We’re Living In The Best Possible World
Leibniz and the Best Possible World One of the classical arguments against the existence of an all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-good God is the fact that evil exists in the world. You don’t have to look far to see it –…
Plantinga’s Creation
Plantinga and Creationism A few weeks ago, an editor at MindPiff told me I could write about any topic I wanted “as long as you don’t go totally off the rails and write about ‘Why creationism is the best!’ or…
The Apparition of Time
McTaggart and the Unreality of Time The philosophy of time is an extraordinarily complex, confusing, yet fascinating topic. One of the most significant authors on the subject is John McTaggart Ellis McTaggart (yes, his name has “McTaggart” in there…
How We Exist Everywhere At Once
The Ship of Theseus is a conundrum regarding identity through time. The Ship In honor of Apollo, the Greeks sailed a shipped named “Theseus,” to a town called “Delos,” annually for a long, long time (hundreds of years). Each year,…
Is Life Just A Pendulum Of Suffering?
Schopenhauer’s Pessimism Arthur Schopenhauer’s philosophy challenges our conviction that life is inherently good. Life, Schopenhauer argues, is actually inherently bad. We may occasionally have good moments, but those are brief exceptions to the rule of otherwise constant suffering. While Schopenhauer…
Exclusive English Translation of El Alacrán de Fray Gómez. Part One.
Editor’s Note: My good friend Cesar J. Sanchez is a Peruvian native who is also an artist, writer, and thinker. I approached him about writing for MindPiff, and we mutually decided he should do some translation work of previously untranslated…
The Confrontation and Acceptance of Nothing
I’m starting to feel that all the truest things, the real things–the things that cut straight to the core of whatever the hell I’m doing here–are both funny and sad. Melancholia. I’m discovering so much these days, reaching out into…
A Paradox On Beginning and End
Unger and the Sorites Paradox Peter Unger is my favorite living philosopher. Like Peter Singer, he has argued that we are morally obligated to donate substantial amounts of money to famine relief organizations. Again like Singer, Unger has actually followed…
Will The Sun Rise Tomorrow?
Hume’s Induction The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy boldly opens its article on David Hume by describing him as “the most important philosopher ever to write in English.” Hume’s revolutionary thinking earned him this title which, along with his clear writing…
The Necessity of The Philosopher
Humans Relative to other animals in the animal kingdom, the human is a badass. Our bodies are built for utility and endurance. We can grasp and manipulate almost reasonable sized objects with our hands. Our bipedal structure allows us to…
Singer and The Shirt Off His Back
Singer Peter Singer is arguably one of the most influential philosophers alive today – he has published over one hundred academic articles, dozens of books, and was recently named a “Companion of the Order of Australia,” one of Australia’s highest…
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