Hsiang-Yun 9/20/2008

Time: Saturday 9/29 [BBQ 11:30; talk begins at 2]
Location: H&H's
Speaker: Hsiangyun
Host: Hanbing
Topic: Thought Experiment and Philosophical Analysis

I will begin by sketching a picture of what philosophy is----what philosophers do, by briefly going through the following different ways to categorize philosophy (or philosophers).

* from the temporal, regional perspective
* from the topical perspective

I will then take a few examples (from different areas of philosophy) to illustrate how philosophers do what they do---philosophical analysis-- via methods and tools such as thought experiment and logic.

* Descarte's cogito
* Brains in a vat
* Twin-Earth
* The Chinese room
* The king of France is bald? The queen of Taiwan has secret accounts?
* Goedel and the incompleteness theorem
* Trolley problem

The sketch being a sketch is by no means conclusive, but I hope the audience will, after thinking along through these examples, get to enjoy what philosophers enjoy doing.