5 ms·

Wikipedia has some interesting lists, including this one of a more general list of unsolved problems across many fields: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_

Wikipedia has some interesting lists, including this one of a more general list of unsolved problems across many fields: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_unsolved_problems https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_unsolved_problems

Numberwang 10y ago
Thank you, very interesting. I wonder how they were able to agree on a list of "Unsolved problems in philosophy". My best guess is they didn't involve philosophers in the creation of the list.
- sklivvz1971 10y ago
  Many of those problems are of the "seriously, who cares?" sort! For example: "How many straws can you remove from a bale before it's not longer a bale?", which has the answer "Words are not meant to be numerically precise so stop inventing problems"
  - zeroer 10y ago
    Exactly. I forgot which exact essay but Paul Graham has a great point about most controversies in philosophy being an argument over imprecise definitions. Exceptionally intelligent, young would-be philosophers see this and thus choose not to study philosophy, leading to the current situation where we have few incisive professional academic philosophers. If it's worth anything, I feel I learned more about how to live a good life from reading Graham's essays than in three semesters of studying academic philosophy in college. Aside: paraphrasing another answer, you can remove all of the straws from a bale, and you're left with a bale of zero straws.
    - veli_joza 10y ago
      I guess 'all the straws' is as many as you can remove. If you removed any more than that, you would have to put some back to return to bale of zero straws.
      - sklivvz1971 10y ago
        Wait, but what is a straw: How many atoms are necessary for a straw to be a straw? It's turtles all the way down!
  - ahelwer 10y ago
    This is the new anti-intellectualism. Highly technical people displaying complete unwillingness to engage with philosophical problems, understand why they are problems, why they are difficult, and how their first-pass solution is massively flawed.
    - burke 10y ago
      I don't disagree with this in general principle, but "how many straws can you remove from a bale" points pretty transparently to the failed mapping between our black-and-white language and the shades-of-grey world. It's a shallow insight and to refer to it as an "unsolved problem" feels very strange to me. What depth am I missing?
      - ikeboy 10y ago
        Decent discussion and links in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11686000 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11686000
    - Numberwang 10y ago
      What's really anti-intellectual is pretending something is profound when it is not. Ideas need to deliver, just as problem solving does.
      - DanBC 10y ago
        Philosophy does deliver. It's important in, for example, medical ethics. That has a profound effect on your life.
    - ramblerman 10y ago
      > This is the new anti-intellectualism When the go to response claims persecution vs actually responding to the matter at hand you don't really win me over. I have to a agree with OP that questions of this nature have a high degree of 'intellectual masturbation' to them, and usually have answers that are unfalsifiable.
    - rimantas 10y ago
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- taejo 10y ago
  Perhaps more interesting would be a list of solved problems in philosophy :p
e2e8 10y ago
Speaking of list of list on wikipedia, there is also this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lists_of_lists https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lists_of_lists, to which I just added your "lists of unsolved problems".
- ikeboy 10y ago
  http://www.raikoth.net/lololol.html http://www.raikoth.net/lololol.html List of lists of lists of lists
  - heimatau 10y ago
    That URL reminded me of this [1]. [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJL4Y3aGPuA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJL4Y3aGPuA
- MichaelMoser123 10y ago
  and i thought that this wiki article was created automatically by a wikipedia bot - in this case it would have been more complete (interesting why they don't use a bot to create the list of lists of lists)

Numberwang 10y ago

Thank you, very interesting. I wonder how they were able to agree on a list of "Unsolved problems in philosophy". My best guess is they didn't involve philosophers in the creation of the list.

sklivvz1971 10y ago
Many of those problems are of the "seriously, who cares?" sort! For example: "How many straws can you remove from a bale before it's not longer a bale?", which has the answer "Words are not meant to be numerically precise so stop inventing problems"
- zeroer 10y ago
  Exactly. I forgot which exact essay but Paul Graham has a great point about most controversies in philosophy being an argument over imprecise definitions. Exceptionally intelligent, young would-be philosophers see this and thus choose not to study philosophy, leading to the current situation where we have few incisive professional academic philosophers. If it's worth anything, I feel I learned more about how to live a good life from reading Graham's essays than in three semesters of studying academic philosophy in college. Aside: paraphrasing another answer, you can remove all of the straws from a bale, and you're left with a bale of zero straws.
  - veli_joza 10y ago
    I guess 'all the straws' is as many as you can remove. If you removed any more than that, you would have to put some back to return to bale of zero straws.
    - sklivvz1971 10y ago
      Wait, but what is a straw: How many atoms are necessary for a straw to be a straw? It's turtles all the way down!
- ahelwer 10y ago
  This is the new anti-intellectualism. Highly technical people displaying complete unwillingness to engage with philosophical problems, understand why they are problems, why they are difficult, and how their first-pass solution is massively flawed.
  - burke 10y ago
    I don't disagree with this in general principle, but "how many straws can you remove from a bale" points pretty transparently to the failed mapping between our black-and-white language and the shades-of-grey world. It's a shallow insight and to refer to it as an "unsolved problem" feels very strange to me. What depth am I missing?
    - ikeboy 10y ago
      Decent discussion and links in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11686000 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11686000
  - Numberwang 10y ago
    What's really anti-intellectual is pretending something is profound when it is not. Ideas need to deliver, just as problem solving does.
    - DanBC 10y ago
      Philosophy does deliver. It's important in, for example, medical ethics. That has a profound effect on your life.
  - ramblerman 10y ago
    > This is the new anti-intellectualism When the go to response claims persecution vs actually responding to the matter at hand you don't really win me over. I have to a agree with OP that questions of this nature have a high degree of 'intellectual masturbation' to them, and usually have answers that are unfalsifiable.
  - rimantas 10y ago
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
taejo 10y ago
Perhaps more interesting would be a list of solved problems in philosophy :p

e2e8 10y ago

Speaking of list of list on wikipedia, there is also this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lists_of_lists https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lists_of_lists, to which I just added your "lists of unsolved problems".

ikeboy 10y ago
http://www.raikoth.net/lololol.html http://www.raikoth.net/lololol.html List of lists of lists of lists
- heimatau 10y ago
  That URL reminded me of this [1]. [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJL4Y3aGPuA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJL4Y3aGPuA
MichaelMoser123 10y ago
and i thought that this wiki article was created automatically by a wikipedia bot - in this case it would have been more complete (interesting why they don't use a bot to create the list of lists of lists)