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39 votes
17 answers
17k views

Should I respect other people's religions?

My point of view is that there is no reason to believe any god exists without evidence. So I find religions a very irrational idea and I mostly heard people saying We have to respect other ...
Danowsky's user avatar
  • 508
39 votes
11 answers
6k views

What should philosophers know about math and natural sciences?

My question is whether a lack of knowledge about formal mathematics or theoretical science in general would have an impact on a philosopher's ability to think and make judgments. Why should a ...
38 votes
11 answers
8k views

What fallacy is the belief that we are special because our existence on Earth seems improbable an example of?

People often use the argument that there must be a God, for example, because Earth and the laws of physics are perfectly situated for humans to exist the way we do. However, if Earth, or even the ...
Tori's user avatar
  • 483
38 votes
13 answers
3k views

What should a rational person accept as a miracle?

I was reading through this collection of short essays from theologians, scientists and thinkers each responding to the question "Does the Universe have a purpose?" which was suggested to me in a ...
Saeed Neamati's user avatar
38 votes
3 answers
5k views

How did first-order logic come to be the dominant formal logic?

Early formal systems like Frege's Begriffsschrift or Peano's work on the axiomatization of the natural numbers used axiom systems with an underlying second-order predicate logic (from today's point of ...
Thomas Klimpel's user avatar
38 votes
9 answers
6k views

Does happiness motivate every action?

Pascal wrote: All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the ...
Jon Ericson's user avatar
  • 7,239
37 votes
18 answers
16k views

Why do atheist euthanasia proponents consider nothingness preferable to suffering? [closed]

I have heard some atheists support euthanasia, on the grounds that death is preferable to agony. But I don't understand this; if there is no afterlife, death isn't a relief. It's true nothingness, the ...
Ryan_L's user avatar
  • 925
36 votes
10 answers
15k views

Is it a fallacy if someone claims they need an explanation for every word of your argument to the point where they don't understand common terms?

Is it a fallacy if someone claims they need an explanation for every word of your argument to the point where they don't understand common terms? For example, suppose someone said, "If a dog bites ...
dogperson's user avatar
  • 361
36 votes
5 answers
64k views

Was Socrates a fictional character invented by Plato?

I have read a lot of websites that suggest Socrates was a fictional character created by Plato (albeit without the citation of any corroborating evidence), but I have also read the opposite (and by "...
Garmen1778's user avatar
36 votes
7 answers
4k views

Why has the philosophy of Bishop Berkeley fallen out of favor in academic philosophy?

I studied George Berkeley as an undergraduate, and though I absolutely loved his work and his philosophy, many of my peers, and even some of my professors, found his philosophy wholly unappealing, ...
dimo414's user avatar
  • 1,137
35 votes
13 answers
16k views

Why are believers criticized so much for being anti-science when so many scientists are ... believers?

My first introduction to philosophical debate was through Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens. The idea that they hammered into a younger me was that faith was stupid and irrational and any person ...
user32029's user avatar
  • 447
35 votes
17 answers
14k views

Why doesn't philosophy have higher standards for its arguments?

Mathematical systems are an excellent model for organizing and conducting thought: In the mathematics community, any argument in support of a conjecture, that deviates from "sound argument" never ...
QWERTY_dw's user avatar
  • 701
35 votes
23 answers
6k views

In what sense is atheism scientific?

I have been reading a bit of Dawkins and the like and they all seem to hold a very strong viewpoint on atheism and its associated ideology. I have not found a direct citation for this but he ...
user avatar
35 votes
8 answers
41k views

What would Kant do when two categorical imperatives conflict? Could he ever justify lying?

Suppose a German SS officer knocked on my door, asking me whether I had any Jews. And suppose further that I had two Jews in a secret compartment in the attic that he'd never be able to find. ...
Cerberus's user avatar
  • 1,333
34 votes
27 answers
15k views

Asserting that Atheism and Theism are both faith based positions

I am recently testing an assertion that I have concluded namely that atheism is a faith based position just like theism is a faith based position. The reason I arrived at this conclusion is that ...
user avatar
34 votes
16 answers
16k views

Fundamental idea on proving God's existence with science

I think that proving God's existence or any deity from any culture with the rigors of science is fundamentally absurd. The popular arguments usually involve space-time and the big bang theory. (I ...
TheLast Cipher's user avatar
34 votes
6 answers
10k views

Three statements that contradict each other

In formal logic, it seems that a contradiction only arises between two statements. Is it possible to have a set of three statements that together are a contradiction, but where any two of the ...
Marc Bacvanski's user avatar
34 votes
12 answers
11k views

Why is the complex number an integral part of physical reality?

In modern physics, the quantum wave distribution function necessarily uses complex numbers to represent itself. If physics defines the physical reality, then what we are saying by the statement above ...
Dheeraj Verma's user avatar
34 votes
12 answers
2k views

How can one differentiate nonexistent entities?

How is it possible for things that do not exist to not be the same? How can one differentiate nonexistent entities? How can I know the difference between ghosts and werewolves if neither exist?
Niklas Rosencrantz's user avatar
34 votes
16 answers
66k views

Is there anything that is totally random?

When I say totally random, I mean absolutely random, not pseudorandom. If I want to say "totally random" numbers such as 1,26,17,4,1 and 27, although I see them to be totally random, they aren't. ...
Garmen1778's user avatar
34 votes
17 answers
36k views

What are some good introductions to philosophy? [duplicate]

I've been searching the questions posed here, and don't seem to find one that gives the answers I am looking for. I've proposed to start a list on meta but no one proposed anything, so I feel I must ...
JNat's user avatar
  • 716
34 votes
3 answers
4k views

Is first-order logic the only fundamental logic?

I'm far from being an expert in the field of mathematical logic, but I've been reading about the academic work invested in the foundations of mathematics, both in a historical and objetive sense; and ...
Mono's user avatar
  • 616
34 votes
3 answers
5k views

How is Gödel's incompleteness theorem interpreted in intuitionistic logic?

Classically, one sets up an axiomatic system with a formal deduction system & an interpretation in a model. Generally it is sound, that is: a formally deduced theorem is also true when interpreted ...
Mozibur Ullah's user avatar
34 votes
9 answers
7k views

To what extent do we choose our beliefs?

Are we free to choose our beliefs? Or is our belief in a proposition something that is thrust upon us by the weight of the evidence we have in favor and against the truth of it? For example, is it ...
JDH's user avatar
  • 3,816
33 votes
14 answers
20k views

If I said I had $100 when asked, but I actually had $200, would I be lying by omission? [closed]

If you had $200 cash on you right now, and I asked you if you had $100 on you, would the correct answer be yes (always/no matter what other conditions there are), no (always/no matter what other ...
Yukang Jiang's user avatar
33 votes
5 answers
28k views

What is the difference between "not true" and "false"?

What is the difference, if any, between "not true" and "false"?
Heynow's user avatar
  • 339
33 votes
18 answers
10k views

What is the purpose of the universe? [closed]

There are two extremes known as creationism vs evolutionism. Let's consider creationism for a moment, and imagine that God exists, and he/she has created us. The question that obsesses my mind after ...
Saeed Neamati's user avatar
32 votes
17 answers
15k views

How does mathematics work?

If I am given a parking lot with ten thousand cars and I want to determine whether one of the cars is orange, the only way I can do this is go through the parking lot examining each car until I find ...
Craig Feinstein's user avatar
32 votes
5 answers
3k views

Does humanism's rejection of God necesitate relativism?

I had the following discussion on Programmers.SE: @Peter Turner, Which is a good example of how religion warps morality, leading people to imagine their concerns are moral when they are profoundly ...
Peter Turner's user avatar
32 votes
4 answers
16k views

What are the philosophical implications of Gödel's First Incompleteness Theorem?

Gödel's First Incompleteness Theorem states Any effectively generated theory capable of expressing elementary arithmetic cannot be both consistent and complete. In particular, for any ...
Joseph Weissman's user avatar
  • 9,580
32 votes
7 answers
2k views

Are Methodological Assumptions of StackExchange Fundamentally Flawed?

I looked here for an answer while writing a paper on evidence and scientific inference. I then saw the bold claims made by the website that the process goes as follows: Anybody can ask a question ...
KKell's user avatar
  • 488
31 votes
19 answers
17k views

Is atheism just another form of dogma?

I was raised Catholic, and part of my motivation for leaving Catholicism was my dislike of any kind of enforced structure. However, to my surprise, it seems like Atheism is also dogmatic. Is this ...
user189728's user avatar
31 votes
15 answers
15k views

Why do some people care so much about "empirical truth"?

Whenever you discuss philosophy, inevitably you will come across a type of person who holds empirical truth above all else, and will blatantly ridicule any discussion which has its onset in a paradigm ...
geowo's user avatar
  • 335
31 votes
16 answers
17k views

Was Robin Hood's point of view ethically sound?

The story of Robin Hood was a favourite of mine as a child. But as an adult, I am beginning to change my mind for a couple of reasons. The first being that if we assume a free market exists, ...
Adam Ledger's user avatar
31 votes
16 answers
10k views

Is mathematics politically and culturally neutral?

Lately, there have been many people who say that mathematics itself is racist, that it is simply a creation of dead white Greek men. As a mathematician, I strongly disagree, and believe that ...
user107952's user avatar
  • 6,446
31 votes
10 answers
14k views

Why is scientism philosophically wrong?

I think a combination of science and philosophy alone leads to closer to truth. Why is it that it is wrong to think that science alone leads to truth? Isn't empirical truth the only one we can be ...
BlowMaMind's user avatar
31 votes
10 answers
11k views

Isn't the notion that everything will occur in an infinite timeline an example of the gambler's fallacy?

I've seen a few different formulations of this, but the most famous is "monkeys on a typewriter" - that if you put a team of monkeys on a typewriter, given infinite time, they will ...
Lou's user avatar
  • 421
31 votes
5 answers
8k views

Is "I cannot imagine a mechanism for X to happen, so X can never happen" a named logical fallacy?

I have encountered this reasoning quite frequently: Somebody posits the hypothesis that an event X can happpen. A recent example I encountered was "vinegar and salt in the boiling water make eggs ...
rumtscho's user avatar
  • 460
31 votes
16 answers
6k views

Do fundamental concepts in physics have any logical basis?

After years of studying physics I am suddenly struck by the question - What is energy? Wikipedia defines it thus: Energy is often understood as the ability a physical system has to do work on ...
Green Noob's user avatar
31 votes
11 answers
9k views

Where and how can I get started in contemporary philosophy?

We are living in an unprecedented era of philosophical research and development where "big thought" is once again everywhere. And yet I feel like I hear this question so often: Where to begin ...
31 votes
10 answers
293k views

What is the difference between Fact and Truth?

I'm curious about the difference between Fact and Truth. I was searching on the internet if I could find it. But still I'm confused about the exact meaning. I first read the forum discussion here Fact ...
NullPointer's user avatar
30 votes
9 answers
13k views

When is absence of evidence not evidence of absence?

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." I think this statement raises some kind of epistemic problem. Like, how are we supposed to conclude the potential non-existence of something, like ...
vorpal professor's user avatar
30 votes
14 answers
12k views

Since words are defined in terms of other words in dictionaries, leading to infinite loops, does it mean natural languages are meaningless?

Since words are defined in terms of other words in dictionaries, leading to infinite loops, does it mean natural languages are meaningless? Are infinitely recursive definitions valid? If we visualize ...
xwb's user avatar
  • 699
30 votes
4 answers
9k views

Does the no true Scotsman fallacy apply to anti Stalinist etc. communism?

The internet is awash with claims that anyone arguing that Stalinist Russia / Maoism wasn't communist is committing the no true Scotsman / ad hoc rescue fallacy. However, I suspect that few of its ...
user avatar
30 votes
18 answers
8k views

Aren't we all philosophical zombies?

I've been reading about the philosophy of the mind, and I'm a bit confused. Everything I've read seems to start with the (unjustified) assumption that there is some aspect of the mind that isn't ...
Alex's user avatar
  • 427
30 votes
8 answers
12k views

Is it possible for something to have no cause?

Bertrand Rusell writes in his essay "Why I Am Not A Christian": There is no reason why the world could not have come into being without a cause; [...] Warren Rachelle, however, states in his ...
eflorico's user avatar
  • 666
30 votes
5 answers
5k views

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 ...
ymar's user avatar
  • 544
30 votes
1 answer
21k views

Difference between implication/conditional and logical entailment?

What is the difference between the implication/conditional truth function and the notion of logical entailment? My naive understanding as a computer programmer is that the conditional is a function ...
user's user avatar
  • 457
29 votes
18 answers
12k views

Why is it impossible for a program or AI to have semantic understanding?

relatively new to philosophy. This question is based on John Searle's Chinese Room Argument. I find it odd that his main argument for why programs could not think was that because programs could only ...
Abraham's user avatar
  • 483
29 votes
23 answers
8k views

Can time exist without change?

Imagine an event of one second in length, like two hands clapping. Suppose that another interval of time elapses between the clap, a period in which nothing happens in the whole universe (or in all ...
Francesco D'Isa's user avatar

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