Poll: Think you think straight? Think again...

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Phlakes

Elite Member
Mar 25, 2010
4,282
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It's a bit contrived, to be honest. It called me out on this-

You disagreed that:
It is quite reasonable to believe in the existence of a thing without even the possibility of evidence for its existence
But agreed that:
Atheism is a faith just like any other, because it is not possible to prove the non-existence of God
I never said that Atheism was any more reasonable than other kinds of faith, I just said that it was one.

Subjectivity does not a good philosophical test make.
 

Raven's Nest

Elite Member
Feb 19, 2009
2,955
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Vie said:
Apparently believing that art is a matter of taste and believing a particular artist is one of histories greatest are in conflict.

Er... ..right? Sorry, don't get that: My own personal opinion of the artist has no baring on what others feel about him.
By saying that Michelangelo's works are considered great by other people's standards, you partially agree that there must be something objectively good about his work. That isn't a completely subjective opinion.
 

Matt_LRR

Unequivocal Fan Favorite
Nov 30, 2009
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Easily Forgotten said:
I can kind of understand, but I don't think I know anyone nor know of anyone who believes genocide isn't a bad thing.
kind of indicative of an objective, universal moral rule on that one, ne?

-m
 

Raven's Nest

Elite Member
Feb 19, 2009
2,955
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Jark212 said:
I have 27%, I think that this is kinda BS.

For example:

You agreed that:
So long as they do not harm others, individuals should be free to pursue their own ends
But disagreed that:
The possession of drugs for personal use should be decriminalized


The effects of one persons drug use is rarely contained to just one person. What do they do when they run out of money for their drugs? or what they do when there high? Drugs don't just effect the user...
You would have to make the same justification for banning anything that could harm others such as driving a car or playing a sport...

The philosophy behind these questions are more important than the specific examples given...
 

Jordi

New member
Jun 6, 2009
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mireko said:
7% here too.

You agreed that:
The environment should not be damaged unnecessarily in the pursuit of human ends
But disagreed that:
People should not journey by car if they can walk, cycle or take a train instead
In retrospect, my agreement with the first one was kind of silly.
I got exactly the same score and inconsistency. I kind of misinterpreted the first sentence though, because I read "unnecessarily" as "pointlessly". If I'd have read it correctly, I would have 0% inconsistencies, which is probably not correct.

The test does admit that the crux is in this word:
The problem here is the word 'unnecessary'. Very few things are necessary, if by necessary it is meant essential to survival. But you might want to argue that much of your use of cars or aeroplanes is necessary, not for survival, but for a certain quality of life. The difficulty is that the consequence of this response is that it then becomes hard to be critical of others, for it seems that 'necessary' simply means what one judges to be important for oneself. A single plane journey may add more pollutants to the atmosphere than a year's use of a high-emission vehicle. Who is guilty of causing unnecessary environmental harm here?
This test attempts to tackle a lot of complicated issues, and it fails because it only allows "agree" and "disagree". Furthermore, some sentences are stated in such a way that whether you agree or not can depend on the part of the sentence you decide to focus on.

Raven said:
Do you believe that people should be free to make their own decisions and live out their lives doing what they want so long as they don't hurt anyone else?

Do you believe a person should be arrested if they sat next to you on a park bench and injected themselves with heroin in front of you and your kids?

Well, you can't actually have one without the other.
That is not completely true, because it hinges on the assumption that I believe that that junkie is not harming anyone else. Maybe he is harming my kids by giving a bad example. Maybe he is harming me and others by grossing us out. Maybe he is harming society by contributing to the drugs problem.

Also, the statement doesn't say he's arrested for injecting heroin in front of me and my kids, although it kind of implies it (or at least people can be forgiven for interpreting it that way). So maybe I just think he should be arrested for breaking the law (having heroin on his person) and he just happens to be on the same park bench as me.

I don't want to nitpick, but this is exactly what is wrong with this test.
 

DementedSheep

New member
Jan 8, 2010
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None, but I know I am a hypocrite and contrite myself on occasion without realising it. This test just didn?t bring up any of the things I am a hypocrite about.
Although a few of the questions need more than an agree or disagree option.
 

Raven's Nest

Elite Member
Feb 19, 2009
2,955
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41
Phlakes said:
It's a bit contrived, to be honest. It called me out on this-

You disagreed that:
It is quite reasonable to believe in the existence of a thing without even the possibility of evidence for its existence
But agreed that:
Atheism is a faith just like any other, because it is not possible to prove the non-existence of God
I never said that Atheism was any more reasonable than other kinds of faith, I just said that it was one.

Subjectivity does not a good philosophical test make.
Atheism generally isn't a faith though... it's the lack of faith.

There aren't many atheists that will say they are for sure 100% there is and can be no god. Without a way to prove it, that idea becomes a faith. Such people are severely lacking in the logic department.
 

MrTub

New member
Mar 12, 2009
1,742
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mireko said:
7% here too.

You agreed that:
The environment should not be damaged unnecessarily in the pursuit of human ends
But disagreed that:
People should not journey by car if they can walk, cycle or take a train instead
In retrospect, my agreement with the first one was kind of silly.
Yeah I had the same, imo that question cannot really be answered with a yes or a no cause somebody could argue that you could go/swim everywhere(on earth) but it's not really practical..
 

Eldarion

New member
Sep 30, 2009
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I said that "truth" is subjective but it thinks that me agreeing that the holocaust really happened contradicted that. The explanation was total bullshit.

I thought it meant like philosophical truths. I feel the tests interpretation of "truth" to be way to literal.

Also, I said art is subjective and it told me that contradicted my opinion about Michaelangelo. Thats not a contradiction, I stated my opinion.

It said that Alternative and complementary medicine is as valuable as mainstream medicine. It thinks the fact that I believe that the government needs to test it first to be a contradiction. This is stupid.
 

MrTub

New member
Mar 12, 2009
1,742
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Easily Forgotten said:
I got 7%.

Only conflict, apparently, was this:

I can kind of understand, but I don't think I know anyone nor know of anyone who believes genocide isn't a bad thing.
Well Hitler didn't think it was a bad idea :/
 

Watchmacallit

New member
Jan 7, 2010
583
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That test is really, really stupid. I got a contradiction for raising taxes to help those in poor countries and money should be spent to save a human life. I disagreed to the first but agreed to the second because in a situation where money would help you should give money but the only ones that can help another country is the respective government. You give money to a poor person, their leader or occupying force will just take it like they did in the first place.

The contradictions are way too vague and the questions are too general. Show me a time when financial support has aided a poverty stricken country out of their poverty and I will be amazed.

Not even support from capitalist countries given to communist Russia in the early 20th century got them out of poverty, and their government wanted the people to live.
 

Mr Shrike

New member
Aug 13, 2010
534
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I got 7%.


You agreed that:
So long as they do not harm others, individuals should be free to pursue their own ends
But disagreed that:
The possession of drugs for personal use should be decriminalised


When I disagreed, I was thinking of drugs along the lines of heroin, not the odd spliff, but fair enough, I guess.
 

Jark212

Certified Deviant
Jul 17, 2008
4,455
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0
Raven said:
Jark212 said:
I have 27%, I think that this is kinda BS.

For example:

You agreed that:
So long as they do not harm others, individuals should be free to pursue their own ends
But disagreed that:
The possession of drugs for personal use should be decriminalized


The effects of one persons drug use is rarely contained to just one person. What do they do when they run out of money for their drugs? or what they do when there high? Drugs don't just effect the user...
You would have to make the same justification for banning anything that could harm others such as driving a car or playing a sport...

The philosophy behind these questions are more important than the specific examples given...
True, but drugs are...drugs...

Well, I guess I'm a hypocrite. But then again pretty much all of this ideological conflict falls back on our own personal opinions, so one cannot be right or wrong in such a issue...
 
Mar 9, 2010
2,722
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13% tension quotient.

I say that the tension that they derived from my test is misplaced though. I could only answer agree or disagree and couldn't say 'from my point of view <yes/no> but from others it may be different' which is the only place they got the tension from.

I say that Michaelangelo is one of history's finest artists and also that art is a matter of taste. They got tension from that because I say he is and that art is a matter of taste, which makes very little sense because I answered from my point of view. Those two only clash in a very loose sense.

The other it assumed there was tension between was moral relativity and genocide is evil. Again, I state that genocide is evil from my cultural background and that from the outside looking in it is violent, however when you are the one committing genocide it may not be the case. However to want to kill an entire race for little reason is evil, to want to kill an entire race because they all pose a threat is not.

I maintain that I do think straight, the test used a yes or no answer setting to create tension, rather than evaluate it. It's fair game, seeing that there are a near infinite number of answers to give and to make a test with them all would be impossible, but I do heavily encourage that the results be taken with a pinch of salt.
 

Raven's Nest

Elite Member
Feb 19, 2009
2,955
0
41
Jordi said:
Raven said:
Do you believe that people should be free to make their own decisions and live out their lives doing what they want so long as they don't hurt anyone else?

Do you believe a person should be arrested if they sat next to you on a park bench and injected themselves with heroin in front of you and your kids?

Well, you can't actually have one without the other.
That is not completely true, because it hinges on the assumption that I believe that that junkie is not harming anyone else. Maybe he is harming my kids by giving a bad example. Maybe he is harming me and others by grossing us out. Maybe he is harming society by contributing to the drugs problem.

Also, the statement doesn't say he's arrested for injecting heroin in front of me and my kids, although it kind of implies it (or at least people can be forgiven for interpreting it that way). So maybe I just think he should be arrested for breaking the law (having heroin on his person) and he just happens to be on the same park bench as me.

I don't want to nitpick, but this is exactly what is wrong with this test.
I shall copy and pasta my previous answer to this particular question...
You would have to make the same justification for banning anything that could harm others such as driving a car or playing a sport...

The philosophy behind these questions are more important than the specific examples given...
The my wording was meant to be pretty ambiguous, I didn't want to lay out a specific dilemma, rather I wanted to encourage the thought process behind making such judgements. I meant to imply that the heroin user should be arrested for possession rather than being a nuisance to others. The level of potential harm is also subjective in this case...

The test isn't perfect, but I think it gives a good general indication of what it's trying to achieve. At the end of the day we wouldn't have so many branches of philosophy if one was deemed to be the most correct.
 

Xojins

New member
Jan 7, 2008
1,538
0
0
This is an awful test. Some of the explanations for certain contradictions are just dumb and not well thought-out, especially for questions 8 and 18.