All Questions

I have always understood infinite regress to mean going backwards forever. (Forever as in endlessly, not necessarily temporally). A model would be the negative integers, if we viewed them as a model ...

Multiple time dimensions appear to allow the breaking or re-ordering of cause-and-effect in the flow of any one dimension of time. This and conceptual difficulties with multiple physical time ...

I'm a scientist by heart: I believe that while the existence of God, however defined (or any metaphysic question, for that matter), is a tough one, it might not be completely inaccessible to science. ...

I post it here for benefit of people who may try to google such list. Hope it's okay.

I'm very sure that the harm people have from sexual abuse is socially constructed and comes from being brainwashed by society. But how can I prove that to people? I think a good way to prove this ...

If Peter is virtuous, he manages a household with patience. If Peter is to be good, he needs patience. Here's my attempt to understand 1 and 2. I get confused by the wording and necessity-sufficiency ...

Is there a philosophical word for any imaginable or conceivable world? People use words like simulations to express ideas similar to this, but there doesn't seem to be a specific word for this. Do you ...

What's a useful framework within which to make sense of the glass-half-full/glass-half-empty distinction? In particular, one which admits both descriptions as not only valid but also useful, that is, ...

Someone told me that the idea that there's no objective truth in ethics is highly debatable. I am wondering what are some purported objective truths identified or claimed by various philosophers ...

Hempel's DN (Deductive-Nomological) model is a kind of explanatory model that accounts for explanation of certain type of questions. Basically If I look for explanation for the laws of motion of a ...

Is there a shift in any characteristic of Plato's writing; style, content, etc., that's visible after Socrates' death? How was Plato affected by Socrates' death, and more specifically, how was his ...

I understand that there are dialogues of Plato for which the authorship is contested, with some more than others. How are the dialogues determined to be spurious? Is it a different process for ...

Let Dx = "x is a detective", U12 = "1 is the uncle of 2", and appropriate lowercase letters for names. If there are any detectives, John is the only detective. No detective is ...

I can't find a definition of Ethics that I can understand without looking for other definitions. For example, many definitions of Ethics include "Moral Principles" and then the question is ...

I've read some summaries of Smith's thinking, which I haven't yet adhered to, here The aim of philosophy is the good life or the best regime, the aim of theology is knowledge of God, and that of ...

Either reublocrats are uninformed, or democrans or independents are uninformed it is not true that republocrats are uninformed someone is uninformed either republocrats are informed or they are not ...

Is the following argument valid? If A is to be good, they must be just If B is to be good, they must be just Therefore, if C is to be good, they must be just Therefore, if C is just, they become good ...

I feel like moral statements cannot be refuted at least in the strictest sense of the term. Why? Because morality doesn't fully depend on logic and partially depends on emotions and normative (...

I'm curious whether philosophers of quantum mechanics (QM) take the following idea seriously: The Copenhagen interpretation makes sense when combined with decoherence theory. "Measurements" ...

Validity is usually defined in terms of possible worlds. More specifically, an argument with premise set S and conclusion C is said to be valid if and only if there is no possible world with all the ...

Please help me with a little problem I have with understanding a reply to Hempels raven paradox. The reply can be found here and a little reference can be found here. I hope I am allowed to quote part ...

Is there any theory that states that the universe is moving? By that, I mean the universe is moving relative to a point in a different space containing the universe. By analogy, the universe would ...

I have often heard the reason given for bestiality being wrong is that animals are incapable of giving consent. However, I'm a meat eater - I regularly eat animals that have been raised, slaughtered ...

Some of the more pressing arguments against materialism involve their inability to account for abstract objects such as meaning or reference. A few definitions before I continue: Abstract object: an ...

Is Christianity influenced by some of Plato's ideas? In particular, I thought that the notion in Christianity of God creating man in his own image was heavily reminiscent of Plato's forms, where God ...

Lemma 1.2 If S is countable and S' is a subset of S, then S' is also countable Lemma 1.3 If S' is a subset of S and S' is uncountable, then so is S. I was wondering if there was a name for the logic/...

I dont have all the modern philosophical terms down, but I cannot see how materialists/physicalists can make any claims. If there is nothing but physical universe, then there is no “truth”. Actually ...

My 17-year old daughter has been asked to write an essay titled “To what extent can AI-generated art possess intentionality and meaning?”. The essay needs to focus particularly on the visual arts. She’...

What is the moral difference between parenting and child marriage? The reason I ask is that parenting is considered one of the most admirable things you can do in life in most societies while child ...

In rule 12 of his new book Beyond Order, Jordan Peterson talks about gratitude. I'm going to summarize my understanding of his definition of gratitude: From that book, page-299-300: "..., "...

In paragraph 76 of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit it is written: But science, insofar as it comes onto the scene, is itself an appearance; science's coming onto the scene is not yet science as it is ...

I think it’s like saying “food smells green.” Smell and taste are different things, so I think statements like “food sounds crispy” or “food tastes salty” are correct expressions, but “food sounds ...

What branch of philosophy studies possibilities in cosmology? To be more precise, various possible worlds and universes and what they could look like? Is it an area of metaphysics, and also is there a ...

Thought experiment on emergent consciousness from physical object - brain: Imagine we record all neural firings of human brain within 5 seconds interval. Now, if we replace each neuron with a single ...

In Part V of Spinoza’s Ethics the pinnacle of human freedom and understanding is discussed as the viewpoint from eternal blessedness. How are we to characterize or interpret this doctrine of ...

Short version: Considering that science is inevitably dependent on mathematics and metaphysics (Kant tried to raise metaphysics to the status of a science, which I find mandatory to improve the ...

I find this sentence without any elaboration- Spinoza’s philosophy was static as that of Plato while Leibnitz’s system was dynamic as that of Aristotle" What does it mean ? Thank You.

Or would such interpretation of omnipotence logically entail that the being has free will? So if the being will choose to lose its free will it will with necessity lose its omnipotence too.

When looking for knowledge, you'll often find conflicting information. This is because, in many topics, there'll be a "for" and "against" side. Those sides are biased towards what ...

The infinitive without to often emphasises the whole action or event which someone hears or sees. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/hear-see-etc-object-infinitive-or-ing As I ...

Platonists think there's a realm where concept exist, but that realm isn't physical. I am wondering if the possibility of various other physical realms existing was ever proposed and if it was ...

What's the purpose of truth that can be psychosocially manipulated? When are they "science-capable"? Such as things related to e.g. deservingness personal worth fairness Since it's not ...

Preliminary: RoboMary is a robot, but so are we - large robots made of smaller robots made of smaller robots. She does not yet have the experience of color. Dennett puts forth a physicalist way for ...

Aristotle's moral theory is said to be both eudaemonological and teleological. But what is the difference between these two concepts? If a moral theory is eudaemonological, then happiness/beatitude is ...

I am not quite sure whether this belongs on math SE. Anyway, my question is this. In math, probability can theoretically be any real number between 0 and 1 inclusive. But what about in the real world? ...

In Process and Reality one of the main concepts Whitehead talks about is the symbolic reference. A derivative element of the connection between symbolic type and meaning type of species (in Whitehead'...

Many people, including myself, shed a tear yesterday (and now again!) after the news came through that a here famous crime reporter died. Peter R. de Vries was (is!) a beloved man who helped people ...

I’m having an issue with the terminology and perception authors use. Some authors perceive PL as a branch of logic “with subsets” with classical or truth-functional PL as these subsets. Other perceive ...

https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vRT6IUvD1SB4m-oGYWO60ljn_NTWF_fSbsWSqFZa9JTBXEZpHvTZ6kOvqTAkS6sP2gExrIKDt5piD2D/pub May you all read my introductory paragraph for propositional logic? ...

I haven't an actual quote but I have read it more than once. Relativists can't talk with each other or at least don't understand eachother. Their concepts may be incommensurable but I don't ...