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professor-genderfuck · 3 years

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What is the difference between Capital T Truth and Understanding? Or is that itself something that can’t be easily communicated? Do you have any examples of things people Understand rather than Know, that could be used to get a feel for it?

It's philosophical, the difference between "2+2=4 is absolutely 100% a priori true" and "I do not know exactly how an atomic bomb works, but I understand that they are dangerous and generally a bad thing to have around"

#philosophy #philosophyblr

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professor-genderfuck · 3 years

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Epistemology

The word “epistemology” has two root words: episteme and logos

Episteme is the Greek word for knowledge

Logos is the Greek word for the study of

So, epistemology can be defined as the study of knowledge.

It can also be defined as:

An attempt to learn what knowledge is and where it comes from

An attempt to identify the nature and sources of knowledge

Here are some examples of epistemological questions:

What is the difference between believing something and knowing it?

What counts as evidence that something is true?

Are our senses a reliable source of knowledge?

Can knowledge be innate?

Can knowledge be intuitive?

Can knowledge be revealed?

There are many epistemological theories. Some, but not all, include:

Empiricism: the theory according to which all knowledge ultimately begins with sensory experience

(An example of an empiricist is John Locke, who believed that human beings come into existence as a blank slate and that all knowledge gained came purely from one’s senses.)

Rationalism: the theory that states that at least some (maybe all) knowledge does not require sensory experience because it is innate, intuitive, revealed, etc.

#philosophy #philosophyblr #epistemology #knowledge #study #stubyblr

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professor-genderfuck · 3 years

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Omg

#yes I am the meme sharing professor #philosophy #philosophyblr #meme #trolley problem #ship of theseus

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professor-genderfuck · 3 years

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Metaphysics

Metaphysics can be defined as

The study of ultimate reality

An attempt to learn what really exists

An attempt to identify the structure and content of reality

So what this means is, if someone were to ask the question “what exists?”, we would answer that question based on what our metaphysics dictates.

Some people would answer that question by saying things like “cows, people, cars, the sky, etc”. Some others would say “god, souls, good and evil, etc”.

Below are some examples of metaphysical questions:

Does God exist?

Do people have non-physical minds?

Does free will exist?

Is goodness an actual thing?

What is space and time?

Is love real?

I encourage you to give other examples of metaphysical questions in my asks or in the notes!

Since metaphysical questions can’t be definitively answered, we have a lot of different theories about what is real.

Below are some examples of metaphysical theories:

Dualism - the view that all of reality is ultimately reducible to TWO kinds of “stuff”. The most common dualistic belief is that the 2 kinds of “stuff” is physical and non-physical, but that’s not the only theory.

Monism - the view that all of reality is ultimately reducible to ONE kind of “stuff”. An example of this would be Thales, an ancient Greek philosopher, who believed that all of reality was reducible to water.

Materialism/Physicalism - the view that everything that is real is physical, there are no non-physical things. This is something that many (but not all) atheists believe.

Idealism - the view that everything that is real is mental. In simpler terms, it’s the belief that everything we experience is made up by our minds. So, you’re not really reading a post about philosophy on tumblr, your mind is making you believe that’s what you’re doing.

Metaphysical questions, debates and discussions in the notes are encouraged but ONLY IF EVERYONE IS RESPECTFUL. I am a preschool teacher irl and I WILL treat y’all like 3-year-olds if I have to. If I see someone being unkind or disrespectful in any way, you will get a warning via DM first, if it happens again, I will remove your comments and let you know that your comments have been removed. If there is a third strike, you will be blocked and put on a block list so others know you can’t respect other’s views. Any sort of bigotry will just be blocked and block-listed immediately.

#philosophy #philosophyblr #study #studyblr #metaphysics

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professor-genderfuck · 3 years

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You're gay and a philosophy major? What the fuck are you thinking about?? Gay stuff???

#philosophy #philosophyblr #meme

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professor-genderfuck · 3 years

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For context, Plato determined that the definition of man could be boiled down to “featherless biped” and he was highly praised for this. Then Diogenes ran around with a plucked chicken shouting “Behold! Plato’s man!” After this, “with broad, flat nails” was added to Plato’s definition.

diogenes, sitting naked in his barrel, meticulously plucking a chicken: this is gonna be so fuckin hilarious just wait

#philosophy #philosophyblr #diogenes #plato

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professor-genderfuck · 3 years

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Just a minor amendment to this

“The reason biology (and other sciences) split from philosophy is because…”

It’s not just sciences that originated in philosophy, but all studies. History, math, art, etc. Anything that started with a question, started as philosophy.

What is Philosophy?

The word “philosophy” comes from the Greek words “philia” and “sophia”.

Phila means “love of”

Sophia means “wisdom”

So, philosophy means “love of wisdom”. However, that doesn’t really explain what philosophy actually is.

Philosophy can maybe be better defined as:

An urge for knowledge or an attempt to understand something/everything

This means that every question anyone has ever asked, started as a philosophical question.

Eventually, specific subjects split off from philosophy and became their own things.

Biology started with philosophy (ex: What is inside a person? What purpose do white blood cells play in the body?).

The reason biology (and other sciences) split from philosophy is because we now have the equipment and knowledge to be able to answer these sorts of questions with certainty. (Theres bones and muscles and organs inside a person! White blood cells fight off infections and viruses to keep the body healthy! And these are all provable via science!)

There are 4 main branches of philosophy that I’m going to talk about more in the future, but for now I’ll give the general definitions

Metaphysics - the study of ultimate reality (an attempt to learn what is real and what exists)

Epistemology - the study of knowledge (an attempt to learn what knowledge is and where it comes from)

Logic - the study of thinking, reasoning, and argumentation (an attempt to determine what is good thinking and what is bad thinking)

Axiology - the study of value (an attempt to identify the nature, sources, and kinds of value)

I’ll go more into each branch in future posts! Don’t know when those will get posted but it’ll happen eventually at least

#philosophy #philosophyblr #study #studyblr

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