RussellA

No. What could the existence of the thought/belief by doubted by? Only by a thought/belief. Then it would be the case that a thought/belief was doubti...

Perhaps this also: What is philosophy? Philosophy has two aspects. First, the study of fundamental questions such as existence, knowledge, values, rea...

I want to know how to write the perfect, academic philosophy essay, even if it is beyond my ability. I have the essay's title and am aiming at 2,000 w...

At the moment an actual essay is taking second place to trying to understand what a "Philosophy Essay" actually is. I am going through various guides ...

A philosophy essay logically defends a claim. Nietzsche used the aphoristic style to free himself from a metaphysical search for the fundamental natur...

However, perhaps that is exactly the claim to make. If you can persuade others about a claim you think is silly, then it should be a cake walk to pers...

Question = All you need is love? Possible claim = I argue that all you need is love. I agree. Perhaps at its core a philosophy essay is about making a...

Another useful source here Question = "Why are we tempted to say that mathematics are universal?" Why not do a Boris Johnson and write 500 words defen...

Perhaps that's what would make it a good thesis for a philosophy essay. The Thread allows 5,000 words, but the Seán Radcliffe essay that won him the 2...

This gives a possible thesis: "The Academic elitist world-view is bad for society"

Let thesis = "All you need is love" Let your claim = I argue that all you need is love In a couple of thousand words, persuade me.

As I see it: A philosophy essay is a specific thing and is not the same thing as a literary essay. This is a "Philosophy writing challenge". In a phil...

If there is one object in the world, dividing it into three parts does not involve infinities. In our numbering system, dividing 1 by 3 does involve i...

Impossible for the mind to describe a mind-independent world.

One third of 1 is 0.33333...........continuing to infinity. If we altered our numbering system, such that we replaced 1 by 3, then one third of 3 is 1...

Our only knowledge about any mind-independent world, any objective reality, starts with our subjective mental states. This means that knowledge about ...

True, if two people make different claims about the same situation, for example, one says the postbox is red, and the other says the postbox is green,...

Ideal Realism is about a relation between the mind and the world: "The universe is just ideas in the head, but real. Matters are only real when access...

Suppose in reality the truth is that an object in the world is green, but for whatever reason you always perceive green objects as red. You could look...

We perceive the colour red and reason that it was caused by a red object in the world. Knowledge is justified true belief. Just because we have reason...

It depends what is meant by "knowledge". Knowledge could mean justified true belief. If I believe that the Eiffel Tower is 330m tall and can justify m...

The meaning of the words "direct knowledge" and "indirect knowledge" depends on context. In ordinary language, I have direct knowledge of The Empire S...

Yes, but there is nothing fundamentally wrong with dualism. If there was no dualism there would be no language. A word on the one hand exists as a sha...

I have direct knowledge of New York because I have been there, but only have indirect knowledge of Seattle as I have never been there. I have direct k...

I don't believe so. Suppose someone perceives the colour red. Both the Indirect and Direct Realist would agree that something in the world caused thei...

As I wrote on page 2

A dualistic view in itself is not necessarily incorrect. For example, a word is an example of dualism. On the one hand it exists as a shape and on the...

I wrote "When I perceive the colour red, I perceive the colour red regardless of any cause." It goes back to your two previous statements: I am trying...

Presumably the same as for the idealists and the materialists.

The statement "When I perceive the colour red, I perceive the colour red" is a tautological statement. The statement "When I perceive the colour red, ...

I doubt that the cause of a medical condition is always known. Even though the broken leg has a cause, the doctor is treating the broken leg, the doct...

It would be like a doctor refusing to treat someone in pain with a broken leg until they knew the cause of the break. It is a brave statement that the...

Why should I believe in the existence of an object in the world that I have never observed existing? =================================================...

I don't think that Australians will be happy to know that they don't exist because an Ideal Realist in the Kerguelen Islands has never heard of them. ...

"Ideal Realism" as described sounds like the existing term "Direct Realism" (Wikipedia - Direct and indirect realism) Even the Direct Realist can drea...

We agree that there is the domain of the mind and the domain of a mind-independent world. The problem remains that your disclaimer requires the mind t...

Your disclaimer makes the OP logically impossible to answer. If we had no perceptions, we would have nothing to reason about. But we do have perceptio...

E1 to E6 can be interpreted from the position of Idealism, from the position of Direct Realism and from the position of Indirect Realism. Each interpr...

There are three theories of perception, Idealism, Direct Realism and Indirect Realism. I don't think that either Idealism or Direct Realism are philos...

I see a broken window and can imagine several possible causes, but don't know the actual cause. A detective visits the scene of a crime and can imagin...

Knowledge is justified true belief. As an Indirect Realist, I believe that things exist in a mind-independent world and I can justify my belief. But a...

You are proposing Overdetermination, which is philosophically problematic. A solution to the Overdetermination problem would make a good PhD thesis. F...

As I believe that neither Idealism nor Direct Realism are valid, the question can only be looked at from the perspective of Indirect Realism. Q1 The E...

I assume you are referring to apples in a mind-independent world rather than "apples" in the mind. It is a logical contradiction to say that we don't ...

The Indirect Realist, being a Realist, believes that there is a mind-independent world and all our knowledge about such a mind-independent world arriv...

How is "exist" defined in philosophy. You refer to the SEP article on Existence. But the article concludes that there is no satisfactory philosophical...

EPP = existence is conceptually prior to predication. What does "exist" mean? The Merriam Webster defines "exist" as "to have real being whether mater...

It would be an impossible task for me to persuade everyone that "thoughts exist". All I can do is assert that "thoughts exist". To cover myself, I cou...

The EPP The EPP states that existence is conceptually prior to predication. 1) You say that this means that there must be existence before there are p...

True, both the Indirect Realist and Direct Realist are able to successfully drive through the city centre. It is a philosophical question. Both the In...