KantStopThinking

  • [Featured] Nozick’s Experience Machine: Is Pleasure the Only Good?

    The Experience Machine, a thought experiment developed in 1974 by philosopher Richard Nozick, asks us a very simple question. If there was a machine that could simulate a reality that is perfect in every way, would you jump in? For the sake of the question, assume that this perfect reality molds to each person and…

  • Evading Parfit’s Trap: The Non-Identity Problem Revisited

    Derek Parfit’s non-identity problem is one of the most famous in the branch of philosophy called population ethics. In short, Parfit challenges the commonly held belief that present day actions can harm future generations. Here is how Parfit does it: The Problem Premise 1: ​​If an action determines existence, there’s no alternative where that same…

  • Mathematics Beyond the Mind: The Argument for Platonist Thought

    Introduction Compared to the relativity of English and History, Mathematics has always been seen as a domain with clear truths. There is no subjectivity in Mathematics; there is just a right or a wrong. An inquisitive person would question what sets Mathematics apart from the overbearing reign of human subjectivity. The answer, a Platonist would…

  • The Argument from Contingency

    Like many debates in philosophy, the dispute over the nature/existence of God has no clear answer. In this particular argument, the ball lies in the court of the theist, giving them the chance to create a logical argument deriving God as a conclusion from justifiable premises. There are many ways theists have done this. Some,…

  • Emergentism’s Explanatory Effectiveness

    What is emergentism? My answer is that it is a big word for a not-so-big concept. Emergentism is simply the idea that the sum is greater than the parts. The common example goes: But who cares about water. This idea can be applied to so many things, like the table you are leaning on or…

  • Pascal’s Wager

    The French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal had an argument about God. Unlike many of his predecessors, however, this argument was not one for God’s existence. It was an argument for why a rational person should believe in God. He called it Pascal’s Wager. The premises of the argument are simple. With these options, we…