Category: Questions
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Only One Race, the Human Race?
Will you also say that there is only one sex, the human sex?
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Do Our Ideals Make Hypocrites of Us?
Perhaps only unrealizable ideals do. But such 'ideals' are not ideals in the first place. Only that which is realizable by us counts as an ideal for us. Or so say I. This is a quick and dirty formulation of my Generalized Ought-Implies-Can principle. Take celibacy. Can any healthy man in the full flood of…
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Literal and Figurative
Suppose I am giving an argument while leading a hike. The guy directly behind me says, "I'm not following you." The sentence is ambiguous. In one sense — call it the first — it is plainly false; in the other sense — call it the second — it could be true. If the hiker behind…
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Is it Wrong to Doubt When the Evidence is Sufficient?
Some say it is wrong to believe on insufficient evidence. Is it also wrong to doubt or even disbelieve when the evidence is sufficient?
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Of ‘Shit’ and ‘S**t,’ Type and Token
How many words immediately below, two or one? cat cat. Both answers are plausible, and indeed equally plausible; but they can't both be right. There can't be both two words and one word. The obvious way to solve the problem is by distinguishing between token and type. We say: there are two tokens of the…
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More Grist for the Moral Mill
If you tell one lie, are you a liar? I should think not. A liar is one who habitually lies. Otherwise, we would all be liars and the term 'liar' would perish from lack of contrast. If you have been seriously drunk a time or two, are you a drunkard? I should think not. A…
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Does a woman have a right to do whatever she wants with her own body?
If I grant you that, will you grant me that the fetus growing within her is not her own body, but a separate body, a separate biological individual, a separate life? Related: The Woman's Body Argument
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Pretense and Aspiration
How much of pretense is in aspiration, and aspiration in pretense?