In this episode, Fred introduces how to think philosophically about the laws of nature. Laws are typically taken to relate somehow to stable and exceptionless regularities in the philosophical literature, and this thought is explicated using examples. How exactly laws relate to these exceptionless regularities is then asked, triggering the schism in views about laws of nature, Humean and non-Humean views.
Enjoy!
8 Dec 2025
Proof of the External World (Archie Fletcher)
In this episode, Archie Fletcher discusses G.E. Moore’s (1939) famous paper ‘Proof of an External World’ and investigates how hands can be used to counter the external-world sceptic. If you’ve ever wondered, “How can I prove that the world is real?” this episode explains Moore’s argument that the world is real, shows why hands might serve as evidence for this, and sheds light on what this reveals about knowledge. Enjoy!
Read Moore's paper here: https://gwern.net/doc/philosophy/epistemology/1939-moore.pdf (https://gwern.net/doc/philosophy/epistemology/1939-moore.pdf)
Read Archie's blog post here: https://substack.com/@thezombieselfreportform/note/p-180346486?r=31bolx&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action (https://substack.com/@thezombieselfreportform/note/p-180346486?r=31bolx&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action)
13 Nov 2025
Consciousness (Finn Thwaite)
In this episode, Finn Thwaite introduces our mini-series on consciousness. We hear about the “hard problem of consciousness”, the subjective certainty of our own point of view, our confidence in the completeness of physics, and how this extrinsic, behavioural story relates to intrinsic, subjective experience. Enjoy!
If you want to get in touch to suggest a topic, or apply to record an episode yourself, please email us at fiveminutephilosophyemail@gmail.com.
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