truth
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Evolution: Science, Religion, and the Truth
Questions concerning the nature of evolution—questions which find their way into discourse time and again—have cropped up yet again. This post will make an effort to outline some of these issues, with view to fostering a fruitful discussion for our Philosophical Happy Hour (24 April 2024) on how we ought to think of evolution. It…
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The Relationship between Logic and Rhetoric
Oftentimes, a student beginning in logic believes that this study will enable him or her to win arguments, convincing interlocutor and audience alike. But even after a great deal of study and many attempts, expectations and reality remain far apart. Others, particularly in this “post-truth” world where facts seem to account for little but favorable…
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Science and Philosophy: In Dialogue?
Positivism and Science A difficult and complex question in philosophy today concerns the discussion regarding the intersection and “boundaries” of the harder empirical sciences and the distinct activity of philosophical enquiry. Given the success of scientific discovery, one temptation in the early 20th century was to claim that disciplines such as biology, chemistry, physics, and…
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How to Read Philosophy
Among the texts we pick up to read, some few will shape our thoughts and therefore our beliefs in ways much more profound than others. “No one opens a book on algebra with anxiety”, writes Brand Blanshard in his Philosophical Style, “as to whether the author is going to treat the binomial theorem roughly, or…
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On Higher Education
In recent years, a number of online alternatives to colleges and universities have been established, of which the Lyceum is but one, even as these conventional institutions expand their own digital presence. Many reasons spur on these alternatives—cost, time, location, curriculum, and so on—but the principal reason (at the very least, for the Lyceum’s existence)…
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On Modern Science and Sacred Traditions
“Religion is anti-science.” Jerry Coyne, Professor Emeritus of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago, once wrote the following: I’ll construe “science” as the set of tools we use to find truth about the universe, with the understanding that these truths are provisional rather than absolute. These tools include observing nature, framing and testing…
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Announcing: Trivium 2024
Education in the liberal arts has been neglected in modernity and, when not ignored, derided by the forces of ultramodern thought. The consequences of this dereliction are evident: even those who wish to know often know less than they would like and cannot express themselves as well as they ought. Fortunately, we can retrieve the…