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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What does "non-philosophy" mean in the works of Laruelle (and scholars of Laruelle)?
From just the Wikipedia article and a few stray references here and there, I don't understand what Laruelle's "non-philosophy" is and how it can by aptly be described by its title.
The link above ...
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what is comparative philosophy?
Nowadays we are confronted with a new major as comparative philosophy..Paul Mason Orsel the French philosopher has a book by the very name..my question is that what kind of philosophy is comparative ...
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Is our Philosophy, the Human Philosophy, the only possible Philosophy which can exist?
What I'm asking is if is there any possibility for a Non-human Philosophy, that is, a Philosophy founded on questions which we can't even conceive. Is possible a Philosophy of questions which only can ...
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Do academic philosophers have a special duty to challenge their government?
This is a question about source materials: I'm hoping someone can point me to a modern treatment of obligations to the state incurred by the act of philosophizing, or even an argument against the ...
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When does the philosophy of a newly created (academic) discipline typically arise?
I occasionally spend some of my spare time reading through the questions and answers of interest on these SE websites, and I recently came across this question:
Can a certain branch of philosophy ...
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Is There A Practical Limit On The Number Of "Levels" On Which Metaphilosophical Inquiry Can Be Conducted?
A link from this post (at How does philosophy study the world?) brought to mind the following line of thought: the definition of Metaphilosophy (not to be confused with the SE website, which ...
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Why are Free Will discussions always framed as a question of "free will" rather than "free choice" (of action)?
In debates or discussion regarding the question of whether or not human beings (or any other being) has the ability to decide for themselves what to do, the term invariably used is free will. However, ...
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Philosophy of the lymphatic system
If neurophilosophy is a legitimate from of philosophy why don’t we have philosophies pertaining to various other sub-personal processes/systems: autonomic, vestibular, and proprioceptive? Why not ...
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What are the standards for good and bad philosophy?
In general (not restricted to this site), what counts as a good philosophical explanation? Are there any objective standards?
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Role of Science [closed]
I have often read people on Physics.SE (and on many other sites) say that the role of physics is only to provide a good description of nature. For example, we don't ask questions like 'why does x ...
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Understanding philosophy from a mathematicians perspective
I was reading this, and came across the paragraph
Working realism is the methodological view that mathematics should be practiced as if platonism was true (Bernays 1935, Shapiro 1997, pp. 21–27 and ...
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Aren't rational thinkers falling a prey to a logical fallacy?
All rational thinkers would clearly know that in a series of arguments anything that appeals to faith would be considered a fallacy.
Yet the rational process itself (the belief that arguments based ...
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What are some examples of solved philosophical problems?
Are there any examples of philosophical problems that have been solved? How can we know a proposed solution to a philosophical problem is correct?
Examples of "philosophical problems":
If a tree ...
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Are areas of philosophy besides logic subjective?
Are all areas of philosophy, with the exception of logic, subjective (can't be proven, varying interpretations)? For example, consider Chinese philosophy (e.g., Confucianism): I've been looking into ...
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Are there clearly defined limits to philosophy?
How can you define the difference between for example Math and Philosophy and Sociology or Biology. What makes a philosophical question a philosophical question. Is this clearly defined?
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About philosophical questions
Can there be a clear answer to a specific philosophical question that most people who understand the question can agree on without diverging into many competing -isms or schools of thought? Maybe ...
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How do Philosophy and Cognitive Science differ?
I have studied neither philosophy nor cognitive science in an academic capacity.
When answering this question here, a comment was made that perhaps my answer was better suited for Cognitive Science ...
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What makes primitive cosmology primitive?
In Mary Douglas's Purity & Danger, she reports that the anthropologist Vansina
recalled affectionately three very independent thinkers he found amongst the Bushong, who liked to expound their ...
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Should I believe in truth?
Philosophy is largely conceived as a career of seeking the TRUTH.
But I doubt whether I should believe in truth when doing philosophy because really, when we start our journey of philosophy, who ...
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Can anyone ever state how things are not?
This question relates to situations of infinite regress. For example, in reading through answers to this question Are there any non-divine objective standards of good/evil?
I noticed the statement "...
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Are the Efforts to Fuse Philosophy and Pop Culture Superficial?
The state of our aesthetic and consumer-based economy has brought philosophy to a transitional stage at many levels. Many wonder what will be its future or where philosophy should go from here. It is ...
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What are the practical ramifications of philosophy? How can we make it relevant to ordinary people? [duplicate]
Because philosophy is seen by many as a useless subject and a mere waste of resources, universities the world over has retired countless degree programs in philosophy.
So my questions are
How is ...
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Fundamental Questions of Contemporary Philosophy
In John Searles 'Making the Social World" (2010), the chapter 'the purpose of this book' starts with declaring the following question as a fundamental question of contemporary philosophy:
How, if ...
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Is there any philosophical concept all philosophers agree about? [closed]
Is there any philosophical concept or insight all philosophers agree about ?
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A theory of everything?
Did anybody ever try to develop a theory of everything?
By this I mean a single theory which aims to describe all things in a unified way.
I am not talking on a physical theory of everything, I mean ...
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Is the Anglo-Analytical tradition founded on rejecting the principle of sufficient reason?
In this blog-post on a criticism of Nagels book Mind & Cosmos the author makes the assertion:
This is no surprise because analytical philosophy was founded in the act of rejecting PSR. Our ...
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What is speculative philosophy? [closed]
What is speculative philosophy? What might be good or bad about it?
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If there is progress in philosophy, Why is there no philosophers or thinkers as important today as in the past? [closed]
Why don't we have thinkers in the present time (or recent times) that have the same caliber as Albert Einstein, Archimedes, Socrates, Shakespeare, Freud, Aristotle, Plato, Darwin, Popper and all the ...
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Does everything which can be figured out through observation disqualify as philosophy?
Does a scientific question which we have not yet had the resources or time to answer scientifically classify as philosophically relevant? Or does everything which can be figured out through ...
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How would you describe the relationship of science and philosophy of science?
How would you describe the relationship of science and philosophy of science? Is it a worldview that sets a tone to scientific jargon? I mean that statements of eg. physics are under submission of the ...
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What can suffice as a scientific proof for God? to what domain can such a proof belong to? [closed]
"Scientific" theories require proof, and there are certain guidelines and standards for the proofs to be acceptable to the "scientific" community in that domain (Algebra, Computer Science, etc.). ...
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Do different branches of philosophy correlate with different dispositions to psychological attitudes? [closed]
Speaking anecdotally, it's been my experience that logicians have the best senses of humor, metaphysicians tend to a little pomposity and lot of wine, philosophy-of-language types are a little ...
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What is meant by an Appeal?
To Appeal to a concept would seem to originally be (in the day of Greek metaphysics) a somewhat poetic device metaphorically gesturing toward whatever concept understanding might be sought from.
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Why should I read about philosophy?
My knowledge of philosophy is probably only a bit greater than an average person's. I am a trained mathematician so I have the basic knowledge of mathematical logic. I know more or less what modal ...
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Does a philosopher need much knowledge of mathematical/formal logic?
I am not a philosopher but I would like to ask this question. I know that there are philosophers like Hobbes, Locke or Foucault, who excel in the areas of ethics, political philosophy and aesthetics. ...
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Can a philosopher philosophize without logic?
Logic, which I mean as the system or subject not the adjective; like modal propositional logic, etc., and not an adjective stating rationality, sense of thinking, common sense, etc.
Perhaps we all ...
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Can knowledge about argumentation be sufficient for philosophical logic without too symbolic or mathematical concepts?
The most important element for expression of truth is trough an argument, with premises and conclusion. Argumentation requires to avoid fallacies and adhere to the truth. However logic if treated as a ...
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What philosophical tradition/ school advocates the use of informal logic as a better tool than formal logic?
There are some notable persons who criticized formal logic in favor of informal logic for various reasons, like Schiller. So what is the school of thought or tradition that incorporates or adheres to ...
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How does philosophy study the world?
From the definition from Wikipedia:
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as
those connected with reality, existence, knowledge, values, reason,
mind, and language. ...
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Can a certain branch of philosophy exist and be discussed independently from other branches? [closed]
To be more clearer with the question let us compare for this instance sociology to philosophy, both being a broad subject. Sociology has many branches including political science, psychology, ...
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Is Philosophy formalisable?
This is something that has irked me for quite some time, especially since I come from a mathematically oriented background.
Can the field of Philosophy be formalised in the sense that Mathematics is ...
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How to earn the title of Philosopher? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Is everyone considered a “philosopher”?
I commonly hear politicians say that they are philosophers. And a favorite degree offered by diploma mills is philosophy.
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What, if any, are the differences between materialism and empiricism?
Are the differences, if they exist merely semantic ("First World War" vs "World War One") or are they more substantial; for example one's a historical trend and the other's a broader philosophical ...
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Which Philosophers are most often cited as Materialists?
Which Philosophers are most often cited as Materialists (aka physicalists)?
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What is a mathematical representation of the physical world?
Possible Duplicate:
Was mathematics invented or discovered?
To be more precise, does mathematics describe the physical world or does it describe a mental representation of the physical world? If ...
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What hierarchies exist in different branches of Philosophy?
If you were to map out different branches of Philosophy in a hierarchical nature on multiple levels in order to compare them what would some look like or could you point me to a reference that sorts ...
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Philosophy of Philosophy and Experience [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
What is the practical use of philosophy?
Does philosophy move us toward a deeper understanding of the human condition, or does philosophy push us away from understanding the ...
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Does philosophy belong to empirical science or formal science?
According to Wikipedia, science
can be divided into empirical
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social science) and formal
science (such as mathematics,
logic, statistics). I was wondering
if ...
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Can you prove anything in philosophy?
I don't understand philosophy very well, and so I am wondering whether you can "prove" anything in philosophy. It always seems you can go a layer down, and find another question, almost endlessly ...
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What is Philosophy? [closed]
What is a comprehensive definition of Philosophy? Alternatively, is it impossible to define Philosophy? This is a pseudo-meta question, but it seems like it belongs here.