Recent Responses
I suggested to a friend that atheists and theists were rather similar, in that they take a position on god's existence ahead of time and argue it dogmatically, whereas philosophers are willing to evaluate the arguments and to tentatively adopt the one that they prefer for whatever reason. It's not to say that philosophers can't have a deep faith in a god or a lack thereof, but they don't see their work as defending that belief in the face of any possible objection. But if this is true, and I think it is, how about someone who refuses to budge from what seem like moral truisms? Must a philosopher, in order to maintain integrity, put every principle on the chopping block: that if it's wrong for you to do something, all else equal, it's wrong for me to do it, or that causing people pain is wrong? Must a philosopher at least be open to the possibility that these notions are fundamentally flawed?
Charles Taliaferro
June 19, 2010
(changed June 19, 2010)
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I agree with the two other replies, that neither theists nor atheists need be dogmatic. I would, however, like to offer a brief word on behalf of certain convictions that one seems to know (with or without argument) and such convictions are beyond negotiation. For example, I think all of u... Read more
I find the philosophy of religion immensely interesting. Recently I watched a YouTube video in which a well known Christian philosopher/theologian, William Lane Craig, explained how the Anglo-American world had been "utterly transformed" and had undergone a "renaissance of Christian philosophy" since the 1960s (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=902MJirWkdM&feature=related [starts at around the 7:40 mark]). Do you agree with these statements? Moreover, how well respected is Dr. Craig? Is he generally viewed as a top notch philosopher? I also wonder whether the very best arguments on the atheistic side are really being discussed. It seems there is some disdain among philosophers regarding the so-called "new atheists": Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris, etc. Who are the top contemporary atheists working in philosophy today? I'd really be interested in reading some of their work. I would really appreciate multiple perspectives on these questions. Thanks a lot.
Charles Taliaferro
June 19, 2010
(changed June 19, 2010)
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PS to the last positing. Here are just some of the theists who are active in the UK or are recently retired, who have impecable credentials philosophically:Oxford: Daniel Robinson, Brian Leftow, Tim Mawson, Brian Davies (now at Fordham), Keith Ward (now in London but formerly Christ Church)... Read more
I find the philosophy of religion immensely interesting. Recently I watched a YouTube video in which a well known Christian philosopher/theologian, William Lane Craig, explained how the Anglo-American world had been "utterly transformed" and had undergone a "renaissance of Christian philosophy" since the 1960s (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=902MJirWkdM&feature=related [starts at around the 7:40 mark]). Do you agree with these statements? Moreover, how well respected is Dr. Craig? Is he generally viewed as a top notch philosopher? I also wonder whether the very best arguments on the atheistic side are really being discussed. It seems there is some disdain among philosophers regarding the so-called "new atheists": Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris, etc. Who are the top contemporary atheists working in philosophy today? I'd really be interested in reading some of their work. I would really appreciate multiple perspectives on these questions. Thanks a lot.
Charles Taliaferro
June 19, 2010
(changed June 19, 2010)
Permalink
PS to the last positing. Here are just some of the theists who are active in the UK or are recently retired, who have impecable credentials philosophically:Oxford: Daniel Robinson, Brian Leftow, Tim Mawson, Brian Davies (now at Fordham), Keith Ward (now in London but formerly Christ Church)... Read more
Does zero represent nothingness? kal
Allen Stairs
June 19, 2010
(changed June 19, 2010)
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It might be a good idea to start with a distinction between words and things. The number zero, or 0, is one among an infinity of numbers, special though its algebraic properties may be. As such, it just is and doesn't represent anything. The numeral '0' typically represents the number 0, but doesn... Read more
Are there page to page commentaries on difficult philosophical works that explain more simply what's being said so that the average person at least has a fighting chance of knowing what the work says. Where does a person obtain those sorts of commentaries?
Peter Smith
June 18, 2010
(changed June 18, 2010)
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Indeed, there are all kinds of commentaries written on the works of the Great Dead Philosophers, at various levels of sophistication.
But it isn't clear to me why "the average person" would particularly want to read the works of the Great Dead Philosophers -- unless gripped by the idea that those... Read more
Is there any good Eastern Philosophy that is not religiously or mystically inclined? I want to get a good grounding in World Philosophy rather than just Western Philosophy, but in my brief research of Eastern Philosophy it seems to turn into theology.
Charles Taliaferro
June 18, 2010
(changed June 18, 2010)
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Your request raises an interesting issue. A great deal of philosophy, east and west, has some of what may be called religious inclinations, as does philosophy out of Africa (pre and post-colonial) and the Americas. But that should not deter you if you are uninterested in such an inclinatio... Read more
I've been thinking a lot about Utopianism and the people who strive toward a certain type of communal perfection. It seems to be a distinctly human longing and one that recurs constantly through history, even though all previous attempts to create utopias (in life: Fruitlands, Oneida, Fourierism, 1960s experiments in communalism; and even in literature: Thomas More, Christine de Pizan, Campanella) typically end in disaster. How do utopias benefit humanity when all they are is a series of failure after failure? Is there something "higher" or "more truthful" gained from such experiments?
Charles Taliaferro
June 18, 2010
(changed June 18, 2010)
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Good question. Perhaps there are at least two points to bear in mind in reply: the literature that is classified as utopia (and recall "utopia" means " no place") often is NOT about some ideal place that its authors hope to encourage establishing. This is pretty clear in Thomas More's Utop... Read more
Recently, a young American sailor attempting to circumnavigate the globe was saved after her boat was badly damaged at sea. I am always struck by rescues like these, which are often as time-consuming and expensive as they are dramatic. (The search for the American sailor involved several ships, as well as the involvement of three different countries.) How can we justify the expenditure of so much resources in order to save a single person? It seems to me that the money spent on finding the sailor, if used to purchase something more basic (food or medicine, say), could just as easily have saved dozens if not hundreds of other people. Indeed, this sort of thing strikes me as somewhat perverse, because the individuals rescued in situations like this have very often deliberately put themselves in dangerous situations.
Charles Taliaferro
June 18, 2010
(changed June 18, 2010)
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Good points. Moreover, some adventurers appear to want to have "no-rescue zones." This topic sometimes comes up under the general heading "a wilderness without hand-rails." Still, cases arise when persons set out on ventures without renouncing rescue efforts and this does raise troubling... Read more
Are minimum-wage laws illiberal? Should employers and employees have the right to negotiate any wage they both consent to, even if this wage is very low?
Eric Silverman
June 18, 2010
(changed June 18, 2010)
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I would say that there are at least two competing values in contemporary liberalism: liberty and equality. Minimum wage laws serve to increase economic equality by eliminating the possibility that someone might get paid less than the 'minimum wage'. Yet you are quite right that minimum wage laws... Read more
What happens to thoughts once they are acknowledged? I.e. where do thoughts go once they have surfaced in the mind?
Charles Taliaferro
June 17, 2010
(changed June 17, 2010)
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Great question! Undoubtedly there is a neurological basis for conscious thinking and so there is a sense in which the brain plays a role in sustaining thinking and the brain definitely has a location, BUT it is not clear whether thoughts themselves are the sorts of things that can have loca... Read more