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1500 questions
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11 answers
Can axioms be false?
I have often wondered, can axioms be false? For example, I could take as an axiom that "Dogs don't exist", but that is false. To give a more mathematical example, I could take as an axiom that "2 is not equal to 2", but that is, again, false. So,…
user107952
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6 answers
Can private experiences justify private belief in supernaturalism?
Is it ever rational or justified to believe in supernaturalism on the basis of private experiences (of the kind for which publicly accesible evidence can hardly be produced)? If someone has private experiences that make supernaturalism self-evident…
Mark
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11
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6 answers
What is the definition of real?
What is the definition of the word "real"? For example, we can all agree that Harry Potter and unicorns are not real, while Mount Everest and Mars are real. Some people even say consciousness is not a real thing. What does "real" and "reality"…
user107952
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11
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7 answers
Should freedom of speech accept speech against liberal values? Such as hate speech?
Should freedom of speech accept speech against liberal values such as diversity? Focusing on a particular scenario as an example: If people want to protest against the existence of say black people, should they be allowed to?...
PS: Alhough the…
Leon
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11
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5 answers
How can you support the idea of qualia as distinct from neuronal firing when you only experience one thing?
Physicalists are people who equate brain states with mental states. There are people in this category; and yet there are many people who do not hold this view. Such people hold that there is an ontological difference between phenomenological…
stoicfury
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11
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16 answers
Can Mathematics Fully Describe the Universe?
To what extent mathematics can capture all physical phenomena? Drawing an analogy from computer science: finite automata can handle regular expressions (does "(([a-z]))" match "((h))" ), but for more complex tasks, we need Turing machines (eg.…
PHV
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11
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1 answer
Why are physicists debating the "multiverse" so detached from professional philosophy?
Something curious is happening in some corners of fundamental physics these days, and I am wondering if professional philosophers of science are fully aware of this, or else why there is not more quality contribution to the discussion from those who…
Urs Schreiber
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11
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4 answers
Is the SETI project built on false premises?
The SETI project analyzes signals and looks for patterns, some of which include prime number sequences that have an absurdly low improbability of occurring. It does this to detect intelligent life.
However, we have no independent evidence of life…
user62907
10
votes
8 answers
Should I ever be influenced by an argument that I can't understand?
[Edit: Please read the whole question, or at least the new "N.b" paragraph, that I added just now to the end of the question, before attempting to answer it.]
I'm asking this because recently Conifold addressed two posts to me in the Symposium,…
Matthew Christopher Bartsh
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10 answers
Can existence be justified as ‘better’ than non-existence?
I’m relatively new to philosophy. Been doing some soul-searching, and asked myself ‘is good empirically better than evil’. Found a thread on here, where people pointed out that science cannot really determine morality. But that’s a whole other…
Reefkeeper27
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Why is speaking about donating to charity considered immoral?
The title of the question sums it up. I find it quite strange that social norms are such that discussing about charities one donates to are considered in bad taste. To me, charity seems purely a consequentialist concept. In other words, all that…
Kwame Brown
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10
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7 answers
Is the statement "They like curry chicken." an objective or subjective statement?
I'm inclined to believe it's objective because isn't them liking curry chicken the case regardless of how anyone else feels about it?
Jayden
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What is the "fabric" of spacetime if it is not a relational entity?
This is an interdisciplinary (philosophical physics) question.
In Newton's absolute spacetime model, spacetime is described as a physical entity. However, in the relational spacetime model (supported by many including Plato, Aristotle, Descartes,…
user65403
10
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13 answers
Is all of probability fundamentally subjective and unneeded as a term outright?
What is the real probability that a person will be murdered tomorrow somewhere in the world? It seems like there should be a right answer to this. In fact, most of us would bet tens of millions of dollars that atleast one person will be murdered…
user62907
10
votes
7 answers
Is it a fallacy to argue "Once a thief, always a thief"?
I was looking online to see if this argument was a fallacy, but I couldn't find anything. It reminds me of the problem of induction, whereby one cannot predict what the future holds based on past events of some one or more things happening.
I'm…
Dennis Francis Blewett
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