HoP 040 - Let's Get Physical - Aristotle...

An interview on contemporary approaches to Pascal's Wager: where decision theory meets philosophy of religion. 

Should we gamble on belief in God to have a chance at infinite reward? 

Blaise Pascal was a pioneering scientist and deeply spiritual religious thinker; what united these two sides of his thought? 

Continuing on Aristotle's Metaphysics, book 1. We get seriously into Aristotle's four types of causation and how previous philosophers in leaving out one or most of these made a mistake. This includes a critique of Platonic forms, which as eternal, unchanging patterns can't actua ... Show More

On Aristotle's Metaphysics, book 1 (aka Alpha) (ca. 340 BCE). What constitutes a basic explanation of the universe? We talk about how mere practical knowledge of how things in fact work is not enough; there's greater wisdom in knowing the theoretical underpinnings. Various philos ... Show More

Kant developed a philosophy of geometry that explained how geometry can be both knowable in pure thought and applicable to physical reality. Namely, because geometry is built into not only our minds but also the way in which we perceive the world. In this way, Kant solved the app ... Show More

<p>Philosophy Of Thomas Aquinas</p> 

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 18th century philosopher Immanuel Kant's work, The Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics. Specifically it on his discussion in the Preface, in which he raises several problems with metaphysics of his time as a science. These include the l ... Show More

<p>Joe Schmid is a PhD student in philosophy at Princeton University. He graduated with a B.A. in philosophy from Purdue University in 2022. He has published articles in metaphysics, philosophy of religion, and philosophy of time, and the author of books including "Existential In ... Show More

Continuing on Aristotle's Metaphysics, Book 7 (Zeta), on essences and what sorts of things have them. Contrasting with Plato, Aristotle believes that some changing, visible things have forms. How do they get them? Well, they're received from some previous thing that has a compara ... Show More

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 18th century philosopher Immanuel Kant's work, The Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics. Specifically it focuses on his discussion in the Second Part Of The Transcendental Problem: How Is Pure Natural Science Possible? Specifically this ... Show More