief in God...a Panacea or Moral Obligation
Many turn to religion seeking answers and reassurance, feeding into the criticism that belief in a deity is nothing more than a human concoction that offers solace from reality. Although 17th century philosopher Immanuel..