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My Top Philosophical Questions

protovack

protovack

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Challenge: Come up with five questions that, if answered truthfully, would make you wiser than all others. Feel free to intrepret the meaning of "wiser" as you please :)

Here are my top 5:

1.) If I were to travel to the edge of the universe, could I go beyond it?

2.) Is there a smallest 'particle'?

3.) Why do people believe in God?

4.) Is Life a spontaneous product or is it designed for a purpose?

5.) Is suffering an inevitable fact of living?
 
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1) Does a "Theory of Everything" exist, and if so, what is it? (the ultimate goal of physics)

2) Whats the answer to the Riemann Hypothesis (biggest problem in mathematics)

3) Does God really exist?

4) Does the answer to Question 1 have anything to do with the answer to Question 3 and vice versa?

5) What are next weeks lottery numbers? (okay, so I ran out of thoughtful questions)
 
1.) Why, if at all, is there such thing as existence?

2.) Is there experience beyond death?

I guess that's it.
 
1) Is being a state of self discovery or self creation (or somehow both)?

2) How does the accelerating increase in our sophisticated and complicated understanding of our universe affect the quality of our lives?

3) Would speed of thought communication (through whatever means) negate and destroy all connected life or transform it into something else (or are these two exactly the same)?

4) Is everyone/thing hologramically projected from and by an irrational and fragmented source for the purposes of self discovery, analysis and repair? In other words, are we our creator's insanity and "He" is going to therapy? Has "He" taken any drugs (if you follow?)?

5) Life holds information, so does Information have life?

I'll add one more because I have no idea if it makes any sense (pretend it's a joke, or start worrying:)):

6) Does the "sub-quantum" clock ever* need winding?
*using the term "ever" extremely loosely.
 
1. What is the relationship between quantity and quality? What is their ontology?
2. How can the discrete coexist with the continuous? What is their relationship?
3. The problem of other minds
4. How do concepts get off the ground?
5. What is the best way to engage the "one-manyness" of reality?
6. What is the ontology of social being?

ebola
 
What happens to you after your earthly body dies?

Why do humans exist?

Are there lifeforms on other planets or in other galaxies that are different from those on Earth?

Is there really such a thing as innate talent? or "inspiration?"

Will the earth ever run out of resources, and if so, will life cease to exist? If life ceases to exist (with no minds to perceive it) does anything exist?
 
Is life different from death?
Is there an ultimate truth?
Can language explain ultimate truth?
Does the universe have a purpose?
Is this the only universe?
What happens when you die?
 
What's the point?

Why is there no point?

Why is that the wrong question?

etc......
 
no no no no no

The most important question is not "why?"

The most important question is "why not?"
 
^^^ I'd ask why to that, but you got me there. (honestly. why not is the question)
 
protovack said:
What is the "Riemann Hypothesis"?
Click to expand...
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/RiemannHypothesis.html

Riemann hypothesised that all non-trivial zeros of the Zeta function lie on the Real(z) = 1/2 line. Not as famous as Fermats Last Theorem outside of the maths world (its much harder for the layman to understand) but of hugely more importance than FLT, with some incredibly deep and wide ranging implications, particularly about primes. FLT was not particularly useful to mathematicians once solved, the conjecture Wiles proves which implied FLT was actually much more important. There are many papers published which begin "Assuming the Riemann Hypothesis is true.....", so its damn hoped that it is!

$1 million reward for the person who proves it (nothing if you disprove it :p). Its speculated 3 or 4 people are close, but don't tell anyone for fear of having their ideas stolen and someone beating them to the punchline. Yes, there are people with the same attitude as David in the academic world (David has also mentioned he's put thought towards solving the Hypothesis but doesn't bother because someone will just beat him there 8)).
 
It's worth noting that the Riemann Hypothesis, while the "largest" open problem mathematics, is largely the concern of number theorists. Other disciplines of mathematics have their own largest problems.
Also, I believe the million dollar prize would be awarded for a counter-example.
 
Edge magazine did something very cool similar to this: they asked 120 scientists to briefly answer the question

"What do you believe is true even though you can't prove it?"

The answers are fascinating; many of them deal with issues at the border of science and philosophy. Fun stuff:

http://www.edge.org/q2005/q05_print.html

Here's some I liked in particular:

Leonard Susskind - http://www.edge.org/q2005/q05_8.html#susskind
Joseph LeDoux - http://www.edge.org/q2005/q05_10.html#ledoux
Carlo Rovelli - http://www.edge.org/q2005/q05_2.html#rovelli
Denis Dutton - http://www.edge.org/q2005/q05_4.html#dutton
Leon Lederman - http://www.edge.org/q2005/q05_5.html#lederman

AlphaNumeric & compact, I think you might enjoy Freeman Dyson's too - http://www.edge.org/q2005/q05_9.html#dysonf
 
ebola! said:

2. How can the discrete coexist with the continuous? What is their relationship?
Click to expand...

the discrete can exist within the continuous. Another way to look at it is Ideal::Continuous = Real::Discrete... kinda Platoesque - mental constructs and the reality.. or so it seems to me
 
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