All Questions
0
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0answers
1 views
Virtue Ethics and Well-Being
Can anyone point me to good contemporary articles that discuss the relationship between virtue and well-being?
6
votes
1answer
44 views
Does anyone assert the real existence of p-zombies?
Philosophical zombies are usually presented as, let say, "conceivable" and then this assertion is used to infer dualism.
Have any philosophers taken the position that p-zombies are in fact real, and, ...
-4
votes
0answers
16 views
Eatting habits- Eating something sweet before lunch or dinner, Is this childish as an adult and if so why?
Here's an example,
While waiting to go to lunch or waiting for my meal to be cooked I have access to say cookies and decide to eat one.
According to my colleague this is childish but he can't come ...
1
vote
1answer
31 views
Is the usage of “more” or “less” only plausible when there's a quantitative method for it?
I am a student of mathematics, that afirmation of the question I propose seems plausible to me. But I remember that some days ago, I was talking to a friend and he said that such terms are not exactly ...
0
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0answers
8 views
Why does Foucault Madness and Civilisation represent his turn towards structuralism?
According to the wikiedia entry on his book - it represents his turning away from phenomenology to structuralism. What does this exactly mean. How should one understand his book as a demonstration of ...
3
votes
1answer
49 views
What scientific evidence is there that our actions are pre-conscious?
I recall reading some article or other some time ago that it had been demonstrated that our actions are apparent before we are entirely conscious of them; and here we are not talking about fractions ...
0
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0answers
18 views
Killing Mosquitoes as a preventive measure [closed]
Is it moral for human beings to kill mosquitoes as a preventive measure? The mosquitoes killed may or may not bite that human being.
It is said that taking life (any life) is against morality.
What ...
-4
votes
1answer
43 views
What is the Logical Model of an software application that reflects the theory of Change? [closed]
What is the Logical Model of an software application that reflects the theory of Change?
Or
How software should work logically so that it can reflect the theory of Change?
A Logical model of a ...
-1
votes
1answer
27 views
Questions on Learning and Education [closed]
I couldn't find an appropriate forum for this question, so here goes.
I've always been a believer on the power of education, although my slant to it is particularly different from many of whom I met.
...
0
votes
2answers
53 views
Was Gödel the first person to bring up that truth always exceeds the grasp of proof?
Was Gödel the first person to pose and solve this question in mathematics? In the larger philosophical debate, has this question been posed before? Say by Plato or Aristotle?
One could interpret for ...
0
votes
2answers
75 views
Strong AI vs Gödel's Theorem?
If Gödel's Theorem is true, it means that for every formal system, there is a thesis that is true but can't be proven from the formal system. Every agent system which humans can build by modern ...
-4
votes
1answer
41 views
Can planets be subject to entanglement? [closed]
Proven in Quantum Physics when two particles become entangled, the spin of one directly correlates with the spin of the other. Is this possible on a larger scale with the spin of planets? Could ...
0
votes
1answer
86 views
Is time “Unreal”? [closed]
In 5th century BC Greece, Antiphon the Sophist, in a fragment
preserved from his chief work On Truth, held that: "Time is not a
reality (hypostasis), but a concept (noêma) or a measure ...
-2
votes
0answers
40 views
Do all humans share the same soul called god? [closed]
If the soul was ingrained in the human body, it would be removable.
One could conclude that an arm was to be lost, that person would still be himself and the soul intact. And that arm lost would ...
4
votes
2answers
131 views
What makes Humans different from a chemical computer?
Are we all robots? Is our DNA the 0's and 1's of computer code? Are we an advanced computer system, with instead of keyboard and mouse input... input from our senses. Our database being our brain ...
4
votes
1answer
92 views
Are your actions for every type of determinism determined before your birth?
We had this little discussion in class. Are your actions for every type of determinism determined before your birth? We're discussing traditional theories, so Quantum Mechanics aren't relevant (yet).
...
0
votes
1answer
42 views
What do the different aspects of Hindu gods mean?
In Hinduism there are the main gods, and then each one has many aspects. What is an aspect? And what is it from a knowledge point of view? Is it a kind of relativity?
3
votes
3answers
40 views
Ethical approach to the knowledge of suicide
If you knew that someone you knew was going to take their life, is it your responsibility as someone trying to uphold a "moral law" to try and prevent that person from the act and even take measures ...
1
vote
1answer
31 views
Reasoning in S5
I'm currently working on implementing reasoning involving time.
Since S5 (every world accessible from any other) is sufficient for what I'm trying to represent, I wanted to know what are the ...
4
votes
0answers
27 views
How is meaning-holism a problem for the analytic-synthetic distinction?
I read Quine's Two Dogmas, and I also read two of Harman's papers:'Doubts about Conceptual Analysis,' and 'Analyticity Regained?' I have a couple of observations: Both Quine and Harman adopt a kind of ...
2
votes
2answers
60 views
Difference between ‘determinism’ and ‘fatalism’
What is the difference between determinism and fatalism?
-2
votes
1answer
85 views
Has formalized philosophy become stagnant and obsolete? [duplicate]
The first philosophers had no sources and no vocabulary other than what their own powers of reason could muster.
But the attitude many on this site seem to take regarding "philosophy" reminds me of ...
1
vote
1answer
126 views
Does the universe have solid structures on multiple spatial scales?
Is it reasonable to suggest that if we were to "zoom out" further and further in space with our eyes focused on some object at our initial position, that all the solar systems, then galaxies, and so ...
1
vote
1answer
73 views
Is induction as a means to reach a conclusion rational?
According to Humes's argument, induction by its nature assumes a uniformity that is not justified. This is a very deep and interesting observation, and a point often used by the religious to justify ...
2
votes
0answers
36 views
Are there proper terms to describe and differentiate the observed and the observation?
What are the accepted philosophical terms that help differentiate between the object and the representation of the object, what is observed and the observation, the territory and the map.
Question: ...
0
votes
1answer
62 views
I'm running into this weirdness using the concept of certainty. Why?
I cannot be certain of anything. (Assumption.)
I am not certain that I cannot be certain of anything.
By asserting (2), I am certain that I am not certain that I cannot be certain of anything.
I can ...
2
votes
1answer
52 views
What does “I” really mean?
When we refer to a human being by "I"/"you"/"he"/"she"/"Mary", what do we really mean? The more I think about it, the more confused I get. Do we mean living body or emotional/psychological world or ...
-1
votes
2answers
79 views
Fire, Air, Water, Earth
Aristotle considered the earth to be composed of the elements Fire, Air, Water, Earth. Should this system be totally disregarded or does it offer some advantage over modern science's system?
0
votes
1answer
25 views
Is there an economic philosophy that is dualistic?
In classical economics its obvious that the philosophical model followed is inspired by physics, and is reductionist. One could say it is 'monistic'.
Is there an economic philosophy that takes both ...
2
votes
2answers
39 views
What does Putnam mean by “indexicality”?
I just studied Putnams "Meaning and Reference" (http://home.sandiego.edu/~baber/analytic/Putnam1973.pdf)
Then he talks about indexicality . What exactly does it mean when we say that a word, or some ...
2
votes
2answers
62 views
Is the perfect competition hypthesis simply the Hobbesian state of nature in the commercial realm?
Hobbes defines the state of nature as war of all against all. Is the perfect competition hypthesis as classically defined presumably by Adam Smith simply this but rather than man against man, ...
1
vote
1answer
20 views
In the following is Hobbes paraphrasing Aristotle?
In Hobbes Leviathan, chapter II: The imagination he writes:
That when a thing lies still, unless somewhat else stirs it, it will lie still forever, is a truth no man doubts of. But that when a thing ...
4
votes
1answer
50 views
Is modern information technology fundamentally changing the way humans acquire and process knowledge?
It would appear that in the contemporary world, it is hardly necessarily for the individual to 'know' anything. Far more important is the ability to cull knowledge from readily available repositories ...
3
votes
1answer
55 views
'Counterexamples in Philosophy'
In mathematics there's a type of book, bordering on the textbook but slightly different, that compiles examples to demonstrate the necessity of various conditions on theorems and the correct ...
-4
votes
1answer
52 views
Are mosquitoes moral agents?
According to answers of this question mosquitoes are not moral agents, thus unmoral biting humans. The major reason seems they have insufficient capability to judge what is right and what is wrong.
...
1
vote
3answers
110 views
How should I understand the word corruption in this passage of the Bhagavad Gita?
Steve Bruce in his book Fundamentalism writes:
Hinduism might be better described not as a religion but as a loose collection of religions—that of the Shaivites, the Vaishnavas, the Shaktas, the ...
3
votes
2answers
48 views
Is there a difference between inconsistent and contrary?
Is there a difference between 'inconsistent' and 'contrary'? As far as I understand two statements are inconsistent when they can not both be true. Does 'contrary' have the same definition?
As far as ...
5
votes
4answers
119 views
Why does statistics work?
Statistics deals with probability, where even an extremely unlikely event has some chance of happening. What if there's a series of these unlikely events going on for thousands of year. I mean it ...
-2
votes
2answers
76 views
Is human consciousness encoded in DNA?
Human DNA contains roughly 3 Billion base-pairs. That is 1.5 Gigabytes of data. This can easily fit onto a small usb memory stick.
Can something as complex as a human consciousness be derivable from ...
0
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0answers
40 views
What is the actual process of realization?
What is the actual process of realization? What are the factors that must coexist at the same time in order to set the brain's state of realizing something?
I found that In probability and ...
1
vote
2answers
72 views
What makes a computer artificially intelligent?
What features would make a computer be considered truly artificially intelligent? Better question yet, what would make a computer truly intelligent and conscious? (true artificial intelligence is an ...
1
vote
2answers
37 views
A Full List of Deontic Paradoxes?
Other than the list found in the Stanford Encylopedia article on Deontic Logic, is anyone aware of a comprehensive list of deontic paradoxes (preferably inclusive of the contemporary paradoxes)?
0
votes
3answers
142 views
Can mathematics actually define 'one'?
Is there is difference between being singular and first? It appears to me that there is - though both notions can be described by the figure of '1'.
Here what I mean by singular - it has no ...
0
votes
1answer
29 views
Who else besides Spinoza has described how to resolve Descartes separation of thought and matter?
Descarte famously divided thought from matter and placed them in separate realms.
Spinoza put them together by placing them within God as the two modes - thought and extension - that are visible to ...
0
votes
1answer
40 views
Does nihilism deny that any objective value ever existed or just now?
I read that the viewpoint of nihilism denies the existence of objective values and meaning. But does it also say that the values never existed, never can or will exist or just that these values don't ...
2
votes
2answers
129 views
Do we necessarily birth with innate knowledge?
The way we use to learn things is to associate a concept with something that we already know. I see no other way of learning things, there are books explaining how to memorize a horribly long sequence ...
-1
votes
1answer
32 views
Normative theories of morality that are designed to help adherents improve their genetical success by means of doing the right thing
Is there a school of thought in moral philosophy which holds that
Moral advice that runs contrary to a person's genetical interests is essentially a waste of time; because, in the long-term, ...
-1
votes
2answers
115 views
Changing Universe vs Infinity:
If we accept the idea of a dynamic, changing, evolving Universe (Big Bang Theory), must Infinity remain entirely conceptual?
If the Universe is changing and evolving, this necessarily implies borders ...
1
vote
2answers
95 views
What do you call this argument? - “If you’re going to boycott Israel, please remove the Intel chip that allows you to speak”
So I was reading about Stephen Hawking and his boycott of an academic function in Israel when I read a comment that went like this:
"If you’re going to boycott Israel, please remove the Intel chip ...
-5
votes
0answers
39 views
Why do living things get old? [closed]
Why do living things get old and how is that important? Why does there have to be a phase of life?
