Philosophy Essays

The Diffidence Principle
An attempt to get a theory of rights out of Hobbes' idea of "diffidence" or mutual fear.
Note: this is a PDF file - if you prefer a rather ugly HTML version, click here.

Adam and Eve: a thought experiment.
Some whimsical thoughts about desire and ethics.

"Male Logic" and "Women's Intuition".
Why are men thought to be more "logical" and women more "intuitive"? And why do some feminists go along with this?

Yet More Thoughts on "The Good".
What do "It's a good screwdriver" and "She led a good life?" have in common?

How to get an "ought" from an "is".
Some thoughts on the relationship between desire and deontology.

Learn Logic with Beavis and Butthead!
Our cartoon friends demonstrate logical fallacies and provide new perspectives on causation.

Pattern, Awareness, Process.
Some metaphysical stuff I wrote - attempts at a "theory of everything".

Star Wars: myth, legend and fairy tale
Not really philosophy, but I had to put it somewhere. A bit structuralist, but good, clean fun, all the same.

Better Living Through Clearer Thinking Thoughts on Epicurus' dictum "Empty is the argument of the philosopher which relieves no human suffering."

Notes on philosophers ...

Zeno of Citium

Dattatreya

GUEST ESSAY

An irregular feature where I present essays on philosophy culled from the web.

The current guest essay is Emotions and Values in Turbulent Times by Jan Garrett.

Previous Guest Essays.

I appreciate feedback. You can mail me at robin@bilkent.strawberryedu.tr (remove the fruit to get the address and prove you're not a spider). You may reproduce my essays in electronic form if they are unchanged and acknowledge me as the author. A link back to this site would be nice, too. For reprinting rights, please e-mail me.

Robin Turner, 2004.