Recent Responses
Is it sensible to think that time is more fundamental than space, because one can just close one's eyes and relive memories, going back in time or prospectively go forward in time to predict something, without actually changing your position in space?
Douglas Burnham
January 29, 2006
(changed January 29, 2006)
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The thesis that time is more fundamental than space is not uncommon among philosophers -- although the significance attached to this, and the meaning of 'fundamental' varies widely. At least arguably, Aristotle, Leibniz, Kant and Heidegger, are committed to some variety of this claim.
Kan... Read more
If I hold a different world view than you, do you view me as wrong or ignorant?
Peter Lipton
December 6, 2005
(changed December 6, 2005)
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What are the differences between wrong and ignorant? I guess that you can be ignorant without being wrong, since ignorance may involve having no idea what the answer is. And perhaps you can be wrong without being ignorant, if nobody is in a position to know the right answer, or if say your... Read more
Why is the Big Bang theory the most widely accepted theory of the creation of the universe?
Marc Lange
December 6, 2005
(changed December 6, 2005)
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The Big Bang theory nicely explains the expansion of the universe (discovered by Hubble in the 1920's). Obviously, that the universe is expanding suggests that it was a good deal smaller in the past. Likewise, the Big Bang theory nicely explains the cosmic microwave background radiation (detec... Read more
Why do I ask questions that I already know MY answer to? Why would I change my mind if I am already sure that, for example, 'knowledge comes from experience' or that, 'there is no life after this one'? Are there any instances in which any of the philosophers on this site have radically changed their minds or caused others to change theirs?
Andrew N. Carpenter
December 10, 2005
(changed December 10, 2005)
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What often drives change in my own beliefs about important issues like those you mentioned (knowledge, life, death, ethics, etc.) is learning that I didn't understand those complicated topics as well as I thought I had. That this sort of intellectual growth is possible, in turn, m... Read more
Why do vegetarians, vegans, etc. propose a different set of rules for animals? After all, humans are animals too. Why can a lion kill and eat an antelope wheras a human cannot? Why does it matter that we do not 'need too'?
Peter Lipton
December 5, 2005
(changed December 5, 2005)
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I agree with Alex that animals are not morally accountable: they cannot be morally blameworthy (or praiseworthy). What is harder to explain is why we don't have a responsibility to prevent animals from hurting each other. This is an unnatural thought, yet perhaps technically we would have th... Read more
There are many different ways of acquiring knowledge, be it through experience, learning through books and teachers, and by practice. How can we differ what we have learnt from practice and experience from what we have been taught or "learnt"? This leads to thinking there are different types of knowledge like how to drive once we know how to, or to ride a bicycle once we've learnt to, or to apply a certain theory once we've been taught it. Upon which I ask, what is knowledge, and are there really different types of it?
Peter Lipton
December 5, 2005
(changed December 5, 2005)
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Different ways of acquiring knowledge doesn't mean that the knowledge acquired is necessarily different. Thus I may know that it is snowing because I see the snow, or because someone tells me, but the knowledge that it is snowing is the same in both cses, even if in one case I have an exper... Read more
Why do vegetarians, vegans, etc. propose a different set of rules for animals? After all, humans are animals too. Why can a lion kill and eat an antelope wheras a human cannot? Why does it matter that we do not 'need too'?
Peter Lipton
December 5, 2005
(changed December 5, 2005)
Permalink
I agree with Alex that animals are not morally accountable: they cannot be morally blameworthy (or praiseworthy). What is harder to explain is why we don't have a responsibility to prevent animals from hurting each other. This is an unnatural thought, yet perhaps technically we would have th... Read more
Even though it has been strongly argued that divine foreknowledge doesn't negate free will, allow me to ask the question another way. How could God know our decisions if they are truly free? To know the outcome of something is to imply contingency (and determinism). To put it another way, if a third party can know the nature of an individual then that individual cannot be the author of his nature.
Andrew N. Carpenter
December 7, 2005
(changed December 7, 2005)
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The compatibility or incompatibility of divine omniscience and mortal freedom interests me a lot, although the concept of the "author of one's own nature" strikes me as relatively unclear and probably not that useful for investigating this.
Sean sketches out one answer that may be sat... Read more
Are there any contradictions of the Axiom of Choice (AOC) that are consistent with basic mathematical logic? Has anyone tried to develop a non-AOC theory?
Richard Heck
December 4, 2005
(changed December 4, 2005)
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The Axiom of Choice (usually denoted "AC") is a statement of set theory rather than of basic mathematical logic, so the theories of interest are versions of set theory that reject AC. As Dan said, any theory containing the Axiom of Determinacy will imply not-AC, but one can also simply look... Read more
Are there any contradictions of the Axiom of Choice (AOC) that are consistent with basic mathematical logic? Has anyone tried to develop a non-AOC theory?
Richard Heck
December 4, 2005
(changed December 4, 2005)
Permalink
The Axiom of Choice (usually denoted "AC") is a statement of set theory rather than of basic mathematical logic, so the theories of interest are versions of set theory that reject AC. As Dan said, any theory containing the Axiom of Determinacy will imply not-AC, but one can also simply look... Read more