Philosophical Questions

Below are some questions I've been thinking about all my life. They're all questions that philosophers have been pondering in one form or another for thousands of years.

I'm not a professional philosopher, but don't think I need to be to think seriously about such things. Indeed, I believe these questions are so fundamental (and so important) that I'm surprised people aren't discussing them (and many others like them) every day. When I overhear a conversation in a restaurant, I invariably find that people aren't discussing "what it all means" or the "nature of reality". And I'm baffled. What is more important or compelling (or just plain interesting) than understanding what and why we are? Why are the ultimate questions of life normally discussed only by professionals (i.e., philosophers)?

I'd appreciate any thoughts anyone has on these questions. I'd like the answers to be in language as simple as possible, which means that professional philosophers who respond will have to work harder than usual to avoid arcane technical terms (please define all technical terms in simple language). I'm hoping to get some ideas that can be grasped intuitively (and if these questions are answerable at all , I believe this is possible).

Question 1

Why are the fundamental questions of life (like where do we come from and why are we here?) so rarely discussed by the "average" person?

Question 2

When I decide to move my finger, how does this decision (which is a "thought") get translated into the physical "action" of moving the finger? If you believe the thought itself is actually a physical entity (which thus "gets the physiological ball rolling"), then explain how the process of creating this physical thought works. In other words, how can my mere (non-physical) "will" set in motion a physical process?

Question 3

If I awake one morning and find that I'm a cockroach (see Kafka's "Metamorphosis"), would I recognize the world? I think the answer is "no". But, what does this answer imply about the nature of reality?

Question 3A

If you believe the cockroach perceives the same world you do, please explain how the relatively simple structure of the roach brain can do this.

Question 4

Note that I've made a significant assumption in Questions 3 and 3a: that the brain is the mechanism through which we gain our knowledge of the world. But, is this commonly held assumption really true? How do we know this?

Question 5

We can perceive some things (e.g., a bird) with each of our five senses. Other things (e.g., the wind) we can perceive with only some of our senses. And still other things (e.g., bacteria) we can perceive only by extending our senses (microscope). Do things exist that we are unable to perceive with our senses or any extension of our senses? What would be the nature of such things?

Question 6

Everything in the universe is supposed to be made of entities called "atoms". Therefore, the brain is made of atoms. The brain is presumably the mechanism through which we perceive (and attain our understanding of) the universe. But, how can we gain any real understanding of the universe (which, since the universe is made of atoms, is equivalent to gaining an understanding of atoms) by using the very entities (atoms, which make up the brain) that we're trying to understand? Isn't there something circular going on here?

Question 7

Where are we? It appears that we are on Earth, which circles around a star, which is part of a galaxy, etc. But, we know this only because we perceive this with our various senses. I could argue that this perception is analogous to a three dimensional motion picture that's merely in our brains (our brains are presumably the place where our sense impressions are interpreted). Certainly, we can't be located inside our mere perceptions. So, where are we?

Question 8

Suppose Mr. A dislikes Ms. B and kills her for no reason other than he prefers to live in a world without her. Has Mr. A done anything "wrong", "bad", or "sinful"? Why? What do words like "wrong" really mean? What I'm trying to understand is: on what basis should Mr. A refrain from killing Ms. B?

Please send me your thoughts on these questions by clicking here.

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