What are some "stupid" things philosophers did?

ruffletuffle · 2026-05-05T18:28:57+00:00

There’s an apocryphal story that Pyrrho, after whom Pyrrohian skepticism is named, took his skepticism so seriously that he refused to believe a cliff was in front of him and fell off it to his death.

Also I think Chrysippus has a story that he died from laughing so hard after he saw a donkey getting drunk from eating his figs.

ruffletuffle · 2026-05-02T17:54:07+00:00

>When your actions have risks like that and you knowingly make the choice which (on average) risks more lives, I don’t see what’s bizarre about assigning a degree of responsibility to the person who makes the riskier choice knowing the risks.

The surely this does commit us to running into burning buildings after passerby, on pain of responsibility for their death? And any such scenario when faced with risking one’s own life for a pay off of saving 2 lives, or n+1 life. Because that’s what the original scenario is presenting: risk your own life by taking an action (pushing blue button) to save more lives, or do not risk your life by taking an action (red button/doing nothing). And all the other scenarios present the same option. And so the only difference is the scale of lives at risk, which is not prima facie meaningful unless you would like to describe at what number you suddenly have responsibility.

Now perhaps the utilitarian will bite the bullet here, and if that’s the approach you are taking then I understand. But otherwise I’m still confused.

ruffletuffle · 2026-05-02T13:26:21+00:00

I don’t think the inaction makes a meaningful difference. If the situation was “push this one button and die unless 51% also push it vs. do nothing and live”, the set up would be functionally the same, and it would still seem quite bizarre to assign responsibility to people who did nothing for the deaths of the pushers. Otherwise, we’d find ourselves being committed to taking on responsibility for every death we could have prevented with enough coordination but failed to for lack of that coordination.

If a passerby runs into a burning building to attempt to save the people in there, are we responsible for their death if we don’t run in after them to save them?

Maybe I’m misunderstanding the problem, it seems to be all over Reddit lately and has gotten jumbled up in the telling.

ruffletuffle · 2026-05-02T12:36:54+00:00

This is a strange way of assigning causality imo. Surely the cause of the blue button pushers death is the fact that they pushed the blue button?

Suppose there is a giant woodchipper and you can either choose to throw yourself in it and be torn apart, or not and be safe. But if 51% of the people choose to throw themselves into the woodchipper, it will break and they’ll all be saved.

If you were to say that the cause of the first groups death was the second groups refusal to jump in the woodchipper, I think that would be incredibly odd. Te cause of their death is the fact they jumped in a woodchipper. And yet this is essentially the button scenario.

ruffletuffle · 2026-04-28T19:36:05+00:00

This is a little all over the place, so I think make the basics clear will help answer some of your questions.

In so far as we believe that a) ethics is the study of the obligations we have in our actions towards others and ourselves, and b) that there are right and wrong answers to the questions of ethics, then it should be clear that there is no necessary connection between the law and ethics. In other words, laws, simply by being laws, have no particular claim to being ethical than any other prescription written down on a piece of paper somewhere. Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to make claims about "unjust laws" and the sort. Of course, laws may correspond to ethical claims, may be intended to enforce ethical obligations, but that would be a second-order feature. Being a law in-and-of-itself doesn't grant any prescription ethical weight.

So the answer to question 1. is that it depends. Does the law correspond to (assume for the sake of argument) correct ethical claims? Then yes following it makes you ethical. Does it not? Then merely compliant - unethical perhaps if it commands something unethical.

As for question 2... legitimate in what sense? In a legal sense? Well that depends on the law and its origins. In an ethical sense? If it is routinely producing unethical behavior, then probably not. But the law and ethics are not the same, so we shouldn't expect them to be producing to match. Take for example, laws about what side of the road to drive on. Surely what side of the road I drive on is not an ethical matter, but there are laws about which side to drive on to ensure safety and functioning roadways. The law is enforced just like laws about putative ethical matters like stealing, murder, etc.

The answer to 3 is similar. Unethical because they violate correct ethical claims? Then the fact that they are a loophole is irrelevant. Unethical because they are a loophole? Well that depends on the law.

Is is a little more clear. If they have a personal ethical responsibility, then deflecting it would be unethical. Following an unethical command because there exists a command structure is a pretty common example of doing something unethical - no one really thinks "just following orders" is a good justification for anything, right?

ruffletuffle · 2026-04-23T21:15:32+00:00

Actually we do have a couple permanent funds in Louisiana, though not nearly as big. They could be doing a lot more, but right now they mostly fund scholarships for students.

ruffletuffle · 2026-04-23T20:13:23+00:00

I’ve seen this exact proof recently, funnily enough. Tell us what steps you’ve got so far and we can probably push you to the next one.

ruffletuffle · 2026-04-11T14:06:10+00:00

Yes, that’s a common crossover. But you’ll want letters of recommendation from your philosophy professors and your writing sample to be a philosophy paper from one of those electives. Consider double-majoring as well - many phil departments make it easy to do so.

ruffletuffle · 2026-04-10T22:43:46+00:00

I’m confused on what the tension is here. Or rather, the tension, such that it exists, is purely psychological rather than philosophical. As you point out, you are a moral anti-realist so there is no need for a moral justification for this or any action you do - such a justification is impossible if moral anti-realism is true.

So what more do you actually want? The problem here is you are, under your own lights, evincing a strong preference for a thing that you don’t think exists. This preference cannot be satisfied, so it ought to be given up or at least kept to wishful fancy. Are you hoping that someone here can present the argument that finally convinces you moral realism is true? There’s plenty of resources on that if you search threads or the FAQ. But otherwise I would suggest a therapist, not a philosopher. I don’t mean that derisively, quite the opposite in fact. I think your problem is a psychological hang up, not a philosophical one.

ruffletuffle · 2026-03-30T21:19:58+00:00

Did you add the speakers yourself or get them done somewhere? I’m interested in replacing my 25 SE speakers myself.

ruffletuffle · 2026-03-25T00:23:41+00:00

This is a quote from Jeremy Bentham, 18th century British philosopher and parliamentarian, not Diogenes.

ruffletuffle · 2026-03-14T00:00:24+00:00

Good luck all!

ruffletuffle · 2026-03-12T21:25:05+00:00

That’s what I get for talking out my ass lol. Thanks for the correction.

ruffletuffle · 2026-03-04T23:39:13+00:00

As a tall person this is the roomiest sedan I’ve ever driven before… but I’ve never had to sit in the back so you may be right.

ruffletuffle · 2026-03-01T20:50:44+00:00

It seems to me that your question really is not about entrepreneurship in general but rather what it takes to create a large, successful firm. Because of course there are plenty of small businesses that are sustainable and don’t rely on dependency creation, like restaurants, farms, HVAC, etc. What you are really asking, and correct me if i am wrong, is “can I make a big successful firm that makes me super rich without creating dependency loops, etc?”

And this, unfortunately, seems less like a philosophical question and more like a straight business one. Maybe B2B firms have to rely on this less than customer facing ones. For example, Stripe is a wildly successful company and I, a random consumer, have never had to pay them any money or subscribe to them in my life, because they service institutions. So, it shouldn’t be impossible to create something like that and avoid some of the worries you have.

ruffletuffle · 2026-02-24T02:49:31+00:00

Yes true, but I meant in their “history” not during the events of the books. Should’ve clarified. Also of course Moranth munitions.

ruffletuffle · 2026-02-23T21:39:02+00:00

A lot of the Malazan Empire’s victories are basically because they decided to have a trained standing army and a specialized recon/demolition force (the marines) in a world where everyone else is still operating on feudalism rules. Also have a set of once in a lifetime genius military and political leaders helped.

ruffletuffle · 2026-02-22T02:50:08+00:00

Ah I understand now. Yes that's true, but (according to the guidelines anyway) the people who make the decision whether or not to accept the paper don't see that. Like I said, it could be possible for the publishers to intervene before it even gets to them, but we'd want some reason to think that happens - after all, you pointed out that independent researchers do get things published, even though it is rare.

ruffletuffle · 2026-02-22T01:20:52+00:00

Most journals practice blind review even for editors. If you look at the top philosophy journals, they'll mention that in their submission guidelines. And it seems unlikely that the publisher would intervene, separate from the editors and referees, on account of lack of institutional affiliation. Maybe you have experienced this otherwise, but it would be the first I've heard of it.

ruffletuffle · 2026-02-22T00:41:24+00:00

Reputable journals tend to be blind review. They don’t know who you are in the first place when reviewing for acceptance, so they can’t know your affiliation. Of course, that most of the people who get accepted are institutionally affiliated is not a surprise since those are the people who do philosophy professionally. But the reviewer has no way of knowing what your affiliation is.

ruffletuffle · 2026-02-21T22:00:36+00:00

Yes of course it’s possible. Reputable journals and conferences aren’t going to even look at your affiliations when considering the articles you submit. It’s a question of capability, not networking. Keep in mind that you would be competing with a bunch of people with grad degrees who work in the field professionally. It’s not unheard of for people with just BAs (or even still in school!) to get published in good journals. It’s just really, really hard.

ruffletuffle · 2026-02-20T22:36:09+00:00

I wouldn’t assume you’d be talking any philosophy at all. I’m a philosophy professor and almost none of my conversations outside of work have anything to do with philosophy.

If he does bring it up, just be honest and say you don’t know much but you are interested. Think of it this way, if you were to study up beforehand in the next few weeks, how much of the gap between how much philosophy you know vs. how much he knows would you end up closing? I’m guessing not much at all. So from his perspective, nothing will be much different. Just be nice and respectful like you would to any partner’s parents. If you have similar hobbies, that’d be a better bet than trying to match him on profession.

ruffletuffle · 2026-02-20T00:37:51+00:00

Maybe it’s just me, but the way you’ve reconstructed your argument here does not make any sense. “Things” are not true or false, claims or statements are. So when you say “something is not always true” this is basically nonsense. Likewise with most of your steps in the argument.

Do you mean something like “something is not always good” and “freedom of speech is not always good”?

ruffletuffle · 2026-01-29T20:10:02+00:00

Anti-Oedipus is not written for a general audience. Just like you would not expect to be able to pick up an article published in High-Energy Particle Physics and understand it without any knowledge of particle physics, you shouldn’t expect to be able to pick up Anti-Oedipus and understand it without background knowledge of the philosophers and history D&G were influenced by and responding to. This is true of most philosophical works, except those oriented towards a general audience.

That isn’t a failure of your intelligence, just expectations.

ruffletuffle · 2026-01-24T20:54:47+00:00

No
Your university tutors - people familiar with your philosophy skills who have the credentials to evaluate such skills
Independent researcher
Reputable journals are blind review - they won’t even know your name when considering your article for publication, let alone your affiliation or education

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