Recent Responses
How does one approach the question of whether a Western nation should permit women to wear full-body-covering Islamic dress? I'm not asking for the answer to the question, but for guidance in attacking it. How do you balance individual freedom and religious freedoms against other values? Thank you, Mark M.
Oliver Leaman
July 9, 2010
(changed July 9, 2010)
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Some people take the line that any woman who wears this outfit is irretrievably caught up in a submissive relationship with men, and so the costume should be banned, or at least discouraged. Any woman who says she really wants to wear it is suffering from false consciousness, and the same policy ap... Read more
Are there any arguments for life after death that are not religious?
Oliver Leaman
July 9, 2010
(changed July 9, 2010)
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Certainly, it was thought for a long time by a wide range of thinkers that life after death exists, even by thinkers without traditional religious views. The basic distinction on this issue is not religious vs. areligious, but materialists vs. the rest. Materialists who see us as essentially materi... Read more
What is the purpose of art in periods of economic decline?
Oliver Leaman
July 9, 2010
(changed July 9, 2010)
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Exactly what it is in other periods, there are no right or wrong times to produce or consume art. In fact, there is some evidence that the tougher the times, the better the art.
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I'm wondering about the interaction of a viewer with a piece of art. Beyond a basic psychological response of "I like it" or even a highly-reasoned critique, is there anything about art which spurs the viewer to do anything, to take any action? I suppose I'm asking about our response to art. Can you qualify a 'good' piece of art as one which produces a certain response in a person?
Oliver Leaman
July 9, 2010
(changed July 9, 2010)
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Art certainly can get us to do things or think in a certain way, and it is that which made Tolstoy attack it, since it controls our emotions, he argued, and took them down very dangerous avenues. It is going too far though to define good art as that which produces the right sort of response, since... Read more
Is time an independent physical dimension or a human construct designed to compare events to each other ? If it is a physical entity why can we move only in one direction and at an inexorable pace? Is it theoretically possible for a time machine (Hot Tub or any other sort) could exist?
Jonathan Westphal
July 15, 2010
(changed July 15, 2010)
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I agree with everything that Allen writes in his last comment. Some time travel scenarios are ruled out a priori : these are the inconsistent ones, and there may be others, for all I know. Are the consistent ones ruled out by anything? I can't see that they are, as the only reason I am clear... Read more
Does language shape our understanding of what we call reality (or, maybe, our perceptions of reality), or does reality shape our language? Is there, significantly, a German world, a French world and an English world, each of them different from one another in important or trivial ways?
Jennifer Church
July 8, 2010
(changed July 8, 2010)
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Here is a simple response, which I think is true: Language shapes our understanding and our perception of reality (different words will cause us to focus on different aspects of the world around us) and reality shapes our language (different environments will cause us to adopt different words).... Read more
I was listening to some rap music, and I was impressed by the artist's skillful use of rhyme, metaphor, imagery, allusion, and general wit. The artist is clearly skilled with the same tools of good poets and authors. Unfortunately, the music was also degrading; as it celebrated misogyny, violence, homophobia and elitism. It's a crying shame the artist wasted such talent to create something so hateful and unedifying. Would this artist's work be considered good art? Certainly there have been artists who have created disturbing, ugly pieces. However, it seemed to me such pieces were always meant to challenge the viewer, and ultimately aid in our growth and understanding. Is it possible for a great work of art to be degenerative, to make us more bigoted instead of enlightened?
Jennifer Church
July 8, 2010
(changed July 8, 2010)
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Your question is about the relation between aesthetic value and moral value. Must something with great aesthetic value also have moral value (or, at least, not be morally harmful)? Some traditions of thought (within art criticism as well as within philosophy) insist on a sharp separation betwee... Read more
In one hundred years, will an accomplished philosopher also have to be an accomplished neurologist, or does the subject have something to say independent of advances in brain science (posed another way, if we become ultra intelligent humans/machines with thinking capacities far in excess of our current brain, will we still partake in philosophy)?
Charles Taliaferro
July 8, 2010
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I suggest that no matter how developed our brain sciences become, we will still have philosophy because the sciences themselves rest on philosophy, a scientific worldview. Without a concept of ourselves, causation and explanation, concepts of observation, and so on, we would not have any scie... Read more
Can any one give an insightful analysis of statements such as God exists, There is only one God etc. What does "exist" mean ? Are there so many differnt types of existence- existence of the chair, the God, the concept of numbers, the existence of the electron, the wave-particle's dual existence, the existence of beauty, existence of UFO, existence of angels, existence of strings in the string theory, existence of mathematical objects such as N dimensional space, existence of dark matter, etc. Is this all a matter of linguistic naivety in the sense of some observations of Wittgenstein?
Charles Taliaferro
July 8, 2010
(changed July 8, 2010)
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The medieval philosophers used to think of existence in terms of degrees, and some in modern philosophy entertained such an idea (Kant, for example, described God as the most real being). but usually existence is not treated as something that comes in kinds or degrees or in different senses.... Read more
Is there such a thing as neurophilosophy?
Eddy Nahmias
July 8, 2010
(changed July 8, 2010)
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Yes, there is, and its an exciting emerging interdisciplinary field of study. Neurophilosophy is the field that studies the intersection of the neurosciences and philosophy. On the one hand, it is a branch of philosophy of mind that considers how information from the neurosciences might inform tra... Read more