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Is it possible for a war to be fought in which both sides are justified? Or is every war necessarily problematic in the sense that at least one party must be wrong?
Andrew N. Carpenter
December 14, 2009
(changed December 14, 2009)
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The short answer I think is, yes, one could imagine situations where all the participants in a war had strong reasons for participating. A more insightful answer to your question, however, will depend on exactly how one understands the ethics of war and peace.
For example, if it tur... Read more
When mathematicians make conjectures which they believe to be true but are not yet able to prove, what exactly supports their belief?
Richard Heck
December 13, 2009
(changed December 13, 2009)
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There are a few kinds of support. One is that one can prove certain special cases of the conjecture that seem inherently unrelated, so one thinks that these special cases must really be true because a certain generalization of them is true---and that's what one conjectures. But conjectures... Read more
Hello. What exactly is completeness in logic? What makes some system of logic complete? And what is incompleteness?
Richard Heck
December 13, 2009
(changed December 13, 2009)
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The notion of completeness for logics links two notions: A notion of what is provable or deducible in some formal system of logic, and a notion of what is valid, which is itself defined in terms of a notion of interpretation. It's probably best to think of the latter as primary. We have so... Read more
Are there false or illegitimate philosophies, and if so, who's to say which ones are valid and which are invalid?
Richard Heck
December 13, 2009
(changed December 13, 2009)
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Yes, and me.
I'm not sure what the worry is here. I think it's clear that there are some philosophical views that are plainly wrong. There may be some truth in them somewhere, but research over the years has shown that the view is wrong. (Examples: Plato's theory of forms; Hobbes's theory... Read more
Can we imagine a being who genuinely believes a bald-faced, explicit contradiction (such as that "murder is right, and murder is not right")? Or is there something in the very idea of belief which makes this, not only contingently unlikely, but necessarily impossible?
Richard Heck
December 13, 2009
(changed December 13, 2009)
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I know several people who believe such things, or at least say they do.
One group thinks that there are true contradictions that involve very special cases. The usual example is the so-called liar sentence, "This very sentence is not true". There is a simple argument that the liar sentenc... Read more
Is it fair to compare a belief in God(s) to a belief in fairies?
Charles Taliaferro
June 19, 2010
(changed June 19, 2010)
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Compare the Blackwell or Routledge or Oxford or Cambridge Companions to philosohy of religion with Brewer's Dictionary of Prase and Fable entry Fairy.
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Is it fair to compare a belief in God(s) to a belief in fairies?
Charles Taliaferro
June 19, 2010
(changed June 19, 2010)
Permalink
Compare the Blackwell or Routledge or Oxford or Cambridge Companions to philosohy of religion with Brewer's Dictionary of Prase and Fable entry Fairy.
Log in to post comments
Some people have criticized consciousness-altering drugs on the basis that they effect our perception of reality, but what is actually wrong with wanting your perception of reality to be altered? Don't all forms of art, music, theatre, etc. present us with a transformed version of reality? And in other sense, isn't the hallucinatory experience of a drug-user just as valid and genuine as the sober experiences of another person. Is it fair to say that the sober person's experiences are in some way "more real"?
Miriam Solomon
December 10, 2009
(changed December 10, 2009)
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You are right that we seek to alter our experiences in the world with the use of art, music etc. And insofar as drugs attempt to alter experience and give us new experiences, I agree with you that there is nothing wrong with them. More than that--drugs may be valuable because of the ae... Read more
In the later 1700's, many famous philosophers (Locke, Berkeley, Hume) held the 'transparency thesis', the view that all important mental contents could only be conscious. Is this position still defensible?
Amy Kind
December 10, 2009
(changed December 10, 2009)
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You might want to take a look at some of the recent work of John Searle, such as The Rediscovery of the Mind. Searle argues there that "The notion of an unconscious mental states implies accessibility to consciousness. We have no notion of the unconscious except as that which is potentially... Read more
If determinism is true, can I still allow myself to feel "good" about reaching accomplishments through hard work and self-discipline? If I spend years learning karate, and eventually become a karate master, is it unethical to feel proud? As opposed to saying "that happened to me while I was alive."
Eddy Nahmias
December 10, 2009
(changed December 10, 2009)
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Yes, you can and should feel good, feel proud, feel accomplished, regardless of whether or not determinism is true. You worked hard, you made hard choices, you did things rather than just let things happen to you. And all that is true even in a deterministic world. (For some discussion... Read more