On the aesthetic sense of life
In his work On the tragic sense of life, Miguel de Unamuno speaks of the tragic history of human thought, consisting of the struggle between reason and life. Any position of agreement and lasting harmony “between reason and life, between philosophy and religion becomes impossible” (1). The reason wants life to come to terms with […]
Doubting Descartes’ Doubt
Meditations of Descartes presents a series of arguments about a thinking thing and a God’s existence. In this essay, I will doubt his reasoning by pointing out at some fallacies. In search of a foundation of knowledge, Descartes starts from the scratch by undermining everything that he knows. He asks himself what could ground his […]
Aristotle on Infinite Motion
Aristotle starts his argument about the impossibility of the infinite motion with the statement: “Everything that is in motion must be moved by something”. Let’s consider that there is something that is not moved by something. It has the source of its motion in itself. Then, let’s imagine this thing at rest. Aristotle supposes that […]
Aristotle on Void
For Aristotle, there is no separate void. It is thought that if there is movement of simple bodies, then the void must exist. In particular, if one body moves toward or upward, it is because there is a void. So, it is thought to be a sort of place deprived of body. Aristotle casts a […]
On What God Did Wrong
Leibniz, unlike other rationalists before him, exemplified a more comprehensive universe that was chosen by God as the best of all possible worlds. This perfect world is characterized by an infinite number of simple substances “monads” which are non-spatial and non-temporal entities. In this paper, I shall try to break into the Leibniz’s system to […]
Descartes’ necessary condition of knowledge
Descartes is skeptical about the truth of one’s beliefs. He develops the following argument: 1) If I am to know that I am sitting by the fire (P), then I must know that I am not dreaming that I am sitting by the fire (Q) P → Q 2) I cannot know that I am […]