Recent Responses
Egalitarian principles suggest that it is important to provide equal opportunities for all. Does this mean that all countries should be let into the EU on the basis of equal opportunities rather than on merit, or that every continent should get an equal number of football teams into the World Cup despite some continents clearly displaying a higher standard of football?
Jyl Gentzler
October 22, 2005
(changed October 22, 2005)
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When we’re attracted to a principle of equality of opportunity, we’re often moved by the thought that everyone should have the same chance to gain access to the good things of life. Of course, if people blow their chances, then they have no one to blame but themselves; but they might reason... Read more
Other than the fact that it's in our nature to know and be curious, why is it that time after time, after every question is answered we still as human beings are not satisfied and as so it seems will never be satisfied, and want to know more. Doesn't that give rise to the notion that the answers are out there, but we can't "understand" them. And if so, then why can't we understand them, if we are given the capability to question?
Alexander George
October 22, 2005
(changed October 22, 2005)
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Some have thought that if we have the capacity to formulate an intelligible question, then it's likewise in our capacity to find an answer. (Maybe not in practice; maybe we'll blow ourselves up before we arrive at the answer. But in principle we could find it.) W.V. Quine has suggested t... Read more
Other than the fact that it's in our nature to know and be curious, why is it that time after time, after every question is answered we still as human beings are not satisfied and as so it seems will never be satisfied, and want to know more. Doesn't that give rise to the notion that the answers are out there, but we can't "understand" them. And if so, then why can't we understand them, if we are given the capability to question?
Alexander George
October 22, 2005
(changed October 22, 2005)
Permalink
Some have thought that if we have the capacity to formulate an intelligible question, then it's likewise in our capacity to find an answer. (Maybe not in practice; maybe we'll blow ourselves up before we arrive at the answer. But in principle we could find it.) W.V. Quine has suggested t... Read more
Why are all people sometimes mean? Robert (12 years old)
Alan Soble
October 23, 2005
(changed October 23, 2005)
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My daughter Rachel, who is now 12, used to watch the Rugrats--she was, maybe, 6 at the time. Often she asked me, "Daddy, why is Angelica so mean?" All I could muster, back then, was something about how difficult a question that was to answer. But we went back to the question as she got older.... Read more
I don't know if this is a good question, but is it morally correct to execute murderers with lethal injections? I mean we are murdering them for murdering, which is kind of ironic; it would be like setting fire to a criminal who killed people by setting fire to them. Sure it's an eye for an eye, but is it correct? We are just humans, and it's not right how we sentence other humans to death; I don't think it's our place.
Richard Heck
October 22, 2005
(changed October 22, 2005)
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I tend to be opposed to the death penalty myself, but one needs a more subtle argument. Is imprisoning someone who has kidnapped someone kidnapping them for kidnapping? If you don't think so, then you need to ask what the difference is between that case and capital punishment.... Read more
Egalitarian principles suggest that it is important to provide equal opportunities for all. Does this mean that all countries should be let into the EU on the basis of equal opportunities rather than on merit, or that every continent should get an equal number of football teams into the World Cup despite some continents clearly displaying a higher standard of football?
Jyl Gentzler
October 22, 2005
(changed October 22, 2005)
Permalink
When we’re attracted to a principle of equality of opportunity, we’re often moved by the thought that everyone should have the same chance to gain access to the good things of life. Of course, if people blow their chances, then they have no one to blame but themselves; but they might reason... Read more
Does the human mind perceive sight in 3 dimensions, or do we actually see in 2 dimensions, where depth perception and distance really don't exist in our mind? For example, I am looking at a bridge 100 yards away, I place my finger directly in front of the bridge. Now in the external world there exists a finger an arm's length away from my eyes, and a bridge 100 yards away. If the picture that occurs in my mind is a 2 dimensional picture then my finger and the bridge are located on the same plane in my mind, and distance would not truly exist in my perception. But if the mind's perception of sight occurs in 3 dimensions, like a hologram, then the picture I receive through sight must occur in a three dimensional space in my mind, where distances must be in the same but smaller ratios as exist in the external world. Here occurs a problem. If our perception of vision occurs in smaller but equal ratios of three dimensions, then the same object would have two sizes: That which exists in my mind (extremely small), and that which exists in the external world (large). Since the same object cannot possibly exist as both small and large, then we are back to the 2 dimensional version of sight where distance and depth do not exist. This was hard to put into words, but I hope someone can help me out. Billy H.
Richard Heck
October 22, 2005
(changed October 22, 2005)
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We need to keep some things straight here. The "picture" that occurs in your mind, if there is such a thing, is a representation. You don't have a single object, the bridge say, which has two sizes. The bridge isn't both in the external world and in your mind. It's just in the external world... Read more
Why does anyone consider gambling unethical?
Richard Heck
October 22, 2005
(changed October 22, 2005)
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I doubt many people would consider low-level gambling unethical in itself, say, entering an office pool. There are stronger objections to state-sponsored gambling and to the extent to which states have become addicted to revenue so generated. The objection derives from the extremely regressi... Read more
What color is clear? When something is clear, it is whatever color the thing behind it is, but, if you imagine that nothing is behind it, what would it look like? It couldn't be white or black, because that isn't clear, that would be white or black.
Richard Heck
October 22, 2005
(changed October 22, 2005)
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Haven't you answered your own question? Something that is clear just isn't any color, any more than the air is some color (usually!).
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What is truth, and how can we know that it is not an illusion?
Peter Lipton
October 22, 2005
(changed October 22, 2005)
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I'm with Richard here: the truth of a proposition cannot be an illusion. In an illusion, the proposition is false. But there might nevertheless be a sense in which truth could be an illusion, if we think that there are representations when in fact there aren't any. This is paradoxical ter... Read more