The best philosophy paper ever published

Let's read the greatest philosophy article every published.

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[lexqqy]

I been telling my professor that we grow in strength every time I am absent

[existential_o]

A very interesting paper! My only criticisms are:

1)

2)

Only minor details, but overall a very thought provoking paper

[dazedmaestro]

I've finally found the meaning to life thanks to what was said in the paper. Thanks Joe!

[Gruso]

This is the nerdiest comedy video I have ever seen and I love it. Well done

[squatch]

This paper has been retracted, as it was found to have significant omissions as well as omitting conflict of interests.

[notmelagain]

Thank you SO MUCH. I couldn’t through this paper without your help. I appreciate your efforts to make videos like this for free. They are incredibly didactic and powerful study aides. Thanks again.

[mdl]

A very excellent paper on overthinking. Got me going for hours

[joelturnbull]

This reminds me of one of my favourite philosophy papers, called “Can a good philosophical contribution be made just by asking a question?”
It was published with a commentary by the authors defending its presence in the journal.

[CognitiveOffense]

So well presented I didn't have to rewatch it at all to go on not understanding nothing.

[ixamraxi]

Reminds me of the story about the philosophy teacher who put a chair up on a table and asked his student's to prove to him the chair didn't exist. Most students wrote long essays discussing metaphysics, what it means to exist, and other philosophical arguments about existence. Out of the entire class, only one student got an A. His paper said "what chair?"

[Sveccha]

What makes this is that you stuck to your normal signoff. Respect.

[chloupichloupa]

There's an urban legend in France about the final philosophy exam to graduate high-school. To the question: "What is audacity?", allegedly a student only wrote "It's this." and allegedly passed.

In the same ballpark, it made me think about the philosopher in ancient Greece who tried to demonstrate that Zeno's paradox wasn't one by just walking a certain distance.

As a side note Joe, you missed out on a free april fools video ^^.

[prometheus]

I really apprecite your ability to break down these complex philosophical topics to something simple for a layperson like me.

[petritkola]

I think when he said: "




"
Was a bit of a contradiction but that's ok

[lanceindependent]

I'm an antirealist about everything in that paper.

[logicalliberty]

It's quite a sophisticated argument:

(1) If this paper is published, then absences have causal power.
(2) This paper is published.
(3) So, absences have causal power.

The defense of (2) is clear. The defense of (1) is that the paper consists of an absence of words, argumentation, and so on, and it's precisely this that causally explains its publication. Ergo, so long as it's published, absences have causal power. Q.E.D.

[PhilippBrogli-idgy]

I just shared this in my academic writing and presenting class. It was well recieved even though it was a class of engineers.

[JohnCamacho]

Why didn't they put it in the form of a syllogism?

[inplfw]

Trolley Problem scenario that I haven't seen anywhere. I have a naïve understanding of philosophy so this might be a fruitless variation of the thought experiment. In any case I'm interested in how other people might approach it

On the first track someone is tied up and the second track is empty. Nearby is the individual responsible for tying the person up. You can spend time to pull a lever that switches the Trolley's heading to save the person's life, but the individual will escape without ever facing judgement. You can alternatively take some action to assure the individual will face judgement for their actions (at no risk to self), but the tied person will perish because you didn't have time to also switch the track.

Imagine the scenario where you possess knowledge the individual intends to repeatedly commit this act, so forcing the individual to face judgement will save future people from being tied up at the expense of this person's life. Or imagine it that you know they've previously done this and they will be facing judgement for multiple instances.
Imagine the scenario with 6 tied up in the 1-to-5 split of the traditional trolley problem and the individual had tied them all up. I suppose this scenario only matters if you would've pulled the switch in the traditional Trolley Problem.

What are other potential variations that might affect how you weigh the decision?

Is there a moral duty to help assure others face judgement for their immoral acts? If so, how does that contend with a potential moral duty to help others? Should snitches get stitches?

[tymmiara]

The main text of this paper is an obvious plagiarism of the 1974 paper by Dennis Upper in the Journal of Applied Behaviour Analysis "The Unsuccessful Self-Treatment of a Case of Writer's Block" which got approved by a reviewer to be published without revision