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For what does Nietzsche admire the "priestly" Jewish race?
Throughout his works, Nietzsche conveys great praise for the Jewish people. However, he obviously does not admire the consequences of their accomplishments. In the first essay of On the Genealogy of Morals, section 7, he asserts:
All that has been…
commando
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1 answer
Why does Chalmers' argument about "the hard problem" not entail idealism?
Chalmers famously argues in Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness:
At the end of the day, the same criticism applies to any purely physical account of consciousness. For any physical process we specify there will be an unanswered question: Why…
David Lewis
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9
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What are the properties of Mathematical Objects?
I have been thinking a lot about how one knows when an observation contains mathematical elements. Many years ago when I was in school, I found that there was often little time taken out to discuss what makes a new concept being taught mathematical.…
Alonzo
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9
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How does Russell's argument for identity refute that of Wittgenstein's?
In My Philosophical Development Russell wrote,
I come next to what Wittgenstein had to say about identity, which has an importance that may not be obvious at once. To explain this theory, I must first say something about the definition of identity…
user13627
9
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5 answers
Why is a white horse not a horse?
While learning about Taoist philosophy, we learned about Gongsung Long's argument that a white horse is not a horse. We recieved the english translation of his argument, and for me it didn't make much sense (perhaps because of translation issues?)…
Cicero
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9
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3 answers
Who said they were hiding in the woods?
In my undergraduate days, I remember reading someone occupying roughly a mental and historical space as David Hume (originally my thought was between Hume and Kuhn), and have a vaguely recalled passage that I would like to source. Though on first…
mfg
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9
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3 answers
Possible worlds in logic
In modern logic there is often talked about possible worlds. I understand this idea in this way:
Every proposition may be true or false. Possible world W is a set of all propositions where there is not logical contradiction among them. And the set P…
xralf
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Did the Logical Positivists accept synthetic a priori knowledge?
My understanding of Logical Positivists is that, following Wittgenstein, they accepted only 2 types of proposition as meaningful:
Propositions based on formal logic (i.e. tautologies)
Empirically verifiable statements
It seems to me that these…
Alexander S King
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9
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6 answers
Has anyone used analytic methods to attempt to dissolve the question of God's existence (as opposed to solving it)?
One of the main ideas of the analytic schools of philosophy (logical atomism, ordinary language philosophy,...) is that many philosophical problems can be dissolved - as opposed to resolved - upon analysis of the language used to describe the…
Alexander S King
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9
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7 answers
Can we know the fundamental nature of space and time?
Can you please point me to an argument by a notable contemporary philosopher arguing why we may know the fundamental (metaphysical) nature of space and time?
In a recent answer to a question I wrote that we cannot, to which @modalmilk commented…
nir
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Contemporary proponents of Cartesian dualism
I have to find examples of contemporary philosophers who accept Cartesian dualism. Who would be the most important proponent? While philosophers who reject physicalism (e.g. David Chalmers, Thomas Nagel) aren't uncommon, they usually don't find…
user223635
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9
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2 answers
What is the best order to read Aristotle's thought?
Even though there is no strict chronology of Aristotle's writings, what is the best order to read him if one wants to become acquainted with overall philosophical project.
I read somewhere that Aristotle's system is built around four broad…
chris
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9
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Claims that we know (virtually) nothing - can they be refuted?
Here's an argument that I've heard a number of times from friends and on the Internet:
"The ratio of what we know about the universe to what we have yet to
discover is so small - it is therefore illogical to draw conclusions
from the crumb of…
Salim Fadhley
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Does claiming that strong AI is impossible imply a belief in substance dualism?
I was reading an article by J Mark Bishop "The danger of artificial stupidity" on ScientaSalon, where he quotes his own research, John Searle and Hilary Putnam, among others, as proof of the impossibility of strong AI. I've always felt that strong…
Alexander S King
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9
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Does the recent "uproar" against Philosophy have any historical roots?
For instance, Stephen Hawking once claimed:
Philosophy is dead
Figures such as Einstein were quite interested in the Philosophy of science. In addition to this, a fair amount of Philosophers were on the side of Scientists in the face of postmodern…
Five σ
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