Thank you, Daniele Grosso, for such a heavy question. The answer to this question partly depends on what we mean by “meaning” and whether the pursuit of meaning is a morally permissible motivation to have a child. Perhaps we mean something like “life satisfaction”, which is (roughly) an overall evaluation of the quality of our […]
Is it moral to have a child to give meaning to your life? Read More
Thank you, Gum Makur Gum, for such a perennial question! What does it mean to exist? Until Kant, many philosophers thought that existence was a property of a substance, much like color, weight, mass, etc. Saying that “This flower is red” was similar to saying that “This flower exists”, meaning that the flower had the
What’s the role of philosophy in our life and could it bring new innovation to our life like science? Thank you, Li Kelvin, for such a crucial question. As is to be expected, the answer hinges on what we take philosophy to mean. If we think it’s just a 9-5 job of detached concept-mongering or
How does philosophy work in our day-to-day life? Read More
Thank you, Eoin Martin, for this fascinating question. I will assume that we are interested in whether good intentions matter for our moral evaluation of actions, and in particular whether good intentions morally justify an action. I will also assume that a ‘good’ intention is an intention that aims at something that is to some
Do good intentions matter? Read More
Not just tangible possessions, but more generally positive life happenings, e.g. to fall in love, to have children, etc. Thank you, Gracie Mrry, for such an interesting question. This is an interesting question for people like me who find themselves in a condition of relative privilege, but questions of desert can apply to anyone’s life,
Do we deserve things? Read More
Thank you, Curtis L. Delyn, for such a significant question. It is generally agreed that Plato came up with the classical definition of knowledge as “justified true belief”. This has been incredibly influential; many philosophers have accepted some form of this definition by filling in the relevant concepts with various theories and interpretations. Here, truth
Can we ever really trust that we know anything? Read More
