PPT-Scepticism Michael Lacewing

enquiriesalevelphilosophycouk Michael Lacewing Am I a brain in a vat Knowledge is not belief even true belief Are my reasons for my beliefs sufficient for knowledge Maybe all my experiences are fed to me by a supercomputer. GLEN BISSETT. 2. 2014. Data driven professional scepticism. Outline. What is professional scepticism. ?. What is data. ?. How can one drive the other. ?. How does IDEA help?. What is professional scepticism?. enquiries@alevelphilosophy.co.uk. (c) Michael Lacewing. Omniscience. Omni-: ‘all’; . scient. : ‘knowing’. Is it possible to know . everything. ?. God is the most perfect . possible . being. So omniscience is ‘. Michael Lacewing. enquiries@alevelphilosophy.co.uk. © Michael Lacewing. Eliminative materialism. Eliminative . materialism: the way we commonly think and talk about the mind is. fundamentally flawed. enquiries@alevelphilosophy.co.uk. (c) Michael Lacewing. Cognitivism. . and moral realism. What are we doing when we. make moral judgments?. Cognitivism: moral judgments, e.g. ‘Murder is wrong’. enquiries@alevelphilosophy.co.uk. © Michael Lacewing. Justice. Justice (the virtue) . is the disposition to act justly and desire . justice (the state of affairs). Justice the virtue is defined in terms of just acts, unlike other virtues. enquiries@alevelphilosophy.co.uk. (c) Michael Lacewing. Hedonist act utilitarianism. Actions . are morally right or wrong depending on their consequences and nothing else. An act is right if it maximises what is good.. Argument. Michael Lacewing. enquiries@alevelphilosophy.co.uk. Anselm’s argument. God is a being ‘greater . than which cannot be conceived. ’. If you could think of something that is greater than God, surely this something would . Michael Lacewing. enquiries@alevelphilosophy.co.uk. © Michael Lacewing . The origin of knowledge. Does all our knowledge come from experience, as empiricists claim?. Descartes thinks not. He uses deductive reasoning: if the premises and true, the conclusion must be true. Michael Lacewing. enquiries@alevelphilosophy.co.uk. © Michael Lacewing. Descartes’ question. Cosmological arguments usually ask ‘why does anything exist’?. Descartes doubts the existence of everything, and offers his cosmological argument after showing only that he exists.. enquiries@alevelphilosophy.co.uk. © Michael Lacewing. Metaethics. What is morality, philosophical speaking?. Can ethical claims be objectively true or false?. Are moral properties part of reality?. Cognitivism: moral judgments, e.g. ‘Murder is wrong’. enquiries@alevelphilosophy.co.uk. © Michael Lacewing. Idealism. Idealism: everything that exists is a mind or dependent on a . mind. Berkeley: . to . be is to be perceived (or to perceive): . esse est percipi . enquiries@alevelphilosophy.co.uk. © Michael Lacewing . What do we perceive?. Direct realism: we perceive physical objects, which exist independent of our experience. Physical objects existed before minds. Michael Lacewing. enquiries@alevelphilosophy.co.uk. (c) Michael Lacewing. The question. Why does anything exist?. Unless God exists, this question is unanswerable.. (c) Michael Lacewing. Temporal and sustaining causes. enquiries@alevelphilosophy.co.uk. © Michael Lacewing. Simulated killing. The dramatisation, i.e. enactment, . of killing within a fictional context, e.g. in video games, films and . plays. Playing the killer.