Zain's Guide to Overthinking Everything

Notes on the Basics of Schopenhauer         Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) was a German philosopher known for his pessimistic philosophy which is exemplified in his work, “The World as Will and Representation”. Schopenhauer’s metaphysics drew from Kant whom I have several blog posts on but in short, Kant believed in the Noumena-Phenomena distinction or Transcendental Idealism. Phenomena are the things we perceive through our senses which are shaped by our mind’s faculties and subject to the categories of understanding. Noumena, on the other hand, are things as they are in themselves that are beyond human perception and conceptualization. Kant argues that while we can understand phenomena through empirical investigation, we can never truly know noumena because they lie beyond the limits of human cognition. Thus, noumena represent the realm of things as they exist independently of our perception that are ultimately unknowable. Since we can never know the t...

Proving the God Hypothesis: Aquinas and Al Kindi     The quest to prove the existence of God has inspired profound philosophical reflections throughout history. Among the notable thinkers who engaged in this pursuit, Thomas Aquinas stands as a prominent figure in Christian theology and Al Kindi in the Islamic tradition. This blog post will present their arguments for God however without explanation. For an in-depth explanation of Al Kindi’s argument read William Lane Craig’s The Kalām Cosmological Argument , and for Aquinas read his Summa Theologica : First Part, Question 2, Article 3 and A History of Philosophy, Vol. 2: Medieval Philosophy - From Augustine to Duns Scotus by Frederick Copleston.   Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 CE):   The First Way – Argument From Motion   P1. Our senses prove that some things are in motion. P2. Things move when potential motion becomes actual motion. P3. Only an actual motion can convert a potential motion into an actual motion. P4...