Recent Responses
How was logical positivism largely proven wrong by philosophers in the 1950s and 60s? Do you think that the "New Atheists" largely make the same mistakes when it comes to metaphysics and emotive claims?
Charles Taliaferro
December 14, 2012
(changed December 14, 2012)
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Great question. The logical positivists (A.J. Ayer is the most well known in this camp or movement) advanced a principle of meaning according to which for a statement to be meaningful it had to be (in principle) verifiable. There were a number of variations of this principle, inclu... Read more
I know that many philosophers might scoff upon being asked some variation of "What is the meaning of life or living" but isn't it about the most relevant question one can ask in relation to philosophy and its relationship with humankind? It seems this is studied very little or at all by philosophers in academia. As a follow-up, do philosophers either in the continental or analytic tradition place any value in the metaphysical writings of yogis or mystics from India; isn't it at least worth investigating?
Stephen Maitzen
December 14, 2012
(changed December 14, 2012)
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It would be unbecoming of a philosopher to scoff at the question rather than engage it in some way, and philosophers do engage it. Another book to investigate is the third edition of The Meaning of Life: A Reader, edited by Klemke and Cahn. In his article "The Absurd" (widely antholog... Read more
I'm having trouble appreciating Kant's moral philosophy. According to him an action is bad if we can't universalize it as a maxim of human behavior. Under that way of thinking being gay is bad because if everyone was gay nobody would have any babies and that means you are willing the non-existence of the human race which would be a contradiction if you want to exist. So I guess bisexuality is okay but being a monk isn't. The reasoning seems absolutely bonkers if you are gay whether from choice or from nature there is no reason to surmise that you think everyone has to be gay. If Kants moral philosophy is so lame I must admit that it prejudices me against his whole philosophical system. Is there any reason why I should give Kant's ethics more credit?
Allen Stairs
December 23, 2012
(changed December 23, 2012)
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On one version of the Categorical Imperative, we're told to act only on maxims (roughly, principles of action) that we could will to be universal laws. That may or may not be the right way to think about morality; I don't have a settled opinion. However, there are philosophers who think Ka... Read more
I'm having trouble appreciating Kant's moral philosophy. According to him an action is bad if we can't universalize it as a maxim of human behavior. Under that way of thinking being gay is bad because if everyone was gay nobody would have any babies and that means you are willing the non-existence of the human race which would be a contradiction if you want to exist. So I guess bisexuality is okay but being a monk isn't. The reasoning seems absolutely bonkers if you are gay whether from choice or from nature there is no reason to surmise that you think everyone has to be gay. If Kants moral philosophy is so lame I must admit that it prejudices me against his whole philosophical system. Is there any reason why I should give Kant's ethics more credit?
Allen Stairs
December 23, 2012
(changed December 23, 2012)
Permalink
On one version of the Categorical Imperative, we're told to act only on maxims (roughly, principles of action) that we could will to be universal laws. That may or may not be the right way to think about morality; I don't have a settled opinion. However, there are philosophers who think Ka... Read more
If the sentence "If p then q" is true, must the sentence "q because p" also be true? For example, "if it is raining, then the streets are wet" and the sentence "The streets are wet because it is raining." Are there any counter-examples where "If p then q" could be true while "q because p" could be false?
Richard Heck
December 14, 2012
(changed December 14, 2012)
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Even if the conditional isn't material, it's clear that this kind of inference has to fail. Suppose my roof leaks whenever it rains. Then it seems true to say: If my roof is leaking, then the streets are wet. But the streets aren't wet because my roof is leaking. Rather, there is a third c... Read more
Do you think that either Plato or Aristotle are able to show that there is a human function, that in order to be happy we need to fullfil this function and that being virtuous will help us do so? Thank you.
Nickolas Pappas
December 13, 2012
(changed December 13, 2012)
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There are a lot of excellent questions here, and each one of them -- being excellent -- deserves a longer answer than I can give. But let me skip over the first part and move on to the rest.
First of all, it's not that being virtuous will help us fulfill the human function, in the way... Read more
I know that many philosophers might scoff upon being asked some variation of "What is the meaning of life or living" but isn't it about the most relevant question one can ask in relation to philosophy and its relationship with humankind? It seems this is studied very little or at all by philosophers in academia. As a follow-up, do philosophers either in the continental or analytic tradition place any value in the metaphysical writings of yogis or mystics from India; isn't it at least worth investigating?
Stephen Maitzen
December 14, 2012
(changed December 14, 2012)
Permalink
It would be unbecoming of a philosopher to scoff at the question rather than engage it in some way, and philosophers do engage it. Another book to investigate is the third edition of The Meaning of Life: A Reader, edited by Klemke and Cahn. In his article "The Absurd" (widely antholog... Read more
Nowadays, I feel as if right now, in this current world, humans are only wanting to study really hard in school, get a job, and receive money for food and personal items. I feel like there's more to life than that but everybody I ask seems to only want a good job and a lot of money. I am 16 years old and I know that I still have a lot of years to live through but sometimes I feel as if just getting a job and getting money with that job is such a pointless goal. I keep thinking if that is the meaning of life, then that is such an uninteresting goal. But, I still try my best in school and academics because I have this weird, abstract feeling that I absolutely HAVE to or I will fail in life. I do not know the explanation of that feeling but I listen to it. Is just getting a job, doing that job and getting money for it the meaning of the vast majority of this world's people's lives?
Stephen Maitzen
December 14, 2012
(changed December 14, 2012)
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Just FYI: The link Prof. Pessin supplied isn't an essay by Thomas Nagel. It appears to be a paper concerning Nagel's work on the meaning of life, a paper written by a student (Lucas Beerekamp) for a course at a university in the Netherlands. Chapter 1o of Nagel's introductory book Wha... Read more
I know that many philosophers might scoff upon being asked some variation of "What is the meaning of life or living" but isn't it about the most relevant question one can ask in relation to philosophy and its relationship with humankind? It seems this is studied very little or at all by philosophers in academia. As a follow-up, do philosophers either in the continental or analytic tradition place any value in the metaphysical writings of yogis or mystics from India; isn't it at least worth investigating?
Stephen Maitzen
December 14, 2012
(changed December 14, 2012)
Permalink
It would be unbecoming of a philosopher to scoff at the question rather than engage it in some way, and philosophers do engage it. Another book to investigate is the third edition of The Meaning of Life: A Reader, edited by Klemke and Cahn. In his article "The Absurd" (widely antholog... Read more
If I "zoom out" for a moment, then any deliberations I'm making (well, really any thoughts at all that I'm having) seem like part of a process to which I am just an observer. It is certainly true that these processes are occurring in MY brain, which is part of MY body, however thoughts either come to mind or they don't. I can't help but feel as if the only me that really exists is simply a collection of concurrent processes that, via consciousness, are at times able to observe themselves occurring. And furthermore, given what we know about the fallibility of memory and yet also memory's crucial role in the development of character/personality/identity, etc., I can't also help but feel that what I am is the product of a lengthly string of inaccuracies. Pardon the confused language. It's quite difficult to speak about these matters without necessarily recurring to the very terms and concepts that are in question. What I'd like to know is how I can continue to think about these issues without becoming increasingly distant from the day to day reality of being a person living a life. Thank you very much.
Stephen Maitzen
December 9, 2012
(changed December 9, 2012)
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David Hume (1711-1776) famously sought to escape skeptical doubts of the sort you describe by distracting himself from them: "I dine, I play a game of backgammon, I converse, and am merry with my friends; and when after three or four hours' amusement, I would return to these speculations,... Read more