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What would it mean to say that mathematics was invented and how would this be different from saying mathematics was discovered?
Is this even a serious philosophical question, or just a meaningless, tautological linguistic ambiguity? In the context of mathematics, could “invented” and “discovered” mean the same thing?
H... |
If a person were committing suicide by jumping off a building and you shot them on the way down, killing them, are you culpable for their death?
Legally, you may or may not be, depending on the jurisdiction. But what would the philosophical underpinnings of such a law be? It could be viewed as a mercy killing, in a w... |
Søren Kierkegaard is generally considered to be the "father of existentialism". This always bothered me, since to me Sartre and Camus are the defining figures of the movement, and it seems that there is no room for God in an existential worldview.
Kierkegaard was focused on concrete reality, and the individual, so you ... |
Starting with the supposition that we want to allow humans free agency, insofar as it does not infringe upon the free agency of others, what punishments can a state impose that do not make it guilty of the same infringement?
In other words, is it coherent for a government to punish a person "X" (who took away free agen... |
I recently encountered a debate about whether Objectivism was the same as the philosophies of Ayn Rand. Wikipedia tells me they're synonyms. Is there another definition of "objectivism"? Has objectivism evolved beyond what Rand defined it as? What are the differences between pure, Randian Objectivism and other vers... |
What is the logical difference between something being necessary in order for something else to be true; as opposed to something being sufficient to make something else true?
Example:
Fuel is sufficient to make an internal combustion engine run.
vs.
Fuel is necessary to make an internal combustion engine run.
|
How could one logically demonstrate to someone skeptical that one is "really" there, and awake, and not just dreaming about the entire world around them?
Which philosophers or philosophies have addressed this problem of how one knows one is, or is not, dreaming?
|
What is a comprehensive definition of philosophy? Or is it impossible to define philosophy?
At the risk of being ‘too broad’ a question, I would like to point out that the question of what philosophy is is a recurrent topic in the history of philosophy. To an extent, maybe it’s not any different than the science of lin... |
I see and hear various media/articles and people's view which insist others to commit altruistic acts. Sometimes to the extent that it is no more persuasion but force.
Why is that right or wrong and what philosophy motivates them to force this principle?
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What was the main criticism of the ancient Stoic school of philosophy with respect to the system of philosophy of the Epicureans?
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The naturalistic fallacy was described and named by G.E. Moore at the beginning of the 20th century.
But have there been pre-enlightenment philosophers who have treated the concept?
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I can't be the only one who finds this strange. Section 7 of Anthropology from a Pragmatic Perspective, entitled "On Sensibility in contrast to understanding", reads as follows:
In regard to the state of its representations, my mind is either active and exhibits a faculty (facultas), or it is passive and consists in r... |
On Plantinga's account, true belief becomes knowledge under epistemic warrant; and epistemic warrant requires the 'proper functioning' of our cognitive faculties in the right kind of cognitive environment. Plantinga further holds that the resulting knowledge has a foundational structure which is most securely based on ... |
What are the most significant responses to David Lewis' book On the Plurality of Worlds (1986)? In particular, are there any good critical readings of Lewis' views on modal realism?
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I'm having trouble understanding all the various theories of epistemology and how they relate, and which are considered current. Is there a good resource or reference to understand the current state of the field?
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I've heard it postulated by some people that "we can't truly know anything". While that does seem to apply to the vast majority of things, I can't see how 'cogito ergo sum' can possibly be false.
No matter what I am, no matter in what way I'm being tricked, no matter how I may be deluded, I must exist in order to - i... |
Can you prove, absolutely and 100%, that something is true, in the field of philosophy? It always seems you can go a layer down, and find another question, almost endlessly.
Reference
Development of Proof Theory
|
Blaise Pascal's famous wager was that even if the existence of God cannot be determined through reason, a rational person should wager as though God exists, because living life accordingly has everything to gain, and nothing to lose.
What logical flaws and/or fallacies, if any, are committed in the making of this argum... |
Let's say I invent a concept X in my own imaginings.
The only property it has is X-ness; it is defined as 'that which is represented by X'.
I have just defined that to be the case.
It seems to me, now, that it must be true that X=X.
X is the same thing as itself.
I thought this was hard to argue against, but someone ha... |
With regards to the famous trolley problem, I know that neuroscientists have largely found people believe it is morally wrong to flip the switch to kill one man in order to save five strangers.
I also know that they've found that the disgust centers in our brain (such as the amygdala) light up on a functional MRI based... |
My basic question concerns the meaning of freedom in Nietzsche's work. Nietzsche suggests that, in reality, a will can never be absolutely "free" or "unfree"—rather, any particular will is going to be strong or weak to some actual degree, ruling indeed though ruled in turn. So (he claims) our "free will" is a "boorish ... |
There are arguments confirming and denying that animals have consciousness. Some arguments say that not even all humans have consciousness, e.g. small babies.
Which observable signs do exist that indicate that another being (animal, baby, ...) may be conscious?
Following these signs, what would be the consequences of a... |
Psychopathy is not universally agreed upon in psychology, but among some there is a consensus that psychopathy is highly heritable, and that psychopaths are lacking in conscience and empathy. Psychopathy is sometimes understood as a predisposition to consider other's feelings less. The idea that this is an alternative ... |
What arguments speak for/against tolerance towards intolerance?
Can someone be called fully tolerant, if they don't tolerate intolerance? Hence, does tolerance exist in a pure form?
On the other hand, doesn't tolerating intolerance kill tolerance?
|
When good things become common in my life, I wonder if I truly still appreciate them as much as I did in the beginning. This makes me wonder if good things can only be appreciated in relation to their absence or their opposite. Is pain needed to appreciate pleasure? Is death required in order that we appreciate life?
A... |
In John Rawls' A Theory of Justice, he argues that morally, society should be constructed politically as if we were all behind a veil of ignorance; that is, the rules and precepts of society should be constructed as if we had no a priori knowledge of our future wealth, talents, and social status, and could be placed in... |
Or in other words, why is the species problem a problem? The "mutually interbreeding kinds" definition seems natural enough; in fact, it's as ancient as the Bible, as shown by Leviticus 19:19
You shall keep My statutes. You shall not let your livestock breed with another kind. You shall not sow your field with mixed s... |
What are the major branches of philosophy?
(For instance, as a first-order approximation, mathematics can be sub-divided into three main categories at the first level: Analysis, Algebra, and Geometry.)
What are the first few books that every person attempting to "learn" these areas of philosophy at an undergraduate lev... |
I don't understand the meaning of this oft-quoted quotation of Hume's in On Reason, namely his saying that "reason is a slave to the passions." What exactly does he mean by that ? Is it simply that reason is subsequent to a deeper moral sense? Is it equivalent to the maxim today that "science cannot answer moral ques... |
X-Phi, the practice of performing philosophy based on experimental measures from the "real world" tends to concern itself with moral philosophy testing. As I'm finishing up my thesis on the philosophy of data, I am wondering if there are other research projects in progress which use experimental philosophy and apply it... |
In my graduate experiences, especially in the philosophy of technology, I saw that far too much philosophy is designed to be consumed by other philosophers. As a pragmatist, I am always interested in the utility of philosophy.
How can I take useful philosophy,
especially philosophy of technology,
and export useful ide... |
Socrates continually admonished his interlocutors to become more introspective, arguing passionately for self-examination:
The unexamined life is not worth living.
But an examined life is painful, and necessitates an involvement with real problems. This is why it's worth living -- the unreflective are easily trapped ... |
Heidegger, as a tangent in his discussion of Daesin, talks about objects/tools which can be either ready-to-hand or present-at-hand.
As I find Heidegger painfully unreadable, but his concepts useful, which philosophers discuss these concepts and apply them to the philosophy of technology?
At present, I'm aware of Drey... |
Dungeons and dragons has long struggled with actual definitions of its moral abstractions, "Law," "Chaos," "Good," and "Evil"
In older games, nine "alignments" were possible, describing a character's moral relationship to the world. These alignments were formed along two orthagonal axes, "Law-Chaos" and "Good-Evil"
Ho... |
In my research on the Philosophy of Data, I've found some remarkable similarities between some peoples' conceptions of data and the Aristotelian idea of Species, the particles of experience/sense-impression carried by media. For example, according to Aristotle, light carries visual species which are received by the eye... |
A friend of mine told me that he interpreted this quote as mocking the military mindset, and that it should not be taken as indicative of what Nietzsche actually thought, so I looked it up in context, and found this:
MAXIMS AND ARROWS
[ . . . ]
7. What? Is man merely a mistake of God's? Or God merely a mistake of ma... |
Are logical propositions that:
rely on deduction, and
are non-falsifiable
not worthy of pursuing?
Or is falsifiability only a requirement on inductive reasoning?
|
Can a person be Psychological Egoist and Ethical Egoist at the same time? Or those terms are not mutually exclusive and one can be both?
|
The Scientific Method is essentially the effort to discover causation in perceived correlations of collected data. In other words it hunts for 'recipes' that can be applied to consistently achieve a desired result, and as such does not inquire into why something happens, but rather into what makes it happen. Philosophy... |
There are, at present, two dominant ways to read Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (TLP). One is called the irresolute reading, the other the resolute reading.
The irresolute reading takes what is called an inaustere view of nonsense: it takes Wittgenstein's propositions in the TLP to be nonsensical in tha... |
Are there any significant philosophical consequences to the instrumentalist view of the universe?
Does it quickly become a distinction without a difference (perhaps simply inline with pragmatism?), or as a premise does it lead down any unique paths of it own?
|
Assuming we're dealing with the actions of two people based on the preferences of two non overlapping sets of affected people, other than the number of people, which methods are available to resolve weighing conflicts on the same preference?
I know there's a hierarchy of preferences, staying alive trumps avoiding pain,... |
It is believed by some that the closest Nietzsche comes to naming the Übermensch is Goethe. However, in my own readings (which is not comprehensive) I've not found any solid evidence. What is generally the basis for the thinking that Goethe was the closest to Nietzsche's ideal?
Specific passages and critical studie... |
I am looking for discussions about good and evil in non-Abrahamic philosophies (meaning traditionally Eastern schools of thought, such as those from India and China). The reason being, good and evil are quite central topics in both the Bible and the Quran and have consequently been a great influence upon philosophers i... |
"I am convinced that boredom is one
of the greatest tortures. If I were
to imagine Hell, it would be the
place where you were continually
bored" - Eric Fromm
Has there been any significant philosophical studies on the issue of boredom as a problem of humanity, as a root of all evil(and good) in some sense... |
The question pretty much explains itself. I'm interested in instances of ontological arguments (arguments purporting to prove the existence of God/Gods/a God) outside the Western tradition and/or outside scholastic theology.
To explain what is not an answer: Godel's or Platinga's arguments, although not strictly theol... |
In common parlance, pragmatic and utilitarian are very similar ways of doing things. In philosophical traditions, Utilitarians and Pragmatists are very different. In terms of understanding an action deemed "utilitarian" or "pragmatic", what defining contrast is there between the two? Does this contrast relate back to t... |
In the 2004 book "Camus and Sartre: The Story of a Friendship and the Quarrel That Ended It" (link to a brief review/synopsis), the author portrays two of the leading members of the literary class' political left as divided over the following dichotomy (emphasis mine):
Camus came to see oppression within both the Sovi... |
Voltaire wrote, Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien, which is usually translated as, The better/best/perfect is the enemy of the good. I've always understood this to mean that looking for the best solution often prevents us from accepting a good enough solution, and have applied this philosophy in my professional life as a p... |
Is Philosophical Skepticism - the one that advocates true knowledge is impossible, the most rational standpoint?
I am asking this based on the observation that there are very few things whose existence is certain to be true.
We are not certain about the existence of the world we live in, because we see everything via ... |
I found a throwaway critique of Kurt Gödel's incompleteness theorem in an essay about deconstruction, “How to Deconstruct Anything” by Chip Morningstar. In the context of the article, the critique of Gödel was helpful in understanding the critique of "Deconstruction".
The basic enterprise of contemporary literary crit... |
There are a lot of questions involving rational judgment, rational choice, rational explanation, and so on.
At the same time, it seems that "being rational" is a guiding principle for many people.
Prior to assessing the value of rationality, I am not sure that I understand what it means when we say "this is a rational ... |
As I read them, Kierkegaard's writings can be split into two groups: the mostly philosophical psuedonymous, and more theological non-pseudonymous works.
I have read primarily the pseudonymous works (Either-Or, Concluding Unscientific Postscript, Fear and Trembling) and a few other bits and pieces (including The Book on... |
My senior thesis explored the notion of action under George Berkeley's system, and one claim I tried to address was that Berkeley contradicts himself when discussing will.
In his Philosophical Commentaries, Berkeley writes:
We move our Legs our selves. 'tis we that will their movement. Herein I differ from Malebranche... |
This question is not meant to deal with the religious side of the Teapot (or FSM or the Invisible Pink Unicorn), but rather the inherent epistemological claims and their export to other areas of knowledge.
With respect solely to the epistemic;
By which methods is it possible to evaluate a claim about a teapot in a pl... |
In my undergraduate days, I remember reading someone occupying roughly a mental and historical space as David Hume (originally my thought was between Hume and Kuhn), and have a vaguely recalled passage that I would like to source. Though on first asking this question I thought it may even be Hume or Kuhn, I am fairly c... |
The Art of War, an ancient military treatise written by Sun Tzu, is composed of thirteen chapters detailing strategies for war ranging from simply laying plans to the extensive use of fire and spies against one's enemies. For centuries, it has been regarded as the definite reading for military strategists, enthusiasts,... |
We are living in an unprecedented era of philosophical research and development where "big thought" is once again everywhere. And yet I feel like I hear this question so often:
Where to begin studying contemporary
philosophy, where are the most helpful
(accessible/"friendly") places to
begin?
Of course there ar... |
Suppose a German SS officer knocked on my door, asking me whether I had any Jews. And suppose further that I had two Jews in a secret compartment in the attic that he'd never be able to find. Everybody will agree that I must lie and say I haven't any Jews in my house.
But I'd have to disobey Kant's categorical imperati... |
My philosophy professor once told our class: The only people who believe in solipsism are infants and madmen. I was inclined to agree at the time. Yet years later, I have still not encountered any good arguments to disprove this idea.
Thus, I am curious—is this question of the same ilk as the "free will vs. determinism... |
Who are the most important, widely-read or influential living philosophers still actively working and contributing to the field today? Which thinkers are recognized for doing the most interesting and urgent work?
This is clearly subjective borderline territory so please try to justify your claim. As per the discussion ... |
Many religions like Islam and Hinduism have holy books(the Quran and the Vedas, respectively) which claim some kind of superhuman origin. However, are the limitations of languages then counter to their claims? For example:
Since the languages are human inventions, that means that humans predate the books.
Languages, i... |
I was going to ask this question as a comment in response to @Chad's answer to What would Kant do when two categorical imperatives conflict? Could he ever justify lying?, however I figured it merits it's own proper question.
I find it odd that under Kant's Categorical Imperative a lie is morally reprehensible to the ut... |
Foucault says what constitutes insanity is a label determined by society. Whether someone is sane or insane is not a clear, objective fact. I do not disagree. He says this labelling can be dangerous.
At first glance, this all seems evident but somewhat trivial: of course it is bad to have people committed for some evil... |
Gödel's incompleteness theorems show that arithmetic is either inconsistent or incomplete, and that arithmetic cannot prove its own consistency. It is useful to believe that arithmetic is consistent, and therefore also incomplete, but there are other points of view.
It seems to me that both views are compatible with... |
Are the terms 'Ethics' and 'Moral Philosophy' different in extension as terms in philosophy? Some Departments of Philosophy have courses with titles like "Introduction to Ethics" and others with titles like "Introduction to Moral Philosophy." Likewise, one sees both terms used in the titles of introductory textbooks an... |
God is commonly defined as an omniscient (infinite knowledge), omnipotent (unlimited power), omnipresent (present everywhere) entity.
Is there any logical inconsistency in this definition?
I have seen several paradoxes like below:
Does God know what he's going to do
tomorrow? If so, could he do something
else?" If God... |
In a preceeding question I have asked about the foundations of rational reasonning. It seems the concept of identity plays a key role. However "identity" is not observed in the real world: our mind creates identities.
For example if you see a simple blue pencil, turn your head and go back to the pencil, you say "these... |
I am interested in the link between philosophy and legal systems, in particular the American legal system (and English heritage) and the underlying ideas in play.
At a high-level, it seems to me causation, intent, burden of proof, no cruel or unusual punishment, jury of your peers, no double jeopardy, precedent et al.... |
Gödel's First Incompleteness Theorem states
Any effectively generated theory
capable of expressing elementary
arithmetic cannot be both consistent
and complete. In particular, for any
consistent, effectively generated
formal theory that proves certain
basic arithmetic truths, there is an
arithmetical sta... |
Kevin Warwick had a sonar sense implanted and could sense whether an object was close or far. Evidence is accumulating that our brains can make sense of "foreign" information like sonar (consider the vOICe).
It can be assumed/hoped that artificial eyes will feed the human brain information more than the currently avail... |
Building on Was mathematics invented or discovered? I would like to know what the major criticisms are of Alain Badiou's claim that mathematics is "the very site of ontology" (in Being and Event.)
|
For the purposes of this question, take the Cultural Relativist Thesis to be the claim that what actions are right and wrong is a function of the which actions the norms of one's culture endorse as right and condemn as wrong.
Say that that thesis works for a member of an isolated and culturally homogeneous hunter gathe... |
I am interested to find out work done in this direction by prominent philosophers in each tradition.
My paradigm cases would be Richard Rorty on the analytic side and Alain Badiou on the continental side. (That said, I know little about Badiou's efforts at reconciliation - so if anyone could elaborate on those I would ... |
What is a "straw man" argument?
Assuming an interlocutor is utilizing such an argument against you, what are some techniques for countering it?
What motivations might lie behind a disputant using a straw man argument rather than engage in a more straightforward debate?
|
Some futurologists predict that we may have human-level artificial intelligences within the next few decades. What might be the most significant philosophical consequences of such a development, and in particular, what might a reasonable ethical policy look like with regards to the rights of sentient machines? Would it... |
A dictionary defines words in a language, in terms of other words in that same language. An English dictionary is not the same as a Spanish dictionary, simply because the sets of English words and Spanish words are not the same. Dictionaries are revised over time, new words are added and old words are discarded, and ... |
Whenever I read about honour (the evaluation of a person's social status as judged by that individual's community), it is usually in a negative context (e.g., honour killings) or strictly comparative (e.g., cultures of guilt versus cultures of honour).
This comes as a bit of a surprise, as my personal (though probably ... |
There have been several questions here about good and evil and about God/gods, some of which I might more intuitively classify as theological rather than philosophical questions. However, many great philosophers, including Plato, have discussed such matters. Are these cases of philosophers discussing theological questi... |
It's pretty much universally accepted that healthy humans have sentience, but that's where the agreement stops. Many would say that complex animals have sentience, such as dogs, cats, cows, sheep, etc. But what about a mouse, an ant, or a bacterium? And what about a severely brain-damaged human that doesn't seem to ... |
I've seen philosophical arguments descriped as 'argumentum ad lapidem', but never quite understood what the criticism is trying to indicate. As best I can tell, it's a dismissal of an argument with no good justification. Could anybody expand a little on the precise nature of this logical fallacy?
|
Albert Einstein described the fact that he believed in 'god'; yet, he did not define that god as a personal god who actually existed as a separate being. He used the concept to describe everything that exists.
Although Einstein is commonly hailed as a great physicist, could one also say that he was a philosopher? Man... |
Possible Duplicate:
Is the definition of God consistent?
As many of you, I've come across a few paradoxes of all sorts, from logic to math, linguistics and so forth. Some of such involve God or, at least, what Western Philosophy attributes to it.
As an example, assume God is omnipotent, he can do everything he want... |
Postmodernism has always seemed to have a very fuzzy definition to me. It tends to be defined in terms of what it's not, or what it criticizes; for example, it "aims to show that every 'text' is utterly self-contradictory", or it "is a movement away from the viewpoint of modernism". Wikipedia's article on postmoderni... |
Sam Harris has argued on many occasions - the earliest of which I'm aware of being in his book, The End of Faith, as well as later on in The Moral Landscape - that it is (at least theoretically) possible for us to scientifically determine what is good and what is evil. He argues that the only assumption we need to mak... |
I've seen philosophical arguments descriped as 'argumentum ad baculum', but never quite understood what the criticism is trying to indicate. As best I can tell, it's using force or the threat of force to win an argument. Could anybody expand a little on the precise nature of this logical fallacy?
|
The article can be found here.
It deals with many issues, but what I would really like to see a response to is the following paragraph:
[W]hy don’t we make ourselves the last generation on earth? If we would all agree to have ourselves sterilized then no sacrifices would be required — we could party our way into extin... |
I've heard (from a source which now escapes me) that later in his life Kuhn retreated from some of the more relativistic claims of The Structure of Sceintific Revolutions. Specifically, I think I remember hearing that he retreated from the claim that paradigms are "incommensurable" to a belief that one paradigm could, ... |
What is the view that everything is ultimately composed of four fundamental elements called?
|
Let's say we have an equation that has no end to its result.
(Sorry I don't have an example to hand, and the value of Pi is still under question so I won't use that).
Can this value be considered absolute (like an absolute truth)? Or would it be undefined (even though we know what it "is")?
P.S. this is not so much abo... |
The paradoxes of material implication show that the usual interpretation of implication as "if ... then" statements leads to counter-intuitive results. For example, from (P & Q) -> R we can derive (P -> R) v (Q -> R), which doesn't make much sense if we consider them as "if ... then" statements. Quoth wikipedia:
[The ... |
Possible Duplicate:
Are there any philosophical arguments to disprove or weaken solipsism?
What justification(s) exist for the generally-agreed-upon axiom that a physical world beyond our mind both exists, and is knowable? This seems to be taken for granted, but rarely wrestled with in my experience. If no justifica... |
Finally the site is open! I've been waiting to ask this for a week or so. I have been pondering typical responses concerning intercession and resultant positive/negative outcomes and am hoping someone can assist with explaining the actual argument being used, or perhaps that should be used.
The gist of the problem is t... |
I have been following apologetics for quite some time and have run into many claims that certain epistemological methods typically associated with non-theism (for example, empiricism and logical positivism) do not handle things like the infinite regress and evil demon problems.
In contrast, I have run into apologists w... |
I'm interested in how societies deal with criminals, and I was wondering where to start in understanding the contribution philosophers have made to this question. I'm particularly wanting to understand the moral questions (as distinct from practical or political considerations).
To what extent has this topic been devel... |
Could anyone point me to some authors who have discussed the ideas surrounding death in western Philosophy?
(Not whether we know we exist but rather the concept of mortality and immortality).
|
Every time I have heard utilitarianism discussed, it is generally assumed that utility should be averaged. While this sounds reasonable, the reasoning isn't particularly strong.
What justifications are there for using an (arithmetical) average?
Are there any alternate suggestions for combining individual utility funct... |
According to Dimo414:
It seems to me that in a sense
utilitarianism is a meta-ethic. I
would claim that any ethical system
can be reconstructed - without
changing it's meaning or consequences
- to be described in utilitarian terms.
Is this reasoning correct?
|
How does utilitarianism deal with adding more people? (Question updated to include total utilitarianism)
Firstly, suppose we are using average utilitarianism. Suppose everyone in the world is super happy, we then "magically" generate a new person who is only slightly less happy and will not affect the happiness of anyb... |
Wikipedia says,
The claim "No human lives forever" is
not falsifiable since one would have
to observe a human living forever to
falsify that claim.
Thinking on similar lines, even if the coin is fair, it can produce a arbitrarily long(finite) sequence of continuous heads with finite but small probability.
So if... |
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