Recent Responses
If everything came from nothing, then where did nothing come from? Also if everything came from something, then where did the something come from? If you believe that everything has always just existed then how did it start to just exist?
Alexander George
October 15, 2005
(changed October 15, 2005)
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Your first question misunderstands the meaning of "nothing": if I come from dust, then there's something I've come from (namely, dust). But if I come from nothing, then there's nothing I come from — not the something that nothing is! See Question 49 for more on this. (You might also l... Read more
How can I hear my voice in my head without speaking?
Jonathan Westphal
March 9, 2009
(changed March 9, 2009)
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"How can I hear my voice when I'm not speaking?" is your question. If we reserve the word "hearing" for what the ears do, and "the voice" for what the mouth speaks - not unreasonable, I think - then your question becomes, "How can I "hear" my "voice" when I'm not speaking?" i.e. "How can I un... Read more
How can I ever know my wife loves me when there is no one definition for love?
Alan Soble
November 8, 2005
(changed November 8, 2005)
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Here is one thing you can try. In what sense of "love" do you love your wife (assuming you do)? Then ask whether she loves you in that sense. If you can assert truthfully that you love her in that sense, and you can defend that assertion, then in principle you should be able to determine wheth... Read more
I never understood Heraclitus' river analogy. Does it mean that we are constantly changing or changing only by degrees? Why does it say the "same" river if it is in constant flux? It seems like in the fragment "one can never step in the same river twice" that we could interpret the "step" as "never step in the same river" or as "never step into the same waters". Which is correct?
Jyl Gentzler
October 15, 2005
(changed October 15, 2005)
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In Plato’s Cratylus, the character Socrates makes thefollowing comment about Heraclitus: “Heraclitus is supposed to say thatall things are in motion and nothing at rest; he compares them to thestream of a river, and says that you cannot go into the same rivertwice" (402a). Ever since Plato,... Read more
First of all I want to say I'm sorry for my bad English. For I am Icelandic, I don't get a lot of English classes. ok My friend is always talking about "everything is a goat"; it makes a little sense to me but it is ridiculous. The opposite to everything is nothing. The statement "nothing is a goat" is not right. Isn't there some gap between everything and nothing? Can't we say "something is a goat"? I hope you answer :)
Alexander George
October 14, 2005
(changed October 14, 2005)
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The negation of "Everything is a goat" is not "Nothing is a goat". Asentence and its negation must have opposite truth values; that is, ifone is true, the other is false. A sentence and its negation cannotboth be true and they cannot both be false. But, as I think yourealize, "Everything... Read more
Can 2+2 equal ANY other answer than 4?
Alexander George
October 14, 2005
(changed October 14, 2005)
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It's hard to imagine how I could be convinced to doubt that 2+2 = 4.Whatever argument you gave me, there would surely be some assumption orstep of reasoning in it that was less obvious to me than that 2+2 = 4.Faced with the decision of denying that 2+2 = 4 or of rejecting somestep in you... Read more
Isn't everything relative? For example, mathematics was invented by man — did it exist before man invented it?
Alexander George
October 14, 2005
(changed October 14, 2005)
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You would have thought that we would have worked out by now whethermathematics is a human invention or not. We haven't. There is still aheated debate between those who believe that mathematics describes arealm of entities (numbers, sets, functions, etc.) that exist quiteindependently of... Read more
The fact that we have eyes is proof that a consciousness was present, prior to our creation, which was aware of the existence of light. And while this truth does not confirm the existence of a God, doesn't it verify an intelligence older than our own?
Richard Heck
November 1, 2005
(changed November 1, 2005)
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There are many simple creatures that are sensitive to light: Theywill move toward it or away from it. I believe there are some suchcreatures that are single-celled. In any event, such creatures are sosimple that it's hard to think of them as being "conscious" at all, andbiologists can tell a... Read more
Could God have made pi a simpler number?
Richard Heck
November 1, 2005
(changed November 1, 2005)
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There are a few distinctions we need to make before we can addressthis question. The work we need to do to make these distinctions is anice example of how philosophy can help us be clearer about whatquestion we're asking.
Ask first: Could π have beena different number? Most philosophers tod... Read more
When people speak of "morality", why does it always stem from a divine being? Why can't morality stem from reason?
Richard Heck
October 18, 2005
(changed October 18, 2005)
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I've often wondered whether anyone actually thinks that God's authority establishes moral principles. Of course, people say so. But when one asks such people why we ought to conform our behavior with the Divine Pronouncements, the answer, if it isn't to concede a moral standard independent o... Read more