Recent Responses
Is democracy a just form of government because it leads to the fairest results, or because it is inherently most fair to let everyone have an equal say in the decision-making process? In a situation where the population overwhelmingly makes a decision that will harm them in the long-term and reduce everyone's standard of living (for example, when the population votes for parties whose policies lead to individual freedom in the short term but collective suffering via environmental decay, financial crisis, war and poverty in the long term), are we witnessing a failure of democracy to do what it is supposed to do (i.e. create the fairest possible society), or are we witnessing democracy doing exactly what it is supposed to do (i.e. let everyone have a fair say in the decision-making process)?
Thomas Pogge
August 20, 2011
(changed August 20, 2011)
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Both extreme views seem patently implausible: we should not be indifferent either to the procedure of political decision-making (e.g., to the disenfranchisement of women and African-Americans) nor to the outcome (e.g., collective suffering via environmental decay, financial crisis, war and pov... Read more
I'm interested to know about the capability of philosophize. Because in my own experience, noticed that when I were a teenager (13-15) I had a strong insight and I started to feel and thought the philosophie even did not reading books, only by my experience of just living. However after had grown up, this ability became even more weak until it disapeared. Today, when I can read the text of the philosophers, I can see all that I thought but not feel as I could feel. Now it seems that the poetic powers are gone. My question is if we can philosophize again (as Schopenhauer says that the Philosophy that chooses the time to come and show us the world in its inner) or just reproduce the quotes of other writers?
Eddy Nahmias
August 19, 2011
(changed August 19, 2011)
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I begin my Introduction to Philosophy classes by saying that philosophical questions are those that children ask, "Why?", and those that adolescents ask, "Why should I?" I share your feeling that there is an energetic curiosity in children (and "pre-adults") that is often drained as we age--a... Read more
Is it possible to perceive something unconsciously?
Sean Greenberg
August 19, 2011
(changed August 19, 2011)
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The question of whether there are unconscious perceptions, and if so, their nature, has received considerable attention from philosophers and psychologists from the seventeenth century onwards. One's answer to this question will reveal a lot about one's conception of perception in particula... Read more
Doesn't the "problem of evil" objection to God's existence presuppose that people ought to be happy? Isn't the idea that people ought or deserve to be happy questionable?
Sean Greenberg
August 18, 2011
(changed August 18, 2011)
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While I think that Andy is quite right to note that the problem of evil is normally framed in terms of suffering instead of happiness, I nevertheless want to add a couple of remarks concerning the possibility that happiness is the ultimate end of the human being, and how this might relate to... Read more
Do people who are blind, deaf and mute since birth dream? If so how?
Jasper Reid
August 21, 2011
(changed August 21, 2011)
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I don't know the answer to this question -- I mean the how question rather than the whether, for everyone dreams -- and it sounds (from the fact that he is resorting to words like 'presumably') like Andrew Pessin doesn't know either. For it's really a question for empirical psychologists, not p... Read more
When people claim that in "non-Western cultures, time is cyclical rather than linear", what do they mean by this? Is this nothing more than another way of stating the truism that history repeats itself? It seems that even within cycles, there must be linearity of some kind - consider for example the carbon cycle, where the cycle is little more than a repeating linear loop. Throughout my life, I have only ever been growing older, and I will not suddenly be young again - or start getting younger - when I stop aging. So what does it mean to say that time is cyclical and not linear?
Andrew Pessin
August 18, 2011
(changed August 18, 2011)
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I have nothing to add here except to say that this question has often occurred to me -- has anyone truly believed (say) that when spring rolls around each year, it is precisely the very same "time" that it was the year before, rather than being merely a "similar" environment recurring? I sup... Read more
Doesn't the "problem of evil" objection to God's existence presuppose that people ought to be happy? Isn't the idea that people ought or deserve to be happy questionable?
Sean Greenberg
August 18, 2011
(changed August 18, 2011)
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While I think that Andy is quite right to note that the problem of evil is normally framed in terms of suffering instead of happiness, I nevertheless want to add a couple of remarks concerning the possibility that happiness is the ultimate end of the human being, and how this might relate to... Read more
I have recently been thinking about a comment that one of my philosophy professors made in college that has been causing me a great deal of distress. He said "If you have a problem that you don't want to deal with, go to sleep and let someone else deal with it." meaning that the person who wakes up in the morning is not the same as the person who went to sleep the night before. Is there any validity to this claim? Does our consciousness continue while we sleep or does it stop and then restart? Is the person typing this question the same person who will wake up in my bed tomorrow? If we were replaced each morning by a person with identical memories, wouldn't it appear the same from the inside and the outside? And finally, is this worth getting worked up about? thanks
Allen Stairs
August 18, 2011
(changed August 18, 2011)
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As I posted this, I saw that Donald had offered a similar reaction. But since I'd already written this up...
It's a very interesting topic you've raised, and one on which philosophers have written a great deal. My view fall into the blunt, even philistine category, but I'll point to other view... Read more
I have recently been thinking about a comment that one of my philosophy professors made in college that has been causing me a great deal of distress. He said "If you have a problem that you don't want to deal with, go to sleep and let someone else deal with it." meaning that the person who wakes up in the morning is not the same as the person who went to sleep the night before. Is there any validity to this claim? Does our consciousness continue while we sleep or does it stop and then restart? Is the person typing this question the same person who will wake up in my bed tomorrow? If we were replaced each morning by a person with identical memories, wouldn't it appear the same from the inside and the outside? And finally, is this worth getting worked up about? thanks
Allen Stairs
August 18, 2011
(changed August 18, 2011)
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As I posted this, I saw that Donald had offered a similar reaction. But since I'd already written this up...
It's a very interesting topic you've raised, and one on which philosophers have written a great deal. My view fall into the blunt, even philistine category, but I'll point to other view... Read more
Where should we draw the line between conduct that is required and conduct that is good although not required? If we have the means to alleviate poverty for example (knowing how serious poverty an issue is), and we did not help alleviate it (or at least the help we gave them was not sufficient enough), should we feel guilty?
Thomas Pogge
August 17, 2011
(changed August 17, 2011)
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While some conduct is clearly morally required and some other conduct is clearly morally good but not required, I don't think there is a line separating the two kinds of conduct. If there were such a line, then there would be -- given all the relevant empirical facts about poverty in the world... Read more