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πίστις (Faith/Conviction) In Plato's Apology
In Plato's Apology, a main question is that between belief and knowledge, between the pretense of Socrates' accusers and the simple truth of Socrates, between the laws of men and the laws that transcend men.
My question is however, how much of…
Summer Developer
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Is music just another language?
In this video (starting around 00:28:30) the interviewer, Bryan Magee, and Noam Chomsky discuss musical composition as a form of thinking without language.
But it seems trivial to me that music is a language like any other: a set of sound symbols…
Alexander S King
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Does practical moral skepticism end up as relativism?
Harman (2000a) argues that a moral judgment that a person ought to do
X (an “inner judgment”) implies that the person has motivating reasons
to do X, and that a person is likely to have such reasons only if he
or she has implicitly entered into an…
user6917
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Is one commiting the "argument from authority" fallacy and/or the "consensus fallacy" when one refers to a scientific consensus when asserting truth?
Bob and Alice disagree regarding subject X.
Alice holds view A regarding subject X.
Bob holds view B regarding subject X.
View A and view B are quite contradictory views. Both can not be true at the same time.
Subject X is of paramount importance,…
Fiksdal
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What does Kant mean by "Existence is not a predicate"?
What does Kant mean by "Existence is not a predicate"?
How does that invalidate the ontological arguments? and how can he show that it's not a predicate?
By predicate, I think he means a "property" of the entity, for example, the predicate of…
FNH
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What is postmodernism?
Postmodernism has always seemed to have a very fuzzy definition to me. It tends to be defined in terms of what it's not, or what it criticizes; for example, it "aims to show that every 'text' is utterly self-contradictory", or it "is a movement…
Jez
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Difference between Tautology and Circular Reasoning
Often it is considered that a tautology is the same as a circular reasoning.
However, in the Wikipedia entry of Tautology (language), it mentioned that circular reasoning and tautology are different.
Can someone elaborate how they are different? I…
shivams
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Why have those scientists who rejected or opposed philosophy, still succeeded?
Preface: I know nothing about physics, and little about philosophy.
This Scientific American article of 2015 May 8, this question, and this blog post of 2009 Nov 11 by Prof. Massimo Pigliucci reference some famous physicists who have opposed or…
user8572
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How could both Occam's Razor and complex theories like Quantum Mechanics be correct at the same time?
It is becoming harder to use just simple theories, where more complex ones are needed e.g. quantum mechanics, super string theory, ...
Are such theories in conflict with Occam's Razor?
jimjim
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Is there a difference between the concepts of reality and existence in Aristotle's philosophy?
I'm reading a book on the history of philosophy and the author makes use of the word real-reality-really in such a way that is a bit confusing for me.
For example:
Aristotle's knowledge theory searches the instruments that allow the knowledge of…
Tames
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What does it mean to know something?
Humans know trees. So do squirrels. Even though their mental concept of "tree" may be very different, I think we can agree that lots of animals recognise trees and have some sort of understanding of them.
A computer program, on the other hand, might…
mhwombat
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Do Western logicians have a term for "the five crafts" (الصناعات الخمس)?
My only formal exposure to Logic is from an Arabic text book, where five methods for proving and/or convincing an opponent of your argument was described.
These methods are termed "the five crafts" and consist…
Adnan
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Hilbert's Sixth Problem: Is Kolmogorov's solution the last word?
The demand for axiomatization of probability was put forward by Hilbert at the very beginning of the past century: it was the sixth problem in his famous twenty three problems he deemed of high importance.
Hilbert's sixth problem regarded the…
L.M. Student
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Is it thought that analytic philosophy is in decline after the linguistic turn?
I would like to know from someone who has closely followed contemporary analytic philosophy if this idea has any currency. So by "is it thought" I mean is it a general trend or mood. The reason for asking is that I read this essay by PMS Hacker,…
user20502
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Why do philosophy of mind courses tend to bypass Kant?
All of the philosophy of mind courses I've seen seem to follow a basic pattern:
Start with Descartes and substance dualism
Jump to the 20th century and discuss behaviorism, functionalism, identity theory, eliminativism, Turing, AI, Searle,…
Alexander S King
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