Sensations and Brain Processes — J.J.C Smart

Notes from Smart’s Essay on Philosophy of Mind (Physicalism)

Background

1. This paper was published in the 1950s and brings light to the theory of mind-brain…

Of Identity and Diversity — John Locke

Notes from John Locke on Principle of Individuation

Background

• John Locke’s philosophy belongs to the traditions of scholastic, in an attempt to merge Christianity with Greek…

What Is It Like To Be A Bat? — Nagel

Notes from Thomas Nagel’s Essay On Consciousness

Background

• This article was written in the 1970s and has become a very famous article on the topic of philosophy of the mind.

On Personal Identity – Michaels Meredith

Notes from Michaels Meredith On Personal Identity

TLDR:

Michaels Meredith in this piece does not really form a theory of personal identity but brings up two analogies as…

A Treatise Of Human Nature – David Hume

Notes from David Hume on Personal Identity

Background

• David Hume is an empiricist and a skeptic but also an atheist writing this famous meditation on personal identity in…

Nicomachean Ethics — Aristotle

Notes from Aristotle on Ethics

Background

• Aristotle is one of the most famous Greek philosophers, along with Plato and Socrates born in 384 BC
• In Book 1 and 2 Nicomachean…

Gorgias — Plato

Notes for Plato on Ethics (basically Socrates + Callicles)

Main Premise of Gorgias

• Basically this whole discussion is Callicles laying out his view on what a good life is, and Socrates reasoning it to the ground (arguing that it is…

Meditations — Descartes

Notes on Descartes 1st, 2nd & 6th Meditation

Background

1. Descartes was writing in the 16th century where witnessing other thinkers such as Copernicus and Galileo… being exiled and killed by the church…

Beyond Good and Evil — Nietszche

Notes from Nietszche

Main Premise of Nietzsche — Beyond Good and Evil

• Nietzsche is examining what are values? instead of proposing a morally just way to live, as he is a moral nihilist

Meaning in Life — Susan Wolf

Notes from Susan Wolf

Main Premise of Susan Wolf

• Wants to propose other reasons to explain action
• Linking it to an innate desire to view our lives as meaningful