Philosophy Essays

by Edward De Brouwer and Giulia Lazzara The Halting Problem (Informal) Statement Given an input, any machine either processes that input in a finite amount of time (it halts), or runs forever in an infinite loop. The halting problem asks whether it is possible to create a machine that, given any other machine and its input, can determine whether that machine will eventually halt, or not. $$♥$$ (Informal) Proof Let $M$ be the set of all possible machines, and $X$ the space of program inputs....

Introduction Despite the immense diversity of life forms that populate our universe, living organisms have a tautological point in common: life. Nevertheless, within a single organism, life can manifest itself in different ways or capacities and increasing levels of complexity. In this essay, we study excerpt 413b 10-20 from the second chapter of the second book of De Anima1 and analyze how Aristotle unifies different life capacities under a unique principle: the soul....

Introduction Colonialism is not accidental. It is the consequence of a specific conception of the world that was supported by western thought. In this essay, we motivate this assumption and show that it entails stronger requirements for reparation than the ones advocated for by proponents of structural injustices such as Catherine Lu1. Furthermore, we illustrate our argument by articulating climate injustices as an ongoing case of colonialism. Structural injustice The importance of the social environment in the decision process of human beings has been assessed since the works of Emile Durkheim2 and further reinforced ever since....

Good things come in three. A critique of the doubly counterfactual approach. In Repairing Historical Wrongs and the End of Empire1, Butt discusses the claims that some contemporary states have duties to pay compensations for the lasting effects of colonialism. Many types of reparations can be considered in the context of colonialism. Yet, the author, while acknowledging the importance of a multifaceted approach, chooses to focus on the compensatory redistribution of resources2....

Morality and empathy in multi-species societies. In his Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, David Hume describes morality as driven by a sentiment of natural philanthropy that would eventually maximize the utility of the society. In this essay, we first summarize this important moral principle as developed by Hume, and then show that this sentiment that connects us to social utility is related to the notion of empathy and thus shares its limits....