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The Lamp Room
The epchē blog. Each piece answers one question people ask about what they believe, in plain words, and names its sources.
The Ship of Theseus: the puzzle is about logic
Replace every plank and is it the same ship? The puzzle rests on a rule of logic, every answer has a price, and for people the stakes are higher.
Pascal's wager: a decision argument, not a proof
Pascal's wager explained: the three premises, why each fails, the many-gods objection, and what the argument still teaches about infinite stakes.
Do Stoics suppress emotions? What they actually did
The Stoics did not aim at feeling nothing. They sorted feelings by whether a mistaken judgment sits inside them, and trained the judgment, not the reflex.
"I think, therefore I am": what it proves
Descartes found one thing he couldn't doubt and it proves less than people think. What does it actually mean and how to use it?
Why must we imagine Sisyphus happy? Camus explained
Camus ends his essay by asking us to imagine Sisyphus happy. What he meant by the absurd, the three ways of answering it and what is still questioned.
Epicurus on death: why it is nothing to us
Epicurus said death is nothing to us. His argument, why he thought it frees us from fear, and the reply that death can still harm.
The experience machine: would you plug in?
Nozick asked whether you would plug into a machine that gives only pleasant experiences. What the case tests, and how people answer.
The trolley problem explained, with both answers
Divert a runaway trolley to kill one person and save five? What utilitarians and deontologists say, and why the bridge version feels different.
Plato's cave explained: what the story says
Prisoners chained in a cave take shadows for the real world. What Plato's story says, what it stands for, and how it sits on our map.
Is nihilism depressing? What philosophers say
Nihilism says life has no built-in meaning. Philosophers disagree on whether that has to hurt: some found horror in it, others found freedom.