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Can something be infinite if there is a definitive number of it? Here's an example: I take a number, the largest I can think of, and never stop adding one to it. The number becomes infinite. Now if you take the number of human beings, and never stop adding to it, is the number of human beings infinite? In contrast, dinosaurs cannot be added to therefore they would not be infinite. Does this make sense?
Daniel J. Velleman
December 4, 2005
(changed December 4, 2005)
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There's a part of your question that I think requires clarification. You say that if you keep adding one to a number, then the number "becomes infinite". I don't think I would say that. The number keeps increasing, and it will eventually exceed one million, or one billion, or any ot... Read more
Will good things happen to a person if they do good? Does karma exist? So in other words: If one share with the world everything they have without expecting good to happen to them in return, will great things happen for them anyways?
Andrew N. Carpenter
December 8, 2005
(changed December 8, 2005)
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Surely not every good action will be recognized or rewarded by others, but most people would benefit from living in a world where many people perform good acts and so contributing to the existence of such a world might be a good goal to strive toward even if you are moved neither by a... Read more
Can something be infinite if there is a definitive number of it? Here's an example: I take a number, the largest I can think of, and never stop adding one to it. The number becomes infinite. Now if you take the number of human beings, and never stop adding to it, is the number of human beings infinite? In contrast, dinosaurs cannot be added to therefore they would not be infinite. Does this make sense?
Daniel J. Velleman
December 4, 2005
(changed December 4, 2005)
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There's a part of your question that I think requires clarification. You say that if you keep adding one to a number, then the number "becomes infinite". I don't think I would say that. The number keeps increasing, and it will eventually exceed one million, or one billion, or any ot... Read more
Are animals capable of perceiving beauty (or, for that matter, ugliness)? Not just in other animals but in their surroundings as well. Bill Ray
Alexander George
December 4, 2005
(changed December 4, 2005)
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Non-human animals certainly react to features of their environment, features that we might judge to be beautiful or not. So if that counts as "perceiving beauty" then I would answer your question affirmatively. But if you're asking whether non-human animals are themselves capable of ju... Read more
If you have a dream and you do not remember it, and there is no one to reassure you that you actually had one (like if you get drunk and black out, but there are actual people to tell you that you did things), did you really have a dream?
Alexander George
December 3, 2005
(changed December 3, 2005)
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In this connection see also Question 31.
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Are you as Philosophers allowed to say that the rock on my desk is red? For we really don't know. We perceive it as red but what if our eyes are not showing us what is really there? For all we know, everything could be black and white.
Peter Lipton
December 3, 2005
(changed December 3, 2005)
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The popular dispositional theory of colour that Richard mentions has a curious consequence. If being red is just being such as to tend to produce a certain kind of sensation in us, then it isn't even possible that what tends to look red to us isn't really red but is really say some shade of... Read more
Does coming to this site and reading these mind-boggling questions make us that are not philosophers more intelligent, or just more aware?
Peter Lipton
December 3, 2005
(changed December 3, 2005)
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Reading these questions might just make you more aware; thinking about them just might make you more intelligent.
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If you have a dream and you do not remember it, and there is no one to reassure you that you actually had one (like if you get drunk and black out, but there are actual people to tell you that you did things), did you really have a dream?
Alexander George
December 3, 2005
(changed December 3, 2005)
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In this connection see also Question 31.
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I have a little dilemma that I need serious advice on. I started studying philosophy for 2 years at a small college in California. However, I chose to put my education on hold after I got married and had a child. Now I am seriously debating on going back to school and finishing up my BA degree in philosophy and then applying for graduate school. Do you know of any school where one could finish a degree up as a working adult? That is, is there an accredited school out there where one could attend a long distance program for a BA degree in Philosophy? Furthermore, after one enters into a graduate program at a University, can one get paid for teaching graduate courses to undergrads? How do graduate student who are pursuing a PhD make money during the 4-7 years that they spend at a University? Your answer will be much appreciated.
Alexander George
December 3, 2005
(changed December 3, 2005)
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I don't know the answer to your first question about where to get aB.A. while working. There are continuing education programs througoutthe country designed to make that possible. My recommendation would beto go to a good nearby library and ask a reference librarian for help:s/he should... Read more
Why is murder considered a crime when the person who was murdered was going to die whether or not that person killed him or her?
Jyl Gentzler
December 3, 2005
(changed December 3, 2005)
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While it is true that, given the current state of technology, each of us will eventually die, it is not true that, no matter what, each of us will have a life of a particular length.
A longer life is often more valuable than a shorter life because it often contains more good things than a... Read more