26
votes
An argument that everything exists
You're apparently defining "thing" as "something that exists", which makes the statement "everything exists" a simple tautology and thus not very meaningful.
- 1,148
15
votes
Accepted
Is Analytic Philosophy really just Language Philosophy
That quote is from Michael Dummett's book, Origins of Analytical Philosophy. A short answer is that according to Dummett, we cannot have a philosophy of anything until we have a clear theory of ...
- 22.9k
14
votes
Resisting a classic Buddhist Argument for Mereological Nihilism
The problem as stated is equivocating on the meaning of "their parts". This phrase is used to mean two different things: "their mere collection of parts" or "their parts in ...
- 7,580
11
votes
Accepted
Help me get this Hegel joke
First, "le sacre monstre" is bad French for "le monstre sacré" which while literally meaning "the holy monster" (thus the bad French putting the adjective in the wrong place) means "a public figure ...
- 24.6k
10
votes
Accepted
What's the current status of the "paradox of analysis"? And are there any strong and widely accepted resolutions?
A good paper to read on this subject is an old classic: Gilbert Ryle's Systematically Misleading Expressions. (Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 32: 139-170 (1932). Also in his Collected Papers,...
- 22.9k
10
votes
Accepted
An argument that everything exists
I recommend distinguishing between object and word (noun): on the one hand, objects exist; they are real. On the other hand,
some words refer to objects while other words do not. Hence all objects ...
- 24.4k
9
votes
Accepted
How does Frege's definition of number solve the Julius Caesar problem?
Here is some historical context. In Grundlagen der Arithmetik (1884) Frege introduced his ill-fated Axiom V, now known as the axiom of unrestricted comprehension: every predicate defines a class of ...
- 42.5k
8
votes
Accepted
Is it thought that analytic philosophy is in decline after the linguistic turn?
Good overviews of the more recent history of analytic philosophy are Burge's Philosophy of Language and Mind: 1950-1990 and Philosophy of Mind: 1950-2000 (ch.20), the philosophy of science side in a ...
- 42.5k
8
votes
Is it possible for the sentence "bachelors are unmarried" to be fallible?
"Bachelors are unmarried" is roughly a definition. Technically "Bachelors are unmarried men" is the definition, and then you'd have a tautology of "Unmarried men are unmarried&...
- 5,560
7
votes
Accepted
Was Hegel a major influence in analytic philosophy?
Yes, I believe Hegel has been treated largely with hostility or neglect in the analytic camp from the time Russell accused him "simple logical errors."Russell himself was originally steeped in Hegel, ...
- 13.3k
7
votes
Accepted
Literature for Analytic philosophy
The first four chapters of The Oxford Handbook of The History of Analytic Philosophy are available for free from that webpage. The four chapters are:
"What is Analytic Philosophy?"
"The ...
- 2,841
7
votes
Accepted
Why is postmodernism apparently so ill-perceived in philosophy of science?
For many people, Kuhn's notion of the incommensurability of paradigms is a form of postmodernism. So then there is not a conflict, the Philosophy of Science has notable post-modern contributors, who ...
- 1,098
7
votes
Accepted
In which respects Quine was a pragmatist?
Quine was not a member of some "official pragmatist school", but here are some references supporting the consonance of Quine's thought with pragmatism.
C.I. Lewis was one of Quine’s teachers ...
- 36.2k
6
votes
What three "accessible" works of analytical philosophy would you assign?
Kripke's Naming and Necessity, definitely. If any of Quine's books counts as a magnum opus, it would probably be Word and Object. Other seminal works in analytical philosophy include Austin's How to ...
- 22.9k
6
votes
An argument that everything exists
Only if you're Humpty Dumpty
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less."
From Dictionary....
- 1,728
5
votes
Accepted
Understanding Sellars' The Myth of the Given rigorously
Actually, chapter VIII of Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind (EPM), and section 35 in particular, do not contain any arguments against the Given, certainly not the main argument. The role of ...
- 7,311
5
votes
What could a jew do, when he arrived with a train in Auschwitz?
'Eichmann in Jerusalem' by Hannah Arendt discusses the questions of "what could the Jews do?" and "Why did they permit themselves to be led, like sheep, onto trains; into camps?" Arendt was a Jew that ...
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5
votes
How does Frege's definition of number solve the Julius Caesar problem?
In a nutshell, the issue arises from the definition of number of as a second-order concept (i.e. a numerical quantifier) in Die Grundlagen der Arithmetik (1884).
Consider e.g. 0xϕ(x)=df Card[xy] (y ≠ ...
- 36.2k
5
votes
How can a layperson self-study Analytic Philosophy?
I think the error here is that Analytic Philosophy can be succinctly summed up as though it was this tangible specific concept. There was a reaction against Hegel's grand, sweeping yet obscure ...
5
votes
Can one get a masters in philosophy without majoring in philosophy?
You can get an MA in philosophy in the US without doing an undergraduate in philosophy. If you do so, most programs will be looking for a strong background in analytic skills (here not with the exact ...
- 24.6k
5
votes
Accepted
Did Sellars's argument against the Myth of the Given defeat Husserl's phenomenology?
There is something to it, but things are more complicated. Sellars was not arguing against Husserl specifically, it is unlikely that he was even familiar with his phenomenology. He does draw on the ...
- 42.5k
5
votes
What are the different kinds of computation that exist?
Well, there are different kinds of physical computers as the other answer touched on. But if you're asking about types of computation, then in mathematics and computer science this often refers to ...
- 11.1k
5
votes
Michael Dummett on the indeterminacy thesis
Assume that the scenario involving "two equally acceptable schemes of translation from a language L into a language M might carry a given sentence of L respectively into distinct sentences of M ...
- 36.2k
4
votes
Is anyone now writing philosophy in the style of Plato - the Dialogue?
Here are a few examples of books using the dialogue form:
Worlds Apart: A Dialogue of the 1960's by Owen Barfield (1963) is written in the form of a fictional dialogue.
Corydon by André Gide (1911) ...
- 387
4
votes
Accepted
What are the arguments for preferring Continental or Analytic philosophy?
Here is the introduction to the biography of Pink Floyd taken from Wikipedia:
Pink Floyd were an English rock band formed in London. They achieved international acclaim with their progressive and ...
- 27.1k
4
votes
Are there any non-western thinkers regarded as Analytic philosophers?
I'd say no, but this is mostly just a matter of definition. Analytic philosophy is a particular modern strain of the western philosophical tradition. Its canonical writers are all Europeans and ...
- 141
4
votes
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What are the relations between externalism (Kripke, Putnam) and holism (Quine) about meaning?
Holism is an epistemological position, and externalism is a semantic one. Of course, some degree of interaction is to be expected, but not only is it possible to hold them together, it is not ...
- 42.5k
4
votes
What good is philosophy that is not clearly reasoned?
Generally, philosophers are not trying to be unclear or obscure as an end unto itself. Philosophy is about original thought, and truly new thoughts are hard to communicate. The problem is that they ...
- 27.1k
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