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1500 questions
49
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18 answers
What are the ethical problems with flipping a coin to decide in the trolley problem?
My understanding is that John M. Taurek suggests that, in the trolley problem we should flip a coin when deciding between saving 5 lives versus 1 life (assuming we do not know any of these people). He says that this gives everyone an equal chance of…
user32889
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49
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4 answers
Did Russell understand Gödel's incompleteness theorems?
Russell was active in philosophy (although no longer in math) for many years after the Gödel's 1931 publication. Gödel's paper were not obscure, and Russell would have been aware of their effect on the Principia and his logicism (and Hilbert's…
Artem Kaznatcheev
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47
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Do numbers exist independently from observers?
Do numbers have an objective existence? If life had not evolved on planet earth would there be numbers or are numbers an invention of human minds?
Are there any relevant works that discuss this? (I know of Husserl's Über der Begriff der Zahl and…
leancz
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46
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6 answers
What are the major branches of philosophy?
What are the major branches of philosophy?
(For instance, as a first-order approximation, mathematics can be sub-divided into three main categories at the first level: Analysis, Algebra, and Geometry.)
What are the first few books that every person…
user16
45
votes
6 answers
Is there a term for the belief that "if it's legal, it's moral"?
Sometimes I hear arguments that seem to appeal to the fact that something is morally permissible because it is legally permitted. For example:
Abortion is moral because it's legally permitted. Killing two year olds is immoral because we have laws…
Thunderforge
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45
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9 answers
What basis do we have for certainty in current scientific theories?
Given there is much past scientific belief that we now know NOT to be true, what basis do we have for the seemingly increasing certainty in our scientific beliefs held today being true?
On the one hand, we prize Popperian falsifiability and yet…
James Tauber
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44
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12 answers
Fallacy by Sherlock Holmes 'Eliminate the impossible, and what remains must be the truth'
In The Sign of Four, Holmes asks Watson: "How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?"
This may be valid in principle, but it certainly carries the risk of a…
Mogli
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44
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16 answers
How should a beginner study philosophy?
In order to study computer programming, it is clear what concepts one should study first (for example, if-statements, for-loops, classes, objects, etc.). By comparison, it is not evident what topics one should begin studying philosophy with.
Can…
SBel
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44
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10 answers
Why is the question "Is there free will?", and not, “What is free will?"
I'm a layperson interested in the problem of free will. I recently started reading one of the popular introductory textbooks to the subject. I'm halfway through, and while the book did describe a few of the most notable approaches to the problem of…
Ram Rachum
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10 answers
If Pascal's wager can be applied to belief in anything, then what is the fallacy in Pascal's wager?
I want to know the specific flaw in Pascal's wager that allows it to motivate belief in other things than God.
For example, a similar argument to the original wager can be used to say that it is prudent is to believe in the devil, or that black…
Bunny
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42
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What are the necessary conditions for an action to be regarded as a free choice?
A common philosophical question revolves around the existence of free will, but these debates gloss over the concept of "free will" itself, either taking it as a given (that everyone understands what the term really means), or proceeding with a…
Speldosa
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42
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16 answers
Do negative assertions require proof?
A negative proposition is a proposition which asserts what something is not. A negative claimant is someone who makes a negative proposition.
The "burden of proof" is commonly said to be owed by the maker of a positive proposition. Since they are…
user409
42
votes
15 answers
How come nihilism is so popular today?
I've been trying to attack this question (or more precisely, come up with an answer to that fact) for some time now, but after a while of research I'm suddenly not so sure of the reason the situation is as it is.
I used to think that nihilism today…
Yechiam Weiss
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42
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18 answers
How can one rebut the argument that atheism is inherently immoral?
It not uncommon to see religious people arguing that without the moral center of a religious text, true ethics are impossible.
The reasoning goes that, without a fixed moral center, atheists are free to make up their own beliefs about what is right…
Bob Tway
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42
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8 answers
What did David Hume mean when he said that "reason is a slave to the passions"?
I don't understand the meaning of this oft-quoted quotation of Hume's in On Reason, namely his saying that "reason is a slave to the passions." What exactly does he mean by that ? Is it simply that reason is subsequent to a deeper moral sense? Is…
Uticensis
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