Recent Responses
How would you explain the color green to a blind child?
Peter Lipton
October 18, 2005
(changed October 18, 2005)
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It might also be useful to distinguish the color green from the experience of that colour. Some philosophers (and scientistists, e.g. Galileo) have held that the color just is the experience, but it is m0re common and more plausible to distinguish them. Some would identify the colour with... Read more
How would you explain the color green to a blind child?
Peter Lipton
October 18, 2005
(changed October 18, 2005)
Permalink
It might also be useful to distinguish the color green from the experience of that colour. Some philosophers (and scientistists, e.g. Galileo) have held that the color just is the experience, but it is m0re common and more plausible to distinguish them. Some would identify the colour with... Read more
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
A very popular view in academic philosophy is that knowledge of the history of philosophy is important for doing contemporary work in philosophy. But so much of the history of philosophy is filled with bad arguments and false theses, which serious people would never subscribe to. How does painstaking familiarity with ancient mistakes and false propositions help us do philosophy today? It seems to me that false claims cannot ground anything -- or add anything valuable to what we know now. They are false!
Catherine Wearing
December 2, 2005
(changed December 2, 2005)
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I completely agree with the reasons Sean Greenberg gives for thinking that the history of philosophy is philosophically valuable, but I'm inclined to think that knowledge of philosophy's history is important for doing contemporary work, for exactly the reasons he offers. Knowledge of th... Read more
A very popular view in academic philosophy is that knowledge of the history of philosophy is important for doing contemporary work in philosophy. But so much of the history of philosophy is filled with bad arguments and false theses, which serious people would never subscribe to. How does painstaking familiarity with ancient mistakes and false propositions help us do philosophy today? It seems to me that false claims cannot ground anything -- or add anything valuable to what we know now. They are false!
Catherine Wearing
December 2, 2005
(changed December 2, 2005)
Permalink
I completely agree with the reasons Sean Greenberg gives for thinking that the history of philosophy is philosophically valuable, but I'm inclined to think that knowledge of philosophy's history is important for doing contemporary work, for exactly the reasons he offers. Knowledge of th... Read more
According to Descartes, there is only 1 truth, I think therefore I am. But if the fact that there is only 1 truth is true then there is not only 1 truth. I would like to know what the panelists' thoughts on this are.
Sean Greenberg
October 17, 2005
(changed October 17, 2005)
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Just a couple of remarks about Descartes. First of all, Descartes doesn't even use the phrase, "I think, therefore I am" in the Meditations; the phrase only appears in the Discourse on Method. In the Meditations, Descartes writes: "So after considering everything very thoroughly I must f... Read more
Is it possible that such a thing as a "ghost" exists? Not the scary scooby doo type ghosts, but some sort of lingering remains that could haunt or protect over. My friend's aunt claimed her whole life to be able to see angels and demons, with the angels the only thing holding back the demons from getting to us humans. She is one of many that I have heard about with this sort of thing. It's in the same ballpark as the ghost question, can these things possibly exist?
Peter Lipton
October 17, 2005
(changed October 17, 2005)
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Disembodied minds may be logically possible, but I think there is no good reason to believe they are actual. It's far more likely (though more boring) that your friend's aunt was imagining those things than that they really exist.
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Throughout my normal, daily activities, I sometimes incur a feeling of Deja-Vu; almost as if I've lived this particular moment before in my lifetime. It's as if this memory was stored away in my brain for some reason, but if that's the case, how did the memory come to be if the moment hadn't yet occurred? Also, how can our brain recognize a moment such as this, having never lived the particular moment? Alec and Ben Long Island, New York
Peter Lipton
October 17, 2005
(changed October 17, 2005)
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I am innocent of the psychological literature on deja-vu, but one natural hypothesis is that what is happening is that you you have an experience which at the same time gets mis-classified as a memory: the 'memory' isn't actually old, it just seems that way. It's a bit like a forgery, somet... Read more
I am upset that people have started using 'it begs the question' to introduce a question. For instance, "it begs the question: why do people incorrectly use phrases?" So my question, which isn't begged, is this: as philosophers, don't we have a duty to correct people in this regard? Or, is this (incorrect) use something we can live with?
Richard Heck
October 18, 2005
(changed October 18, 2005)
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I could be wrong about this, but I believe that the original use of the term "begs the question" is the one that has lately become common and that the "technical" use of the phrase by logicians and philosophers was adapted from the original use. I take "That argument begs the question" in so... Read more
I hear a lot of people say they believe in God because 'Who made us, the earth and the universe? It had to come from somewhere.' But if that's what you're basing your beliefs on, then shouldn't you want to know the answer to who made God? and who made who made God, and who made that? And shouldn't you be praying 'Oh all the things that made God and all the things that made them?' Ryan Gossger, Pottstown PA
Sean Greenberg
October 17, 2005
(changed October 17, 2005)
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A version of the story that Alex recounts about the sage is deployed by John Locke in Book II of the Essay Concerning Human Understanding, in order to suggest that the concept of substance makes no sense. Locke attributes the story to an 'Indian philosopher', and says that "the Indian...s... Read more