occupation hilary kornblith
The world is the planet Earth and all life upon it , including human civilization . In a philosophical context , the world is the whole of the physical Universe , or an ontological world . In a theological context , the " world " is the material or the profane sphere , as opposed to the celestial , spiritual , transcendent or sacred . The " end of the world " refers to scenarios of the final end of human history , often in ___MASK49___ contexts . The Ivy League is a collegiate athletic conference comprising sports teams from eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States . The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group beyond the sports context . The eight institutions are Brown University , Columbia University , Cornell University , Dartmouth College , Harvard University , the University of Pennsylvania , Princeton University , and Yale University . The term " Ivy League " has connotations of ___MASK60___ excellence , selectivity in admissions , and social elitism . ___MASK16___ or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity . This covers the ancient Mediterranean world , particularly ancient Greece and Rome . It encompasses the study of ancient languages , literature , philosophy , history , and archaeology . Traditionally in the West , the study of the Greek and Roman ___MASK16___ was considered one of the cornerstones of the humanities and a necessary part of a rounded education . Since the 20th century , however , ___MASK16___ is no longer a part of a typical elite education . Consciousness is difficult to define , though many people seem to think they know intuitively what it is . Attempts at definition have included : sentience , awareness , subjectivity , the ability to experience or to feel , wakefulness , having a sense of selfhood or soul , the fact that there is something " that it is like " to " have " or " be " it , and the executive control system of the mind , or the state or quality of awareness , or , of being aware of an external object or something within oneself . In contemporary philosophy its definition is often hinted at via the logical possibility of its absence , the philosophical ___MASK69___ , which is defined as a being whose behavior and function are identical to one ' s own yet there is " no - one in there " experiencing it . Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy investigating the fundamental nature of being and the world that encompasses it . Metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions : Immanuel Kant ( 22 April 1724  12 February 1804 ) was a German ___MASK67___ who is considered a central figure in modern philosophy . Kant argued that the human mind creates the structure of human experience , that reason is the source of morality , that aesthetics arises from a faculty of disinterested judgment , that space and time are forms of our sensibility , and that the world as it is " in - itself " is independent of our concepts of it . Kant took himself to have effected a Copernican revolution in philosophy , akin to Copernicus ' reversal of the age - old belief that the sun revolved around the earth . His beliefs continue to have a major influence on contemporary philosophy , especially the fields of metaphysics , epistemology , ethics , political theory , and aesthetics . Cognitive ___MASK78___ is the interdisciplinary , scientific study of the mind and its processes . It examines the nature , the tasks , and the functions of cognition . Cognitive scientists study intelligence and behavior , with a focus on how nervous systems represent , process , and transform information . Mental faculties of concern to cognitive scientists include language , perception , memory , attention , reasoning , and emotion ; to understand these faculties , cognitive scientists borrow from fields such as ___MASK50___ , psychology , artificial intelligence , philosophy , neuroscience , and anthropology . The typical analysis of cognitive ___MASK78___ spans many levels of organization , from learning and decision to logic and planning ; from neural circuitry to modular brain organization . The fundamental concept of cognitive ___MASK78___ is that " thinking can best be understood in terms of representational structures in the mind and computational procedures that operate on those structures ." Ezra Cornell ( January 11 , 1807  December 9 , 1874 ) was an American businessman , ___MASK52___ , philanthropist and educational administrator . He was the founder of Western Union and a co - founder of Cornell University . He also served as President of the New York Agriculture Society and as a New York state Senator . ___MASK78___ is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe . The University of Melbourne ( informally Melbourne University ) is a public ___MASK48___ university located in Melbourne , Australia . Founded in 1853 , it is Australia ' s second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria . Times Higher Education ranks Melbourne as 33rd in the world , while the Academic Ranking of World Universities places Melbourne 40th in the world ( both first in Australia ). ___MASK4___ is defined differently in varying ___MASK60___ fields . Psychology defines an expert using superior performance ; sociology considers that expertise is a label given to an individual by a group and is interested in the power held by experts ; philosophy stresses the kind of knowledge held by experts but not novices . Informally , an expert is someone widely recognized as a reliable source of technique or skill whose ___MASK66___ for judging or deciding rightly , justly , or wisely is accorded authority and status by peers or the public in a specific well - distinguished domain . An expert , more generally , is a person with extensive knowledge or ability based on research , experience , or occupation and in a particular area of study . Experts are called in for advice on their respective subject , but they do not always agree on the particulars of a field of study . An expert can be believed , by virtue of credential , training , education , profession , publication or experience , to have special knowledge of a subject beyond that of the average person , sufficient that others may officially ( and legally ) rely upon the individual ' s opinion . Historically , an expert was referred to as a sage ( Sophos ). The individual was usually a profound thinker distinguished for wisdom and sound judgment . Hilary Kornblith is an American ___MASK21___ of philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst , USA , and one of contemporary epistemology ' s most prominent proponents of naturalized epistemology . Kornblith received his B . A . from SUNY Buffalo in 1975 and his PhD from Cornell University in 1980 , where he studied under Sydney Shoemaker and Richard Boyd . Before coming to University of Massachusetts in 2003 , Kornblith taught at the University of Vermont , where he also chaired the department from 1991 to 1997 . His research interests include epistemology , metaphysics and the philosophy of mind . Apart from naturalized epistemology , his most recent work includes the role of intuitions in philosophical theorizing , the conflicts between internalism and externalism in epistemology , and the mental states of non - human animals . Language is the ability to acquire and use complex systems of communication , particularly the human ability to do so , and a language is any specific example of such a system . The scientific study of language is called ___MASK50___ . Questions concerning the philosophy of language , such as whether words can represent experience , have been debated since Gorgias and Plato in Ancient Greece . Thinkers such as Rousseau have argued that language originated from emotions while others like Kant have held that it originated from rational and logical thought . 20th - century philosophers such as Wittgenstein argued that philosophy is really the study of language . ___MASK41___ figures in ___MASK50___ include Ferdinand de Saussure and Noam Chomsky . Naturalized epistemology , coined by W . V . O . Quine , is a collection of philosophic views concerned with the theory of knowledge that emphasize the role of natural scientific methods . This shared emphasis on scientific methods of studying knowledge shifts focus to the empirical processes of knowledge acquisition and away from many traditional philosophical questions . There are noteworthy distinctions within naturalized epistemology . Replacement naturalism maintains that traditional epistemology should be abandoned and replaced with the methodologies of the natural sciences . The ___MASK61___ thesis of cooperative naturalism is that traditional epistemology can benefit in its inquiry by using the knowledge we have gained from the cognitive sciences . Substantive naturalism focuses on an asserted equality of facts of knowledge and natural facts . Objections to naturalized epistemology have targeted features of the ___MASK61___ project as well as characteristics of specific versions . Some objectors suggest that natural scientific knowledge cannot be circularly grounded by the knowledge obtained through cognitive science , which is itself a natural science . This objection from circularity has been aimed specifically at strict replacement naturalism . There are similar challenges to substance naturalism that maintain that the substance naturalists ' thesis that all facts of knowledge are natural facts is not only circular but fails to accommodate certain facts . Several other objectors have found fault in the inability of naturalized methods to adequately address questions about what value forms of potential knowledge have or lack . Naturalized epistemology is generally opposed to the anti - psychologism of Immanuel Kant , Gottlob Frege , Karl Popper , Edmund Husserl and others . Harvard University is a private Ivy League ___MASK48___ university in Cambridge , Massachusetts , established in 1636 , whose history , influence , and wealth have made it one of the world ' s most prestigious universities . Philosophy of mind is a branch of philosophy that studies the nature of the mind , mental events , mental functions , mental properties , consciousness , and their relationship to the physical body , particularly the brain . The mind  body problem , i . e . the relationship of the mind to the body , is commonly seen as one key issue in philosophy of mind , although there are other issues concerning the nature of the mind that do not involve its relation to the physical body , such as how consciousness is possible and the nature of particular mental states . The John Locke Lectures are a series of annual lectures in philosophy given at the ___MASK100___ . They are one of the world ' s most prestigious academic lecture series , comparable to the Gifford Lectures given in Scottish universities . They were established in 1950 by the bequest of Henry Wilde . Education is the process of facilitating learning , or the acquisition of knowledge , skills , values , beliefs , and habits . Educational methods include storytelling , discussion , teaching , training , and directed ___MASK48___ . Education frequently takes place under the guidance of educators , but learners may also educate themselves . Education can take place in formal or informal settings and any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks , feels , or acts may be considered educational . The methodology of teaching is called ___MASK14___ . Sir Karl Raimund Popper ( 28 July 1902  17 September 1994 ) was an Austrian - British ___MASK67___ and professor . He is generally regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of science of the 20th century . Pythagoras of Samos ( or simply ;  in Ionian Greek ) was an Ionian Greek ___MASK67___ , mathematician , and the putative founder of the movement called Pythagoreanism . Most of the information about Pythagoras was written down centuries after he lived , so very little reliable information is known about him . He was born on the island of Samos , and travelled , visiting Egypt and Greece , and maybe India . Around 530 BC , he moved to Croton , in Magna Graecia , and there established some kind of school or guild . In 520 BC , he returned to Samos . A ___MASK67___ is someone who practices philosophy , which involves rational inquiry into areas that are outside of either theology or science . The term " ___MASK67___ " comes from the Ancient Greek (" philosophos ") meaning " lover of wisdom ". The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek thinker Pythagoras ( 6th century BC ). The University of Canterbury ( postnominal abbreviation Cantuar . or Cant . for " Cantuariensis ", the Latin name for Canterbury ) in Christchurch is New Zealand ' s second oldest university . It was founded in 1873 as Canterbury College , the first constituent college of the University of New Zealand . Its original campus was in the central city , but in 1961 when it became an independent university it also began moving out of its original neo - gothic buildings , which were re - purposed as the Christchurch Arts Centre . The university now operates its main campus in the suburb of Ilam and offers degrees in Arts , Commerce , Education ( physical education ), ___MASK42___ , Fine Arts , Forestry , Health Sciences , Law , Music , Social Work , Speech and Language Pathology , Science , Sports Coaching and Teaching . Melbourne is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria , and the second - most populous city in Australia . The name " Melbourne " refers to an urban agglomeration spanning which comprises the broader metropolitan area , as well as being the common name for its city centre . The metropolis is located on the large natural bay of Port Phillip and expands into the hinterlands towards the Dandenong and Macedon ___MASK27___ ranges , Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley . Melbourne consists of 31 municipalities . It has a population of 4 , 529 , 500 , and its inhabitants are called Melburnians . Sydney Shoemaker ( born 1931 ) is an American ___MASK67___ . He was the Susan Linn Sage Professor of Philosophy at Cornell University . He holds a PhD from Cornell and BA from Reed . In 1971 , he delivered the John Locke Lectures at Oxford University . He has worked primarily in the philosophy of mind and metaphysics , and has many classic papers in both of these areas ( as well as their overlap ). In " Functionalism and Qualia " ( 1975 ), he argues that functionalism about mental states can account for the qualitative character ( or ' raw feel ') of mental states . In " Self - Reference and Self - Awareness " ( 1968 ), he argues that the phenomenon of absolute ' Immunity to Error Through Misidentification ' is what distinguishes self - attributions of mental states ( such as " I see a canary ") from self - attributions of physical states ( such as " I weigh 200 pounds "). In metaphysics , he has defended the view that laws are metaphysically necessary , a position that follows from his view of properties as clusters of conditional causal powers . He has also applied his view of properties to the problem of mental causation . He also has distinguished contributions to the literature on self - knowledge and personal identity , where he defended a Lockean psychological continuity theory in his influential paper " Persons and their Pasts ". In his recent work on the content of perception , he has argued for a distinctive version of internalist representationalism . Andrew Dickson White ( November 7 , 1832  November 4 , 1918 ) was an American ___MASK8___ and educator , who was the cofounder of Cornell University and served as its first president for nearly two decades . He was known for expanding the scope of college curriculae . A ___MASK52___ , he had served as state senator in New York . He was later appointed as a US diplomat to Germany and Russia , among other responsibilities . The University of California , Berkeley , ( also referred to as Berkeley , UC Berkeley , and Cal ) is a public ___MASK48___ university located in Berkeley , California . Founded in 1868 , Berkeley is the oldest of the ten ___MASK48___ universities affiliated with the University of California system , and is often cited as the top public university in the United States and around the world . Richard Newell Boyd ( born 19 May 1942 , Washington , D . C ., USA ; Ph . D . MIT 1970 ) is an American ___MASK67___ who has spent most of his career at Cornell University , though he also taught briefly at Harvard University , the University of Michigan , Ann Arbor , and the University of California , Berkeley . He has also been a visiting professor at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch , New Zealand , and the University of Melbourne in Melbourne , Victoria , Australia . Cornell University is an American private Ivy League and federal land - grant doctoral university located in Ithaca , New York . Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White , the university was intended to ___MASK56___ and make contributions in all fields of knowledge  from the ___MASK16___ to the sciences , and from the theoretical to the applied . These ideals , unconventional for the time , are captured in Cornell ' s motto , a popular 1865 Ezra Cornell quotation : " I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study ." Philosophy ( from Greek , " philosophia ", literally " love of wisdom ") is the study of ___MASK61___ and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence , knowledge , values , reason , mind , and language . The term was probably coined by Pythagoras ( c . 570  c . 495 BC ). Philosophical methods include questioning , critical discussion , rational argument and systematic presentation . Classic philosophical questions include : Is it possible to know anything and to prove it ? What is most real ? However , philosophers might also pose more practical and concrete questions such as : Is there a best way to live ? Is it better to be just or unjust ( if one can get away with it )? Do humans have free will ? Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege ( 8 November 1848  26 July 1925 ) was a German ___MASK67___ , logician , and mathematician . Reason is the capacity for consciously making sense of things , applying logic , establishing and verifying facts , and changing or justifying practices , institutions , and beliefs based on new or existing information . It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy , ___MASK78___ , language , mathematics , and art and is normally considered to be a definitive characteristic of human nature . Reason , or an aspect of it , is sometimes referred to as rationality . ___MASK21___ ( commonly abbreviated as " prof .") is an academic rank at universities and other post - secondary education and research institutions in most countries . Literally , " ___MASK21___ " derives from Latin as a " person who professes " being usually an expert in arts or sciences , a teacher of the highest rank . The University of Massachusetts Amherst ( otherwise known as UMass Amherst or simply UMass ) is a public ___MASK48___ and land - grant university in Amherst , Massachusetts , United States , and the flagship of the University of Massachusetts system . With approximately 1 , 300 ___MASK66___ members and more than 29 , 000 students , UMass Amherst is the largest public university in New England and is ranked as tied for the 27th best public university in the nation .