Philosophy

Aristotle bases his philosophical program on the study of nature, and specifically the changes objects in nature are able to undergo. This is opposed to his metaphysics, which is only able to come afterward, as it broadly addresses all possible beings, and not just those found wholly in nature. We might at first seem definitively capable of studying these changes in natural things by comparison to the seemingly far more speculative metaphysical objects, which we do not find so clearly in the world all around us....

There is no question that throughout history and even onward in to the present day humanity has divided itself in to a number of different cultural groups. It’s no less contested that each culture in some varying manner shapes the moral beliefs, practices, and values of its followers. In the same sense people are informed as to what is right and wrong through the same system of cultural normalization. Although people of different cultures may have even very large differences in their moral values, the cultural relativist suggests that this should only be understood as inflexible differences between differing cultures....

We can not ignore the skeptical dream scenario, that holding that the only things which really exist are ourselves and our imagined experiences. However, although there are no grounds by which we may ever determine this is not actually the case, we can provide a much more reasonable explanation by assuming the existence of objects independent to us which cause our experiences, rather than that we are generating all of them ourselves....

For many things we believe we are able to come to a real, deep understanding of and determine the truth concerning their underlying nature, it is actually the case that we are entirely unable to come to know anything about them at all, not even so much as their most commonly accepted associated premises. In previously having spent vast lengths of time discussing these concepts, we have only allowed ourselves to grossly step beyond the very limited and apparent bounds of human knowledge, and should instead withhold judgment concerning their absolute truth altogether....