Linked Questions
65 questions linked to/from According to the major theories of concepts, where do meanings come from?
24
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13
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The Unreasonable Ineffectiveness of Mathematics in most sciences
In 1960, the physicist Eugene Wigner wrote the article "The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences" explaining how unexpected it is that mathematical formalism can ...
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14
votes
16
answers
16k
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Does consciousness depend on our five senses?
Does consciousness depend on our five senses? If we never have senses, would we have consciousness? It seems that if we lose our senses, we would maintain our consciousness. But if we never had senses ...
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7
votes
7
answers
3k
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How do philosophers understand intelligence (beyond artificial intelligence)?
Do philosophers have working definitions of 'intelligence'? The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy provides a lot of references, but all of them are related to artificial intelligence and other ...
- 79
7
votes
11
answers
704
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What is one’s incentive to be moral?
Assuming there is no afterlife, or whatever afterlife there is does not depend on the morality of my actions in this life, what is one’s incentive to be moral given basic rational self-interest is ...
7
votes
6
answers
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Is Art beyond logic?
When one moves from Natural language to a logical one, then the motivation , to my understanding is to cut down the amount of ambiguity which can be there in communication.
However, I find it that ...
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8
votes
6
answers
740
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What are some philosophical works that explore constructing meaning in life from an agnostic or atheist view?
I've been deeply suicidal for years, but it's gotten worse recently. I grew up Mormon, and last year I realized I couldn't believe in it anymore. I just couldn't; it would take too long to explain.
I ...
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1
vote
6
answers
17k
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Is it possible that I'm "God" or a special being/deity?
I know the first thing you may be thinking upon reading this, but there's more to this than you may have assumed. This is not one of those crazy questions where ego-driven maniacs simply call ...
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9
votes
5
answers
1k
views
What is the name of this phenomenon?
If you don't know anything about trees and plants, all you see in the forest is a bunch of trees. But if you know the names and appearances of different plants, you might see oaks, elms, pines etc. ...
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6
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5
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504
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How does the Buddhist pursue meaning?
So I don't think positions like existentialism exist in Buddhist philosophy. I say this because the whole framing of causality is fundamentally different in Nagarjuna's treatise of dependent ...
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5
votes
6
answers
456
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What's the importance of self-awareness?
Philosophers such as Singer emphasize self-awareness as essential to consciousness and somehow related to an individual's moral value.
These perspectives don't make a lot of sense to me.
Self-...
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2
votes
7
answers
319
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What are the secular arguments for moral realism?
Moral anti-realism claims that morality and ought statements are psychological and cultural inventions. Morality would be mere opinions. Nothing would be in and of itself moral or immoral and if we ...
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4
votes
9
answers
301
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Can an intellect judge itself?
Suppose you want to measure the length of something, e.g. the length of a kitchen table. It's not an easy task, but luckily you have a meter stick on hand! So you take your meter stick and make your ...
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7
votes
4
answers
418
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What is intelligence?
I am interested in studying AI, and I thought it would be a good idea to study the nature of intelligence before stepping into the field. I googled "books to read about intelligence", but it ...
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3
votes
3
answers
866
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Are the concept of time and space apriori to natural language or are they just references within natural language?
Are the concept of time and space apriori to natural language or are they just references within natural language? Time and space are fundamental concepts to existence and ontology. Natural languages ...
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3
votes
4
answers
423
views
On the logical modeling of reality and human reason
What is the system of logic which models reality and, furthermore, which models human reason?
Preface:
Of course, objective reality (that is, reality as it is before it's perceived) may operate under ...
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3
votes
3
answers
648
views
Can the product of creativity always be classified as analogy?
Without concepts there can be no thought, and without
analogies there can be no concepts.
—Hofstadter and Sander
Part of the creative process of a sculpter is to visualize a shape within a stone and ...
user64314
2
votes
7
answers
395
views
Why do people hide the assumption contained in the philosophical zombies question/idea?
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article called "Zombies" https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/zombies/ makes no mention of an assumption that seems to be hidden in the famous ...
2
votes
5
answers
231
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What to make of "time" and "time rightly spent" in the context of "the purpose of life"?
Friedrich Nietzsche in his Thus spoke Zarathustra told us a man should become a "overman" or "ubermensch" i.e. someone who believes in nihilism of universe (believing that life has ...
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3
votes
6
answers
292
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Is it implausible to claim consciousness is a fundamental?
The notion of fundamentality, as it is used in metaphysics, aims to
capture the idea that there is something basic or primitive in the
world. This metaphysical notion is related to the vernacular use ...
user65174
2
votes
2
answers
552
views
Question about the Four Noble Truths
Are there many causes of "suffering" (the first noble truth) or do they all stem from one cause (namely, unsatisfactory impermanence)? Encyclopedia Britannica lists unsatisfactory ...
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5
votes
4
answers
225
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Is scientific knowledge personal or general?
This question was considered off topic in "History of science and mathematics". According to a comment by Alexandre Eremenko it belonged to philosophy.stackexchange.com. I don't understand ...
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0
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6
answers
413
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What causes problems?
Here, I am not talking about any or all specific problem's subject's cause(s). I am instead asking about what causes problems themselves.
I was once told "Your problems are only problems because you ...
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0
votes
4
answers
335
views
Why is math powerful?
I've been having this thought for days now, and I haven't been able to come up with a satisfactory answer.
It seems to me that one can arguably caricature mathematics as an impoverished natural ...
user42828
1
vote
5
answers
317
views
Do modern philosophers of mind believe that thinking is a symbolic or visual process by nature?
Do some philosophers regard thinking as a symbolic process only because they don't actually think for themselves -- rather, like most of us, they are "having thoughts", their ...
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1
vote
2
answers
227
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A newbie's highly thought-upon plan for starting philosophy [closed]
How's it going guys, I hope you're all having a great time!
Greetings, to all the great minds here!
I would really appreciate your help with my entrance to the infinite world of philosophy.
First, I ...
2
votes
3
answers
121
views
How would Wittgenstein explain the ability of blind people to learn a language?
It we take Wittgensteins picture theory of language for granted,
The picture theory of meaning states that statements are meaningful if, and only if, they can be defined or pictured in the real world
...
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3
votes
2
answers
149
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Reference request: How do we grasp reality?
I am curious whether there are any wide-spread philosophical thoughts about the nature of the mental concepts by which we grasp reality, know or understand things.
Note that I do not directly mean ...
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3
votes
5
answers
114
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Devising mathematical or quantitative theories of meaning
Around 1948, the mathematician and electrical engineer Claude E. Shannon presented work that would eventually lead to information theory. A mathematical theory based on uncertainty and probability, ...
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2
votes
4
answers
311
views
Does a philosophy scholar in the modern world need to study ancient philosophy?
I am a philosophy enthusiast and I study philosophy on my own. I wanted to know whether a philosophy scholar in the modern world needs to study the ancient philosophical ideas, such as those by ...
- 59
0
votes
3
answers
377
views
How is knowledge possible?
I haven't studied Philosophy and I get this is a fundamental question one cannot answer in one line.
But I want to phrase it in this particular way: even in a finite possibilities-predetermined (few) ...
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5
votes
2
answers
174
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Technical terms for 'House Elf Problem'
There is an informal ethical dilemma known as the House Elf problem, after the Harry Potter slave race who are, universally*, enthusiastic servants who strongly prefer to be servile and be treated as ...
2
votes
6
answers
173
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Would people do moral things if it didn’t make them physically feel good? If not, how is morality different from any other want?
We indulge on great foods because it feels good. We have sex because it feels good. We play sports, listen to music, hang out with our friends, etc because we feel good.
If asked why we do any of ...
1
vote
3
answers
218
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What is the difference, after death, of a 90-year-old and a one-year-old?
If there is a person who died at the age of 90 and a baby who died at one year old, what is the difference between them afterwards? They are both in a state of nothingness, they cannot remember or ...
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4
answers
149
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Can geometry be considered a law of physics instead of law of logic?
Geometry deals a lot about mathmatics of our dimensions of space. But the laws of logic don't require dimensions at all. There could be a reality where there weren't any dimensions at all so they ...
- 51
7
votes
3
answers
189
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An exposition and argument for ontological pluralism
Ontological Pluralism: the doctrine that there are different fundamental ways of being.
To put it more specifically to illustrate the point (although this not statement that ontological pluralists are ...
- 101
0
votes
4
answers
287
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What is meant by other minds?
I recently asked about the argument for proving the existence of other minds. This argument is called the best explanation argument. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/other-minds/#BestExpl
Could you ...
- 19
2
votes
3
answers
131
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Systematic search for Free-will
I understand that you can't prove that free will does not exist; the old adage is that you can't prove a negative, but has anyone attempted to do a systematic search for proof that free will does ...
- 121
3
votes
1
answer
301
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How would you apply John Rawls "Theory of justice" to everyday decisions?
How can I apply John Rawls theory of justice to everyday decision making?
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1
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3
answers
170
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Is there no such thing as rigorous and formal in philosophy?
I once asked a question on a rigorous and formal definition of conceivable, and was told that there is no such thing as rigorous and formal in philosophy or science. Is this really true? I thought ...
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4
votes
3
answers
169
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Do we create knowledge?
Stemming from the idea that knowledge is JTB (justified true belief), I have been thinking about the question posed above. There seems to be a difference between different kinds of knowledge. Take for ...
4
votes
3
answers
119
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Is understanding possible?
Often, humans will claim to "understand" something. When pressed, they will define understanding as something like:
Knowledge
Conception within the mind
Comprehension
Awareness of meaning
...
- 492
2
votes
3
answers
182
views
What do we explictly refer to in mathematical expressios
My friend has a theory about 'instantiation' of numbers, they believe that every time we think of a number we create an 'instance' of it in our own heads, it's the same idea, but each time we think, ...
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0
votes
3
answers
205
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What is the best theory about how a person models reality?
When someone throws a ball it is possible to predict where the ball will be based on the person's stance, motion during the throw, speed of ball, trajectory, etc. If you see a window in front of the ...
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2
votes
2
answers
114
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If immoral things shouldn't be done, how come people feel good committing them?
"The forbidden fruit is the sweetest". When we teach someone that something is immoral, the immoral thing becomes appealing to them. People want the things they can't have, so what's the ...
- 1,893
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3
answers
105
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How do I know what I don't know?
I am not looking for a straight answer to this question but some references on how I should further investigate this problem.
Problem
Let us consider a person bob
When Bob makes a statement, he ...
- 139
0
votes
1
answer
96
views
The Objective Reality: Honesty -> Truth -> Reality
The Objective Reality
It is true the study of the subjective reality takes note of the personal experience and because we all have our seperate existence we all have our own mind and knowledge, but is ...
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2
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What philosophical significance is there in the now scientifically proven fact that all humans are the same biological organism?
Before quite recently, it was only a belief whether all humans are the same. Before Darwin and even afterward, many people held to polygenism, which posits that humans were descendant from many ...
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1
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3
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182
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What philosophies will support the idea that smarter is better?
Whether its natural or artificial, intelligence is economically expensive for businesses thst need intelligence to provide a good or service (Is AI a good that provides a service?) . Given all the ...
user64314
1
vote
2
answers
178
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Are there contemporary analytic defenders of the view that pattern/meaning is metaphysically fundamental and directly knowable?
Background: Much of philosophy since Kant has taken for granted that our basic experience of reality is structured by our cognitive apparatus, including notably our background conceptual frameworks. ...
- 1,006
2
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1
answer
171
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Are questions truth-apt; what is the use of assigning questions a truth-value?
Is John black (or white)?
Yes he is black.
No he is not (black).
I don’t see how can the question be truth-apt and what use is there in assigning (or even being able to assign) a truth-value to the ...
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