Questions tagged [reference-request]
This tag should be used when the question is asking for specific references.
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What is the best reference for understanding inductive theories of knowledge?
I am looking for a pedagogical outline of the inductive theory of knowledge. Something along the lines of a level textbook (graduate or undergraduate) reference rather than references to classic texts....
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Do philosophers analyze the term 'thing'?
'Thing' seems like a special word since it can be used to refer to almost anything. Is it an undefined term, or have philosophers tried to define it? If they haven't analyzed it, is there a similar ...
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Multi idea books
A lot of modern and popular books are based on one idea, basically a single idea expanded upon 300 pages. What seminal philosophical or scientific book of the last 200 years has introduced a multitude ...
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Numbers and Time
This is my first post on philosophy stack exchange, so I apologize in advance if this question is not well-defined or if it happens to be a duplicate. If so, feel free to link the corresponding post(s)...
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Why "Goodness is from the whole cause; evil is from any defect."?
Where does this aphorism originate? Why is it true?
Goodness is from the whole cause; evil is from any defect.
Bonum est ex integra causa, malum ex quocumque defectu.
I've seen some sources say ...
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When is a legal failing an injustice?
When is a legal failing, failing to apply the law, an injustice?
Some serious crimes, rape and murder being the most obvious, might well be injustices when not punished, simply becasue justice surely ...
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Is there a standard, modern reference on Stoicism?
What I'm wondering is if there are any well known, modern references (books) that summarize the history and philosophy of Stoicism, preferably written in the past 50 years or so. The more modern the ...
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Do we live in a post-Meinong-versus-Russell/Quine world?
From a 2022 review of the collection Non-Being: New Essays on the Metaphysics of Non-existence:
This book argues, by omission, that we are in a post-Meinong-versus-Russell/Quine world. This is a ...
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Understanding as conceptual
I am looking for references in the literature where people equate the process of understanding with conceptual activity. I will not be able to sketch it out exactly. My hunch is that there should be ...
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What are the sources of popular Camus quotes?
I'm tracking down sources of Albert Camus quotes (because Goodreads can suck it). Who can add to this list? I'm not allowed to comment on this site.
"There is but one truly serious philosophical ...
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Is everything identical to itself, or merely every existing thing?
One of the properties of identity is that everything is identical to itself. But, does "everything" mean literally everything, or merely every thing that exists? For example, I don't think 1/...
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Is there a philosophical doctrine that suggests that the soul endlessly travels between living organisms without being tied to space-time?
By the detachment of the soul from space-time, I understand the ability of the soul, after the death of the organism, to be reborn into anyone, anywhere and anytime. For example, the soul lived in a ...
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Is there a name for the following transhumanist doctrine: "the most important thing to do with one's life is to try to avoid death"?
[Disclaimer: I don't have any formal training in philosophy and I'm just curious, so I hope this question is in scope.]
I'm interested in whether there is an established name for a simple (admittedly ...
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If something is massless like light does it exist?
I'm asking: If something is massless does it exis? Because in Einstein's equation E=mc2 Einstein said and I quote: If something doesn't have mass like light it would move at the speed of light.
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Best arguments against compatibilism?
According to the 2020 PhilPapers survey, 59.2% of philosophers are compatibilists when it comes to the free will/determinism debate. Despite its popularity among professional philosophers, what are ...
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Seeking references on the ontological basis of 'cultural appropriation' to cure my confusion
Disclaimer: Cultural appropriation is an emotionally charged topic and is criticized by a number of intellectuals, and my intent is to determine the philosophical grounding of the topic through vetted ...
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Is there at least one essay focused on Kant's definition of "notions" as intermediary between idea(l)s and conceptions?
I tried Googling "Kant 'notions'" but that doesn't seem efficient (from the results I've gotten). I assume that he appealed to the word for its being originally cognate with noesis and the ...
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Books and articles on explanation
What are some resources (books, articles) discussing the topic of "explanation"? (What do we mean when we say "something is explained" or vice versa, and related topics.)
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Does the incomputability of kolmogorov complexity imply that we will never have a final theory of everything?
The Kolmogorov Complexity is the size of the simplest program that produces a specific output. By the Curry-Howard Correspondence, "programs" are isomorphic to "axiomatic systems" ...
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What is the definition of "abstract"?
It is said that one of the distinguishing features of humans from other animals, is the capacity for abstract thought. But what is the definition of "abstract"? I know it when I see it, but ...
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What philosophers have touched upon the inability to qualify data as being representative of evidence in support of a scientific theory?
As a scientist and philosopher, I've increasingly noticed a failure in my learnings related to how data may be qualified as evidence in support of a theory. It appears that in any effort to qualify ...
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Is there any “stability metric” for scientific fields?
Is there any attempt to gauge how quickly a scientific field overturns its own claims/findings; ie an evaluation of if the fields’ findings have what degree of longevity?
It could compare fields as ...
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Has brain-to-brain communication been addressed in the literature, and if so, is there a fundamental reorganization of philosophy required?
Answering Is this a good argument against mental causation? led me to a simple metaphysical question, and I wonder if anyone in the Western Canon addressed it, particularly someone in the last century....
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How to write a philosophical work? As a beginner
How does one identify the points for discussion in that paper? And how do I make a skeleton paper work of the topic to present infront of your mentor? What is the structure of a philosophical paper? ...
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Did Socrates say: "Strong minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; weak minds discuss people."?
Where did Socrates say or did Aristotle quote Socrates saying:
Strong minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; weak minds discuss people.
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Is there such a thing as the philosophy of romance?
Is there such a thing as the philosophy of romance and romantic attraction? I understand that there are philosophies behind quite a lot of things, so I would not be surprised if there was such a thing ...
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Can facts be racist?
Can facts be racist? For example, is the fact that the median white family in the USA has a net worth of about 10 times more than the median black family in the USA, a racist fact? My view is that ...
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Is wisdom one type of intelligence, or distinct from it?
I asked this question on the psychology stack exchange, but was told this would be a better stack exchange for it. I subscribe to the theory that there are multiple types of intelligence. Is wisdom ...
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Reference request for philosophical texts on race
Is there even such a thing as the philosophy of race, or race viewed from a philosophical point of view? If so, I would like to read some references on the philosophy of race. I would be very ...
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What is the definition of ability?
What is the definition of ability? More precisely, what is the definition of the relation "X is able to do Y"? For example, energy is defined as the ability to do work. Also, when a person ...
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Die Schreibmaschine (The Typewriter) by Hermann Hesse
Martyn Lyons, QWERTYUIOP: How the Typewriter Influenced Writing Practices, pp. 230-1:
Compared to handwriting, the typewriter imposed a new discipline. It dis tanced the author from the text in a ...
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Resource recommendations for reading Nietzsche (especially his "the joyous science")
As the title says, I wish to know about certain resources that explain the ideology of nietzsche, especially a sort of "paragraph to paragraph" explanation (since I feel somewhat lost in ...
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Was consciousness a mistake?
"I think human consciousness is a tragic misstep in human evolution.
We became too self aware; nature created an aspect of nature separate
from itself. We are creatures that should not exist by ...
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Arguments for and against necessetarianism
I would like to read some texts that argue for/against necessitarianism, meaning, the belief that the world can't be otherwise. I am one such person who believes that, and I would like to hear of the ...
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What does the IBE argument (the best explanation argument) look like in favor of the existence of other minds?
I have read several versions of the IBE argument for the existence of other minds.
But I got a little confused.
Now I'm not sure I know what it should sound like.
How should the IBE argument (argument ...
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Resources for self-teaching philosophy
I'm a mathematician who has taken an interest in philosophy in the past few years. I want to start with the 17th-century rationalists (mainly Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz) and move forward in time ...
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Looking for the name of Philsopher or Philosophy/Book/Thesis from around Enlightnement period about human inclicnation to tribalism
Im not sure what im looking for exactly but having read it in the past from "history of philosophy" (coppleston type series of books) where it was discussing a type of philosopher or ...
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Models and theories following Cartwright
Nancy Cartwright introduced an interesting distinction in the context of her study of the history of the evolution of our understanding of superconductivity. She emphasized the distinction between ...
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Truth-value multisets with only one type of element
Suppose we had a multiset of truth-values [T, T], and that was it. Letting those be indexed as T1 and T2, suppose a twofold fragmenting of a related set of propositions (maybe not a set of all-...
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Do philosophers talk about "philosophical judgment"
Does 'philosophical judgment' exist? I studied philosophy at undergrad, and I think I learnt how to judge an argument, not simply as sound or cogent, but "interesting", which arguments are ...
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Looking for a specific joke about arguments for Meinongianism
I remember reading a book (or a paper) some time ago, that had a line somewhat like this:
There are good arguments for Meinongianism. They just don't exist.
Now, I find this very funny and find ...
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Which books to read to grasp Philosophy from scratch?
I have recently joined this beautiful community to explore Philosophy with full enthusiasm. I have gone through several great threads and loved this field of interest.
However, I could not digest the ...
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Seeking Academic-Level Source on Justifications of Democracy: A Comprehensive Listing with Critical Perspectives
I have recently embarked on a quest to delve deeper into the justifications of democracy, but I must admit, the plethora of information available has left me feeling overwhelmed. There seem to be ...
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Are there examples in the literature of rigorous mathematical models of libertarian free will that take the laws of physics into account?
What I'm looking for is a detailed description of the decision-making process of an agent that possesses libertarian free will, when this agent is on the verge of making a choice, at some time t.
For ...
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Philosophical texts which focus on a novel or small idea?
Perhaps an extremely broad question, but I'm looking for philosophical texts which focus on a small/novel idea that the author uses as a springboard to reflect on more general ideas.
For example, the ...
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Where to learn about Gorgias' theory on truth and language?
The IEP writes in the article about Gorgias:
In recent years, however, modernists and post-structuralists have found great value in the philosophy of Gorgias, especially his theories on truth and ...
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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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Are there any "right-now" versions of utilitarianism?
From what I can tell, the conclusive problems that normal utilitarianism faces are (A) the knowability problem, which is whether we could really know the total future impact of our actions, or (B) &...
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Is an Ethiopian and Bedouin unity possible in a subaltern utopia for Palestine-Israel? [closed]
I would like to ask for a potential utopian scenario where Ethiopian Jews and LC(lower class) bedouins form some subaltern allegiance to combat the racism they face in Palestine-Israel. Is this ...
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Is, "No," a sentence-level negation in natural language?
In the SEP article on negation, they say:
Where we do not find negation is in the one place propositional logic would lead us to look, sentence- or clause-peripheral position, as an external one-...
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