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I am reading a book by Mortimer Adler Ph.D. called The Four Dimensions of Philosophy . In this book Dr. Adler discusses certainty of knowledge as it relates to philosophy, the sciences and natural history. He writes about episteme (certain knowledge) versus doxa (doctrine - or knowledge that is subject to doubt) and concludes that philosophy belongs in the doxa camp. Dr. Adler also covers knowledge that is beyond a shadow of a doubt, beyond a reasonable doubt, clear and convincing and by preponderance. There are categories and sub-categories and if all of this is supposed to be an example of "commonsense" philosophy it misses the mark. It seems to me that commonsense would dictate that knowledge is certain at the point when an individual is able to make a decision. You're welcome.

I was reading an article about the moral countenance of art in the latest issue of Philosophy Now. The article deals with the subject at hand by analyzing two movies: Zero Dark Thirty and Lincoln. The author claims that Zero Dark Thirty was the more controversial of the two because the film deals with information from a source that was obtained by allegedly "torturing" the source. Unfortunately the author never defines his terms especially the word torture. Let me suggest a definition. Torture: The deliberate and gratuitous infliction of pain on another sentient being strictly for the sadistic gratification of the individual inflicting the pain. When I say gratuitous I mean that the infliction of pain is an end in itself rather than a means to an end. The information that we have is that the interrogation techniques used on Sheikh Mohammed were teleological in nature and therefore not torture. You're welcome.

The other day, I was conversing with an acquaintance ("Mr. Skeptic")about things astronomical. More specifically space travel. I refer to my acquaintance as Mr. Skeptic because of his proclivity to wax skeptical (i.e. deny certainty of knowledge). During the course of the conversation Mr. Skeptic claimed that we cannot know whether or not primitive cultures had explored/travelled space and therefore it was possible that they did. I rebutted him by saying that since there is no evidence that primitive cultures surmounted earth's gravitational pull that we can and do know with certainty that there were no ancient astronauts. At this point in the conversation the "battle lines" were drawn with me on the philosophical/intellectual side and Mr. Skeptic on the psychological/emotional side. Since he could only use technique and be manipulative I knew that I need only stand my ground in order to win the argument. Mr. Skeptic initially tried to intimidate me by qu...

In a recent column by Dr. Tallis in the latest issue of Philosophy Now, the doctor is complaining about the pending dissolution of the National Health Service. In the article Dr. Tallis suggests that the forces that are promoting change are all motivated by greed. This suggestion illustrates the inherent hypocrisy of the socialistic. The socialistic insists on getting paid but bristles at the idea of anyone else making money.