How To Think

Here's a collection of all my posts on epistemology. Some of them are even worth reading.

Reflection: On the Substance of Ideas ~~ A brief exploration of the realism v. nominalism dispute, based on a passage from an anthology on Jonathan Edwards.


Reflection on Authority: #1 ~~ Why authority claims are necessary for argumentation.
Reflection on Authority: #2 ~~ Where "appeals to authority" can go wrong.
Reflection on Authority: #3 ~~ Why authority claims are regressive, and thus insufficient.


Reflection on Judgment: #1 ~~ Judgments are the means of thought.
Reflection on Judgment: #2 ~~ Judgments are the necessary catalysts of thought.
Reflection on Judgment: #3 ~~Judgments are the ends, the final cause, of thought.


Reflection on Certainty: #1 ~~ The problem of uncertainty; types of certainty
Reflection on Certainty: #2 ~~ The problem of ontological certainty
Reflection on Certainty: #3 ~~ Descartes and the problem of epistemic certainty
Reflection on Certainty: #4 ~~ Mathematics, logic, and the problem of epistemic certainty
Reflection on Certainty: #5 ~~ Methodological certainty, and the sine qua nons of thought
Reflection on Certainty: #6 ~~ Omniscience and the impossibility of epistemic certainty.


Reflection on Metaphors: #1 ~~ How our minds rely on metaphors and image associations
Metaphors as Persuasion ~~ How metaphors are the primary vehicle of persuasion in rhetoric
Of Morals and Metaphors: #1 ~~ Visualizing good and evil by analogy to a straight line
Of Morals and Metaphors: #2 ~~ Visualizing good and evil by analogy to a "bent" line
What Is, Is Good ~~ Visualizing good and evil by analogy to the physics of wormholes
Quantitative Quiddity ~~ Visualizing good and evil by analogy to mass or solidity