Spatial-temporal reasoning

While Reid seems to show some signs of respect for Hume, he does have many criticisms of the author’s work. The fourth chapter of Reid’s Active Power in General is a direct critique of Hume’s work. Especially Hume’s thoughts on the powers of the individual. His main problem with Hume was the way he used induction for the Treatise. Hume attempts to treat his thoughts on human abilities like a scientific experiment. Reid notes Hume makes exceptions to this, which is going against the scientific…

Drone warfare, enacted by George Bush and expanded on by President Obama to provide safety for Americans against al-Qaeda. Rather than retrieving intelligence from sources within the country, the use of weaponized unmanned surveillance drones allowed for far better independent targeting decisions. These strategic implications created a question among Americans, is the use of drones to target individuals ethical? This question has arisen due to a high number of civilian casualties, making it seem…

Falsificationism Karl Popper asserts that the scientific status of a theory is derived from that theories potential for refutation. Theories outlining experimental results that (if observed) could refute the theory are classified as scientific. Theories that lack this content are classified as pseudoscience. Popper uses this distinction to preface his scientific view: falsificationism. Under this view, science exists as a system through which we can logically falsify theories. This stands as…

Pathos is a tactic used to affect an audience’s emotions during an argument. Rhetorically speaking, the word pathetic is used to show that persuasion is most effective when dealing with others’ emotions. When used today, to be pathetic is to be shameful. When used in rhetoric, storytelling can change a mood by creating a factual reference and making an audience feel as though it could happen once again. In addition to storytelling, pathos depends on self-control. According to Aristotle and…

Matthew McGee Epistemology Final Paper Q1 Goodman 's “grue” example and Hempel’s Raven Paradox are very similar. The Raven Paradox posits that for any given object x, when we assert that it is neither black, nor a raven, we are confirming the hypothesis that “all non-black things are non-ravens” (pg, 70). From this we can also make the logically equivalent statement that “all ravens are black.” This is an unexpected conclusion according to Goodman. Furthermore, our statement about the…

History is a composition of past events. It is real and honest. However, the materials used by historians (which are called sources) to study history are only records of history, so they need not to be absolutely true and unbiased. If a group of scholars were to evaluate a set of clues surrounding a play, they would mainly use texts and written records of the play and all these evidences are considered sources which therefore need to be carefully examined before put into use. To these scholars,…

1) Rene Descartes a) Rene Descartes believes that things exist simply because he thinks, therefore he is. This is beautifully illustrated when he gives us the wax example. Before giving that example, Rene Descartes did state that our senses are deceptive and so is our imagination. If we were to go by that, does that mean we exist just because we perceive it through our senses? He concludes no. His explanation of existence is that he is just a “thing” which thinks and because of that he is the…

and for others, but it is not true for him. The claim about the use of an analgesic in treatment of headaches is relative to Fester and his beliefs. This claim presents the truth for one person, and false for another at the same time (“Inductive Reasoning” 43). B. Bubba: “Hey Jackie, I heard that there fella’ is from Afghanistan.” Jackie: “Okay. And?” Bubba: “I…

What is a Logical Fallacy, Exactly? The word "fallacy" comes from the Latin "fallacia" which means "deception, deceit, trick, artifice," however, a more specific meaning in logic (a logical fallacy) that dates back to the 1550s means "false syllogism, invalid argumentation." http://pcl.stanford.edu/campaigns/2016/?adv=Donald+Trump%E2%80%99s+Argument+for+America In this ad “Trump Argument for America” supported by Trump campaign was published on November 06 2016. In the ad Trump was attacking…

In “Outliers,” Malcolm Gladwell attempts to prove to his audience that their idea behind how success is attained in the United States is considerably different than what many Americans would like to think. In America many people believe in the concept of a hard-working individual pulling themselves up by their bootstraps and earning their success through dedication and talent. Gladwell attempts to prove while individual efforts are a big role in success, theses outliers would have never been…