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Most of my recent philosophical research has been in the area of epistemology—the theory of knowledge. Knowledge is a familiar concept among most people, but mainstream epistemology has turned it into something that is only shared within the small confines of philosophers. As a consequence, epistemologists have robbed common folk of knowledge! The transformation of knowledge […]
February 20, 2013 by Justin Caouette
**I know that moving the pedals forward moves a bike. I know that holding on to the handlebars and turning them when appropriate will steer the bike. I know that squeezing the right lever on the handle bars will engage the rear brake and slow down the bike’s momentum. Do I know how to ride a bike? Intellectually, I can explain to someone […]
February 11, 2013 by Justin Caouette
A commonly held presupposition is that a person can be blameworthy only for acts that are considered morally wrong. I’ll refer to this as the ‘blameworthiness requires wrongness’ (BW) principle. Recently, a few philosophers began denying this principle citing cases where it is morally permissible to act in a certain way even though such acts […]
November 19, 2012 by Justin Caouette
Recent Psychological studies suggest that babies have an innate moral sense. On October 18th, CBS aired “The Baby Lab” ( it’s worth the 13 minutes for anyone interested in the Origins of Morality)where they interviewed Psychologists Paul Bloom and Karen Wynn. Both claim that their studies are telling of the “the origins of morality“. This suggests […]
November 6, 2012 by Justin Caouette
Below is a quoted segment of this piece. In it, MacIntyre argues that we should not cast a vote for either candidate. Quite the take. Though I agree with his take on the presidency I still think people should vote for particular issues on the ballot as those votes will matter in their respective states. […]
September 26, 2012 by Justin Caouette
What is the nature of blame? Recently, I took my prelim exam in the Philosophy of Mind and one of the questions I answered was on the reactive attitudes and their effect on how we perceive what the nature of blame is. I found the question quite intriguing, and, the purpose of this post will be […]
July 24, 2012 by Justin Caouette
In a recent blog post in Scientific American the author, Larry Geenemeier, suggests that the accused Colorado Shooter was lacking cognitive control and points specifically to one’s cognitive ability in order to try to make sense of the actions in Aurora, Colorado and other recent events by similarly profiled assailants. Though I agree that we […]
July 10, 2012 by Justin Caouette
By now, nearly everyone with access to this blog knows that SCOTUS has upheld the Obamacare bill. This has caused an uproar with Libertarian folks as well as those who might not call themselves Libertarians but who think gov’t telling them what they must buy is inappropriate. I’ll be discussing the objections levied by the […]
June 21, 2012 by Justin Caouette
Antony Davies has recently given a really brief pod cast as to how the student loan crisis is similar and even worse to the housing bubble that popped a few years back (it’s worth a look, only 4 minutes long). I think he’s right that this is a major problem. He suggests (as do many […]
June 10, 2013 by Justin Caouette
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