52
votes
What factors led to the widespread popularity of nihilism in the 21st century?
While I'm not entirely convinced of the premises of the question, in general people seek out philosophies that address conditions of life as they experience it. In the marketplace of ideas, a ...
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41
votes
What factors led to the widespread popularity of nihilism in the 21st century?
I can think of 2 reasons:
Naturalism is the philosophy most promoted in public schools. With some exceptions, people tend to stick with what they're taught in school. Believing in a supernatural ...
- 519
18
votes
What factors led to the widespread popularity of nihilism in the 21st century?
Jacob Ross, Rejecting Ethical Deflationism,' Ethics 116, 2006: 742–68 defines nihilism as :
▻ NIHILISM - DEFINITION
'...the view that the notions of good and bad and of right and wrong are ...
- 36.1k
11
votes
Accepted
What's the name of a fallacy when a debater selectively picks facts and ignores others?
It is the cherry picking fallacy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_picking
Edit:
Thanks to gidds for pointing out the number of different names for this fallacy. Here are a few:
Cherry Picking
(...
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8
votes
Which text of which philosopher marks the start of the Enlightenment?
This is a Europe-wide intellectual movement which developed slowly. There is no single work or author.
As of early influence, Samuel von Pufendorf certainly is an important writer. Immanuel Kant, who ...
- 14.8k
7
votes
What did R.G. Collingwood intend to say by 'nothing capable of being learnt by heart, nothing capable of being memorized, is history'?
See R.G.Collingwood : Philosophy of history :
Collingwood thought that history cannot be studied in the same way as natural science because the internal thought processes of historical persons cannot ...
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7
votes
Different theistic religions contradict each other
If (from a religious perspective) god supposedly created all the religious rules,
Not all religions subscribe to this. Buddhism for example doesn't really talk about who created the rules, and ...
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7
votes
Can you explain clearly the difference between race and ethnicity?
Alright, first from Race (SEP):
The concept of race has historically signified the division of humanity into a small number of groups based upon five criteria: (1) Races reflect some type of ...
- 35.6k
7
votes
Can we study scientifically the set of facts and behaviors if we have no scientific explanation for the source, origin or underlying mechanism of it?
Can we study scientifically the set of facts and behaviors if we have no scientific explanation for the source, origin, or underlying mechanism of it?
Yes. Finding the source, origin, and underlying ...
- 6,881
6
votes
Accepted
Is this quote from Aristotle's Poetics?
Aristotle, Poetics, 1451b :
The real difference is this, that one tells what happened and the other what might happen. For this reason poetry is something more scientific and serious than history, ...
- 41.1k
6
votes
Accepted
What did R.G. Collingwood intend to say by 'nothing capable of being learnt by heart, nothing capable of being memorized, is history'?
One of Collingwood's major views about history is that while the past no longer exists, it is possible by empathic projection from historical evidence or traces to understand why historical actors ...
- 36.1k
6
votes
Is there a connection between modern colonialism and secularism?
Speaking from a pure political philosophy perspective, this question centers on the difference between the concept 'nation' and the concept 'state.' Technically, a nation is a (loosely) self-governing ...
- 24.2k
6
votes
Can you explain clearly the difference between race and ethnicity?
"[T]he answer to the question whether races exist in humans is clear
and unambiguous: no."
-Alan R. Templeton
Templeton (link is to bio on Wikipedia) is an American geneticist and ...
- 23.8k
6
votes
Non sequitur claims when deducing meaning from historical artifacts or texts (problem of presentism)
Your question amounts to what makes modern history a reliable, arguably scientific field, particularly in regards to historical linguistics. For starters, a healthy dose of naturalized epistemological ...
- 35.6k
6
votes
Does philosophy have formal theories to explain why many secular or religious stories apparently die and others persist or live as history?
Do any philosophers propose theories to explain why there is a particular pattern of drama (dramatic attractor theory) in the path of historical events?
They do - think of Hegel for instance. Or ...
- 4,977
6
votes
Does history possess the epistemological tools to establish the occurrence of an anomaly in the past that defies current scientific models?
Historical analysis tries to figure out the most plausible explanation for the evidence. So it would have a hard time concluding something that science says is implausible or that contradicts our ...
- 13.9k
6
votes
Does history possess the epistemological tools to establish the occurrence of an anomaly in the past that defies current scientific models?
History is a science among others. It has its own methods but shares the same naturalistic outlook as any science. Therefore one cannot oppose science and history, because history is science.
In fact ...
- 3,294
5
votes
What factors led to the widespread popularity of nihilism in the 21st century?
This answer is just speculation
Why it is popular:
People enjoy it. They can act how ever they please because immorality is impossible. It also makes them feel intellectually superior with no more ...
- 203
5
votes
Historiography of the Holocaust and its ethical dimension
Well, I guess we can divide all of it into 4 parts. At least roughly.
Initial Documentation Phase (1945-1960s)
The immediate postwar years - gathering firsthand testimonies from survivors and ...
- 2,753
5
votes
Can we study scientifically the set of facts and behaviors if we have no scientific explanation for the source, origin or underlying mechanism of it?
The mechanisms of evolution are extremely well known and have been researched in great detail. Evolution is also one of the most fundamental principles in science (in its broadest sense, it doesn't ...
- 3,008
5
votes
Does history possess the epistemological tools to establish the occurrence of an anomaly in the past that defies current scientific models?
I would argue the answer must be "yes, both science and history can come to different conclusions." I'd argue this because we can consider a more recent historical event Y -- the result of ...
- 18.8k
4
votes
What factors led to the widespread popularity of nihilism in the 21st century?
The way paradigms shift quickly in modern times is likely even more a cause than an enabling factor.
Whoever has seen multiple contradicting views on one matter being accepted, then debunked, as ...
- 191
4
votes
Accepted
Did Hegel provide any example of history repeating itself?
Are you referring only to the well-know Marx's quote into The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon (1851-52) regarding Hegel, or are you considering Hegel's philosophy of history in general ?
...
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4
votes
Does Edward Said offer a solution to Orientalism and could a possible solution relate to Charles Taylors term "Politics of Recognition?
The last chapter of Orientalism only touches briefly on possible solutions. The book is more concerned with an exposition of Orientalism than with suggesting an alternative. Edward Said writes (p. 325)...
- 652
4
votes
What is the post-modernist response to Francis Fukuyama's theory that technological developments give history a specific direction?
I assume you refer to his early work The Order of Things, where the arbitrary changes between different episteme are revealed via "The Archaeology of Knowledge". Based on that book, we can ...
- 14.8k
4
votes
Accepted
Can an extraordinary hypothesis ever be the best explanation for a set of historical facts?
Sure, and have been so. 'Extra-ordinary' is contingent upon historical accident and context.
Let's take germ theory of disease. When miasma theory was dominant, the notion of tiny living beings ...
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4
votes
Accepted
Historiography of the Holocaust and its ethical dimension
The exploration of Holocaust historiography and the documentation of World War II, particularly the Holocaust, is a multifaceted and complex journey through scholarship:
Early Efforts in Documentation:...
- 1,949
4
votes
Can we study scientifically the set of facts and behaviors if we have no scientific explanation for the source, origin or underlying mechanism of it?
We have been studying gravity for hundreds of years, and we've developed extremely precise mathematical descriptions of what it does, but we still have no good explanation for why it does that.
Newton ...
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