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1500 questions
10
votes
11 answers
Why should atheists bother debating theists?
I am currently digging into atheism/agnosticism (I will use atheism for terms of simplicity). Before, I was not religious, I really did not give the subject much thought. I am reading Richard Dawkins The God Delusion and view some videos from…
DaPhil
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10
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4 answers
A contradiction in Kant's Universalizability Principle
I figured a contradiction in Kant's Universalizability principle, but I'm very surprised that it was so easy to prove that wrong, so I think that I might be wrong somewhere.
Let us first begin with a definition of his principle:
The concept of…
Zafer Sernikli
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10
votes
2 answers
What was Kant's argument for absolute space from a single hand being necessarily either left or right?
In their book "Von Glückzahl bis Geheimzahl" Christian Hesse and Karsten Schwanke write:
As far as the absoluteness of space is concerned, Kant gave the
so-called argument from the first piece of creation for this. He
fictitiously assumes that the…
vonjd
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10
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6 answers
Is mathematics an art?
I'm thinking of art in the traditional sense as visual, musical or literary.
Mathematics certainly requires technique, and hence one can say craftmanship. But whereas the production of an art (at least in the traditional sense) is a unique art…
Mozibur Ullah
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10
votes
9 answers
What exactly do 'objective' and 'subjective' mean in contemporary philosophy?
I'm pretty new to philosophy and I just have a quick question in regards to about how people use the terms 'objective' and 'subjective'.
Does objective value mean anything that is independent of one's mind? Meaning, no matter what one agrees or…
James
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10
votes
8 answers
Can there be logic without the law of identity?
Can there be logic without the law of identity?
If a = a doesn't always hold, can there be logic? I heard there are logical laws where the law of non-contradiction doesn't always hold, so I am wondering if there were also other logics where the law…
Sayaman
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10
votes
3 answers
Do realists and nominalists actually disagree about what really is, or do they just disagree about words?
So I am reading Loux's contemporary introduction to metaphysics, and he starts by giving two broad ideas about universals.
Do realists and nominalists actually disagree about what really is? For example, it feels like all the arguments for realism…
Toby Peterken
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10
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1 answer
What is the decisive point for classifying a certain speech as unacceptable?
How did it come to be determined that certain (hate) speech is unacceptable?
What is the decisive point?
Gonçalo Peres
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10
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5 answers
How do rationalists justify the scientific method?
From what I understand rationalism allows some knowledge to be acquired innately, and that rationalism was created as the opposite of empiricism. Since the scientific method assumes that knowledge is acquired empirically, how would a rationalist…
lmn32
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votes
4 answers
Can the observer be the observed?
As a supplement to this question as to whether particles can be observers, supposing that the answer is yes. One could suppose a setup where particle A is observing particle B, but what to stop us switching viewpoints around here and supposing…
Mozibur Ullah
- 47,073
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10
votes
5 answers
Asking a genie for more wishes
I just saw this SMBC comic. The second picture looked really promising, but as far as I see it, this attorney screwed up. With his second wish it doesn't matter whether you say wish or splork, so effectively the genie was forbidding to splork for…
Jack
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10
votes
6 answers
Does Karl Popper's work address the Principle of Uniformity of Nature?
It seems to me that Popper's solution does not address the more difficult problem of induction that Hume calls the Principle of Uniformity of Nature. In other words, we might find evidence against a scientific claim not because it was incorrect…
Jon Ericson
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10
votes
8 answers
What are the values of science research without immediate applications?
I am reading a bit about AI research lately. One major criticism of current wave of AI boom is that many high profile papers or projects, including Google’s famous AlphaGo, have not yet found any real applications. So Most of them are basically…
NonalcoholicBeer
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3 answers
"There is no difference, if no difference can be detected"
As far as I remember there was an ancient philosopher who said something like "there is no difference (between two objects) if no difference can be detected", but I don't remember who was that and how exactly it was worded.
Could someone help me?
user626528
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5 answers
What fallacy is it to say all teenagers are bad, therefore all non-teenagers are not bad?
Suppose there is a non-empty subset A of U. Let A' denote the complement of A in U.
What is the name of this logical fallacy?
X is true for A
therefore
not X is true for A'
For example, suppose U = {all people} and A = {all…
James Rohal
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