51
votes
Accepted
Is there a term for the belief that "if it's legal, it's moral"?
We are talking about "Appeal to law" fallacy.
When following the law is assumed to be the morally correct thing to
do, without justification, or when breaking the law is assumed to be
the ...
- 561
28
votes
Accepted
Term for people who believe God once existed but then disappeared?
"Theothanatologists" - For more information see Wikipedia.
The Death of God movement is sometimes technically referred to as
theothanatology, deriving from the Greek theos (God) and ...
- 4,432
22
votes
Is there a term for the belief that "if it's legal, it's moral"?
I think what you are looking for is called Legal Interpretivism, which, unlike Legal Positivism (which asserts that laws are distinct from morality), asserts that laws are based on morality, and that ...
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20
votes
Is this a fallacy: "A woman is an adult who identifies as female in gender"?
A woman is an adult that identifies as female in gender.
A fallacy is an argument that is specious but persuasive. You have presented no substantial argument which often takes the form of first ...
- 17.4k
19
votes
How does "if p, then q" compare to "p only if q"?
In simple cases at least, "if p, then q" and "p only if q" have the same truth conditions. But this is not the same as saying that they mean the same thing.
Typically with ...
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18
votes
Accepted
What is a "demon"?
A demon is a skilled entity, used in thought experiments, that remarks some fact. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_(thought_experiment).
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18
votes
Term for people who believe God once existed but then disappeared?
What you describe is view of some deists who see God as observing humanity but not directly intervening in our lives - for more information see Wikipedia.
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16
votes
Is this a fallacy: "A woman is an adult who identifies as female in gender"?
"A woman is anyone who identifies as a woman" is a definition, not an argument (it defines what "woman" means). So it cannot be fallacious. But it's circular*, which means it's not ...
- 3,062
14
votes
Accepted
In simple terms, what is the difference between logic in mathematics and philosophy?
The definitions of 'logic' and 'mathematics' are themselves subject to dispute. In particular, the word 'logic' is used in different senses. At its narrowest, it is concerned with the relationship of ...
- 19.6k
13
votes
Accepted
What's the right term in logic for this phenomenon?
The difference is that between inclusion and equality.
The set of Mothers of x is included into the set of Parents of x, but not vice versa:
every Mother is a Parent, but not every Parent is a Mother....
- 35.5k
13
votes
Accepted
Are humans and other animals machines?
I like this question. It's thorny.
Merriam-Webster defines
machine so: a mechanically, electrically, or electronically operated device for performing a task.
That is, there is an operator (the entity ...
- 1,499
13
votes
Is this a fallacy: "A woman is an adult who identifies as female in gender"?
It isn't an argument, so cannot be a fallacy.
It is merely a definition.
A definition can be useful or not. It can be a prescriptive definition or a descriptive definition. Prescriptive definitions ...
- 297
12
votes
Accepted
What is an attribute, as used in Spinoza's Ethics?
Attributes, for Aristotle, scholastics, Descartes, and Spinoza alike, are the non-accidental qualities/properties expressed in language by predicates, as substances are expressed in it by subjects, to ...
- 42k
11
votes
Is the dichotomy between natural and unnatural defensible?
Natural is one of those words that fit the description of what John Austin called trouser-words in his book Sense and Sensibilia. Sometimes you can only understand a word by reference to what it is ...
- 19.6k
11
votes
Is this a fallacy: "A woman is an adult who identifies as female in gender"?
The following definition is not circular:
A woman is somebody who says they are a woman.
This definition proposes a test, "do they say they are a woman?", to determine if somebody is a ...
- 680
10
votes
What is the difference between a probability and a possibility?
On the prevailing extensional interpretation of modality the difference between possibility and probability is the diffference between quality and quantity, possibility is the quality quantified by ...
- 42k
10
votes
Accepted
What does Nietzsche refer to with the "backworldsmen"?
I answer with the authority of being a native German speaker and having graduated in philosophy ;)
Back-world is a bad translation here. Presumably, the translator has mistaken the term "...
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10
votes
Accepted
What did Gödel mean by "positive property" in his ontological argument?
"Positive" is what Leibniz and other proponents of the ontological argument called qualities that make something "better" than it is without them (Anselm spoke of "good" ...
- 42k
9
votes
Is there a term for the belief that what is popular in society defines what is moral?
My sense is that you are referring to a form of relativism that takes the specific form of morality by convention. Or at least that the social attitude you describe can be set out in these terms. It ...
- 35.2k
9
votes
Accepted
How can I understand references in Seneca's Moral letters to Lucilius?
These are standard abbreviations in classical scholarship. N.Q. is Seneca's Naturales quaestiones, Ep./Epp. are the very Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium you are reading (respectively, singular/plural), ...
- 42k
9
votes
Accepted
Metaphysicist or Metaphysician?
The reason is historical. "Physics" as science is relatively recent (it was covered by natural philosophy before), and "physicist" as its practitioner was only coined by Whewell in The Philosophy of ...
- 42k
9
votes
An sich and Für sich (in itself and for itself)
Sebastian Gardner compiled a Hegel glosssary which is extremely useful if one is looking for concise definitions as a starter. I doubt that you will find many definitions to match your criteria better ...
- 12.9k
8
votes
Accepted
What does Sun Tzu's *Art of War* mean by "victory"?
This is a quotation from The Art of War 4.2.
Here's the original:
故善戰者，立于不敗之地，而不失敵之敗也。是故勝兵先勝，而後求戰；敗兵先戰，而後求勝。
Here's my own translation that might help:
(1) Hence a good military man puts ...
- 24.4k
8
votes
What does "physical" mean to philosophers?
This question seems to be a companion to How can something non-physical exist? Some preliminary thoughts: acknowledging the existence of empirical, or even confining physical to empirical, does not ...
- 42k
8
votes
What is a "demon"?
Consider Descartes
I will suppose therefore that not God, who is supremely good and the source of truth, but rather some malicious demon [mauvais génie] of the utmost power and cunning has employed ...
- 16.4k
8
votes
How does one determine the boundary of an object?
It's a pragmatic thing more than a linguistic thing.
If you want to go to the store, you think about your car
If your car won't drive, you think about what part of it is at fault: engine, ...
- 16.8k
7
votes
Accepted
What is the difference between Philosophy and Theology?
As Nelson Alexander mentions, philosophy encompasses far more than just philosophy of religion, but I assume that's what you mean when comparing the two.
Theology and Philosophy (of Religion) are ...
- 26.8k
7
votes
Accepted
What makes the material conditional material?
The term "material implication" was coined by Russell, who made a distinction between formal and material implication.
Here's a quote from the Principia:
[W]herever [...] one particular ...
- 6,388
7
votes
Accepted
Absolute Truth in Mathematics
According to the formalist view on mathematics, I think the answer should be no - mathematics is not an example of absolute truth according to the definition you've given.
This is how mathematics ...
- 226
7
votes
Accepted
Is there a term for the belief that what is popular in society defines what is moral?
The system of morality being referred to is popular morality, and it is a current area of research in philosophy, with the following notable mentions:
Popular Morality and Unpopular Philosophy
...
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