An Agnostic’s Apology John S. Wilkins, 25 Jan 201823 Nov 2018 From Sir Leslie Stephen’s 1903 book. “Apology” here means defence (from apologia). AN AGNOSTICS APOLOGY Continue Reading
Once more into the fray, dear agnostics John S. Wilkins, 27 Nov 201122 Jun 2018 I like Larry Moran. More than any other scientist, he has educated me on the standard (and occasionally nonstandard) theories of evolution, biochemistry (of which I know little, but what I do know is largely due to him), and even a bit of other stuff like information theory (he won’t… Continue Reading
Positivism about agnosticism John S. Wilkins, 22 Nov 201122 Nov 2011 Following up from my last post on the logical and semantic aspects of agnosticism, I wish to make a comment regarding this ill-tempered piece by Jennifer Michael Hecht. It seems that one may not be an agnostic if one is a secularist or skeptic. Why? Because: Agnositicsm points this excellent… Continue Reading
Agnostic versus atheist chess John S. Wilkins, 17 Nov 201122 Jun 2018 See Larry’s post on atheists versus theists here. See Brandon’s rejoinder here. Continue Reading
Atheism, agnosticism and theism 6: Conclusion John S. Wilkins, 26 Jul 201122 Jun 2018 Previous posts in this series: One, Two, Three, Four and Five. With all this apparatus in hand, let’s review. Every nonreligious person has a set of commitments based on the two major axes of knowledge claims and existence claims, and on the basis of what they count as contrary to theism, are one of… Continue Reading
Atheism, agnosticism and theism 5: Scope and indexing John S. Wilkins, 25 Jul 201122 Jun 2018 Previous posts in this series: One, Two, Three and Four. As soon as you say in a public forum that you are agnostic, somebody will rejoin smugly, “Are you also agnostic about fairies?” as I said last post. Obviously I am not. I am also not agnostic about many claims that are undemonstrable but which… Continue Reading
Atheism, agnosticism and theism 4: Existence claims John S. Wilkins, 22 Jul 201122 Jun 2018 Previous posts in this series: One, Two and Three. There are basically three kinds of philosophical questions. Given that philosophy is what you do when you have a question that can’t be resolved by facts, these are: What is there? [Metaphysics and Ontology] How do we know? [Epistemology] What is… Continue Reading
Atheism, agnosticism and theism 3: Knowledge claims about gods John S. Wilkins, 20 Jul 201122 Jun 2018 Previous posts in this series: One and Two . In an influential book, W. V. O. Quine, one of the leading philosophers of the twentieth century, wrote with his student: It is important to distinguish between disbelief and nonbelief – between believing a sentence false and merely not believing it true…. Continue Reading
Atheism, agnosticism and theism 2: What it is to have a belief John S. Wilkins, 16 Jul 201122 Jun 2018 Previous posts in this series: One. We talk a lot about believing this or that, and about faith and the content of faith, but we are often a little bit vague on what that actually entails and why. Philosophers, however, have a range of senses of “belief”, often shared by psychologists… Continue Reading
Atheism, agnosticism and theism: the landscape, part 1 John S. Wilkins, 15 Jul 201125 Jul 2011 In the Socrates Café (Sydney) talk based on my paper “Could God have set up Darwinian Accidents?”, I addressed about 70 people, only a couple of whom were philosophers (hi Rachel, hi Tim). I like doing these talks, because they allow me to make what is otherwise fairly dry technical… Continue Reading