Questions tagged [metaphilosophy]
Metaphilosophy is the philosophical study of philosophy itself — its goals, methods, scope, and relationship to other intellectual disciplines or human projects.
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Does philosophy rely on intuitions? If so, does this mean all of philosophy is nothing more than hunches?
Does philosophy rely on intuitions? If so, and all of philosophy comes down to intuition, how can one person be deemed to be more rational than other? In this world, most would agree that you cannot ...
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How To Distinguish Between Philosophy And Non-Philosophy?
Surely not all thinking or intellectual effort is philosophy, right?
Where to draw line between philosophy and all other thinking?
What, if any, feature is present only in philosophy?
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Are the psychological and sociological dimensions of philosophy philosophical matters?
Much to the horror of certain philosophers of science particularly those who clung to the logical positivists' notion that science was universally objective, Thomas Kuhn proposed that the politics of ...
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Has anyone described etc. Ataraxia from not asking needless questions?
Has anyone described etc. Ataraxia from not asking needless questions? I am most familiar with the idea of ataraxy from Epicurus
if one is frightened by the empty name of death, the fear will persist
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Is there a computer program that we could create which would, with 10-minute daily use, accelerate our ability to master the skill of philosophizing?
This summer I built this study aid for myself and STEM students to generate math problems so I can drill the art of problem solving with pen and paper. I don't see why there couldn't be a ...
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Is a philosophical position necessarily falsified when it cannot be maintained?
So someone supports some well defined (in how it applies consistently to this world) philosophical position P including the present time, not only the future (ethics might be an obvious example, but ...
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Is there a line between philosophy which problems are solvable by "pure thought" and which aren't?
It seems to me like a lot of arguments in philosophy are aided by insights of science, math, etc. For example, the relation between evolution and morals or Kant and geometry (and later non-Euclidian ...
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What does philosophy say about the nature of philosophy itself?
We can philosophize about life, the universe, gods, or society, about physics, religion, art, literature, or war, about politics, economy, or paradoxes, about moral, ethics, aesthetics, consciousness, ...
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Do metametaphysics help in elucidating the problems in metaphysics?
I have found a couple of books relating to metametaphysics, and it surprises me that this branch of philosophy exists.
Before I plunge myself down a new rabbit hole, I would appreciate help in putting ...
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Is Socrates' wisdom intrinsically valuable?
I don't mean specifically felicity etc. at philosophy, but whether a state of ambivalence toward death, while alive, can be intrinsically valuable because of some knowledge or wisdom that ambivalence ...
user57343
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Reference for precise definitions of notations in philosophical theories & books
As a math learner, when I want to read important philosophical theories like Descartes, Kant, etc. I face a big problem that bothers me. Why does no one define things and concepts precisely then ...
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Is the claim that Time doesn't exist defended among professionals today?
I think in philosophy of time Eternalism is the main option, Presentism the minority view, and there are some other theories I know almost nothing about like Growing block, or Moving spotlight.
But in ...
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What makes philosophers statements different from anyone elses statements?
I answered a question recently. I had backed it up with logic and reasoning as well. But someone had told me that my answer was just a comment of opinion, and that I needed to add some insight from a ...
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Which philosophers and philosophies discuss "worldview epistemologies"?
A lot of theologians and religious thinkers advance the idea that in order for any position to have meaning in epistemology or ethics or metaphysics it is necessary to interpret reality through some ...
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Can our creativity create probability for reality? How legitimate is modal realism?
That title is so wild but if you create say a cartoon and that universe. Does that open up the possibility that it exists somewhere in reality? Like it is now a universe that exists because you ...
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What is the most unique type of philosophy someone can naturally develop?
A couple of days ago I read about metaphysics. Because I recognised this type of philosophical activity in someone and searched it up. This person has developed it's philosophy without studying ...
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Is there a quantitative measure for a philosopher's skill?
Obviously, the property you should be interested in here is fame.
Below a ranking of the philosophers included in Leiter's list, sorted
by fame (measured in dBHa, the international logarithmic unit of ...
user56815
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Is the synthetic/analytic distinction about metaphysics?
Is the distinction between synthetic/analytic a claim about epistemology, ontology or something else altogether?
Where can one read more about the stakes of the relevant arguments?
I did read the The ...
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Why isn't the dictum "something can't come from nothing" a matter of consensus?
Isn't it obvious that from nothing (in the philosophical sense, i.e. absolute nonexistence) comes nothing? Isn't it also clear that physics has absolutely no saying on this dictum, as physics only ...
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What are strong and contemporary arguments for rejecting scientism?
Introduction
I read this article by Hietanen, J., Turunen, P., Hirvonen, I., Karisto, J., Pättiniemi, I. and Saarinen, H. (2020), How Not to Criticise Scientism.
From the article, there are various ...
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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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What is the difference between western and other philosophies?
Is western philosophy simply based on scientific knowledge. Is is only about scientific or Academia knowledge? Why is it called western? Because it has its roots in ancient Greece where western ...
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Would philosophy be useless if there were a box of answers?
All of the ideas are mine, I don't know a lot about philosophy's terms, I'll be clear and I'll speak in human's terms.
Imagine someday everything is normal, kids going to schools, doctors going to ...
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When philosophers argue about "definitional questions," what exactly are they arguing about?
By "definitional question," I mean questions like what is knowledge, what is justice, what is love, etc - questions that relate to the definition of certain abstract concepts.
Take the ...
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Is there a clear cut distinction between Philosophy and Philology?
I’ve been recently mulling over semantic and linguistic issues and I realized that my understanding of these fields may not correspond to the commonly accepted wisdom, so to speak.
Although the ...
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Is there a taxonomy of disagreement types?
In philosophy, is there any type of taxonomy of types of disagreements? For example, I want students to look at varying takes on a subject. What I want them to focus on is, Why do such smart people ...
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Do philosophers ever admit to arguing for things they themselves don't believe? [closed]
Do philosophers ever admit to arguing for things they themselves don't believe, without that meaning the former is not really the case, but merely explicative or similar of something they do believe.
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Is this outline typical of the organization of academic analytic philosophy?
After doing some research I came up with the following classification of analytic philosophy. Do certain branches overlap or worse, are there any inclusions that I have missed?
Axiology
Æsthetics
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Metaphilosophy and the nature of philosophical disagreement
I have a question on how “disagreement” generally occurs in philosophy. It seems that in the various traditions of Western philosophy, much work concerns a quest to externalize our human intuitions, i....
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Why is it that philosophers use terms that aren't literally true in their literature?
In lectures and talks that I have attended/watched, I've noticed a propensity to use the term "move" when describing the primary driving force behind an argument. In context, it might sound ...
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Is philosophy all about asking 'what' questions?
Everytime we ask 'what is' questions we hit the road to philosophy? Why?? are there another ways to start phılosophıcal debate?
Why Whatness questions are about the conceptual things only? Why ...
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Deductive methodology in philosophy
Introduction
Mathematics uses deductive methodology to produce results called theorems that are indisputable truth by logical necessity, with respect to the axioms of the starting axioms and ...
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Why is first-order logic interesting to philosophers?
This site had a question: Is First Order Logic (FOL) the only fundamental logic?
Let me ask the opposite: Why is FOL still interesting or useful to philosophers? For example, the "ancestor" ...
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Identity of concepts' intentional content
I have recently read some articles about (lexical) concepts. Philosophers tend to think that, in order for two speakers to be able to communicate successfully, they must associate the exact same ...
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Why do we call "A or B Theories of Time" instead of "A or B Hypotheses of Time"?
Why do we call "A or B Theories of Time" instead of "A or B Hypotheses of Time" when the concepts are not yet proven by empirical evidence?
We know,
hypothesis: a supposition or ...
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Concepts possession conditions
As a consequence of my growing interest in epistemology, I recently read some articles about concepts. The authors were originating from different fields, such as philosophy of mind, language and ...
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Why do many attach great significance to having read the original writings by philosophers?
Many of my conversations go like this. I express an opinion on a philosopher, and my friends ask, have you read the original work? I say no, but I have read many discussions and interpretations by ...
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Are there philosophical problems for which there's only a trivial solution?
I can't really think of a philosophical example, but in mathematics, it would be something like 'find the x where f(x) = 0 given that f(x) = x', and the solution would be 'x = 0', which is trivial. Is ...
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A material-constitution model of truth
On one end, let there be the correspondence model of truth, that S is true if and only if S corresponds to the appropriate fact.
On the other, let there be the identity model, that S is true if it IS ...
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Which aspects of consciousness are most often addressed by philosophers of mind?
What are the most discussed parts of consciousness according to philosophers?
Epistemologists cite perception, memory, reason, and testimony as frequent objects of philosophical discourse in respect ...
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When did philosophers decide philosophy was not useful, and why? [closed]
Academics treat philosophy like more of a discipline one does simply because one can. If you were to ask an academic what the purpose of philosophy is, they're likely to be confused by the question.
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Why all the dismissal for Circular Reasoning? [duplicate]
In my studies of Mathematics and (mostly) Theoretical Computer Science I've encountered what is known as Munchhausen's Trilemma which purports to demonstrate nothing can be actually be proved because ...
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Do philosophers generally reject that philosophical reasoning relies on axioms?
The way I've always thought that philosophy worked is that philosophers have a certain set of tools (deduction, laws of thought, basic sources of knowledge) which they use to come to reasoned answers ...
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How does one determine if killing an evil creature is an evil act?
I wanted to ask you in my D&D game, we fought some goblins. They attacked us first. We killed most of them; my character gave the rest a chance to surrender and said he may let them go. He ...
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Which philosophers have left sucessful academic careers to pursue other work?
I'm looking for (names of) philosophers who had successful careers in academia but, for whatever set of reasons, chose to leave and pursue work outside of academia, even if only temporarily.
For this ...
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Are there any points of convergence between analytical and traditional concept based philosophy?
In many questions, answers and in comments, there appear to be differences in the type of answers and comments which fall into two roughly delineated trains of thought and exemplify the fault line ...
user37981
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Wittgenstein and theology
Wittgenstein noted that we engage in language games and quite often we borrow words from different games and misuse them such as using words with scientific connotations in religious discourse or ...
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Is philosophy primarily about proving things to the best of our ability?
I would have assumed that philosophy is in the business of proving things, or doing so as best as the philosopher can.
But Ryle 1959 says
Obviously both can't be true, unless Ryle is talking about ...
user38026
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Is human thought a Continuum?
Plato probably would not have existed had it not been for Pythagoras and Socrates. Augustine would not have produced his writings had it not been for Plotinus and Aristotle. Einstein would not have ...
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Has science ever disproved philosophical theories?
I am aware that science and philosophy, in their modern guise, are two separate beasts that never cross the same domains but sometimes it happens that philosophy influences science and that science ...
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