Category: Aporetics
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The Aporetics of Reference to Past Individuals
'Ocham' responds: You say "Although Caesar no longer exists, he did exist, and so it is reasonable to take 'Caesar' as having a referent. " It would be correct to say that the proper name 'Caesar' *had* a referent. But does it *have* a referent? If it has (present tense) a referent, then there is…
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Soul, Conceivability, and Possibility: An Aporetic Exercise
I am puzzling over the inferential move from X is conceivable to X is (metaphysically) possible. It would be very nice if this move were valid. But I am having trouble seeing how it could be valid. I exist, and I have a body. But it is conceivable that I exist without a body. 'Conceivable'…
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The Meno Paradox and the Difference Between Paradoxes and Arguments
S. C. e-mails: I stumbled onto a question in my studies today that I am not sure how to resolve and you seem like just the person to ask. The question is this: what, exactly, makes a paradox different from a regular old argument? Consider: we tend to call paradoxes those arguments which seem sound…
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Zeno’s Regressive Dichotomy and the ‘Calculus Solution’
The Regressive Dichotomy is one of Zeno's paradoxes of motion. How can I get from point A, where I am, to point B, where I want to be? It seems I can't get started. A_______1/8_______1/4_______________1/2_________________________________ B To get from A to B, I must go halfway. But to travel halfway, I must first traverse half…
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Islam and the Euthyphro Problem
Horace Jeffery Hodges has a couple of informative and well-documented posts, here and here, on the divine will and its limits, if any, in Judaism and Christianity on the one hand, and in Islam, on the other. One way to focus the issue is in terms of the Euthyphro dilemma. The locus classicus is Stephanus…