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Paper Topic 2
Describe Chisholms and van Inwagens position on Determinism and Indeterminism (including Compatiblism).
What do their views/arguments have in common?
How do they differ?
What is Chisholms proposed solution?
What is van Inwagens response to Chisholms solution?
What does van Inwagen conclude?
Do you agree with Chisholm/ van Inwagen that Libertarianism is correct? Why or why not?
A.J Ayer was born on October 29th of 1910 to a business family, his mother who founded a car company in France and dad who financed to Swiss Calvinists. During his early childhood he enjoyed playing rugby a sport that allowed him to acquire the skills needed to play rugby for his high school. Where he stood out and won several scholarships due to his outstanding academic success. As he grew more into the philosophy world he became a believer of logical positivism. A believe that considers that the most meaningful philosophical problems are those that can be solved using logical analysis. One publication that really put his name in the top ranks of early philosophers was “Language, Truth, and Logic.” One amazing thing about this publication is the speed in which he wrote it. It only took him two years to write such an important work in his career. This book made its marks in the philosophy world and it helped him earn the respect of many philosophers at age 25 when he produced it. One unique work ethic possessed by Ayer was that he constantly revised his work and ideas. Another interesting fact about Ayers life is that he died for four minutes one time during an operation that he was going through. Ayer Died on June 27th of 1989 at age 78. Edmund Gettier was born in 1927 in Baltimore, Maryland. He was educated at Cornell University, where he got the experience to work closely with Max Black and Norman Malcolm two great philosophers at the time. Before becoming a professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, he first taught at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. At the time he did not have many publications so his colleagues pressured him to come up with something for the public. Once he did come up with something. Gettier earned his ticket to the philosophy world which was a three page paper titled “Is Justified True Belief Knowledge” which was published in 1963. In his article he challenges the justified true belief definition of knowledge that dates back to Platos. Up to this day this publication is considered as one the most famous and important recent philosophical history. One interesting fact about Gettier is that after publishing “Is Justified True Belief Knowledge” he has not published anything new. But he surely has come up with new methods to teach his graduate students how to find and illustrate counter models in modal logic. Now, both of these men are great philosophers, but one problem that they seem to have is that they cannot come up with an agreement or justification. They both need to get their points across but in different ways or manners. Due to the fact that this is philosophy we all have different opinions and beliefs. And no one can take that away from us because what we believe in the rest of the world does not have to agree upon. Because of this we have two different ways to view knowledge one being according to Ayer and the other to Gettier.
We first begin by analyzing and stating the necessary and sufficient conditions required for a complete theory of knowledge according to Ayer. Three of the main needs for knowledge according to Ayer are 1) You are sure of it, 2) What you are sure of is true, 3) You have the right to be sure. By having these three conditions you have the necessary and sufficient conditions for knowledge. Like for example lets say that P= sufficient and it is necessary for another state which in our case we would call Q, if Q cannot occur without P occurring then P=necessary is a sufficient condition for Q to occur, if P ensures the occurrence of Q. Lets