Philosophy Weekly Newsletter - Thursday, April 30, 2015

Philosophy newsletter

Top new questions this week: What is nothing? In Lawrence Krauss' book A Universe From Nothing he portrays "nothing" as a physical state. He says that nothing is found by removing all of what we know to be things (particles, electrons etc). I've ... philosophy-of-science cosmology nothing   asked by William Perkins 6 votes answered by nir 5 votes Postmodernism and Sophism I still find myself relatively often surprised by how much of the spectrum of philosophic thought was already covered at the times of ancient Greece or ancient China (think Axial Age or think ... history-of-philosophy continental-philosophy postmodernism greeks   asked by Drux 5 votes answered by Swami Vishwananda 2 votes 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 ... theology philosophy-of-religion analytic-philosophy   asked by Alexander S King 5 votes answered by James Kingsbery 0 votes Is a top-down set theory possible? There are two classical paradoxes associated with set theory; and that is the existence of the Universal set and the Russell set. The usual set theory takes the notion of element as basic; these are ... logic ontology   asked by Mozibur Ullah 4 votes answered by James Kingsbery 2 votes Rousseau and civil society How does Rousseau account for the emergence of civil society?--what is the change, or more precisely, the transformation of material relations, that accounts for the founding of society in a robust ... society   asked by user14481 4 votes answered by Kentaro Tomono 0 votes 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 ... kant hume logical-positivism analytic-synthetic-divide   asked by Alexander S King 4 votes answered by Ram Tobolski 2 votes Truth is subjectivity What does Kierkegaard mean when he says " Truth is subjectivity " in his book - Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments. Since "Subjectivity refers to how someone's judgment is ... meaning   asked by shrey 4 votes answered by virmaior 1 vote Greatest hits from previous weeks: Can something come out of nothing or not? Why? In our current state of affairs it is safe and reasonable to assume something exists - be it a universe, pure conciousness, illusion or other designations. If some readers nevertheless claim something ... metaphysics ontology existence   asked by Saul 7 votes answered by Mozibur Ullah 6 votes How is philosophy useful? Examining the practical, impactful, real-life benefits of getting a degree in philosophy It is often asked, "What is the practical use of philosophy?" or "How will learning about philosophy impact real-life?" It is easy to see why there is such mystery surrounding the topic. Most schools ... applied-philosophy   asked by stoicfury 36 votes answered by stoicfury 32 votes Can you answer these? Is this an at all defensible reading of the end of Zarathustra by Nietzsche ... and whenever a dove whisked over its nose, the lion shook its head and wondered and laughed... Meanwhile, however, the higher men had awakened in Zarathustra's cave, and marshalled ... nietzsche psychology shame   asked by MATHEMATICIAN 1 vote Looking for a treatment of multiple interpretations in Model Theory/Formal Semantics A sentence, such as a Godel string, can be given any intepretation whatsoever, so in a sense, when communicating, we have to be benevolent about the interpretation function that we infer our ... logic   asked by vivian 1 vote Removing ambiguity to create a sound argument I am yet to learn about ambiguity and sound arguments but am attepting to make the following argument sound. All criminal actions are illegal All murder trials are criminal actions Therefore ... validity soundness   asked by Trish 2 votes

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