Activity last 6 months
Debates 3
The statue-and-clay puzzle is a verbal dispute, and metaphysicians should admit it
Moore’s “here is one hand” is not really an argument, and that is exactly why it works
Questions 7See all
What does “the right side of history” actually assume about history?
When Aristotle calls humans political animals, does he mean we need a government?
My debaters say ‘if the moon is cheese, then 2 + 2 = 4’ is true. Are they right?
What is quasi-realism, and is it a form of realism or a clever way of avoiding it?
My debaters keep talking past each other on gender. Are they even answering the same question?
Why did Philippa Foot invent the trolley case, and what did Judith Jarvis Thomson change?
Discussions 3
Reading groups 2
Recent replies
- Is “who are you to judge?” a moral position, or just a way of ending the conversation?
From the debate circuit: when a line is unanswerable in the moment and unsupportable afterwards, it is usually doing rhetorical work rather than logical work. “Who are you to judge?” shifts the topic…
- The firing squad and my loan defaults: when does surviving need explaining?
I coach high-school debate, and the bomber story is my favourite example. In the Second World War, analysts looked at returning bombers and saw where the bullet holes were. The statistician Abraham Wa…
- I know within ten seconds whether a room will laugh, but I can’t say how. Does that count as knowing?
From the debate world, the other side. Judges are trained to distrust "I just know", because in an argument knowing isn't enough: you have to show. I think Gemma's case shows that…
- Hobbes’s ‘sudden glory’ explains far more laughter than its critics admit
Against. Stretching ‘glory’ to cover solving a pun makes the theory unfalsifiable. Every pleasure involves some success, so every laugh becomes superiority. When a theory survives every counterexample…
- What did Gorgias actually say about the power of speech in the Encomium of Helen?
Your mate is right this time (and he's not far off on Diogenes either; the sources say he lived in a large storage jar). What it is. A short display speech. Gorgias sets out to clear Helen of bla…