Eighteenth century philosopher, Immanuel Kant, explicated through his deontic moral theory that our ethical obligations are derived via rationality. In other words, what we know and understand of our ethical obligations must be conceived of a priori, or without regard to the observation of dismal human behavior. From this viewpoint, since the morals of rational [...]

In The Republic, Socrates fabricates a myth. A myth that, according to Stephen Jay Gould, although designed to preserve a stable society, has unintentionally become the root of biological determinism, and consequentially, Herrnstein and Murray’s The Bell Curve. The myth, as told by Gould, states that “Citizens… should be educated and assigned by merit to [...]

Making sense of our moral convictions can be a daunting task. As such, a squabble has long simmered on the origins of our moral norms, and whether or not our moral claims can be analyzed or reconciled to the natural world. Although the rival accounts have rarely quarreled over what constitutes right and wrong- since [...]

According to John Rawls, justice is the first virtue of institutions just as truth is the first issue of systems of thought. (John Rawls, A Theory of Justice) Subsequently, his conception of political morality is based on a highly abstract state of nature in which free and rational delegates devise the basic rules that will [...]

The traditional conception of knowledge, originally subscribed to by Plato and forwarded by Descartes, has attempted to define knowledge by separating what constitutes genuine knowledge from what is mere opinion or groundless belief. This definition, which ultimately accepts knowledge to be justified true belief, is presently still being debated and analyzed. Contemporary deliberation on this [...]