19
votes
Can religion be considered obsolete?
Not being religious, I'll focus on the argument that religion is inherently inimical to science and an obstruction to technological development. I would say science and religion are not necessarily ...
- 13.4k
13
votes
Accepted
What makes moral realism so popular a standpoint?
Moral Realism isn't a clear term. The way the survey is set up, some constructivists could label themselves under it. (I've also heard of terminology that puts Moral Relativism under Moral Realism, so ...
- 1,875
7
votes
Has anyone suggested a modern substitute for mythology?
Levi-Strauss is an obvious reference even if it is not exactly clear what we speaking about. La pensee sauvage proposed "bricolage" as a practical form of mythology in contemporary societies. Within ...
- 3,684
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 ...
- 23k
6
votes
Accepted
If everything is theory laden, how can one argue against climate change deniers?
Quinean underdetermination is such a generic form of skepticism that I'd suggest it's epistemologically better to focus on the specific arguments made by climate skeptics. For some philosophical ...
- 2,467
6
votes
What makes moral realism so popular a standpoint?
Moral realism I take to be broadly the view that moral judgements can be true or false, that some are true and are known to be true. There has been an upsurge of interest in and sympathy with moral ...
- 35.4k
5
votes
If everything is theory laden, how can one argue against climate change deniers?
You bring up an important issue for philosophy of science. A rough picture of how science functions something like this. A theory is formed that makes hypotheses or predictions about the world. ...
- 151
5
votes
Accepted
Has anyone suggested a modern substitute for mythology?
I believe there are many, a few quite well known. I'll just run through several, without attempting to define mythology, a la Barthes, or differentiate it from comprehensive ideology.
One of the ...
- 13.4k
5
votes
Is philosophy considered mainly as ethics in modern society (mainly in the public perception)?
Impressionistically I think the public, if it turns to philosophy, turns to ethics. Why might this be so ? I can think of three reasons.
The first is that we are beset with ethical problems, moral ...
- 35.4k
4
votes
What is the philosophy of terrorism?
To discuss terrorism from a philosophical point of view, one first must realize that terrorism has a pretty precise definition: Achieving a political objective by terrorizing a civilian population. ...
- 27.1k
4
votes
If everything is theory laden, how can one argue against climate change deniers?
Per Quine's results from "Two Dogmas of Empiricism", the Duhem-Quine thesis, and later results such as those of Kuhn and Feyerabend, all empirical observations are theory laden.
You missed Popper ...
- 7,420
4
votes
Can a society with an arbitrary social rule be moral?
Typically moral questions need to be referred to some moral framework, because, while there is wide overlap on moral intuitions, there is no one universally endorsed set of moral standards, and there ...
- 27.2k
4
votes
What are the reasons for taboos in a society?
The traditional role of a taboo is prohibition of an action, not of discussion, but the two are often mixed when the term is used loosely, see e.g. Gao's study of English "taboo" words. ...
- 42.5k
4
votes
Accepted
Would we choose to become psychopaths if we could?
We could but it would not be beneficial for the species
First of all, empathy and other social functions exists among other mammals (dogs, wolves, horses, all kind of apes etc ...) . Why have they ...
- 1,166
4
votes
Does collectivism actually exist?
Remembering the emotions
Descartes never says that we are merely cognitive beings. Thinking may be our essence - may define our essential nature - but we are also creatures of emotion or 'passion' as ...
- 35.4k
4
votes
Why are organisations more tolerant about members' alleged misconduct than the rest of society?
The social sciences generally explain this phenomenon as the Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE). The FAE is a well-documented observation about the way people make causal attributions about other ...
- 18.5k
4
votes
Accepted
Is Durkheimian critique of Kantian understanding of space and time valid?
Short version
I would argue that Durkheim seemed to think that the a priori character of space as a unitary frame across all rational beings was a threat to the socially determined plurality of ...
- 13.5k
4
votes
Is this a good argument for why societies tend towards maximum employment?
The basic reason for continued employment is that humanity has a very long list of tasks it needs/wants doing that are increasingly hard to automate. As the highest priorities at the top of the list ...
- 111
3
votes
Does culture both reflect and create society?
The two are interwined.
Culture consists of the beliefs, behaviors, objects, and other characteristics common to the members of a particular group or society.
And society can be defined as the ...
- 36.2k
3
votes
Accepted
Explanation behind the 'human' reaction to 'terrorism'
Terrorism is classified as war and thus understood in the context of war ethics. Traditionally, the ethics is divided into two considerations: when to go to war or who has the moral right to start a ...
- 3,657
3
votes
Hegel's Master Slave dialectic
This is a partial answer only focusing how self-consciousness might become a master-slave (or lord-bondsman) dialectic.
Wikipedia may be able to provide a brief description of the narrative in Hegel'...
- 19.2k
3
votes
Accepted
Hegel's Master Slave dialectic
There are two points I have to make before I get into this:
The story about the Master and Slave that Hegel spins out is allegory, almost a kind of creation myth. I've seen people try to apply it as ...
- 18.5k
3
votes
How is it possible that so many people get together, get married, have kids and *then* divorce and break up?
You are right to feel baffled by this conclusion because it hinges on a baseless assertion - that people and their personalities are somehow static and unchanging. People are constantly experiencing ...
- 31
3
votes
Question about Marx´s book (German Ideology)
The relevant quotes in order:
The Illusions of German Ideology
The entire body of German philosophical criticism from Strauss to Stirner is confined to criticism of
religious conceptions. The critics ...
- 3,468
3
votes
What's the importance that Marx gives to the Class Struggle for the devolopment of societies?
Marx gives a double importance to class struggle in the Manifesto: economic and political.
Economic
The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggles.
Freeman and ...
- 35.4k
3
votes
Accepted
Is stoicism still relevant in modern world?
For many people today, it seems so! I'm not much into Stoicism myself, but I am always surprised when I use "philosophy" as a search term in, say, book markets, to see how much Stoicism pops ...
- 13.4k
3
votes
Accepted
How is Society shaped?
Sociology has three main theories, which do not refute each other but compensate for the lackluster parts of each other:
Structural functionalism, in which society is proposed to have structures ...
- 146
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