What Even This Philosophy Thing Anyway?
This kind of question asks something broad, contestable, and non-empirical, such as “What is justice?”
What is a philosophical question?
This philosopher argued that one can doubt the evidence of the senses, but not the fact that one is thinking.
Who is Descartes?
This branch of philosophy asks what exists and what reality is fundamentally like.
What is metaphysics?
“What exists?” is a question in this area of philosophy.
What is metaphysics?
This Descartes thought experiment suggests that an all-powerful deceiver could be tricking us about everything.
What is the evil demon?
In an argument, these are the reasons given in support of the conclusion.
What are premises?
This mulleted philosopher is associated with the “hard problem of consciousness,” asking why physical processes should give rise to subjective experience at all.
Who is David Chalmers?
This view says reality exists independently of our minds or perceptions.
What is mind-independent reality?
“How do we know?” is a question in this area of philosophy.
What is epistemology?
This Platonic image describes prisoners mistaking shadows on a wall for reality.
What is the Allegory of the Cave?
This term refers to the main point an argument is trying to establish.
What is a conclusion?
This philosopher used the Allegory of the Cave to suggest that ordinary experience may not reveal ultimate reality.
Who is Plato?
This view says some aspects of reality depend on minds, perception, or consciousness.
What is mind-dependent reality?
This distinction asks whether something is real in itself or only as it appears to a perceiver.
What is the distinction between mind-independent and mind-dependent reality?
This question challenges whether physical explanations of the brain can fully explain subjective experience.
What is the hard problem of consciousness?
While stereotypically considered a key question in philosophy, this question about purpose is considered overvalued by serious philosophers.
What is 'what is the meaning of life'?
This philosopher argued that material substance does not exist independently of minds, summed up in the phrase 'esse est percipi' or 'to be is to be perceived'.
Who is George Berkeley?
This view holds that only minds and ideas truly exist, rather than mind-independent material objects.
What is idealism?
What is a metaphysical question?
This Berkeleyan challenge asks whether matter can really be said to exist when all we ever experience are ideas.
What is the challenge to material substance or challenge to materialism?
This philosophical move tests an idea by imagining a case, scenario, or hypothetical world.
What is a thought experiment?
This philosopher used the “brain in a vat” thought experiment to challenge scepticism and explore the relationship between language, mind, and reality.
Who is Hilary Putnam?
This metaphysical issue asks whether the mind is something distinct from the body or just another physical process.
What is the mind-body problem?
If a philosopher asks whether pain is real, they are asking a metaphysical question. If they ask how we know another person is in pain, they are asking this type of question.
What is an epistemological question?
If two beings are physically identical but one lacks inner conscious experience, Chalmers would call the second being this.
What is a philosophical zombie?