Philosophy Now Forum

I read a philosophy of mind textbook recently and came across an interesting distinction between the terms "identical with" and "identical to." It suggested that to say that A is identical with B is just to say that A literally is B, i.e., A = B. To say that A is identical to B, ...

Does the scope of the term "aesthetics" include the philosophy of art, or is the latter something beyond the former? I ask because the term seems ambiguous across different sources (textbooks and elsewhere): some seem to use the term to include the philosophy of art (in addition to theoret...

Is it correct to say that behaviorists (more specifically, Skinnerians) outright denied the existence of a mind of any sort, or rather that they identified the mind strictly with behavior?

Hello. I have studied philosophy--both in the classroom and on my own time--for several years, but I'm finding that many philosophical issues would be all the more interesting if I developed my math and logic skills. So I was wondering if anyone could recommend books or other references on those top...

At face value, endurantism in inconsistent with Einstein's theory of relativity--specifically, special relativity. I've read that committed endurantists often respond to this problem in one of two ways: they assert that either (1) relativity is not a theory regarding reality per se but rather a cons...

I'm curious about the current trend among academics in the philosophy of mind. It appears that non-reductive physicalism (NRP) is the orthodoxy, and it suggests that the mental is something fundamentally different from the physical (though I might be wrong about this). Also, NRP can come in one of t...

Does anyone here adhere to an anti-essentialist theory of art? That is, does anyone deny that we can give it a philosophical definition (i.e., the necessary and sufficient conditions for something to qualify as art)? One might say poetically that art, by definition, has no definition. What do you th...

This is definitely not the place for a philosophical discussion. Universals is a good topic. Why don't you start a discussion in the Metaphysics room? It could be focused on numbers, attribute agreement, or whatever. They all lead to the same discussion, basically: realists and non-realists. It wou...

How about playing Socrates with us ? Ask us a question and then pick holes in our answers. It would be fun. I could do that: Assuming that morality is not grounded in the religious/supernatural, how do we account for our claims regarding good, bad, right, and wrong? Where do such notions originate?

So God is limited because unable to prevent evil ? I disagree with "unable". Before Adam and Eve had disobeyed there was no evil. So God WAS able to prevent evil by not giving the choice to them. But he did give them a choice. For reasons we will perhaps understand one day. Was He FORCED ...

The God of Philosophy and the God of Theism often turn out to be different things, and this is partly why some religious debates persist--because it turns out that the debaters are really just talking past one another. For example, I find, more and more often, that the traditional way of beginning a...

I'm interested mainly in metaphysics, but I'm certainly ready and willing to discuss other areas of philosophy. I enjoy debate about... --the existence and nature of abstract entities (e.g., the problem of universals). Well, let's start with that one. I don't have any strong conviction, but I will ...

I figured just as much. (Sorry, previous experiences on forums--many, many years ago--didn't turn out well.) I went to Lawrence University, a tiny liberal arts college in Appleton, WI. I wouldn't call the philosophy department "analytic" as a whole, because, even considering how small it i...

Why is it amazing? Do I sense a little sardonicism, or am I just paranoid?

Thanks, The Voice of Time (sounds odd put that way...).

No, I'm not writing a paper for school about this. I'm out of school right now, and I certainly wouldn't refer to a forum regardless. As I said, I'm just curious since virtue theory is still a minority, but a thriving minority, it seems.