Recent Responses
In order for knowledge to be knowledge, does it have to be true, or in other words, when something that everyone today believes to be true turns out to be wrong next year, was it not knowledge?
Peter Lipton
August 16, 2007
(changed August 16, 2007)
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Like most philosophers (though perhaps not most historians and sociologists of science), I think that knowledge requires truth, but it remains possible for someone to know something at one time and not to know it at a later time.
Knowledge requires belief as well as truth, so a simple way that... Read more
A lot of thinkers (Martin Luther King, religious leaders and Jesus Himself were in my mind) have claimed that one day humanity will reach a higher plane, where all people will live in peace and brotherhood. It seems like some individuals would be capable of participating in such a Utopian society, but is it realistic to suppose that the whole of society could one day be transformed to this peaceful, cooperative way of living? Additionally, do you think that we should aim towards this Utopian ideal? Thank you- I’m looking forward to hearing your opinions!
Peter S. Fosl
August 16, 2007
(changed August 16, 2007)
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For myself, I hold onto some hopes.Rather enormous changes have occurred before. They could happen again. Consider the change of status of women, the abolition of slavery, industrialization, etc. It's difficult to imagine France and Britain going to war again, even though they were combata... Read more
What are the arguments for and against a universal health care system?
Allen Stairs
August 15, 2007
(changed August 15, 2007)
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It's a really big question, and I'm not going to pretend to offer an adequate answer. It's hard to argue with the idea that it would be a good thing if everyone had decent health care. That said, not everyone thinks that it's legitimate for the State to try to bring it about. (I don't share... Read more
Students of many subjects are always recommended to treat their academic material in a certain way, or to adopt a particular way of engaging that material. For example, math students are asked to structure their thinking according to certain intermediate steps. This isn't only a way to express an answer, but actually to think through a problem. Is there anything like this in philosophy? How do you read philosophy? What kind of thinking routine do you follow?
Cheryl Chen
August 14, 2007
(changed August 14, 2007)
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There are a number of argumentative moves that philosophers typically make, and you will become familiar with them as you read and write more philosophy. You can find examples of these moves in Jim Pryor's guidelines on reading philosophy and writing philosophy papers:
http://www.jimpryor.ne... Read more
Should the state be seen as responsible for crimes committed by prisoners against prisoners in jails? It seems to me that knowingly incarcerating a person in a place where inmates are at risk to be beaten, raped or killed is like throwing him in the lion's den.
Nicholas D. Smith
August 28, 2007
(changed August 28, 2007)
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I agree with everything Thomas Pogge has said in his reply, but also think that one assumption of your question needs to be questioned. Consider the following example: It is my night to cook dinner, but I have forgotten to buy an ingredient. I ask my wife to run down to the store to pur... Read more
I am a Zimbabwean student studying in South Africa and like many, am distressed quite deeply by the events of Zimbabwe's recent past. I am particularly opposed to the blinding lights of patriotism and nationalism-and the inextricable fetters it places upon human thought. However, at the moment I feel that much of my disgust and my desire for change in Zim is motivated by that very patriotism I tend to abhor. Is nationalism ever justified? Or does it always form the pretext for the ideologies of hate that grip the world so voraciously? Also, is the use of force justified in opposition to the government's fierce crackdown on civil protest? Is civil disobedience of Mahatma Gandhi's brand the only justified response to tyranny?
Thomas Pogge
August 14, 2007
(changed August 14, 2007)
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It's worth distinguishing two very different kinds of nationalism or, more broadly, partiality. The first is well-expressed by "my country right or wrong". Here the agent is a nationalist or patriot by putting the interests (crudely conceived) of a certain group above those of others and above... Read more
As regards the point at which we should accord rights to that which would eventually be a child (an embryo, a fetus, etc.), does someone who argues that a given stage is not sufficiently mature have also to answer the question of which WOULD be the critical stage? Or is it enough to say, "Well, I don't know when this thing becomes a person, but it's not a person at day 1."
Richard Heck
August 12, 2007
(changed August 12, 2007)
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It's perhaps worth adding that a child has a lot of different rights, and these to different degrees, and there's no particular reason to suppose that these have to come all at once. As a blastocyst becomes an embryo becomes a fetus becomes a child, it would seem that it might acquire these ri... Read more
Does the individual consciousness depend on the actual atoms or only on the configuration of the atoms? Suppose we have mastered cryo-freezing and atom-manipulation technology. We can freeze and unfreeze people at will. We freeze Sarah. We replace Sarah's atoms one by one. With all atoms replaced, we wake her up. Is it the "same" Sarah? (the same to herself, not just to us). Thanks, Mario
Allen Stairs
August 11, 2007
(changed August 11, 2007)
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Let's call the being that results from all this replacement Sarah2. We can ask a pair of questions that seem different. One is whether Sarah2's conscious states will be like Sarah's. I agree with Mark that the answer to that question is yes; at least, it's hard to see why it would be no. But w... Read more
As regards the point at which we should accord rights to that which would eventually be a child (an embryo, a fetus, etc.), does someone who argues that a given stage is not sufficiently mature have also to answer the question of which WOULD be the critical stage? Or is it enough to say, "Well, I don't know when this thing becomes a person, but it's not a person at day 1."
Richard Heck
August 12, 2007
(changed August 12, 2007)
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It's perhaps worth adding that a child has a lot of different rights, and these to different degrees, and there's no particular reason to suppose that these have to come all at once. As a blastocyst becomes an embryo becomes a fetus becomes a child, it would seem that it might acquire these ri... Read more
Is cybersex a sexual encounter? If you discover that your partner engages in it, is he/she cheating on you?
Louise Antony
July 4, 2008
(changed July 4, 2008)
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I can't comment on Alan Soble's intriguing suggestion that one can have sex by taking up a philosophical position (can one become a philosopher by taking up a sexual position?), but I would like to suggest that anyone who doubts that "virtual sex" is a kind of having sex view the excellent and hila... Read more