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Category Archives: Paradoxes
Capitalist Cuba?
File this entry under Paradoxes of Cuban Socialism. Why isn’t access to the Internet free in Socialist Cuba? Via the Associated Press (emphasis by us): HAVANA (Sep. 21) — The Cuban government says it will make five miles of Havana’s … Continue reading
The Bayesian solution to the preface paradox
In our previous post, we presented Kenny Easwaran’s vivid description of the paradox of the preface. Briefly, the paradox is this: when a scholar writes up an academic paper, he would like to believe that every claim or proposition in … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, Bayesian Reasoning, Paradoxes, Philosophy, Truth
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The Paradox of the Preface
Kenny Easwaran, a philosopher at Texas A&M, recently published in the journal Nous this beautiful paper on Bayesian probabilities (hat tip: Brian Leiter). Among other things, Easwaran’s paper contains the best and most succinct explanation of the “paradox of the … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, Bayesian Reasoning, Paradoxes, Philosophy, Truth
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Is stare decisis a tautology?
Stare decisis, or the principle of binding precedent, means that a decision made by a court is binding on that court itself in future cases and on all inferior courts in the same legal jurisdiction. The rationale for this principle is the … Continue reading
Posted in Law, Logical Fallacies, Paradoxes
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Is an immoral promise a “promise”?
We address this paradoxical question in our work-in-progress titled “Immoral Promises.” We consider this question to be a “paradoxical” one because people are generally supposed to keep their promises according to most theories of morality. In short, most philosophers think it is morally wrong … Continue reading
Posted in Ethics, Law, Paradoxes
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Is there such a thing as an immoral promise?
Or is an immoral or wicked promise not a real “promise” qua promise at all? In either case, we need to have some reliable method of determining right from wrong, yet most (if not all) theories of promissory obligation fail … Continue reading
Posted in Ethics, Law, Paradoxes, Philosophy
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Indeterminate chess rules
In the course of writing up our paper on “immoral promises,” we searched for and read the essay “Wicked Promises” by J.E.J. Altham, and in the process of obtaining Altham’s essay, we stumbled upon a short paper by Ian Hacking … Continue reading
Posted in Games, Paradoxes, Philosophy, Uncategorized
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Is an immoral promise a paradox or a contradiction?
Have you ever made an “immoral promise,” i.e. have you ever promised to do something wrongful, like tell a lie or steal? (By the way, how does one decide when something is wrongful?) Is such a promise even logically possible; … Continue reading
Posted in Ethics, Paradoxes, Philosophy, Questions Rarely Asked
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“Immoral Promises”
That is the title of our most recent work in progress, which we posted here on the Social Science Research Network. As the title suggests, the focus of our paper is on illegal and immoral promises, like the ill-fated partnership … Continue reading
Posted in Law, Paradoxes, Philosophy
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prior probability 