Recent Responses

I do not have much experience with philosophy, but am interested in debating. Can you recommend any good and thorough introductory texts to both formal debating and philosophical argumentation? Thank you.

Peter S. Fosl June 23, 2006 (changed June 23, 2006) Permalink I'd recommend these:1. The Philosopher's Toolkit (Fosl & Baggini)2. How to Think about Weird Things (Schick & Vaughan)3. A Rulebook for Arguments (Anthony Westin)4. The Art of Deception (Nick Capaldi)5. Nonsense (Gula)6. Crimes against Reason (Whyte) Log in to p... Read more

All major religions have miracles in their sacred texts, presumably to prove their divine origins. Don't these alleged miracles cancel each other out, and can this be extrapolated to religions as a whole?

Peter S. Fosl June 23, 2006 (changed June 23, 2006) Permalink I remember once posing the following question to a class I was teaching: if we take the religions of the world, isn't it true that at most one can be right and that perhaps none are right? Every single student in the class answered in the negative, holding that all can be right. When I pointed... Read more

Can someone please explain to me the difference between induction and deduction? I think I get it, but merely reading it in books is not enough!!! Thanks!

Peter S. Fosl June 23, 2006 (changed June 23, 2006) Permalink In deduction, the move from premises to conclusions is such that if the premises are true, then the conclusion must also be true. For example, take the following argument:1. Elvis Presley lives in a secret location in Idaho.2. All people who live in secret locations in Idaho are miserable.3. Ther... Read more

I never understood the bumper sticker "Against Abortion? Don't Have One." I mean, people who are against abortion believe that it is equivalent to, or close to, the murder of babies. But surely those who put this bumper sticker on their cars wouldn't favor a bumper sticker that suggested that if you're against infanticide, then the proper response is simply to refrain from killing babies. If it's murder, then shouldn't it be outlawed?

Peter S. Fosl August 6, 2006 (changed August 6, 2006) Permalink Yes, I understand what you mean. I've also been known to smile wryly when reading "Abortion Stops a Beating Heart" (as does taking someone off a respirator, killing a mouse or even a spider). Perhaps more controversially, "Women are Not Incubators" (many are, though none are "mere" incubators)... Read more

What makes a question a "philosophical" question? It's easy enough to understand that scientific questions, for example, don't fit here, but beyond such obvious eliminations I'm at somewhat of a loss to come up with some more rigorous criteria.

David Papineau June 23, 2006 (changed June 23, 2006) Permalink Somephilosophers think that philosophy has a special subject matter (theanalysis of concepts?) that distinguishes it from science and otherfirst-order enquiries. I don't find this persuasive (apart fromanything else, it would make philosophy trivial). In my view,philosophy deals with just the sa... Read more

What do philosophy and philosophers do nowadays? In the past new ideas affected politics and all that jazz, sort of. But what about today? Maybe it's just obscure and the general public hasn't noticed but what has philosophy accomplished of late? In my eyes, philosophers just keep arguing about old texts and inferred meanings and things humans will always wonder. So where is philosophy going?

Oliver Leaman June 22, 2006 (changed June 22, 2006) Permalink Who knows? But it is wrong to think that contemporary philosophy is merely technical and unconnected with everyday cultural and political events. The major debates about these events are constantly informed by philosophical ideas, and even the explicit contributions of philosophers themselves, ju... Read more

It is commonly stated that evidence, reason and logic are inadequate and inappropriate for claims of the existence of a god, transcendent or supernatural beings or phenomena, etc., and that faith alone must be relied upon. Unless I'm missing something then on these grounds, there can be no misguided faith(s), since to distinguish between misguided and valid faith one would have to give a reason why a particular faith is in one category vs. the other, contradicting its own status, correct? My question: is faith ever valid?

Oliver Leaman June 22, 2006 (changed June 22, 2006) Permalink Saying that faith is important is not to say that it is the only important factor in religion. It not unusual for believers to claim that there are good rational grounds for their particular faith that do not apply to other apparent faiths. For example, a Christian might say that there is good re... Read more

Do you think a crime committed against a nun should carry a greater punishment than the same crime committed against a prostitute? Or in other words should their perceived social standing be taken into account when sentencing?

Oliver Leaman June 22, 2006 (changed June 22, 2006) Permalink No, social standing should play no part in sentencing. Nor indeed should moral standing. We might think that the nun in question was more deserving of our sympathy than the prostitute, or we might think the reverse, but sentencing should be based on what the criminal deserves to receive, not on t... Read more

I was born in the early sixties before Roe v. Wade. When my mother got pregnant, my parents were unmarried, but they got married and I was born 8 months later. On the whole, I've had a wonderful life and I'm so grateful that I had a chance to experience it. I can't help thinking that if my mother had had an abortion, she would have done a terrible thing to me. She would have cut my life short--so short, in fact, that I wouldn't have ever had a chance to experience anything at all! If murder is bad because it denies a good life to a person in the future, then isn't abortion even worse?

Jyl Gentzler June 22, 2006 (changed June 22, 2006) Permalink If your mother had had an abortion, then yes, alas, there would havebeen no you who has had such a good life. But it’s also true that, ifyour mother had done anything different on that fateful nightin the early sixties– had she decided to stay home, had she decided shewasn’t really in the mood tha... Read more

I was born in the early sixties before Roe v. Wade. When my mother got pregnant, my parents were unmarried, but they got married and I was born 8 months later. On the whole, I've had a wonderful life and I'm so grateful that I had a chance to experience it. I can't help thinking that if my mother had had an abortion, she would have done a terrible thing to me. She would have cut my life short--so short, in fact, that I wouldn't have ever had a chance to experience anything at all! If murder is bad because it denies a good life to a person in the future, then isn't abortion even worse?

Jyl Gentzler June 22, 2006 (changed June 22, 2006) Permalink If your mother had had an abortion, then yes, alas, there would havebeen no you who has had such a good life. But it’s also true that, ifyour mother had done anything different on that fateful nightin the early sixties– had she decided to stay home, had she decided shewasn’t really in the mood tha... Read more

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