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 ...
- 12.4k
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 ...
- 1,895
12
votes
Accepted
Is there a modern, secular argument for the soul?
I would think the modern version of the argument is the Aristotelian version of the argument.
Looking at your question, your first point seems to narrow the definition of soul in a way that is not ...
- 24.3k
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 ...
- 3,720
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 ...
- 2,417
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 ...
- 35k
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 ...
- 12.4k
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
4
votes
Can we tell whether human groups or societies are behaving as superorganisms?
David Sloan Wilson addresses your question in his 2002 book, Darwin's Cathedral. He is the developer of multilevel selection theory, where in addition to natural selection at the gene level, and the ...
4
votes
Is (are) there a civic religion(s) in Western Europe?
One of such could be British cult of Queen, on the other hand it could be considered part of British brand along with Union Jack, red buses and postal poles. I think every nation's 'heroes' will be ...
- 1,403
4
votes
Is Fatherhood among humans really natural?
The idea that it exists to strengthen the patriarchy is silly; the concept of fatherhood directly benefits the female vastly more than the male.
According to evolution, it likely came about as a ...
- 373
4
votes
Is Fatherhood among humans really natural?
Even if we accept your basic assumption --that responsible fatherhood in human beings dates back only as far as the dawn of human societies --that doesn't imply it can't be part of an evolutionary ...
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. ...
- 26.4k
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 ...
- 6,987
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. ...
- 40.6k
4
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 ...
- 35k
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 ...
- 35k
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 ...
- 12.6k
4
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 ...
- 12.4k
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 ...
- 10.7k
3
votes
Who owns the means of production?
In general, the terms I've used are:
Bourgeoisie - the capitalist class who own most of society's wealth
and means of production.
Proletariat - workers or working-class people, regarded ...
- 573
3
votes
If the atoms of a person's body change every x number of years, should the person be prosecuted today for a crime that he/she committed x years ago?
Arne Naess wrote many essays about the Self. In them, he argued for a concept called the Ecological Self, but along the way he used a series of phrases to challenge commonly held approaches to ...
- 17.2k
3
votes
If the atoms of a person's body change every x number of years, should the person be prosecuted today for a crime that he/she committed x years ago?
Atoms do not contain little tags that say "I am part of user63152", and whose unique properties determine the actions of user63152. Indeed, aside from differences in isotopes, and a handful of ...
- 15.6k
3
votes
If everything is theory laden, how can one argue against climate change deniers?
As I understand it, climate change deniers are essentially saying they don't believe the scientists who've produced the evidence, so arguments about the validity of scientific evidence, it's testing ...
- 1,878
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 ...
- 34.7k
3
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 ...
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 ...
- 3,610
3
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 ...
- 1,143
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