I was hoping to see absolute or relative moral values, but couldn't find it on there.
What professional philosophers believe – Survey results
51–60 of 115 posts
Re: What professional philosophers believe – Survey results
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, I'm aware that majority of people don't agree with my philosophical views, but I think they're pretty rational, not the usual philosophical babble :)
Your prejudice is showing. Philosophy is about knowing and reasoning about reality. There are charlatans who try to pass off their weak ideas through obfuscation, but there is a core to the endeavor of philosophy, and good philosophers out there making noteworthy observations about reality.
Well, from my experience, the problem with most of philosophy is not being able to get to the core. Significant part of philosophy is just arguing what is the meaning of some word or what is the correct label for some idea (ie. it's about matching meanings with words). Another thing that bugs me is that many psychological and sociological problems are considered to be philosophical problems.
Re: What professional philosophers believe – Survey results
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think I have a relatively good understanding of consciousness: * Content of consciousness is the only thing that we can be sure of. Let's say I'm scared. This fact is true no matter if I'm in a dream or hallucinating. (We could argue if "scared" is the correct label for the feeling but that's not the point.) * It's impossible to define consciousness objectively. Subjective definition is simple: Consciousness is my…
What you have just said doesn't in any way help answer most of the questions on the survey.
It does help to answer most of the true philosophical problems about reality etc.
Many problems on that page are IMHO psychological or sociological problems, e.g. the ethical problems.
Re: What professional philosophers believe – Survey results
#54Re: What professional philosophers believe – Survey results
#55Here's one of my favorites. Glad to see the pros are evenly split, because this one really toasts my brain too. Teletransporter (new matter): survival or death? Accept or lean toward: survival 337 / 931 (36.2%) Other 304 / 931 (32.7%) Accept or lean toward: death 290 / 931 (31.1%)
What if it didn't destroy the old one? Would there be any doubt at all?
The person who popped out of the other end of the teleporter would be doubtful.
Does it make a difference if it's a teleporter that destroys the original as an necessary part of its function, vs one that destroyed the original but didn't need to do so, vs one that did not destroy the original?
Re: What professional philosophers believe – Survey results
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, I'm aware that majority of people don't agree with my philosophical views, but I think they're pretty rational, not the usual philosophical babble :)
Your prejudice is showing. Philosophy is about knowing and reasoning about reality. There are charlatans who try to pass off their weak ideas through obfuscation, but there is a core to the endeavor of philosophy, and good philosophers out there making noteworthy observations about reality.
I think if you're running experiments you're called a scientist. Talking about has limited utility.
Re: What professional philosophers believe – Survey results
#57I was hoping to see absolute or relative moral values, but couldn't find it on there.
No, but there is a question concerning moral realism. Since moral relativism is a type of moral anti-realism which is entertained by 27.7% of respondents, it follows that less than 27.7% philosophers are relativists.
Re: What professional philosophers believe – Survey results
#58Here's one of my favorites. Glad to see the pros are evenly split, because this one really toasts my brain too. Teletransporter (new matter): survival or death? Accept or lean toward: survival 337 / 931 (36.2%) Other 304 / 931 (32.7%) Accept or lean toward: death 290 / 931 (31.1%)
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Re: What professional philosophers believe – Survey results
#59A lot to dive into there, but the God results immediately jump out at me.
You expected more theists or atheists?
Indeed, according to a 1998 survey of members of the National Academy of Sciences [1], the group of philosophers had about the same number of atheists, more theists and less agnostics.
Re: What professional philosophers believe – Survey results
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Phil major here. Imagine a being that acted exactly like a human, it spoke, laughed, etc. - everything that you'd imagine a human being to do. However, it does not actually feel or think. For example, if you were to prick one of these "zombies," they would say "ouch," recoil, perhaps berate you, but the zombie does not actually feel pain - it's a purely mechanical process. Metaphysics is concerned with the nature of…
Is this related to artificial intelligence? (strong vs weak AI)
It is. A lot of what metaphysics is concerned with now has a lot to do with AI.
You can think of zombies as the analog to robots (as is canonical with most AI questions). Robots are essentially philosophical zombies, should we get them to a level of sophistication such that they would be indistinguishable from a human being. Whether such robots could be considered "living," "thinking," or "feeling," is a question to be answered by philosophy.
If you're more interested read about John Searle's Chinese Room thought experiment. It gives a great example of what you're thinking of.