Philosophical Problems

If the world is causally determined, does this mean people no longer have free will? Or is being free compatible with determinism. In this lecture, I discuss two opposing positions regarding the existence of free will even though both agree that genuine free will is incompatible with determinism. On the one hand, there are hard determinists who think that because determinism is true, then this means that free will does not exist. On the other hand, there are libertarians who think that the falsity of determinism leads to the actual existence of an agent that chooses freely. Copyright 2013 Jack Reynolds / La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

This lecture introduces students to the work of Alan Turing and the project of creating Artificial Intelligence that he played a significant role in inaugurating. We consider some of the objections to standard forms of AI (but not necessarily all) posed by Hubert Dreyfus in various of his books. Copyright 2013 Jack Reynolds / La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

The mind appears to be of a radically different nature to the everyday material items we normally encounter. Insofar as our body, including our brain, are considered parts of the material world, it becomes a mystery as to how our mind can find a place within nature and interact with out body. This is what is known as the mind-body problem. After trying to make sense of the problem, this lecture explores a proposed solution in the form of substance dualism as propounded by French philosopher Rene Descartes. Copyright 2013 Jack Reynolds / La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

This lecture is a discussion of the problem of induction. I begin by looking at the structure of logical reasoning with a view to delineating the ‘problem’ with inductive reasoning; this is a problem for scientific knowledge as inductive reasoning is essential to science. I explore Hume's analysis of the problem of induction with a view to showing how deep the problem runs. I explain Hume's ultimate resolution to the problem in modern parlance as a type of naturalism. Copyright 2013 Jack Reynolds / La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

This lecture deals with philosophical scepticism about the physical world. This is the idea that we do not really have any evidence (at all!) for any of our ordinary beliefs about the world around us, because we cannot rule out the possibility that all our experience is some sort of massive illusion. We look at the detail of the argument for this startling view, and at one of the responses that may be made to it. The lecture refers to Chapter 3, "Brain-Snatched", in Stephen Law's book, The Philosophy Gym. Copyright 2013 Jack Reynolds / La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

This lecture looks at what creationism is all about and some of the arguments that proponents of creationism use to argue that it is science. I ask what it is about science that makes it ‘science’. I outline an Popper’s theory of falsification as a response to the demarcation problem and finish by looking at a possible creationist response to the issue of falsification. Copyright 2013 Jack Reynolds / La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

This lecture considers the vexed question of what is philosophy and some of the most common answers to this question. Copyright 2013 Jack Reynolds / La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.