Most Popular
1500 questions
8
votes
5 answers
Where is the line drawn between immoral inactivity and a simple lack of action?
I've heard a lot about the supposed evils about not voting/voting for a 3rd party in recent political discussion here in the States. The reasoning seems to posit that (e.g.) in the Trump/Hillary race, refusing to vote for either party seems to…
Quirky Trombone
- 395
- 1
- 7
8
votes
3 answers
Are there any resources for teaching young children philosophy and logic?
My oldest child is nearly six years old and will be starting his first level of formal schooling in a few weeks. I don't believe he will be taught philosophy and logic in the classroom, so I would like to suppliment his education.
Are there any…
Josh Peterson
- 201
- 1
- 7
8
votes
4 answers
What did Thomas Nagel intend to distinguish, in distinguishing 'impression' vs 'perception of reality'?
Source: pp 15-16, What Does It All Mean? A Very Short Introduction to Philosophy (1987) by Prof. Thomas Nagel
According to this view, the idea of a dream from which you can never wake up is not the
idea of a dream at all: it is the idea of…
user8572
8
votes
3 answers
Which contemporary philosophers deal with the concept of honour without dismissing it out of hand?
Whenever I read about honour (the evaluation of a person's social status as judged by that individual's community), it is usually in a negative context (e.g., honour killings) or strictly comparative (e.g., cultures of guilt versus cultures of…
Ruben
- 614
- 7
- 15
8
votes
6 answers
Why are conditionals with false antecedents considered true?
I don't understand what conceptual sense this scenario makes, or what the motivation behind the decision to make conditionals with a false antecedent true was. Can anyone help me understand this?
Also, I have a related but ultimately separate…
IgnorantCuriosity
- 579
- 4
- 10
8
votes
3 answers
What's the current status of the "paradox of analysis"? And are there any strong and widely accepted resolutions?
It would seem that figuring out a solution to the paradox of analysis would be of prime importance to philosophers, especially considering the fact that conceptual analysis seems central to philosophical practice.
The wiki page, however, seems to…
Pete1187
- 517
- 1
- 4
- 8
8
votes
1 answer
Do Wittgenstein and Quine give the same criticisms of semantics?
What is the connection between the criticisms offered by Wittgenstein and Quine of meaning and language? Are both philosophers generally criticizing the same semantic theories with similar arguments, and if not, are there any cases of genuine…
Esse
- 309
- 1
- 10
8
votes
5 answers
Is this a fallacy: no argument against X, therefore X?
Recently I was talking to a friend of mine, a vegan. Here's what she said: "I was talking to a vegan philosopher once, and he said that he is a vegan because there is no good argument against veganism". Now, my question is not about veganism in…
Michael Smith
- 882
- 7
- 19
8
votes
1 answer
What does Husserl mean by essences?
Husserl insists on two "reductions" in his pure phenomenology. The second reduction is a separation of the existence of ourselves and our attitudes and "their observable essences (Taylor Carman , Forward for Being and Time). Is Husserl's definition…
David
- 91
- 1
- 3
8
votes
2 answers
How does a realist account for causation between universals and particulars?
With respect to universals nominalists maintain that there are no universals and only particulars exists. Conversely, realists says that there are universals. Here is a sketch of an argument against universals based on the common assumption that…
Darae-Uri
- 485
- 3
- 12
8
votes
3 answers
Are there any books which reduce famous Philosophical Arguments to Logical Notation?
I have just started studying logic and wish to find some example arguments by famous philosophers broken down very plainly into their premises and conclusions, along with the logical notation to the argument.
rvelbon
- 171
- 4
8
votes
2 answers
Logical fallacy classification: comparing the best from one group with the worst in another
I am looking for the name for the logical fallacy that compares the best samples from one group with the worst samples from the second group and concludes that the first group is better than the second.
Example (maybe a little vague): In a…
Igor Deruga
- 183
- 5
8
votes
4 answers
Quine - two dogmas of empiricism
I'm trying to understand this paper. Seems to me like it all stems from a rejection of "meaning"... ie: Quine is saying statements don't mean anything. And this is what leads to the rejection of the analytic-synthetic distinction. But if meanings do…
Ameet Sharma
- 2,951
- 1
- 11
- 25
8
votes
4 answers
The Emperor's New Mind and Free Will
A good few years ago I read The Emperor's New Mind by Roger Penrose. Having recently read some philosopy primers I was wondering about the links between this book and the question of free will.
From what i remember the final (speculative) argument…
Crab Bucket
- 2,852
- 4
- 20
- 23
8
votes
1 answer
Should modern empiricists embrace string theory?
Conventional wisdom says "no", lack of new predictions being the main criticism. Johansson and Matsubara review string theory from various empiricist perspectives, and the best they can say (for string theory) is that it is not the right time to…
Conifold
- 42,225
- 4
- 92
- 180