Science, philosophy, and the knowledge thereof

I have a very broad liberal arts education. Bachelor of Science ('17) with majors in Cognitive Science and Biochemistry; Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Philosophy ('24).  This blog is an extension of my thoughts, insights, and creative musings -my extended mind. Writings pertain mainly to philosophy, the sciences, and the knowledge thereof. Feel free to ask me questions on a variety of topics.

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We've written a new post introducing phenomenology, check it out!

Phenomenology: The Study of Appearances

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An Introduction to Skepticism

Words: 2,300Reading time: 10 mins Seriously consider the following questions: Do you know you’re not dreaming right now? How could you tell? Do you know that your perception of reality is not being deceived by some evil demon or mad scientist? Can you be absolutely certain that what you think you know is absolutely true? These are all questions asked by the philosophical skeptic, who answers…

An Introduction to Skepticism

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"I Knew That Would Happen": Intuitive Thinking and Hindsight Bias

Words: 1815Reading time: 7 mins Source: Craiyon How many times have you told yourself “I knew that would happen!” or “I saw that coming!”? Well.. you were 100% wrong. Let me convince you why. Imagine the following scenario: Your friend Jim has a new girlfriend, Sam. You meet Sam and note that she appears to be “way above his league,” and she is known for being demanding in a relationship. You…

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The Wise Person is Not Necessarily the Ethical Person

Words: 1,500Reading time: 6 mins Source: Craiyon Is a wise person always ethical? We might assume that a wise person is knowledgeable enough to do the right thing. The wise person knows everything, or at least many things, right? Yes and no. That’s contradictory and confusing, yes. As I will show in this post, it is not necessarily the case that a wise person is an ethical person. The Wise…

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The Trolley Problem: An Existentialist Perspective

Words: 1,970Reading time: 7 mins Image Source Consider the following situation: There is a runaway train (or trolley, if you prefer) barreling down the railway tracks. You notice that farther down the track are five people tied up on the track so that the train continuing on its current course will run them over. There’s a lever near you that you can pull that will change the train onto a…

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Three Reasons Why "Everyone Does It" Is the Worst Argument

This post argues why the reason "everyone does it" is irrational and unethical. First, it's a bandwagon fallacy. Second, it's anti-Kantian ethics. Finally, it's manipulative, and manipulation is unethical.

Words: 1,320Reading time: 5 mins Image Source Have you ever been a victim of someone using the excuse “but everyone does it” and felt pressured to accept their claim? Having the pressure to conform to society certainly makes it seem that something is right. But what if I told you that this is a terrible reason for justifying a claim? In essence, it’s a piece of sophistry (deceptively clever…

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Mars Simulation Finds One Personality Type Should Probably Not Colonize The Red Planet | IFLScience

Mars Simulation Finds One Personality Type Should Probably Not Colonize The Red Planet

It's for their own safety.

Research simulations, not yet peer-reviewed, suggest that those with neurotic personalities are the most unfavourable personalities to have on a future Mars colony.

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Philosophical Foundations of Personality Psychology: Wilhelm Dilthey

Words: 2200Reading time: 9 minutes Wilhelm Dilthey, 1855Image Source Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1911) was a 19th-century historian and philosopher. His main concern and life project was with defining and bringing together the human sciences into a cohesive sphere (the human sciences are, for Dilthey, the humanities, the social sciences, psychology, and anthropology). However, it was also an attempt…

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Man Bitten by Stray Cat Contracts Infection Unknown to Science : ScienceAlert

Man Bitten by Stray Cat Contracts Infection Unknown to Science

The bite of a fluffy cat on the street can be more dangerous than you might think.

Animals can harbor and cultivate evolutions of bacterial types, or pathogens we have yet to discover. Pathogens that live in and transmit from animals are called zoonotic pathogens. Since the physiology of animals such as cats, dogs, bats, pigs, birds are similar to human physiology, these are often possible zoonotic sources of infections.

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Engaging the Atheist Bomb: "Where's the Evidence for God's Existence?"

Words: 3000Reading time: 11 minutes Source: Craiyon Religious debates can be some of the most contentious and heated debates. Have you ever seen a religious person claim “God exists,” and the unreligious rebuts with “where’s your evidence for His existence?” This is probably the most common argument within popular (and perhaps even formal!) philosophy of religion. This post will discuss this…

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Scientists discover that water molecules define the materials around us

Scientists discover that water molecules define the materials around us

For decades, the fields of physics and chemistry have maintained that the atoms and molecules that make up the natural world define the char

Very interesting. I always believed that the chemical composition of molecules and substances make up their character. However, some substances, termed "hydration solids," depend upon the water within them for the external character of that solid to shine through. Another important fundamental contribution from water on the behavior of substances.

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Philosophical Silences: Dr. Robert Wilson, Thoughts of a Privileged White Man, and Cognitive Imperialism

Words: 1500Reading time: 5-6 minutes Source: Craiyon I have wanted to post this for several months now; however, as the second section is contentious, and I feared the view of others, I had always put it off. But I think this is important to add to the intellectual discourse on colonization and white supremacy. This idea won’t go away and if I am shamed for sharing these thoughts, then I think…

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The Third Through Fifth Axioms of Truth: A Phenomenological Inquiry

Words: 5680Reading time: 20-22 minutes Source: Craiyon In a previous post, I use a phenomenological approach to show that the only two necessarily true axioms are that 1) I exist and 2) I have various experiences. I then foresee a long difficult path to go from there to any further truths, and the goal of describing the necessary constitution of reality. These are some steps forward from those…

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Anti-Big Bang theory scientists face censorship by international journals - The New Indian Express

Anti-Big Bang theory scientists face censorship by international journals

24 astronomers and physicists from 10 countries including reputed astrophysicist Jayant V Narlikar of Inter-University Centre for Astronomy

If science prides itself on having theories which are refutable and subject to revision, but the scientific community (journals) don't accept evidence refuting widely accepted theories, then science is subject to biased, personal, and societal forces, not the pursuit of truth and knowledge. This contradicts science's purpose in the first place. This is not the proper conduct science, or scientia (Greek for 'to know'), should be having.

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A New Theory in Physics Claims to Solve the Mystery of Consciousness - Neuroscience News

A New Theory in Physics Claims to Solve the Mystery of Consciousness - Neuroscience News

Consciousness can not simply be reduced to neural activity alone, researchers say. A novel study reports the dynamics of consciousness may b

Researchers Dr. Nir Lahav from Bar-Ilan University in Israel and Dr. Zakaria Neemeh from the University of Memphis, propose a solution to the hard problem of consciousness using a relativistic perspective towards consciousness.

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Robotic motion in curved space defies standard laws of physics https://phys.org/news/2022-08-robotic-motion-space-defies-standard.html

Robotic motion in curved space defies standard laws of physics

When humans, animals, and machines move throughout the world, they always push against something, whether it's the ground, air, or water. Un

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The Universe Could 'Bounce' For Eternity. But It Still Had to Start Somewhere

The Universe Could 'Bounce' For Eternity. But It Still Had to Start Somewhere

From the smallest bacterium to the greatest galaxy, death looms on the horizon; even if, in cosmic terms, the time scales are too large for

The Big Bang Theory asserts the universe came to exist at some point and is finite. It is eternally expanding and will fizzle out at some point.

Now, a revised Big Bounce Theory, the idea that the universe continually has cycles of contraction and expansion, must also have a beginning. The revised theory solves problems with laws of entropy, but this solution requires that the cycle of expansion and contraction of the universe must have started somewhere.