“About 70% of what I've written about is centered on the clashes and conformities between the emerging life and physical sciences and older metaphysical frameworks in the 17th and 18th centuries. The other 30% consists of one-off essays or researches into other intriguing contemporary topics such as visual experience, aesthetics, social justice issues, and the epistemology of moral knowledge.” SocialJusticeMoralIssuesWrittenCenturyResearchSocial JusticeContemporaryVisualsConformityTopicsMetaphysicalEssaysFrameworkAestheticsEmergingClashIntriguingEpistemology18th CenturyPhysical Science Author:Catherine Wilson
“For seventeenth-century astronomers, the Epicurean doctrine of multiple worlds separated by void space was seen to fit with the new Copernican system in which every star was a sun, and the universe was a vast place with no centre.” WorldUniverseStarsSpaceSunCenturyFitDoctrineVoidMultipleCentreAstronomersEpicurean Author:Catherine Wilson
“Aristotle saw nature as intelligent and purposive, whereas for the Epicureans, and the 17th century 'mechanical' philosophers, there is no intentionality in nature except where there are animal minds and bodies.” MindBodyAnimalSawsCenturyIntelligentPhilosopherMind And BodyIntentionality17th CenturyEpicurean Author:Catherine Wilson
“Order can arise from chaos without anyone or anything directing the process when unstable combinations of atoms perish and others persist. In the 17th century, Descartes applied this insight to cosmology, and long before Darwin presented his more rigorous ideas about variation and selection, people began to speculate more openly about the origins of life and the species in Epicurean terms.” PeopleLongIdeasOrderProcessTermCenturySpeciesChaosInsightAriseCombinationAtomsPersistSelectionVariationCosmologyUnstableOrigin Of Life17th CenturyEpicurean Author:Catherine Wilson
“We are now returning to the 18th century empirical approach with the new interest in the evolutionary basis of ethics, with 'experimental' moral philosophy and moral psychology. As a result, we understand better why moral formulas are experienced as ineluctable commands, even if there is no commander and even if the notion of an inescapable obligation is just superstition. So moral philosophy has made huge progress.” IfsMadePhilosophyInterestResultsMoralPsychologyProgressCenturyHugeApproachEthicsBasesNotionObligationCommandFormulasSuperstitionsCommanders18th CenturyMoral Philosophy Author:Catherine Wilson
“We call 'Slavery is wrong' a moral truth because there is a specific history of theoretical investigation of a particular kind of slavery. We discussed it for centuries in metaphysical, economic, biological, and philosophical terms; we listened to all the arguments pro and con, we read all the testimonies of slaves and witnesses, and we decided. Though this 'we" is not everybody on earth, or even most people, who've never thought about slavery much.” PeopleKindEarthTermMoralEconomicCenturyParticularTruth IsArgumentDecidedPhilosophicalSlaverySlaveWitnessInvestigationMetaphysicalTestimonyTheoreticalPros And Cons Author:Catherine Wilson