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1500 questions
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Is there a flaw in Spinoza's argument about gender inequality?
Spinoza, the 17th century philosopher wrote in his Political Treatise (Chapter XI):
"If by nature women were equal to men, and were equally distinguished by force of character and ability, in which human power and therefore human right chiefly…
Jordan S
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Does refuting the fine-tuning argument for the existence of God necessarily require belief in a Multiverse?
The fine-tuning argument for the existence of God is based on the fact that certain physical constants can only have very specific values for life to exist in the universe. If there was even the slightest change in any of these constants, the…
Alexander S King
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Thinkers and scientists opposed to philosophy?
I have heard of some thinkers having negative opinions on the use of philosophy. I want to understand this point of view. I would like to know the names of some thinkers, and especially scientists, who have held negative views of philosophy.
What…
Sensebe
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Does philosophy progress?
The question of progress is occasionally raised with regard to variety of fields - natural science, social science, art, and so on. But, can we at all have reasonable criteria by which to determine or debate whether or not philosophy makes progress?…
student
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What is the practical usefulness of post-modernist sociology à la Foucault, e.g. of the insight that "insanity is merely a label applied by society"?
Foucault says what constitutes insanity is a label determined by society. Whether someone is sane or insane is not a clear, objective fact. I do not disagree. He says this labelling can be dangerous.
At first glance, this all seems evident but…
Cerberus
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How does Quine answer the metaphysician's charge that scientism is self-refuting?
General scientism seems to hold that due to the predictive powers of our scientific methods, such methods are preferred to other methods of knowledge, such as metaphysics (radical scientism claiming that metaphysics is by and large simply irrelevant…
Jecko
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Is "propositions of logic are tautologies" (Wittgenstein) literal or mystical?
At 6.1 in the Tractatus, Wittgenstein says, "The propositions of logic are tautologies."
When he says this, is he referring to the fact that the axioms of propositional logic as presented, for example, in the Principia Mathematica (published before…
sdleihssirhc
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Was Wittgenstein anticipating Gödel?
The Tractatus 6.123:
6.123 Clearly the laws of logic cannot in their turn be subject to laws of logic. (There is not, as Russell thought, a special law of contradiction for each 'type'; one law is enough, since it is not applied to itself.)
This…
Alexander S King
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Is there a demarcation problem for religions?
So far, all of the philosophy of religion I have read focuses on the questions of God's existence and on the problem of evil. It seems to me that just as important would be the question of what a rigorous definition of religion is. It seems to me…
Alexander S King
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Is there an alternative canon for Western modern philosophy?
After Richard Rorty died, Raymond Geuss wrote some recollections of their encounters. In his reminiscence, Geuss mentions that Rorty projected teaching an undergraduate course called "An Alternate History of Modern Philosophy". The idea was that…
gogolgadgets
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Why is it so difficult to write good Philosophy textbooks?
Why is it so difficult to write good Philosophy textbooks (exempting textbooks on logic)?
There are plenty of useful and introductory textbooks to Mathematics, Economics, Physics, Psychology and plentiful of other subjects. However, in Philosophy…
duskn
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Are there any books about postmodernism being like sophism?
I still find myself relatively often surprised by how much of the spectrum of philosophic thought was already covered at the times of ancient Greece or ancient China (think Axial Age or think footnotes to Plato).
Has any recent philosopher (or…
Drux
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Do Kierkegaard's non-pseudonymous writings enable one to understand Kierkegaard's philosophy much?
As I read them, Kierkegaard's writings can be split into two groups: the mostly philosophical psuedonymous, and more theological non-pseudonymous works.
I have read primarily the pseudonymous works (Either-Or, Concluding Unscientific Postscript,…
Tom Morris
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How does Søren Kierkegaard use the word "dialectic" and how does his use of it differ from G.W.F. Hegel's?
According, to my understanding, the meaning of dialectic is...
In Plato: a back-and-forth conversational style of reasoning from his later dialogues
In the Middle Ages: the scholastic style of reasoning so well exemplified in Aquinas (objection,…
Kazark
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What are some simple ways to start learning philosophy?
It is hard for me to read and understand philosophical texts or secondary literature - even with Wikipedia. I don't want to give up, I just need to start slowly and with very basic things.
How can I proceed? It's too large a challenge for me…
Sabrina
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