Articles

Some people find it very rude to hear somebody say that truth doesn’t exist. However, truth does not ‘exist’. Truth is not a being: speaking of truth is just one of many ways to add the predicate ‘true’ to a proposition. Expressing truth In ordinary language, the metaphysical status of ‘truth’ is very vague. Let us assume that John sees […]

After previously discussing if truth exists (The metaphysics of truth), this article focuses on the question if truth can be known. What can I know about my brown table? Under what conditions can we consider ‘true’ to be an approppriate predicate or to express an actual relation between facts? How is truth created? Ancients and Christians The source of truth […]

Emptying his glass – see: God as stopgap –, at some point Werner Heisenberg may have moved from knowledge to faith, deeply impressed by the ingenuity of the universe. Here, Heisenberg crossed a clear-cut horizon. In natural science, explanations are essentially third-person. This type of knowledge can be distinguished from meaning, from understanding as well as from faith; these are […]

In 1963, Edmund Gettier invented some cases of being justified to believe something that is in fact false. Gettier addressed the relation between justification and truth to prove that justified true belief is a questionable definition of knowledge. Since then, opinions about the precise nature of knowledge continue to differ. Knowledge of truth and truth of knowledge Reality is the […]

“Do you solemnly swear that you will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?” This classic oath is still sworn countless times every day. There have been objections focusing on its religious character; affirmations have been made possible from the 17th century onward. In the United States, either “so help you God” […]

Degrees of belief in God (or gods) come in many varieties. Most of these degrees depend on the question to what extent God is thought to intervene in the affairs of the world. According to most believers, after creation, an almighty, omnipresent, omniscient and benevolent God actively takes care of the universe (theism), while minorities believe that the universe develops […]

“What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. This is the whole Torah, all the rest is commentary.” Here we have the Golden Rule of ethics, surfacing in many cultures all over the world ever since antiquity. Confucius is known for it.  Jesus calls it “the essence of the Law and the Prophets.”  Without abiding to it, […]

Some time ago, Germany adopted a law that permits doctors to render assistance to suicide by providing the means. Relatives were already permitted to do so, under the condition that the actual taking of the lethal medicine be done by the person herself. The issue is closely related to the question if euthanasia should be permitted. Discussion about its ethics […]

The abortion debate goes on and on; after a period of liberalization, in some countries, abortion laws become stricter again. The search goes on to find the balance between its practical inevitability and its fundamental immorality. In his insightful book The Ethics of Killing (2002), Jeff McMahan deals with many aspects of abortion: the unborn child’s development, the balance of […]