All Questions

To resolve the grandfather paradox, Lewis suggests that there is a semantic Can vs Cannot distinction between what a human can physically do (kill the grandfather) and logically cannot do (kill the ...

What does "realm of Symbolic" in the following passage mean? 1: Apparently it seems to me that the writer simply wants to say the "realm of philosophy" or the "abstract matters". As, the two ...

Please follow this thought experiment: 1) A ball moves one centimeter in one unit of time. 2) A ball disappears. Then, after a unit of time, it reappears one centimeter far away. By now we don't ...

Question One (Mandatory Question). Give a detailed account of Simmias’ Attunement argument against the immortality of the soul. Then give a detailed account of all three (3) of Socrates’ arguments ...

The term, "essence", is a technical term in philosophy. The usefulness of the concept has been assessed differently by different philosophers. E.g., the concept has been highly estimated by Plato, ...

Varanas and Vihvelin provide responses to David Lewis' 'Can vs Cannot' discussion. Have there been any appropriate counterresponses to these?

I do acknowledge the fact that differentiating between good and bad is a next to impossible task due to lack of clarity in their definitions and their relative meanings. It just bothers me that the ...

I recently read an interview where Popper ranked his interest in employment above education. Unfortunately, the interview was quite brief and didn't go further into Popper's thinking on this. Q. What ...

Afua Hirsch in her book, Brit(ish) writes: I was in my thirties when I learned that both Locke and Hume were also important proponents of racism, pouring that same intellect they used to such great ...

What are the relationships between these three different senses of knowing? (I had to use the French word because there's no English verb that corresponds to this sense of knowing.) For non-...

Are there previous iterations on "engineering/engineered societies/communities"? By engineering "engineering/engineered societies/communities" I mean societies or communities whose operation is based ...

I have read online and personally believe that every statement has some degree of ambiguity to it. With this in mind, I was wondering how any propositions can be true. For example, I have heard some ...

Is there anything interesting to read that unpacks the meaning of "ought" rather than what we ought to do or be? I just wanted to read something of someone trying to make sense of the term, in the ...

as Rasheedah Phillips says “Afrofuturism uses a completely different construct of time and engages a different notion of time consciousness and notion of the future than does the European brand of ...

Let OB p denote "p is obligatory". Axiom OB-RE is (p ↔ q) → (OB p ↔ OB q). This axiom seems false to me (under the interpretation of obligation). For example, let p denote "don't lie to me" and q ...

Suppose I am hedonist who wants to maximize the pleasure I experience in my life. I have observed the hedonic treadmill, and am aware that after having the same experience a few times, I will find it ...

If we define Atheism and Materialism as follows: "Atheism: disbelief or lack of belief in the existence of God or gods." [1] "Materialism: the theory or belief that nothing exists except ...

Many philosophers argue that time travel is possible without causally affecting the past? Is it even possible to time travel without causally affecting the past. The grandfather paradox is an ...

What's the relationship between nature, time and life? Is Nature like a static ball in which Time is a marble rolling in circular defined motion and Life just happens (life is a random indeterminate ...

How does the grandfather paradox cause a causal loop (and therefore a bootstrap paradox)? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandfather_paradox

If God, being perfect, creates something then in some way that thing does not have His attributes. For a start the created things existence depends on the other. Logically they must be different. If ...

Does it make sense to say that consciousness does not exist or there is no such thing? I've not taken any classes in reductionism, but it seems reductionst. How would philosophy of mind and ...

With this problem, I can't seem to figure out why it isn't working out. If anyone has any advise it would be super helpful.

This question mostly pertains to physics and math, but I think it fits best on this site. I am not very familiar with philosophy, so I apologize if my question is not very formal. Essentially, the ...

Is "class culture" an artificial construct or does it have "natural" motivation? A lof of things, at least judging by internet, are associated or measured relative to socio-economic class. However, ...

Heidegger wrote in Being and Time that: In both pre-philosophical and philosophical usage the expression 'termporal' has been pre-empted by the signification we have cited; in the following ...

Whenever I see inductive arguments being used, it seems as though they can be redone by simply making certain assumptions and rephrasing the argument as a deduction from those assumptions. For ...

If I remember correctly, one of Socrates' interlocutors challenged the Socratic method not directly but indirectly. They did so by not participating in the argument fully. In the literary context of ...

Sometimes an hour feels like a mere few minutes, sometimes the distance between fixed points X and Y feels more than what it was yesterday, is it just in our head or is it just the nature of space/...

According to a blog post This is what another universe looks like, "in Arthur Schopenhauer's 1844 work "Von der Nichtigkeit und dem Leiden des Lebens", he argues that our world must be the worst of ...

Dcleve wrote the following as an aside in a question about indirect realism: Our WANTING certainty – is irrelevant. Worse, it is an explicit fallacy! I liked that question and up-voted it, but I ...

So, Blackstone's law states that 1 innocent man going to jail is worse than 10 guilty men being set free. This principle seems to be a fundamental principle for all Western governments. I'm ...

Let's suppose that there are infinite level 1 universes, agreeing with physicist like Max Tegmark and even before them with philosophers like Giordano Bruno. Now, please follow this thought ...

Consider the following disjunction introduction: Your room is clean. Therefore, your room is clean or your house is burnt down. Ross' paradox allegedly arises when applying this inference to ...

One could ague that voting for the lesser of evils is nothing more than simple manipulation. The ruling class makes sure there are just two viable political parties, then it recruits a really creepy ...

Since I don't have any philosophy background, please answer as simply as you can! Thank you!

In the book Being and Time, Heidegger wrote that: We have already intimated that Dasein has a pre-ontological Being as its ontically constitutive state. It's intuitive to me only when I thought ...

I was playing a mind game the other day and pretended I was God. In this sense, I mean that one, powerful god, for whom all things are possible. The characteristic god of the Abrahamic religions. I ...

The Constitution of the Russian Federation says, in Chapter 1, Article 1: The Russian Federation - Russia is a democratic federal law-bound State with a republican form of government. The ...

God cannot be what He has created. So if He creates something there will be a gap between Him and His creation. That gap is defined in various ways. e.g. God alone can create. God is holy. Evil exists....

I am writing an essay for the question 'Critically evaluate the view that ethics should be more concerned with who you are than what you do'. I have done some of Kant's ethics and some virtue ethics,...

Evil seems related to intentions, but i am sure there are those that believe it can exist external to minds. Are there any philosophers that attempt to argue that evil can exist outside a mind?

I would like to read current moral philosophers who take similar positions on moral obligation as those taken by G. E. M. Anscombe in Modern Moral Philosophy. Her view, as I understand it, is that ...

Let's use a comparison. For this I will show my own views on it: My life is meaningless. I play games for a meaningless joy. I listen jokes for a meaningless laughter. I want to change this world ...

Nietzsche claimed that "we killed God". Thus, as Nietzsche thought, it would result in nihilism. He also "introduced" an idea of the overman. This question is not about what the overman is. But I'm ...

In dialog with others about philosophy, I have generally assumed that the basis of epistemology is a settled question – I. E. that the Locke/Russel/Popper approach, that our worldview is a hypothetico-...

Bubeck thus distinguishes care from “service”, by stipulating that “care” involves meeting the needs for others who cannot meet their needs themselves, whereas “service” involves meeting the needs ...

I first heard the term "Moral Licensing" in this episode of "Hidden Brain," a podcast exploring societal phenomena and attributing them to psychological processes or biases present in humans. If you ...

How do we know that the past is fixed and that there only exists one version of history? Are there any interesting arguments surrounding this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IYRC7g2ICg&feature=player_embedded Watch this first. The question was generated and the term gambling was used to not only represent monetary values.