Recent Responses
Suppose we decide to let 'Steve' name the successor of the largest number anyone has ever thought about before next Tuesday. Can I now think about Steve? For example can I think (or even know) that Steve is greater than 2? If not, why not? If so, wouldn't that mean that some numbers are greater than themselves?
Richard Heck
October 18, 2005
(changed October 18, 2005)
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This question poses a version of Richard's paradox. (That's French: RiSHARD.) It's clear that not every number can be named using an expression of English that contains fewer than twenty-five syllables. There are only finitely many such expressions, after all. So there are some numbers that... Read more
If there is a God, should we ever know who made him/her/it? And if the answer is "God has always existed" then why not argue that the universe has always existed (even before the BingBang) and therefore not created by God. What I am really trying to ask is: How is leaving a question's answer infinite, any answer at all?
Richard Heck
October 18, 2005
(changed October 18, 2005)
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When considering a question such as this one, it's worth remembering what the "dialectical context" is, that is, who's asking what question for what purpose, and who's trying to prove what. So, in this case, if someone is trying to prove that God exists by asking "Who made all this stuff?" t... Read more
How can we be sure that we perceive color the same way? In other words, how do I know that the red I see looks the same as the red that you see? We are taught from birth to identify red objects as red, but what if what someone calls red really looks green for example, yet they only call it red because that is what has been taught?
Joseph G. Moore
October 18, 2005
(changed October 18, 2005)
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This is a natural and important question to wonder about. It is also an old and distinguished one, dating back at least to John Locke. In its modern incarnation it's often called the problem of "spectrum inversion" or "qualia inversion". Two people might make all the same color discrimina... Read more
How can we be sure that we perceive color the same way? In other words, how do I know that the red I see looks the same as the red that you see? We are taught from birth to identify red objects as red, but what if what someone calls red really looks green for example, yet they only call it red because that is what has been taught?
Joseph G. Moore
October 18, 2005
(changed October 18, 2005)
Permalink
This is a natural and important question to wonder about. It is also an old and distinguished one, dating back at least to John Locke. In its modern incarnation it's often called the problem of "spectrum inversion" or "qualia inversion". Two people might make all the same color discrimina... Read more
Can a question be a question without an answer?
Peter Lipton
October 18, 2005
(changed October 18, 2005)
Permalink
I very ordinary example of a question without an answer might be a question with a false presupposition. Suppose the question is whether you have stopped beating your dog, where in fact, kind soul that you are, you never started beating your dog. In that case I think we still have a quest... Read more
Can a question be a question without an answer?
Peter Lipton
October 18, 2005
(changed October 18, 2005)
Permalink
I very ordinary example of a question without an answer might be a question with a false presupposition. Suppose the question is whether you have stopped beating your dog, where in fact, kind soul that you are, you never started beating your dog. In that case I think we still have a quest... Read more
Why is it that when I'm thinking about something that I don't want to think about, and know that I don't want to be thinking about it, that I can't stop thinking about it?! -Ben Horney
Tamar Szabo Gendler
November 8, 2005
(changed November 8, 2005)
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Harvard psychologist Daniel Wegner has done extremely interesting empirical work on this topic. You can read a summary of his findings here (http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/%7Ewegner/seed.htm).
Wegner’s research suggests that consciously trying to suppress a thought has the ironic conseque... Read more
If there is a God, should we ever know who made him/her/it? And if the answer is "God has always existed" then why not argue that the universe has always existed (even before the BingBang) and therefore not created by God. What I am really trying to ask is: How is leaving a question's answer infinite, any answer at all?
Richard Heck
October 18, 2005
(changed October 18, 2005)
Permalink
When considering a question such as this one, it's worth remembering what the "dialectical context" is, that is, who's asking what question for what purpose, and who's trying to prove what. So, in this case, if someone is trying to prove that God exists by asking "Who made all this stuff?" t... Read more
Why is stupidity not painful?
Alan Soble
October 18, 2005
(changed October 18, 2005)
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Why is stupidity not painful? Huh? It is painful. Every time I do something stupid, I feel the searing pain, I wince like a dog hit by a car. Really. This is supposed to help me not do stupid things, like putting my hand in the flame. Doesn't work much, does it? We continue to do stupid things... Read more
Why is there no "happiness"ology? It seems that throughout history philosophy has strived to legitimize and analyze most basic human questions except that of what happiness is and how it is achieved. Is this accurate or am I mistaken?
Alan Soble
October 18, 2005
(changed October 18, 2005)
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A few, but only a few, words on two 19th-century philosophers: Jeremy Bentham and his disciple, who went off in his own, individual direction, John Stuart Mill. Both were utilitarians, and believed in the moral principle: "the greatest happiness for the greatest number." But they understood "h... Read more