Recent Responses
It possible to look at the world optimistically or pessimistically without sacrificing accuracy?
Jasper Reid
November 28, 2008
(changed November 28, 2008)
Permalink
I'd certainly agree that qualities like goodness and badness aren't really features of the world as it is in itself, so much as attitudes that we project onto it. And it does indeed follow from this that such attitudes are neither accurate nor inaccurate, since there is no objective quality... Read more
I have always thought that with the primary colors and black and white, you can create any color that we see. This may sound dumb, but then how do you make neon colors? What else can you add other than the previously mentioned colors (or lack of)?
Jonathan Westphal
November 27, 2008
(changed November 27, 2008)
Permalink
Do you think that colours emitted by neon gas have a particular neon quality? I'm not sure. But your question could very well be asked of the metallic colours, such as silver and gold. They are not "made" by any combination of primaries, so how are they made?
Log... Read more
The visible spectrum of light starts at red and moves to violet. Wavelengths of E.M. radiation slightly longer than red are infra-red and shorter than violet are ultra-violet, neither of which is visible to humans. My question is then: why do we see the spectrum of visible color as a cycle moving seamlessly from red to violet and through violet into red again (think of a color wheel)? Why do we not see the visible spectrum the way it would seem to make the most sense, i.e., fading in from invisible infra-red and fading out to invisible ultra-violet? This has been bugging me for some time now, hopefully one of the panelists here can give me a satisfactory answer or point me in the right direction. Thanks, -Liam C.
Jonathan Westphal
November 27, 2008
(changed November 27, 2008)
Permalink
The fact is that the correspondence between colour and frequency is rough and approximate. To some "colours" (and what does this mean?) there corresponds no wavelength, or no single wavelength, of monochromatic light. Examples are the browns, the appropriately named "non-spectral" pur... Read more
Should the government take a role in promoting certain moral attitudes? When the United States made Matin Luther King Day a holiday, it (intentionally) endorses the moral attitudes Martin Luther King dedicated himself to. These may be admirable attitudes, but it seems to me that citizens should project their attitudes onto the government, not the other way around. Has anyone written on this topic?
Allen Stairs
November 27, 2008
(changed November 27, 2008)
Permalink
But if citizens project their attitudes onto the government, won't that amount to electing legislators who favor certain policies? And won't that likely result in the passage of laws that favor certain points of view and mesh with certain attitudes? And by the way, would MLK day have been... Read more
All the empirical objects that I perceive around me are structures of sensations: sensations of color, tactile sensations such as hot and cold, hard and soft, and rough and smooth. But sensations are supposedly manufactured in the brain, out of neural signals delivered from the sense organs. This leads to two questions: how do they get out there, into the real world; and if sensations are unreal --- they exist only as long as they are perceived --- and the real world is composed of sensations, is the real world really real?
Allen Stairs
November 27, 2008
(changed November 27, 2008)
Permalink
I think the best place to begin is with the first sentence: "All the empirical objects that I perceive around me are structures of sensations." I think this confuses two things. The objects we perceive are things like tables, chairs, tin nickels and left-handed paper-hangers. And none of t... Read more
If 1) we are morally responsible for the foreseeable results of my actions and inactions and if 2) all human beings will eventually die can I derive that 3) biological parents are morally responsible for the death of their children? I would expect most people to agree with (1) and (2), and to be shocked by (3). In addition, life can be worth living (the beauty and the richness of its experience hopefully offset the pain and suffering that come with it), but this seems to be a personal opinion that I have no right to impose on others. So, what right do biological parents have to impose their views (on such important matters) on future human beings that don't yet exist? Thanks.
David Brink
November 27, 2008
(changed November 27, 2008)
Permalink
I suspect that most people would think, on reflection that principle (1) is too strong. For instance, if it foreseeable that, because of your bad character, you will free-ride on fair rules of cooperation that we establish, does that make us morally responsible for your free-riding? I dou... Read more
It possible to look at the world optimistically or pessimistically without sacrificing accuracy?
Jasper Reid
November 28, 2008
(changed November 28, 2008)
Permalink
I'd certainly agree that qualities like goodness and badness aren't really features of the world as it is in itself, so much as attitudes that we project onto it. And it does indeed follow from this that such attitudes are neither accurate nor inaccurate, since there is no objective quality... Read more
How do philosophers maintain their mental health? Athletes might expect to acquire more physical injuries than non-athletes because they play more sport and because they attempt to push back boundaries (of what the human body can achieve). By analogy, philosophers perhaps might expect to experience more threats to their psychological integrity given they often confront things that non-philosophers might not like to confront, and because some of them also endeavour to push back boundaries (of what the human mind can conceive). In so far as the analogy is not riddled with false assumptions and dodgy reasoning, how do philosophers keep themselves sane? Do you warm-up and warm-down, for example?
Mitch Green
November 26, 2008
(changed November 26, 2008)
Permalink
Thank you for your interesting question. I can't speak very generally here, since I've never systematically surveyed my colleagues on this issue. I do know plenty of philosophers who don't do anything special to protect their mental health. On the other hand, many of us do try some warmu... Read more
When two people disagree, is there always one right person and one wrong person?
Allen Stairs
November 24, 2008
(changed November 24, 2008)
Permalink
No. Alice may think that Jones is a genius; Bob may think he's a fool. He might be neither.
Log in to post comments
I don't think that using profanity tends to be wrong. (Maybe if, "Damn it!!!" were the vocal trigger for some terrible weapon that could destroy the Earth...) It can’t be the sound of the profane expression that makes it wrong—else "c**k" would be a sin to say even if used to refer to a certain aviary kind. And it can’t be the meaning: to say "sex" is not in itself unethical. What about a combination of a given sound and a given meaning, an emergent (supervenient) property of this combination? It could be argued that to use a certain word as slang for something aggressive or sexual is wrong. But how? If I said "door" to mean the same as "damn" (as in, “Damn it!”), would this be transgression? Here we run into a problem of differentiating between the supposed permissibility of saying, say, “What the heck…” instead of, “What the hell…” or, “What the f**k…” Why is the first generally regarded as acceptable yet the next two are taken to be increasingly unethical (in some circumstances)? It doesn't make sense to me. Is the widespread belief that profanity is, well, profane anything more than some kind of prejudice?
Mitch Green
November 22, 2008
(changed November 22, 2008)
Permalink
Thanks for your nice question(s). One issue here is whether there are in fact any words that it is morally improper to utter, at least in a given language. Another question is whether, if there are any such words, the impropriety of uttering them is justifiable in some way. I separate the... Read more