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1500 questions
29
votes
23 answers
Can time exist without change?
Imagine an event of one second in length, like two hands clapping. Suppose that another interval of time elapses between the clap, a period in which nothing happens in the whole universe (or in all universes). You and your hands stand still, and…
Francesco D'Isa
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29
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16 answers
Are people capable of generating a random number?
Let's say you tell me to produce randomly a number from 1-100, and I choose the number 47. Can it be said that there is a specific reason I chose the number 47, and that it is not completely random? By random I mean that there is absolutely no…
Snowman
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13 answers
Why does Dawkins think it is wrong to posit that a paragon of 100% morals could theoretically exist?
Let’s move on down Aquinas’s list.
4. The Argument from Degree
We notice that things in the world differ. There are degrees of, say, goodness or
perfection. But we judge these degrees only by comparison with a maximum.
Humans can be both…
user8572
29
votes
12 answers
Evil thoughts without actions?
Can a thought without a corresponding action be morally wrong?
More fully, under which approaches to morality do thoughts, in and of themselves,
carry moral significance?
In particular I'm looking for approaches that yield affirmative answers to the…
Dave
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29
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3 answers
What are/were the main criticisms of logical positivism?
Logical positivism, later called logical empiricism, was a school of analytic philosophy famously connected with the Vienna circle and with a significant following up until the 1950's.
What were the main criticisms that were articulated to refute…
eMansipater
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28
votes
6 answers
I work from home as a software engineer and my job is happy with my performance. But I'm putting in little effort. Am I a bad person or employee?
I used to be a Senior Software Engineer at another company but recently I took a lower level 2 position at another company remotely. I am very good at what I do. I can usually take a well groomed agile story in any tech stack and complete it way…
ogpk545
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28
votes
12 answers
How can one argue against income inequality while defending achievement and expertise inequality - beyond invoking Rawls' difference principle?
Update: Based on some of the comments and answers, I feel like I need to clarify something. I wasn't saying that scientists and intellectuals are necessarily the ones making millions of dollars a year (they usually aren't).
My question is more…
Alexander S King
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28
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16 answers
Isn't the existence of Hell inherently evil, and isn't God therefore evil in allowing Hell to exist?
In many religions, for example, the Abrahamic ones, there exists a place of eternal punishment for those who live in violation of God's commandments.
Assuming an infinitely-long afterlife, in which "sinners" are punished with all the punishments…
Ivan T.
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28
votes
15 answers
Being alive today: the most improbable coincidence?
Think about it; modern humans have been around for at least a couple hundred thousand years.
Yet, your mind, your soul, your very awareness, happens to be "alive" today. If time is a flow, moving forward, and there's really only "now", isn't it an…
R_K
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28
votes
17 answers
Are we living in a simulation? The evidence
I am not questioning whether the simulation topic is outside science. I am asking what evidence there is or could be to resolve whether we are or not.
Living in a simulation has been a topic for philosophy since at least Descartes, with his 'evil…
CriglCragl
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28
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7 answers
What are any contemporary, state-of-the-art references defining philosophy, from a meta-philosophical point of view?
What is a comprehensive definition of philosophy? Or is it impossible to define philosophy?
At the risk of being ‘too broad’ a question, I would like to point out that the question of what philosophy is is a recurrent topic in the history of…
Joseph Spiros
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28
votes
7 answers
Why is Aristotle's objection not considered a resolution to Zeno's paradox?
It seems to me, perhaps naïvely, that Aristotle resolved Zenos' famous paradoxes well, when he said that,
Time is not composed of indivisible nows any more than any other magnitude is composed of indivisibles,
and that Aquinas clarified the…
martin
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28
votes
10 answers
What are some arguments against violence?
I had repercussions over an argument in class of the inevitability of war, and violence in some instances. I was on the side that was arguing that violence is never necessary.
My opponent said something that has been clinging on my head ever since.…
Lucian09474
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28
votes
3 answers
What is the difference between naturalism and materialism?
What is the difference between naturalism and materialism, if any?
I see definitions of naturalism that say, in effect, it is the belief that there is no supernatural. But what is the supernatural other than that which is not natural, which seems…
David Lewis
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28
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4 answers
What are the philosophical implications of category theory?
I have heard about topoi being the ideal entities to use for foundations of mathematics (since we are able to reasonably interpret our theories in them), so I imagine there might possibly be some reasons for using categories in (an intuitionistic…
Dejan Govc
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