Questions tagged [reference-request]
This tag should be used when the question is asking for specific references.
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Ideas of a truth that sustains?
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Given the modern day age of misinformation, surely someone has pondered and tested their ideas of a truth that sustains (a truth that sustains refers to the ideas that sustain the confidence ...
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What are some of the best rebuttals or alternatives to Ted Kaczynski's (aka the Unabomber) philosophy of technology?
In his manifesto* "Industrial Society and its Future", the mathematician, philosopher, and terrorist Ted Kaczynski espouses a deeply pessimistic view of the effects of technology on society. ...
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Do any philosophers say surreal numbers are reason to doubt platonism?
Not trying to be inflammatory at all, this is a genuine (maybe dumb) question.
Especially in regards to the genesis of the surreals, which was Conway thinking about Go endgames. They seem among the ...
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Looking for an introduction to "possible worlds" aimed at the deeply skeptical
NB: this question is a reference request.
I have already read countless introductions to modal logic (the latest one being Chapter 10 of @PeterSmith's Beginning Mathematical Logic: A Study Guide1).
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Help finding a philosophy webpage that used Socratic dialogues
I'm looking for a page that had debates structured around a Socratic dialogue where one side was illustrated as an angel and the other as a machine or robot. It was quite minimalist in design. Hope ...
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Does the universe obey the laws of physics?
Is it the case that the universe obeys the laws of physics? I believe there is a misunderstanding about what the laws of physics actually is. I believe that the laws of physics merely describe what ...
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Where can I learn more about Ancient Egyptian philosophy?
So far, I've read the Ancient Egyptian philosophy article on wiki. Are there other sources where I can learn about this arcane and hazy subject?
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What secondary literature would you recommend to help me understand “The Sickness unto Death”?
I would like to know if there are any secondary literature that would help me understand main themes of this book and make it more understandable. So far I have read a few primary sources (Plato’s ...
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Is studying philosophy harder than medicine? [closed]
If anyone has some kind of experience studying both philosophy and medicine, I would like to know which one was more intimidating and hard to understand.
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Looking for the name of "if everyone is x, no one is x"
Usually when I browse this forum, I see many people ask for the names of fallacies. Currently, I'm looking for the name of the philosophical position that goes something like, "if everyone is x, ...
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Who first defined truth as "adæquatio rei et intellectus"?
António Manuel Martins claims (@44:41 of his lecture "Fonseca on Signs") that the origin of what is now called the correspondence theory of truth,
Veritas est adæquatio rei et intellectus.
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Where can I find: Averroes, Commentary on Aristotle’s Physics, Bk. 7, comment 20?
St. Thomas Aquinas, Super Sent. lib. 4 d. 33 q. 3 a. 3 co.:
For this reason the Commentator [Averroes] comments on Book 7 of the Physics* that chastity (castitas) is worth the most to the speculative ...
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Book Recommendation on Understanding a Feudal Society [closed]
I am new to this site, it will be really helpful if you can help me with tags.
I live in an area which is classified as a feudal part of the country. I am interested in Philosophy and I have read few ...
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Book recommendation for introduction to analytic philosophy for math major
I am a second year pure math major at university. I took a class on social theory last semester, and did not enjoy it very much because the texts seemed lean toward obscurantism to the point of ...
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References on Metaphysical Dependence on Set Theory
I'm new here. I was having a hard time reading and comprehending John Wigglesworth's thesis Metaphysical Dependence and Set Theory. I was hoping if there is anything out there talking about the matter;...
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Is "A history of Philosophy - from the Pre-Socratics to Plotinus" by Frederick Copleston useful for a beginner?
I have read Plato' dialogues and have some general knowledge about philosophy thanks to Michael Sugrue's lectures on youtube. Is this book useful for a beginner like me?
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Are Arthur Holmes lecture series helpful for a beginner?
Are Arthur Holmes lecture series helpful for a beginner? I have only read Plato's dialogues and have listened to Michael Sugrue's lectures, which are quite good but they don't cover all philosophers.
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Is there any review books for beginners in philosophy?
I would like to gain some knowledge of the most famous philosophers' ideas. I have only read Plato's dialogues and have some general idea of Western philosophical tradition thanks to youtube lectures ...
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Is the observer (a person) embedded in the physical model?
During my studies of physics, I noticed that the discussion of a physical theory includes the discussion of the interaction between the observer (the person who makes the experiments) and the observed ...
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AI philosophers
Which modern philosophers examine problems of ethics and knowledge between artificial, intelligent agents, leaving their relationship to humans aside?
What I'm looking for:
The assumption that AIs ...
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Physicalism + book recommendations
I'm 17 years old and I'm starting out in philosophy on my own. To get started I would like to get to know myself more and the way I think since according to what I have researched, I could define ...
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Is it the fact that we have language that causes us to believe in possible worlds?
I am not quite sure whether this belongs in Philosophy SE, but I couldn't think of a better SE, so I am posting it here. My question is, is it the fact that we have language that causes us to believe ...
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Impersonally-accountable communities
I'd like to lay out a few thoughts about how ideas rise and fall within communities. Is there a philosopher I can read that expresses these kinds of ideas better?
Some communities adopt ideas more as ...
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References for the notion of grounding, applied to mathematical truths
I am interested in papers that discuss the notion of grounding and applies it to mathematical statements. For example, the facts that 1+1=2 and 2+2=4 collectively ground their conjunction 1+1=2 AND 2+...
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Books on metaphysics, especially ontology
I am interested in reading books on metaphysics, particularly ontology. I would like some research-level books, not merely books that are aimed at laymen.
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What does the 3rd edition of Fact, Fiction, and Forecast say about grue?
On my website, I have reproduced the passages from Nelson Goodman's book Fact, Fiction, and Forecast that define his famous predicate grue (and related predicates such as emeruby). In fact, I have ...
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Books and papers on the philosophy of probability
I am interested in reading books and papers regarding the philosophy of probability. I want to know what the correct philosophical interpretation of probability is, and also other topics regarding ...
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Can anyone find this Menander fragment in the original Greek?
I remember when studying ancient Greek many years ago, I was memorizing Menander monostichoi, and there was one that I now want to make a little postcard of, but can't remember exactly what the ...
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Is beauty a basic human need?
Did any philosopher argue that beauty is a basic human need?
By "beauty" (pulchritudo) I mean, as St. Thomas Aquinas defines it (II-II q. 145 a. 2 co.), that which
results from the ...
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Ternary logic of 3-person human relationships?
C.S. Peirce studied ternary (and higher-order, n-ary logic, too) logic in the context of which he called semiosis,
an action, or influence, which is, or involves, a coöperation of three subjects, […],...
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Set theory with full comprehension
A few years ago I was reading an entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy related to set theory and I stumbled across a statement along these lines:
There is a set theory where full ...
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Did any ancient Greek philosophers condemn fornication?
Did any ancient Greek philosophers condemn fornication (illicit sexual intercourse outside of marriage) or marital infidelity?
Plato was against acts of sodomy, saying they are "contrary to ...
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What is “basho” in Kitaro Nishida’s philosophy?
Of course, I could just read his 100-page essay The Logic of Place and the Religious Worldview, but since it is regarded as extremely cryptic, I wanted to read some introductory texts (like by David A....
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Plants: Aristotles vs. modern biology
Corals, sea anemones, sponges, etc. are animals according to modern biology. Mold or mushrooms are not plants and belong to their own realm of fungi. The Venus flytrap is a plant, though it is capable ...
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Could you recommend an anthology of modern philosophy texts?
Could you recommend an anthology of modern philosophy texts? I was tempted to buy the book Modern Philosophy: An Anthology of Primary Sources by Roger Arlew, but it is out of my financial reach. Do ...
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What is a good reference on Aristotle's views of friendship (φιλία)?
What is a good reference on Aristotle's views of friendship (φιλία)?
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Is there an analogue of MathSciNet for philosophy?
MathSciNet is a mathematical database for papers and books on the various branches of math. Is there something analogous for philosophy? That is, is there a philosophical database for papers and books ...
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Is there a resource cataloguing unique and fundamental concepts cross-culturally?
I am working on a "conlang", which is basically a fantasy language. I have collected 4,000-ish words in their "base" form (some we still need to find the base for, but they can be ...
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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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Reference for a particular anecdote about the cultural basis of the ethics of homicide
I originally posted this on psychology SE but received no response, so I am cross-posting here. It seems appropriate for philosophy SE because the cultural dependence of ethics is generally a subject ...
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Any electronic versions of philosophical texts structured like biblehub?
Biblehub is absolutely awesome. It contains any possible tools a scholar could dream of.
I wonder if anybody did similar work with any philosophical texts? I personally would greatly benefit from a ...
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Are there any formal, fully fleshed-out mathematical models that capture the Kuhnian idea of scientific revolutions?
I searched for a while and wasn't able to find any attempts of formal mathematical models. And thus the question.
If you know of any formal mathematical work that is related but not on the exact same ...
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What does Alain Connes think of Tegmark's hypothesis?
The mathematician and mathematical physicist Alain Connes has expressed in many occasions that he is a Platonist and he thinks that mathematics itself does exist in the same level (or even in a "...
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Quotations from Descartes on Animals as Automata
Animals do not feel pain and are automata. This view is commonly attributed to Descartes. And I would agree that in his philosophy no other conclusion makes sense.
But still, I want to distinguish ...
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A possible solution to Hempel's raven paradox
Has any philosopher proposed the following solution to Hempel's raven paradox? The solution is that even if two statements are logically equivalent, an observation may provide evidence for one but not ...
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Very easy intro materials to a modern philosophy of science for statistics students and non-philosophers
I will be teaching a Statistics class next semester. A lot of the thought process behind classical statistical methods (e.g. hypothesis testing) is driven by the need of scientists to quantify ...
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Would you recommend the book "Philosophical devices: Evidence, Probability, Possibility and Sets" by David Papineau?
Would you recommend the book "Philosophical devices: Evidence, Probability, Possibility and Sets"?
I am not familiar with the author, David Papineau, and would like to ask for an opinion ...
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Laws of logic literature recommendations
What are some books/papers/articles I could read to develop an informed perspective on questions like "where do the laws of logic come from? Do they have a deep connection with the structure of ...
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To what extent is mathematics a tool to grasp the world beyond human intuition?
To what extent are mathematical formalisms an extension of intuitive reasoning to grasp the world such as in the fields of Quantum Physics and Relativity?
My first thought is that when intuitive ...
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Cassirer and the Categorical Imperative
I've been reading some of the shorter works of the neo-Kantian and proto-semiologist Ernst Cassirer. While I find him a valuable bridge across the "continental divide," I'm not sure yet that ...
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