45
votes
Accepted
Is "that nose is fake" nonsense?
You understand what the sentence means; therefore, it is not nonsense. We can perform all sorts of analyses to try to analyse why the sentence is meaningful (e.g. the "nose" refers both to ...
- 2,160
18
votes
Is a false dichotomy still a dichotomy?
Your central claim seems to be that an [adjective] x is always an x. However, consider the following examples...
An exploded bomb
A melted snowflake
A fake diamond
A wannabee popstar
A cancelled ...
- 21.4k
18
votes
Can ChatGPT provide any value as a sounding board for philosophical exploration?
Since philosophy is about rigour, of thinking as well as of language, it is literally the opposite of a word game: as such, these LLM technologies, which are the next step of the statistical methods, ...
- 478
16
votes
Is it feasible to alter "well-established" languages?
Example of successful changes to language:
The king of Korea famously introduced a writing system for Korea with great success. It took a king to impose this new writing system, and was successful ...
- 949
16
votes
Does a sentence exist if it is not written, spoken, or even thought of?
In math and logic structures can be said to "exist" even if the current universe may not hold an instance of them. Like "for every prime number there exists a larger prime number". ...
- 3,816
15
votes
Is the statement "They like curry chicken." an objective or subjective statement?
An objective statement is a statement about "the thing in itself", with reality as is rather than as perceived. The statement "my computer runs Mac OS" is objective.
I start there ...
- 1,853
13
votes
Can we know that something exists even if we can't explain or define it?
Gravity is a great example to illustrate that yes, we can be certain a thing exists without having the ability to adequately explain or define it. As with the case of gravity, we can observe it and ...
- 505
13
votes
Accepted
Can religions die out specifically lose followers and consequently stop existing? (ontologically speaking)
From an analytical position, the question itself is somewhat inadequate.
First, religions aren't alive, so saying they die would be literally nonsensical. From a metaphorical position, we could easily ...
- 26.6k
12
votes
Can definitions in the Oxford Dictionary of the English Language be considered definitive in informal philosophical presentations?
A dictionary is not an authoritative text on the meaning of words; it's a guidebook for common usage. In philosophical discussions meaning is subject to contestation, and it is up to the speaker to ...
- 19.6k
11
votes
Is "that nose is fake" nonsense?
"Fake" in "fake nose" typically means the nose is artificial (e.g. man-made and surgically inserted), not that it's not a nose.
One might go one step further and say that it ...
- 9,628
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
(...
- 1,471
11
votes
Could general-AI language generation be a test for sentience, sapience, or consciousness?
If several independent general AI were to, unprompted, develop their own language ab initio (or perhaps from other languages,) could this serve as a test for sentience, sapience, or general ...
- 26.6k
11
votes
The problem of philosophy?
Many difficulties encountered in philosophy are indeed related to the inherent imprecision of language. The problem is perhaps more fundamental than your examples suggest, since if it were just a ...
- 21.4k
11
votes
Can we know that something exists even if we can't explain or define it?
You need at least some definition, but it doesn't have to be exact or detailed.
You can't tell me whether "adfgiuadhfg" exists, because you don't know a definition of that word.
A child can ...
- 252
9
votes
Is the statement "They like curry chicken." an objective or subjective statement?
The other answers rely on either a non-technical understanding of the terms "subjective" and "objective" or depend on a particular philosophical viewpoint. This answer is viewpoint-...
- 9,920
9
votes
Is mathematics analytic or synthetic?
A possible counterargument is that the analytic-synthetic distinction you are using is inherently inadequate and outmoded language and thinking. For the first part, Quine in his Two Dogmas of ...
- 26.6k
8
votes
If Large Language Models can do Maths, is Formalism true?
As a constructivist brother who places as much credence in Platonic Forms as he does in the Irish tuatha da dannan or the Norwegian troll, let me dispute the premise that LLMs do math or have much in ...
- 26.6k
8
votes
Can we know that something exists even if we can't explain or define it?
For something to exist, it needs to be observable, either directly or indirectly. Physical objects and phenomena can be observed directly and measured. Abstract ideas can be observed indirectly by ...
- 2,644
7
votes
If calculating the p-value post-hoc is meaningless, why is it reasonable to believe the Grimm's Law (and other laws of historical phonology) is true?
I'm not sure that Grimm's law should be viewed a natural law akin to the laws of thermodynamics, rather it should be viewed as a condensation of empirical observations into a structure that aids in ...
- 5,337
7
votes
Who ever argued that natural languages have an exact logic?
I think nobody has seriously argued such a thing. Given how easy it is to formulate semantic paradoxes in natural languages, it would seem to be impossible.
Leibniz did some work towards what he ...
- 25.2k
7
votes
Is a false dichotomy still a dichotomy?
A false belief is a belief whose content is not true: I believe
2+2=5.
A false dichotomy is not a dichotomy with a certain property.
Instead it is a binary classification which is not disjunct or ...
- 31.6k
7
votes
What is language? Why can I “just understand” it?
I am sorry to read that your mental health is deteriorating, and wonder how it may be related to your question. To my mind, the fact that we are endowed with capacities which we may not be able to ...
- 2,172
7
votes
The problem of philosophy?
Philosophy, most simply, means reasoning about things, and reasoning is distinct from linguistics. Linguistics merely has to do with defining terms. So, if we must resolve a problem by reasoning ...
- 1,877
7
votes
Does the success of AI (Large Language Models) support Wittgenstein's position that "meaning is use"?
No. Wittgenstein would probably be the first to argue that the bare existence of a functioning Large Language Model does not by itself have any philosophical importance. The construction of an LLM is ...
- 2,215
6
votes
Is "that nose is fake" nonsense?
By your argument a "rubber duck" is nonsense too, as is a "prosthetic leg".
Avoiding this type of pedantry/sophistry just renders human conversation too tiring to bother. Anything ...
- 160
6
votes
Accepted
Could general-AI language generation be a test for sentience, sapience, or consciousness?
"there is some debate about whether or not current LLMs are intelligent or sentient"
There is debate about what it even means to be intelligent or sentient.
For a long time we've taken it ...
- 9,628
6
votes
Is it feasible to alter "well-established" languages?
Getting rid of “irregularities and unnecessary syntax variations” was one of the reasons for the German orthography reform of 1996 in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It included simplifications in ...
- 163
6
votes
Are these introductory logic textbooks wrong to teach ‘unless’ = ‘or’?
In introductory logic textbooks, it is customary to understand logical connectives purely in terms of their truth conditions. When you do this, 'unless' turns out to have the same truth conditions as '...
- 25.2k
6
votes
The problem of philosophy?
There is a view propagated in analytical philosophy that most problems of philosophy result from linguistic carelessness – as stated in a pointed form by Wittgenstein:
For philosophical problems ...
- 31.6k
6
votes
Is belief nothing but a feeling of certainty about what something means?
We haven't seen what is inside a black hole, and almost certainly never will, but we can have beliefs about what is there. Those beliefs are likely to be based on theories about reality that we have ...
- 2,245
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible