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The Brazilian philosopher Olavo de Carvalho has written a philosophical “refutation” of Cantor’s theorem in his book “O Jardim das Aflições” (“The Garden of Afflictions”). Since the book has only been published in Portuguese, I’m translating the main points here. The enunciation of his thesis is: Georg Cantor believed...
I keep coming across this term and would appreciate it if someone could define it for me and also provide a relevant example.
Mainstream analytic epistemology seems to take for granted that for S to know p, p must be true. I do not share this intuition. It seems that to be properly internalist about knowledge, one can't appeal to the truth of the propositions under discussion. So my question is the following: Is there any literature (preferab...
René Descartes gave us the problem of how the mind interacts with the body in its modern formulation. Essentially, he asked how the incorporeal mind was able to influence the material body. He also pointed out that the mind was influenced by the body, which was a more novel suggestion (and clearly a true one given wh...
Quoting SEP: Version A: Whatever I clearly and distinctly perceive to be contained in the idea of something is true of that thing. I clearly and distinctly perceive that necessary existence is contained in the idea of God. Therefore, God exists. Version B: I have an idea of supremely perfect being, i.e. a being ...
Let's say you tell me to produce randomly a number from 1-100, and I choose the number 47. Can it be said that there is a specific reason I chose the number 47, and that it is not completely random? By random I mean that there is absolutely no reason this number in particular was chosen. It seems odd to me, since it ...
Wittgenstein said, "If you cannot doubt a thing, you cannot know it." For example he said that you cannot know your pain because you cannot doubt that you are in pain. I don't quite understand this thinking and am wondering if anyone can clarify this concept. And also did this idea originate from Descartes? Meaning i...
In his book "Méthodes modernes en géométrie", Jean Fresnel wrote: il ne faut pas se faire d'illusions, Descartes résout des problème de géométrie, non parce qu'il a de la méthode, mais parce qu'il a des idées (Rough translation: "don't expect too much, Descartes solves geometric problems because he has ideas, not b...
One way to look at "cogito ergo sum" is as an interesting intellectual thought. But Descartes clearly indicates that he actually had this thought in winter 1619 under very special circumstances: I was then in Germany, attracted thither by the wars in that country, which have not yet been brought to a termination; ...
I was having a discussion last night about my atheism, and it was suggested to me that agnostism is the only reasonable conclusion, as it leaves the door open for new information. This made me think, were they right? Or is a total lack of evidence for a contrary position justification for a logical conclusion?
Is it possible that something has no purpose or cause? In that life has no purpose or no cause, it just exists. The same with the universe. Or everything has a cause or purpose, it's just we don't know it, either because we don't have enough brain power as a species, or because humanity hasn't advanced so far yet. I'v...
Does the fact that I know I am going to die make me superior in a sense to all the other living creatures that have no understanding of this event? Is the fact that I know that one day I am going to die a good thing for me? One could argue that because I know that one day I am going to die I have an incentive for doing...
I hear it asserted that David Hume said one cannot deduce an "ought" from an "is". I also find it asserted that he said reason must be only the servant of the passions. I had long uncritically thought that the argument was: one cannot deduce an "ought" from an "is"; THEREFORE reason can only serve the passions. I've n...
From the book The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand "If... if you can see what you're talking about, you can't be what you are." "No, my dear. I must be what I am, precisely because of what I see." Obviously Rand used her characters as a medium for her philosophy. Which of these two sounds more like Ayn's beliefs or her Objec...
Nihilism states that no matter what you do, it's meaningless. But how do you decide then, what to do? A few years back I read "The Myth of Sisyphus" by Camus, in which he tackles the question, if suicide is the logical outcome of nihilism (which he finally answers by "no"). He calls his philosophy absurdism, but from w...
According to John Locke's notion of tabula rasa, there are no innate ideas in the mind. All human knowledge comes from sensible experience. Assuming this principle, it follows that there is no innate moral sense, either. The notions of right vs. wrong, good vs. evil are somehow the product of the interaction between hu...
I just read "The History of Western Philosophy" and liked it very much. I would like to now read a history that covers the span after Russell wrote the book, from 1940-present. Can anyone recommend a good book that explains the history of thought for this time period? I am looking for a somewhat high level overview so ...
In various Nyingma Buddhist groups in Nepal there is a local theory of mind that, most basically, holds that you can not ever know what another person is thinking. This is a phenomenon that I have come across in relation to both the Sherpa and Yolmo peoples, and there are likely others as well. For example, in Sherry O...
I am studying a logic text book and there is the following example which I don't get: Because I had decided, right off, that I liked John, what I heard in his answer was toughness and confidence. Had I decided early on that I didn't like him, I would have heard in his reply arrogance and bluster. The first...
Possible Duplicate: Is everyone considered a “philosopher”? I commonly hear politicians say that they are philosophers. And a favorite degree offered by diploma mills is philosophy. How can one know when their studies or thoughts have become sufficient to warrant one the title of philosopher? I believe one doesn't ...
Possible Duplicate: Does a negative claimant have a burden of proof? I have always wondered if NOT doing something requires reason like doing something does. As an example, do you think the following Q/A is rational? -Do you believe in God? -No -Why? -It's believing in God that requires reason! Not believing does n...
What's the purpose of our existence? :) Religions say that without the made-up gods humans have no purpose to live. Is meeting your maker the ultimate reason to live?
I am wondering if it would be reasonable to apply to M.A. or Phd programs in Philosophy with only a B.A. in Computer Science. I have done a great deal of reading in the field of Philosophy, but have never taken a class. I would be looking mostly at State Universities in the Cleveland, OH area.
Is it true that human in outer space can't differ right side and left side? Around human no another solid. Thanks.
I don't know if I should ask this here because the question is more like a sociology one. Anyway, I will give it a try, since most of the sociologists are also philosophers, so maybe I'll be lucky finding an answer. I am preparing for an exam, and I understand really well Lévi-Strauss's structuralism and I also underst...
Let's say my friend has a fly on her head, but she does not know it. I say to her: "You don't know that you have a fly on your head". Right before I uttered my statement - it was true, but right after I uttered it - it was false. Was I lying?
I'm not well versed in philosophy, which is why I'm asking, so feel free to tell me if I'm going at this in the wrong way. Is there any particular school of ethics that could justify cruel treatment (as in causing severe physical or emotional pain and/or injuries) of other people? The infamous medical experiments made ...
I recently noticed a pattern of interaction with someone. This person will start talking about something, give overly elaborate explanations that wander wildly between disconnected ideas, often using pseudo-logic. I believe the goal is to obfuscate a message that is hidden within nonsense. The person is trying to se...
Original Question: I am a newbie, but am interested in some perspective here. I find it fascinating to examine and read about fallacies commonly used as techniques to gain an upper hand in debate. In looking at the big picture these are all errors in logic, purposeful or not. I wonder if there is another "category" of...
I just came across a use of the phrase "vacuous tautology" used in a piece of writing. Now, based on my understanding, by definition a tautology has no content and is therefore always vacuous. This would make the use of the word vacuous in "vacuous tautology" redundant. However, I have only passing familiarity with for...
Examining the practical, impactful, real-life benefits of getting a degree in philosophy It is often asked, "What is the practical use of philosophy?" or "How will learning about philosophy impact real-life?" It is easy to see why there is such mystery surrounding the topic. Most schools up through high school may only...
Why did Chalmers shift from idealism to dualism? And Russell from materialism to neutral monism? Edit: The particulars of Russell is recounted in A.C. Grayling's 'Russell: A Very Short Introduction' (1996/2002). I reread the section and gather Russell was dealing with how entities are related to percepts by means of in...
What is the position called, where one judges a meaning or value of a concept by what can be done with it? For exmaple if one takes the position, that the question if there is free will or not is pretty much meaningless, because even if I suddently know for sure if there is such a thing or not, I should still be acting...
Is there a field or term which can be used to describe conjecture on the notion that: The validity of an idea is related to the number of proponents/opponents of the idea. Such a field would concern (or, term would describe), the validity of statements such as: I find it hard to agree with an idea which has so littl...
Is there a field or term which can be used to describe conjecture on the notion that: The validity of an idea is related to the length of time it has been debated. Such a field would concern (or, term would describe), the validity of statements such as: People have thought about this for a long time and no-one has s...
It is often claimed in the historical literature that Plato's teachings were divided into the written documents (his famous books, like The Republic, The Laws etc) and oral teachings (what Aristotle called the "unwritten doctrines") . Some scholars even claim that the best and most important part of his philosophy was ...
I'm afraid that I am not too well versed in philosophy so I do not know whether this is a silly question, but I've had some difficulty in finding out what this is called. Question: Suppose we had a judicial system which tried to uphold the idea that justice is when an offender makes right exactly what he has done wrong...
In order to study computer programming, it is clear what concepts one should study first (for example, if-statements, for-loops, classes, objects, etc.). By comparison, it is not evident what topics one should begin studying philosophy with. Can somebody suggest a down-to-earth learning approach for philosophy?
There is a consistent pattern throughout the corpus of Plato's dialogues: first, Socrates proposes a philosophical problem, like "what is justice?" or "is there an immortal soul?". Then he goes on to challenge each attempt of his interlocutors at defining the concept or solving the problem. As the dialogue evolves, the...
In order to acquire irrefutable knowledge, Descartes first doubted everything, even the existence of an external world. Then, starting from the "cogito, ergo sum", he started proving the existence of everything he had doubted before. Some time ago, I heard from a philosophy professor that this method is deeply flawed. ...
I've started reading Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and something he wrote about the philosophers and religion made me think: In their writings and conversation, the philosophers of antiquity asserted the independent dignity of reason; but they resigned their actions to the commands of law and of cu...
The original statement of the dilemma is found in Plato's Euthyphro: Just consider this question:—Is that which is holy loved by the gods because it is holy, or is it holy because it is loved by the gods? (10a) According to Wikipedia, the question has been reshaped by philosophers and proponents of ethical monotheism...
In the beginning of The Republic, when discussing the nature of justice, Socrates leads Polemarchus to agree with him in this line of reasoning (the numbering is mine): But let us consider this further point: Is not he who can best strike a blow in a boxing match or in any kind of fighting best able to ward off a blow...
In Phaedo, Plato (and this dialogue certainly seems to be platonic and not socratic) argues for the transmigration of the soul, in part with a cyclical argument: Let us consider the question whether it is inevitable that everything which has an opposite be generated from its opposite and from it only. For instance, w...
In the Theaetetus, one of the theories of knowledge examined by Socrates and Theaetetus is that all knowledge comes from perception. At the same time, they are examining another theory: that everything that exists is never still, immutable, but is constantly changing (becoming). But they do not seem to make any distinc...
I have a project I'm working on that may bring about some new scientific knowledge. I hope to solve 3-SAT in quasi-polynomial or polynomial time. The idea is that this brings us a step closer to P=NP. In fact, there is a remote chance that this would even prove P=NP. From what I know, this is thought by most of the sci...
I'm looking for a term that describes the logical argument I am making. Both to just have a way to describe it and ensure that it is indeed a sound argument. Somewhat formally the argument is as follows. A person argues that A implies B. Now I show that B can be equally expressed as C (so now A must imply C as well). I...
Plato usually tried to solve philosophical problems using a schematic approach. Probably one of the best examples of this is the tripartite system, which he applies both to the human soul (psyché) and to the ideal city, assuming that there is an isomorphism relation between them. According to that theory, both entities...
Plato's Republic opens with this famous sentence: I went down yesterday to the Piraeus [...] According to Professor David Roochnik, in his lectures about The Republic, the choice of Piraeus as the setting for the dialogue is symbolic for two main reasons: Piraeus was the place where the Thirty Tyrants were defeated ...
Concerning this passage from Phaedo: I mean, for instance, the number three, and there are many other examples. Take the case of three; do you not think it may always be called by its own name and also be called odd, which is not the same as three? Yet the number three and the number five and half of numbers in genera...
Which of Plato's Dialogues should I read to learn about Socrates' views relevant to the philosophy science and epistemology? I'm quite a beginner in these things and the titles of the Dialogues are hardly helpful.
As a software developer, I often face the problem of meaningless terms. It is very common in our industry that a certain term is first coined with a very specific and useful meaning. Then, it becomes fashionable to use that term, so everyone starts using it to mean more and more things until, in a couple of years, the ...
In his book The Beginning of Infinity, David Deutsch argues that there is a problematic assumption behind the simulation argument that "virtually all instances of us are in ... simulations and not in the original world" since counting the number of instances of oneself is no guide to the probability one ought to use ....
Many are of the opinion that there is no metaphysical world beyond the material that we can sense, and that everything is therefore governed by physical cause and effect (some believe that we cannot know if there is anything beyond our world, but that it is possible that something metaphysical exists). I was wondering ...
Today I read the intro to 'A Treatise of Human Nature' by David Hume. I'm somewhat new to reading Philosophical texts and I have never read Hume before. The intro is 1936 words long. I took decent notes and made flash cards for some words and ideas in the text that I wanted to later commit to memory. I feel that I coul...
I have been thinking about how much we can know and more importantly: which knowledge should be relevant to us? First I will explain my thoughts to you. They will end in a questionable conclusion for which I need your help to reassess it: Descartes as well as Matrix (the movie) and the "Brain in a vat" thought experim...
How would you put together a reasonably short sentence, in order to describe everything? By everything, I mean that the sentence would be broad enough to cover any possible subject by recursive substitution (with a longer text) of any of its components. Think of it as a kind of "root" sentence on Wikipedia, with links ...
I'm looking for articles or books that discuss how we account for qualitative identity. The distinction between qualitative and numerical identity is often drawn, but then the discussion tends to veer solely in favour of numerical. What I want to know is what are the identity conditions of a book or a theory? If a sma...
Darwins Theory of Evolution states that the evolution of life underlies processes like selection, reproduction and variation. I think, essentially he says, that the occurences of any ability or property are completely random and the survival of some of them depend on the natural environment and nothing else. I guess th...
According, to my understanding, the meaning of dialectic is... In Plato: a back-and-forth conversational style of reasoning from his later dialogues In the Middle Ages: the scholastic style of reasoning so well exemplified in Aquinas (objection, objection, objection—main point—answer to objection, answer to objection,...
Terminological Background The traditional tripartite view of human nature, or the trichotomy of human persons, refers to the distinguishing of soul and spirit in humans (the body of course being the third part). In Christian theology, this is usually associated with the idea that in regeneration, the spirit is made new...
Many animal rights activists claim that adequate animal housing should be geared towards the natural environment of animals. For example, they claim that monkeys should be not kept within human's houses because their natural environment is the jungle. Therefore, the adequate housing for monkeys should be something whic...
What problem(s) is Rawls' veil of ignorance meant to fix? Do you think the problem is a real one in contemporary America? Would adopting the veil and Rawls' two principles bring about the result Rawls' desires?
Greek mythology, classical philosophy and early theology is teeming with things referred to as 'daemons'. Many, such as those of Plato's Socrates, hint at an externalised transcendental corollary of will. In many senses the dualism that pervaded early western philosophy could be said to be descended from this concepti...
Niklas Luhmann introduces the so called Binary Code in his Systems Theory. Any system has its own binary code. For example, in science the code is "the truth vs. not the truth". Which writers might offer critical readings of Luhmann? I would be especially interested in what might be said about this "binary code theory"...
In The Antichrist, Nietzsche starts with a very heavy attack on the emotion of pity, making statements like: Pity stands in opposition to all the tonic passions that augment the energy of the feeling of aliveness: it is a depressant. Through pity that drain upon strength which suffering works is multiplied a thousandf...
Are there any philosophers who might be considered affiliated or belonging to the same turn or school, or perhaps hold the same kind of views, as Wittgenstein?
I was recently asked a "logic puzzle" type question at a job interview which seems to be a slightly mangled version of a N-coin puzzle (intended to test the subject's knowledge of conditional probability). You are approached at a party by a shrouded figure who informs you that he/she has a brother. Next he/she asks ...
At Wikipedia, I read: Logic arose (see below) from a concern with correctness of argumentation. Modern logicians usually wish to ensure that logic studies just those arguments that arise from appropriately general forms of inference. For example, Thomas Hofweber writes in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy that l...
When I was a child, I had the tendency to prevaricate and make misleading statements, where what I had said was not false, but left out an important portion of the truth and deceived the listener into believing a falsehood. I used to pride myself on this as a rhetorical skill; it had proved especially useful in games, ...
Might not someone else's utility or preferences about what people do infringe upon what's ordinarily taken as right to liberty or privacy? For example, if there were someone who just found it extremely undesirable or distressful that women leave their houses, then isn't it conceivable that, say, a neighbor might be act...
I am trying to understand logic and I came across a set of actions that I describe below that I can't get my head around. Suppose you have a bag of multiple colored balls. Situation 1. Argument: There are no red balls in the bag. Action: Pick up balls at random until you find a red one. Situation 2. Action: Pic...
A philosophical project of mine depends on an assertion which at first seems problematic, but one that I believe is correct. Background Following Husserl, modern philosophy is in accord that the uniting reality of mental states is that they are intentional in the sense of being object-directed. Debates concerning the s...
I read in Ayn Rand's essay "The metaphysical vs the man-made", The nature of nature is outside man's volition. Is there any other writings that discusses this concept in more detail? Specifically I am interested in the phrase "nature of nature" and any writings that discusses the scope of man's volition and perceptio...
I am planning on writing a paper on what Sellars calls "the paradox of man's encounter with himself" (Sellars Philosophy and the Scientific Image of Man 1962: 6). To quote Sellars in more detail: "[...] I want to highlight [...] what might be called the paradox of man's encounter with himself, the paradox consisting o...
This mans will to hurt ariseth from Vain glory, and the false esteeme he hath of his owne strength; the other's, from the necessity of defending himselfe, his liberty, and his goods against this mans violence. (Chapter 1, Article 2) This is saying that humans act the way they do in the state of nature because of a...
I don't have much philosophical background aside from a couple college classes and stuff I've picked up from general interest. I'd like to learn Spinoza's philosophy. What is a good starting place? I'm interested in either reading Spinoza's books or books that explain his ideas.
I just found out that I always missused the term deduction. I always thought that deduction meant gaining a proof by showing that all the other possible answers are wrong. But deduction is actually something like this: All men are green John is a man RESULT: John is green But what is my first mentioned method (bold) ...
So, there are a number of things I am actually after with this, but to try to encapsulate the concern briefly: which thinkers or writers might comment on the relationship between animals and human beings? In particular, I am concerned about the meaning of a certain "non-relation" that our habitual relations with anima...
Here's an argument that I've heard a number of times from friends and on the Internet: "The ratio of what we know about the universe to what we have yet to discover is so small - it is therefore illogical to draw conclusions from the crumb of knowledge - how can we be sure about any proposition concerning our un...
Consider military conscription, which is where a government forces its own citizens to join the army and fight in foreign wars. As I understand it, the typical argument is that freedom is not free, and rather must be fought for. Therefore we, as free peoples, have the responsibility to maintain it. But there's a critic...
I was reading Code by Charles Petzold, and on page 86 he references a syllogism from Lewis Carroll: All philosophers are logical; An illogical man is always obstinate; Therefore, some obstinate persons are not philosophers. I formalized this argument in predicate logic as follows: Let P(x) be the propositional funct...
I'm new to philosophy and I know very little. While watching lectures on philosophy of 17-18 centuries I realized that the understanding of God was a very important issue (and it probably still is at present days). I got an idea which is opposite to the idea of God creating our Universe. What if our Universe will event...
Prior to reading The Prince, I had heard of the aphorism: The ends justify the means This was Machiavelli's identifying line to many people, and in my conversations with them, I got the impression that Machiavelli meant the following: that, given an ends profitable enough, any means, even a very immoral one, is justi...
In the Middle Ages, Aristotle's belief that the world was eternal posed a major theological challenge for the many people who held a religious belief in Creation. Moses Maimonides, in his Guide for the Perplexed, argued that Aristotle knew his position was not demonstrated with the same standard of proof as his other p...
A while ago, I asked this question about Borges's philosophical influences, which yielded Berkeley. Reading the wikipedia page on Berkeley, I can see that as far as philosophers go, his philosophy of subjective idealism indeed exactly what I was looking for: This theory denies the existence of material substance and i...
Even though there is no strict chronology of Aristotle's writings, what is the best order to read him if one wants to become acquainted with overall philosophical project. I read somewhere that Aristotle's system is built around four broad categories in this order: I Dialectics (which includes in this order: Categorie...
Is there any basis in philosophy for the idea that when given limited information, the simplest solution that matches that information should be presumed correct or most likely to be correct? For example, a complete search is conducted in the space of algorithms that generate series of numbers. Take the simplest algori...
At first sight, this question may seem absurd, however I would like this question to be scaled down to less intensity. I do not in any way state that I support this, however, out of curiosity this question arose. I do not want to compare this to a systemic suppression; I am opposed to that. I would like to reduce this ...
I have heard about topoi being the ideal entities to use for foundations of mathematics (since we are able to reasonably interpret our theories in them), so I imagine there might possibly be some reasons for using categories in (an intuitionistic analog of?) analytic philosophy or something related. Since the term "cat...
I just do not understand how he claims to have defeated the old problem.
I bought Epistemology, by Richard Fumerton and Epistemology: A Contemporary Introduction, by Robert Audi. Can you suggest other titles and also some criticism on them?
How does one learn to write philosophy? I don't mean the wording but how to construct the text and perhaps pull in conclusions drawn by others. Thank you in advance for your insights. P.S: Not sure what tags I can put on this question.
The notions of context and contextual disambiguation are either implicitly or explicitly deployed in order to solve problems of ambiguous reference and meaning in the majority of the theories of reference and meaning (not involving reductions of meaning and reference to relations like satisfaction) that I can recall. T...
Which philosopher originally proposed having "aims" or "intentions" as a condition of (moral) personhood? I often see this used in discussions of abortion and euthanasia: e.g., "He does not have aims, therefore, he is not a person..."
Possible Duplicate: Is the definition of God consistent? (primary) also: An immovable object and an irresistible force God's paradoxes and their implications To many, at first sight, this question may seem to strike as absurd. However, honestly after reflecting on this topic for such a long time, I was not able to...
I've had an argument with someone and I would like to know for sure if I'm right. I don't know if you have heard of the board game "Catan", it's not really important. Well, long story short, at the start of the game, when you place the resources - I said that if you plant the resources in a random order - throw them ar...
How can we be a good critic when facing people's rigid beliefs? I'm interested in how to attack (logically) their dogmatic beliefs to have a "good" influence on their minds, because if we just attack them, maybe they won't continue to listen to our reasons or won't think about them. I'm also interested in famous books ...
It is no secret that Nietzsche had contempt for democracy. In Beyond Good and Evil, he compared democrats, those people of democracy who think that humans are all equal and free, to a herd of farm animals (section 44 in the second part, "The Free Spirit"). Thus, he clearly finds the concept of freedom in democracy, and...
In this paper of Aaronson's, a proof is given of Occam's razor by appealing to PAC learning. My understanding of Valiant's bounds for PAC learners is that it requires i.i.d. This is often a reasonable assumption to make. However, he used this proof of Occam's razor to justify the problem of induction (i.e. claim that t...

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