Recent Responses
Has not science (more specifically, neurobiology) resolved the mind-body question? For example, we know that when the pleasure center(s) of the brain are stimulated the person experiences pleasure. Once again, we know that when we affect one certain part of the brain, this causes the person to lose consciousness. Many thanks, Todd T.
Jennifer Church
January 3, 2009
(changed January 3, 2009)
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Long before the advances of neurobiology, people recognized that certain mental states were correlated with certain physical states. Contemporary science has been able to discover more and more correlations, with more and more precision, but there are still many different understandings of... Read more
The painter Gauguin abandoned his wife and family. Which seems a pretty rotten thing to do. Eventually he went to the South Seas to paint. He painted masterpieces. So now his abandoning of his family doesn't look so rotten after all. However, if aesthetic opinion changes and Gauguin's work comes to be classed as second-rate, his abandoning of the family once again takes on a sinister aspect. Can the consequences of an action determine its moral value so clearly?
Eddy Nahmias
December 30, 2008
(changed December 30, 2008)
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You've picked up on an interesting case some philosophers have used to discuss "moral luck" (see, e.g., Owen Flanagan's Varieties of Moral Personality and I think Bernard Williams discusses this case). It seems like the moral value of an agent's action should not depend on factors that ar... Read more
Why does mathematics "work"? How does it manage to describe the physical world?
Peter Smith
December 30, 2008
(changed December 30, 2008)
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Which mathematics manages to describe the physical world? Mathematicians offer us, e.g., Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometries of spaces of various dimensions (and the non-Euclidean geometries come in different brands). They can't all correctly describe the world, since they say different... Read more
Asked "do you believe in the faith you follow through choice?" I would expect most respondents would answer "yes", yet this is clearly not the case and is largely true only for people who have converted from one faith to another. A child growing up in Belfast with Protestant parents, Protestant grand-parents and Protestant great-grand-parents is going to be Protestant. A child growing up in Italy is 90% certain to be Catholic, a child born and raised in N.E. Thailand is 97% certain to be Buddhist etc etc. Where does the choice come in? Surely for anyone who doesn't question belief in God, the God they follow is down not to choice but to geography - does this not make a mockery of belief?
Allen Stairs
December 29, 2008
(changed December 29, 2008)
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Interestingly, one of the more well-known statements of your premise -- that belief in most cases is a matter of accidents of birth and circumstance -- was offered by a well-known defender of religion, the British philosopher John Hick. But we'll get to that.
Most people don't think very h... Read more
When does one "become" a philosopher?
Allen Stairs
December 27, 2008
(changed December 27, 2008)
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Right after the secret handshake...
More seriously, there's no single answer, and no clear one in any case. Does someone who has a BA in philosophy count as a philosopher? How about someone who has no formal education in philosophy, but through lots of reading and informal conversation has... Read more
What use are philosophers to Modern Society? I mean, in the eyes of modern society, the objective in life is to earn a living, and how best to earn it. But we can't seem to put to use knowledge like "Whether absolute truth exist". So is there more to it, or are we mere entertainers to satisfy human inquiries that could just be disregarded and forgotten later on?
Thomas Pogge
December 26, 2008
(changed December 26, 2008)
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Well, if THE objective in life really is to make money without too much effort, then indeed there isn't much use for philosophical inquiries -- there are better ways of earning money than by being a philosopher.
But is earning a living in the best way really the (one and only) objective i... Read more
Mary Warnock says we have a right to have children. It's a question I asked myself in the waiting room of a fertility clinic as I was registering for IVF treatment - it's a question I continuing asking myself as I see more and more gay fathers flying off to exotic lands for their offspring through surrogacy. How can we conciliate the right to have children with the exploitation of women? Best regards Pensiero Rome, Italy
Miriam Solomon
December 25, 2008
(changed December 25, 2008)
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The right to pursue certain goods (such as having children, or making money) does not justify using immoral means (such as exploiting women, or stealing) and does not entitle one to success (being a parent, or being rich). There are many ways to try to become a parent (or a wealthy pers... Read more
It is said that happiness comes from within - that no one can make you happy. However, some people do bring out the best in us (people we fall in love with) and others bring out the worst in us (people we dislike). So the statement that happiness comes from within is not entirely true. What is your opinion?
Allen Stairs
December 25, 2008
(changed December 25, 2008)
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You're pretty clearly right. What's going on around us matters for our happiness, and though how we look at things makes a difference, it's not all. There may be some people (a fully enlightened being such as the Buddha supposedly was, perhaps?) who are able to maintain their equanimity in... Read more
Can one tolerate something, someone, etc. indefinitely or is there a limit? If there is a limit is there any way of re-igniting tolerance? For instance, if a person in an unhappy marriage, tolerates the situation for a long time (e.g., for the sake of the children) but eventually is unable to put up with the situation - no danger, violence, etc. - just dislike, contempt, etc., for the spouse - is there any way of re-igniting tolerance?
Allen Stairs
December 24, 2008
(changed December 24, 2008)
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The answer to each of your questions, I fear, is "it depends." It depends on the situation, the person, the problem... Some people can tolerate difficult situations better than others, though it's rather unlikely that anyone has unlimited tolerance.
As for reigniting tolerance, I don't kno... Read more
Why is it that the subject Philosophy is irrelevant for the secondarian level? Do we really have to wait until College just for us to enjoy this "mysterious gift"?
William Rapaport
January 1, 2009
(changed January 1, 2009)
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Iagree with Peter that the older you are, and the more you have read andstudied, the more likely it is that you will get something out of astudy of philosophy. But I think that philosophy can usefully bestudied before college (at what is called in the US the "secondary"level of education,... Read more