Benjamin L.S. Nelson

Independent

My Survey Responses

Survey Prompt Response
A priori knowledge Lean towards: yes
Abstract objects Accept an alternative view: Conceptualism
Aesthetic value Lean towards: subjective
Aim of philosophy Accept a combination of answers:
  • Accept wisdom
  • Neutral towards happiness
  • Lean towards goodness/justice
  • Accept understanding
  • Accept truth/knowledge
Analytic-synthetic distinction Lean towards: no
Arguments for theism Accept a combination of answers:
  • Neutral towards pragmatic
  • Reject ontological
  • Reject design
  • Reject cosmological
  • Reject moral
Belief or credence The question is too unclear to answer
Capital punishment Accept: impermissible
Causation Accept a combination of answers:
  • Reject nonexistent
  • Lean towards primitive
  • Lean towards process/production
  • Accept counterfactual/difference-making
Cosmological fine-tuning Accept: brute fact
Eating animals and animal products Lean towards: omnivorism (yes and yes)
Environmental ethics Accept a combination of answers:
  • Lean towards anthropocentric
  • Lean towards non-anthropocentric
Epistemic justification Accept a combination of answers:
  • Accept internalism
  • Accept externalism
Experience machine Lean towards: yes
Extended mind Lean towards: yes
External world Accept a combination of answers:
  • Lean against idealism
  • Lean towards non-skeptical realism
  • Lean towards skepticism
Footbridge Accept: don't push
Free will Accept: compatibilism
Gender Accept an alternative view: Functionalism
God Accept an alternative view: Quietism
Grounds of intentionality Accept a combination of answers:
  • Neutral towards causal/teleological
  • Lean towards interpretational
  • Neutral towards primitive
  • Lean towards inferential
  • Lean towards phenomenal
Hard problem of consciousness Skipped
Hume Accept a combination of answers:
  • Accept naturalist
  • Accept skeptic
Immortality Accept: no
Interlevel metaphysics Insufficiently familiar with the issue
Knowledge Accept a combination of answers:
  • Accept rationalism
  • Accept empiricism
Knowledge claims Accept a combination of answers:
  • Lean towards contextualism
  • Lean towards invariantism
  • Lean against relativism
Law Lean towards: legal positivism
Laws of nature There is no fact of the matter
Logic Accept a combination of answers:
  • Accept non-classical
  • Accept classical
Material composition Insufficiently familiar with the issue
Meaning of life Accept a combination of answers:
  • Reject nonexistent
  • Accept objective
  • Accept subjective
Mental content Accept a combination of answers:
  • Accept internalism
  • Accept externalism
Meta-ethics Accept: moral anti-realism
Metaontology Insufficiently familiar with the issue
Metaphilosophy Lean towards: naturalism
Method in history of philosophy Accept a combination of answers:
  • Lean towards contextual/historicist
  • Accept analytic/rational reconstruction
Method in political philosophy Accept a combination of answers:
  • Accept ideal theory
  • Accept non-ideal theory
Mind Lean towards: physicalism
Mind uploading Accept a combination of answers:
  • Accept death
  • Accept survival
Moral judgment Accept: cognitivism
Moral motivation Accept a combination of answers:
  • Accept externalism
  • Accept internalism
Moral principles Skipped
Newcomb's problem Insufficiently familiar with the issue
Normative concepts Accept: reasons
Normative ethics Agnostic/undecided
Other minds Accept a combination of answers:
  • Accept adult humans
  • Accept cats
  • Neutral towards fish
  • Lean against flies
  • Lean against worms
  • Reject plants
  • Reject particles
  • Lean towards newborn babies
  • Neutral towards current AI systems
  • Lean towards future AI systems
Ought implies can The question is too unclear to answer
Perceptual experience Accept a combination of answers:
  • Reject disjunctivism
  • Lean towards representationalism
  • Lean against sense-datum theory
  • Lean against qualia theory
Personal identity Accept an alternative view: Functionalism
Philosophical knowledge Lean towards: a lot
Philosophical methods Accept a combination of answers:
  • Lean towards experimental philosophy
  • Lean towards conceptual engineering
  • Neutral towards formal philosophy
  • Lean towards linguistic philosophy
  • Lean towards intuition-based philosophy
  • Lean towards conceptual analysis
  • Lean towards empirical philosophy
Philosophical progress There is no fact of the matter
Political philosophy Accept an alternative view: Neohumanism (neorepublicanism)
Politics Accept an alternative view: Market socialism
Practical reason The question is too unclear to answer
Proper names There is no fact of the matter
Properties Lean towards: tropes
Race Accept an alternative view: Functionalism
Race categories Agnostic/undecided
Rational disagreement Accept: permissivism
Response to external-world skepticism Accept a combination of answers:
  • Accept abductive
  • Lean against semantic externalist
  • Lean towards epistemic externalist
  • Accept pragmatic
  • Lean against dogmatist
  • Neutral towards contextualist
Science Accept a combination of answers:
  • Accept scientific realism
  • Accept scientific anti-realism
Statue and lump Accept: one thing
Teletransporter Accept a combination of answers:
  • Accept survival
  • Accept death
Temporal ontology Skipped
Time Insufficiently familiar with the issue
Trolley problem Lean towards: don't switch
True contradictions Lean towards: possible but non-actual
Truth Lean towards: epistemic
Units of selection Skipped
Vagueness Accept: semantic
Values in science Accept: necessarily value-laden
Well-being Accept a combination of answers:
  • Accept desire satisfaction
  • Lean towards objective list
  • Accept hedonism/experientialism
Wittgenstein Skipped
Zombies Lean towards: conceivable but not metaphysically possible