Contributor: Elijah Weber

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Eli Weber is a graduate student in Environmental Ethics and a Graduate Teaching Assistant at Colorado State University. He holds bachelor’s degrees in sociology and philosophy from Chapman University and currently lives in Fort Collins, Colorado with his wife Laura. He is a regular contributor to Mindful Source.

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How Does Science Contribute to Knowledge? (Truth Vs. Practicality)

In previous articles, we have discussed the problems associated with crowning the knowledge of Western sciences as the epistemological gold standard. Generally speaking, by limiting our conceptions of knowledge to that which can be verified by experimentation and scientific explanatory power, we fail to consider other important aspects of our world. Often, this [...]

23May2008 | Elijah Weber | 1 comment | Continued
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Is All Knowledge Good?

Knowledge is a buzzword in the modern world. To say that we have knowledge in some area is to say that we have a good firm grasp on what is actually going on. We are going beyond mere opinion, and seemingly, our knowledge allows us to do certain things that would be impossible [...]

21May2008 | Elijah Weber | 1 comment | Continued
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How to Live an Authentic Life

Authenticity is something that we seem to value a great deal, but without much understanding of what it is. “Authentic Southern Barbeque,” “Authentic Amish-Style Handicrafts,” and “Authentically Italian” are just some of the puzzling uses of this apparently diverse term. But what does it mean, and why do we care so much [...]

19May2008 | Elijah Weber | 0 comments | Continued
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Ethical Animal Treatment - My Cat is Smarter Than Your Baby

Modern society has a somewhat puzzling view concerning treatment of animals. Pet animals are seen as de facto members of our families, yet the very same animals are also used for research, product testing, and agriculture. Most people spend very little time thinking about the reasons for the relationship that humans have with [...]

18May2008 | Elijah Weber | 1 comment | Continued
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The Ethics of Getting Away With It

In keeping with our earlier discussion on intellectual property, I want to ponder the topic of unpunished ethical violations. Although there is a certain kind of reward in doing the right thing for its own sake, there is also a particular kind of satisfaction in skirting the moral law and managing to avoid consequences. [...]

6May2008 | Elijah Weber | 0 comments | Continued
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Why Should I Keep My Promises?

Most would agree that keeping our promises is the right thing to do. We want to be able to trust other people, and knowing that someone will keep their word is one of the best indicators of a person’s trustworthiness and decency. But why, exactly, do we place so much importance upon keeping promises?
First, keeping [...]

5May2008 | Elijah Weber | 0 comments | Continued
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Be Nice, But Not Too Nice

“He’s a nice guy. So nice.” We hear this sort of thing often, and I personally find it to be the most meaningless statement one can make. What are we saying here? I have no idea, and it is exceedingly perplexing to me how often this empty phrase is used to describe people. I have [...]

1May2008 | Elijah Weber | 0 comments | Continued
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What Assumptions Do You Take for Granted?

Knowledge and learning are funny things. Really funny. For example, what most young people know by the time they are in the sixth grade is equivalent to what some of the smartest people in the world knew two thousand years ago (depending on what part of the world you are looking at). [...]

23Apr2008 | Elijah Weber | 1 comment | Continued
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What Does Determinism Mean to You?

Determinism, a currently popular theory of metaphysics, has rather interesting implications for everyday decision-making. Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy that focuses on various issues about how the world works, such as what kind of stuff it’s made of, what causes events to occur, and what identity consists of. Determinism is a theory [...]

22Apr2008 | Elijah Weber | 1 comment | Continued
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Does Science Reveal Truth?

It is a common misconception that scientists are telling us something about the way the world is, independent of any perspectives or viewpoints that we might have about it. Social sciences are considered “soft” because they depict the world through the intermediary of cultural lenses. Natural sciences, on the other hand, are “hard” [...]

21Apr2008 | Elijah Weber | 6 comments | Continued
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Ethics in the Classroom

Every now and again I receive an unusual request from one of my students. Such an event occurred last week, when a student came to my office with a rather odd problem. She is a student in the philosophy class that I am a teaching assistant for, and she informed me that she [...]

18Apr2008 | Elijah Weber | 1 comment | Continued
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