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Question
One question: Explain (can have an accepted answer) or Open (several argued answers)
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Is there a coherent left-wing case for private property?
On the left, private property is usually treated as the problem. But there are traditions that defend it on egalitarian grounds: the small farmer's land, the artisan's workshop, the home that can't be taken from you. Rawls even argued for a "property-owning…
Started by Javier Ferrandis2 replies -
Teaching the Euthyphro to sixteen-year-olds: what works and what doesn’t?
The central question (10a) is whether the pious is loved by the gods because it is pious, or pious because it is loved by the gods. My students grasp the dilemma in about four minutes. What they struggle with is the Greek…
Started by Giulia Ferrante4 replies -
What were Mencius and Xunzi arguing about when they disagreed about human nature?
I'm writing an essay comparing moral development theories, and my tutor suggested the debate between Mencius and Xunzi as a classical example. I understand Mencius said human nature is good and Xunzi said it is bad, but I've read that this is…
Started by Elif Yıldız2 replies -
What’s the difference between “deep ecology” and environmental ethics in general?
In conservation work, "deep ecology" is used both as a compliment and an insult. I know it comes from the Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess, but I'm not sure how it differs from other kinds of environmental ethics. Can someone explain?
Started by Anand Kurup2 replies -
Did Hume ever read al-Ghazali?
Last month I read al-Ghazālī's account of his crisis of doubt, and then went looking for more. I found the part of The Incoherence of the Philosophers about fire and cotton: we see the cotton burn when it touches the fire, but…
Started by Fajar Nugroho4 replies -
What does Merleau-Ponty mean by the “lived body”?
I am reading Phénoménologie de la perception (1945) in French and I keep circling the expression le corps propre, usually translated "one's own body" or "the lived body". I understand that he discusses the phantom limb and a patient called Schneider at…
Started by Claire Dubois3 replies -
Does an engineer’s training help or hurt in metaphysics?
When I read metaphysics, I notice an engineer's habits. I want to know the system boundary, the inputs and outputs, the failure modes. Sometimes this helps me see what an argument actually claims. Sometimes I think it makes me impatient with questions…
Started by Arjun Iyer4 replies -
Did Indian epistemologists anticipate the Gettier problem?
In 1963 Edmund Gettier's three-page paper showed that justified true belief isn't sufficient for knowledge. You can have a justified belief that's true by luck. Indian philosophers seem to have discussed cases like this centuries earlier. The Buddhist Dharmottara (eighth century) is…
Started by Meera Kulkarni2 replies -
Does a constitution need a shared conception of the good?
Rawls, in Political Liberalism (1993), argued that a just constitution should not be based on any single comprehensive doctrine, religious or secular. Citizens can support it from within their own views through an "overlapping consensus". Pakistan's constitutional history begins from a different…
Started by Hamza Qureshi3 replies -
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 -
Rumi and Spinoza: are they describing the same God?
People sometimes say Rumi and Spinoza are describing the same reality. Everything in God, God in everything, the self dissolving into a larger whole. But Rumi's God is a beloved who longs for us and whom we long for, the reed flute…
Started by Reza Tehrani3 replies -
Nozick gave up closure to beat the sceptic. Isn’t that too high a price?
I've been reading al-Ghazālī's Deliverance from Error lately, especially the part where he doubts the senses and then even reason, because in dreams everything seems real until you wake. It got me into modern scepticism, and now I'm stuck on Nozick. As…
Started by Fajar NugrohoAnswer first (no replies yet) -
What is the “alignment problem” in philosophical terms?
At work people use "alignment" to mean very different things: making a chatbot polite, making it follow instructions, or making sure future systems don't pursue goals harmful to humans. What's the core philosophical problem underneath? Is it a problem about values (which…
Started by Nur Aisyah Rahman3 replies -
How can I know nothing is red and green all over, when I’ve never checked every red thing?
A friend gave me this puzzle and I can't stop thinking about it. A surface cannot be completely red and completely green at the same time, in the same place. I am sure of this. But I have not checked every red…
Started by Fajar Nugroho4 replies -
Al-Ghazali says some knowledge has to be tasted. Is that an argument, or a way out of one?
Last month I read al-Ghazali's Deliverance from Error in an English translation I found online, and one part keeps bothering me. He goes through the theologians, the philosophers and the Batinites, finds each of them lacking, and then turns to the Sufis.…
Started by Fajar Nugroho5 replies -
Is “who are you to judge?” a moral position, or just a way of ending the conversation?
At a family dinner last week my older cousin said that a mutual friend had behaved badly by lying to his parents about failing a course. My other cousin said, “Who are you to judge? Morality is subjective anyway.” Everyone went quiet…
Started by Fajar Nugroho4 replies -
I have forgotten most of my childhood. On Locke’s view, am I still that child?
I am on a gap year and reading whatever I can find. This week it was a summary of Locke on personal identity. As I understood it, Locke says you are the same person as far back as your consciousness reaches to…
Started by Fajar Nugroho5 replies -
Eliminative materialism: how can anyone claim that beliefs don’t exist?
Another beginner question from me, sorry. I read a short summary of Paul Churchland's eliminative materialism and I can't get past the first step. As I understand it, he says that our everyday way of explaining people ("she went to the shop…
Started by Fajar Nugroho3 replies -
What is the actual difference between Pyrrhonian and Academic sceptics?
I have been reading about doubt, mostly because of al-Ghazālī. Every book I pick up mentions two kinds of ancient sceptics, Pyrrhonians and Academics, and then moves on as if the difference were obvious. It is not obvious to me. From what…
Started by Fajar Nugroho4 replies -
Should judges interpret constitutions by their original meaning?
Originalism, defended in the US by Antonin Scalia (for example, in A Matter of Interpretation, 1997), says the meaning of a constitutional text is fixed at the time it was adopted. Judges should apply that meaning, and changes should come through amendment,…
Started by Deepa Kartha2 replies -
What is the “no miracles” argument for believing electrons are real?
I've been reading al-Ghazālī's Deliverance from Error, where he doubts the senses and then doubts reason. After that I started wondering about things nobody can see at all. Nobody has ever seen an electron. My physics teacher says they are as real…
Started by Fajar Nugroho4 replies -
How does one contradiction let you prove absolutely anything?
A friend studying computer science told me that in logic "a contradiction implies everything". If you accept one contradiction, you can prove the moon is green, that I'm a king, anything. This sounds like a trick. Contradictions are bad, sure, but why…
Started by Fajar Nugroho3 replies -
What do the strange names Barbara, Celarent and Darii actually mean?
I'm working through an old logic textbook my uncle left at our house. There is a page with a Latin verse that starts "Barbara, Celarent, Darii, Ferioque..." and then a lot of other names like Cesare and Baroco. The book just says…
Started by Fajar Nugroho4 replies -
Turing never said passing his test means a machine thinks? Then what was the test for?
This month my reading is about computers and minds. My cousin studies informatics in Bandung and he told me the Turing test is simple: if a machine can fool you in a conversation, it thinks. Done. Then I read an introduction that…
Started by Fajar Nugroho5 replies -
What are the pramāṇas, and how do the schools disagree about them?
I grew up hearing words like "pramāṇa" in family discussions without really knowing what they meant. I've started reading Indian philosophy properly and keep running into lists of pramāṇas that differ between schools. What are they, and why does the number matter?
Started by Rohan Desai3 replies -
Is it irrational to want to be remembered after you die?
Founders talk a lot about "legacy". I've caught myself thinking about it too: building something that lasts after me. But I won't be around to enjoy being remembered. Epicurus argued that death is nothing to us, because when we exist death isn't…
Started by Rohan Desai3 replies -
Is the fine-tuning of physical constants evidence for design?
Physicists say that if some constants of nature, like the strength of gravity or the cosmological constant, were even slightly different, no stars, chemistry or life could exist. Some philosophers and theologians say this is strong evidence of a designer. Others respond…
Started by Omar Ragab4 replies -
What is functionalism, and why do people think it supports machine consciousness?
People in AI discussions often say that "on a functionalist view" a machine could be conscious. I have a vague sense of what that means but I'd like to understand it properly. What exactly does functionalism claim? Why do people think it…
Started by Pieter van Dijkhuizen3 replies -
Eighteen and on a gap year: should I read the philosophers themselves or an introduction first?
My parents still call my gap year wasting time. Last month I read al-Ghazālī's Deliverance from Error, his account of his crisis of doubt, and I haven't stopped thinking about it. It was the first time a book felt like it was…
Started by Fajar Nugroho6 replies -
What is Benacerraf’s dilemma, in words a school leaver can follow?
I finished senior high school this year and I'm taking a gap year, which my parents call wasting time. I've been reading about whether numbers are discovered or invented, because my maths teacher always said "we discover mathematics, we don't make it…
Started by Fajar Nugroho4 replies