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14 answers
Is God subject to logic?
If someone claims that God is beyond logic then how do we know he is beyond logic ? (as we lose all the methods to know whether the claim is true or not?)
Logic is the use and study of valid reasoning, while reason is the capacity for consciously…
Arun
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Passages validating Goethe as Nietzsche's Übermensch?
It is believed by some that the closest Nietzsche comes to naming the Übermensch is Goethe. However, in my own readings (which is not comprehensive) I've not found any solid evidence. What is generally the basis for the thinking that Goethe was…
fogus
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18
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Is God either amoral or not omnipotent?
The usual (Christian) justification for suffering/evil in the world created by a benevolent God is freedom of the will. However, the more interesting question is not about the source of evil (which the free will may very well be) but why God chose…
Conifold
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18
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Why does Carnap say 'Caesar is a prime number' is meaningless?
I don't get it. Assuming there exists an individual Caesar, we can look at the set of prime numbers and not-(prime numbers), and Caesar will be in one of them.
I just don't see, even though it may be a bit silly to ask, why he rejects that this has…
Casey
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18
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What are the retorts to Searle's Chinese Room?
Searle's Chinese Room basically argues that a program cannot make a computer 'intelligent'.
Searle summarises the argument as
Imagine a native English speaker who knows no Chinese locked in a room full of boxes of Chinese symbols (a data base)…
dorzey
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18
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23 answers
Is Christianity testable?
In a debate between John Lennox and Peter Atkins on the topic "Can science explain everything?", at minute 44:47 John Lennox claims:
Lennox: "And the major reason why I believe that Christianity is true is because--and here comes science again as a…
Mark
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18
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Why would infinite monkeys not produce the works of Shakespeare?
Apologies if this is a very basic/obvious question. I have no training in philosophy, but have been making my way through Peter Adamson's History of Philosophy podcast.
Recently I listened to his interview with Richard Sorabji (the transcript can be…
Uzai
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17
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13 answers
Does a rock falling down a hill perform computation?
Imagine a rock in the shape of a chessboard with pieces in a certain configuration.
Throw the rock down a particular hill. The hill is shaped in such a way that, given the correct throw, the chessboard-rock will be chipped and flinted in a…
MeltyButter
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What type of fallacy is it when people in undeveloped countries claim something it's true, because developed countries do it?
A fallacy that we hear a lot here in undeveloped countries, and which is so deeply annoying, it's that something is true because the developed countries do it. It's particularly annoying because many times when developed countries make a mistake,…
Pablo
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17
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How could one distinguish crankery from serious work?
Suppose I read a work, and I don't understand it or see its meaning, then it could be that either the information itself is inconsistent/non-sensical or I don't understand it personally. How do I know which of the two it could be?
More elaborately:…
tryst with freedom
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Is there a notion of "because" in mathematics?
Sometimes, in math classes, we are asked to give justification for our mathematical assertions. We say that mathematical statement X is true because Y is true. However, I don't know if "because" is the right word to use. Mathematical objects and…
user107952
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17
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16 answers
Why can't numbers be 'used up'?
I was speaking with a young student who has been learning about addition and subtraction (essentially functions, but he doesn't know that yet) with the idea of a 'number machine' and he could not understand how when you put '2' into the machine it's…
Confused
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What is the idea behind "p or not p" being a tautology?
Most (all?) logic books consider "p or not p" to be a tautology, hence always true, and this is usually stated without any further discussion. (I never gave it a second thought.)
In common language, "p or not p" means that one of the two…
Sam
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Is it fallacious to argue that something is correct, of good quality, or acceptable because a community of experts has established it as such?
Earlier today, I asked a programming question on a forum. I phrased the question as "What is the best way to do x?" Someone responded with something to the effect of, "the best way is usually with a tool that is widely used and accepted by…
AffableAmbler
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What is the name of the fallacy where people assume that complex ideas are automatically better?
I often hear variations of the following premise in people's discussions:
Your argument is too simplistic
Which means that this simplicity is undesirable for some reason not present in the argument. And this seems to indicate "complex" things are…
Red Banana
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