Questions
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Is a controlled experiment a new source of knowledge, or only perception with discipline?
I have been reading A. I. Sabra's translation of the first books of Ibn al-Haytham's Optics with two of my tutoring students, and it has raised a question I can't settle. The standard lists of sources of knowledge, whether European or Indian,…
Started by Emeka AnyaohaAnswer first (no replies yet) -
Is evolution compatible with objective morality?
Darwin argued in The Descent of Man (1871) that our moral sense evolved from social instincts. Sharon Street, in "A Darwinian Dilemma for Realist Theories of Value" (2006), turned this into a challenge for moral realism: evolution shaped our moral judgments to…
Started by Emeka Anyaoha3 replies -
What is the “block universe”, and does relativity force it on us?
In physics classes we learned special relativity, including the relativity of simultaneity: observers in relative motion disagree about which distant events are simultaneous. Some philosophers argue this means the past, present and future are all equally real, the "block universe". Is that…
Started by Emeka Anyaoha4 replies -
If you had to give up one classical principle, which would you choose?
I've been working through a list of non-classical logics, and each one gives up something different: bivalence (every statement true or false), excluded middle (P or not-P), explosion (from a contradiction, anything), or the assumption that every name refers to something. Thought…
Started by Emeka Anyaoha6 replies -
Does doing science commit you to atheism? Methodological versus ontological naturalism
A student of mine who's a devout Christian asked me last week whether studying physics would make her an atheist, because, she'd been told, science assumes there's nothing but nature. I gave a muddled answer about how lots of scientists believe in…
Started by Emeka Anyaoha4 replies -
What does Moore’s open question argument actually prove, and what is the standard reply to it?
Moore's open question argument from Principia Ethica (1903) keeps coming up as I work through ethics on my own, and I cannot tell whether it is a deep insight or a trick. Here is my understanding. Take any proposed definition of good…
Started by Emeka Anyaoha4 replies -
Do the laws of physics make things happen, or only describe what happens?
Last week a student asked me why the ball "obeys" Newton's second law. I started to answer and realised I did not know what I meant by "obeys". We talk as if laws are rules and objects follow them. But a ball…
Started by Emeka Anyaoha4 replies