The Problem of Evil

Logical / Evidential Problem for God's Existence

How do you make sense of the following statements: “God is all-good, all-knowing, and all-powerful. An all-good, all-knowing, and all-powerful God would not allow evil to occur. There is evil in the world.”

The Problem of Free Will

Problem w/ Traditional Account of Free Will

If God is all-knowing, and therefore knows everything that you will ever do [or the universe is determined by the laws of physics] do you really have free will?

The Trolley Problem

Problem reconciling Deontological & Utilitarian intuitions

If five people are trapped on one side of a train track, one person is trapped on the other side, and a trolley is coming, what would you do? Would you flip the switch so that the trolley would hit one person instead of five? Did you know that some ethical theories claim that flipping the switch is the morally permissible / obligatory thing to do?

The Grandfather Paradox

Problem of Consistent Linear Timelines

Whether or not it is possible to go back in time and kill your Grandfather. The idea being that if you could, then you would never be born to go back in time in the first place.

The Lottery Paradox

Problem reconciling localized & globalized probabilities 

Assume a traditional lottery with one million tickets and one winner. Given the low probability of any single ticket being the winner, any participant should hold two contradictory beliefs: (1) some ticket has to win, and (2) no ticket is the winner. How can we explain this?

The Barber Paradox

Logical Inference Problem

“There is a small town where every man is clean shaven. There is a male barber who shaves all of the men who do not shave themselves. Who shaves the barber?”

The Achilles & Tortoise Paradox [Zeno's Paradox]

Problem of Infinite Regress / Divisibility

In a race, the tortoise is ahead and Achilles is catching up. Achilles measures his distance between himself and the tortoise by cutting that distance in half and running to that point. Since distance can be divided in half an infinite amount of times, Achilles will never catch up.

The Gettier Problem

Problem for the Traditional JTB Account of Knowledge

If I believe that “Bob is going to get the job” and that “Bob has three quarters in his pocket”, then I should believe that “the person who will get the job has three quarters in their pocket”. It turns out that Sandy got the job and she had three quarters in her pocket. Did I know that “the person who will get the job has three quarters in their pocket”?

The Raven's Paradox

Problem of Logical Equivalence & Confirmation

The statement that “all ravens are black” is confirmed by any particular observation of a “black raven”. However, the statement that “all ravens are black” is logically equivalent to the statement that “all non-black things are non-ravens”, which is confirmed by any non-black, non-raven thing, like a white shoe. Anything that confirms one statement, confirms the other. Try to make sense of the deductively valid argument that a white shoe confirms the generalization that “All ravens are black”. 

The Twin Paradox

Problem of Relativity w/ Personal v. Global Time

If you have identical twins and one of them goes on a trip into space, when they return, they will be younger than their twin who remained on Earth. How do you explain this phenomenon?

The Myth of Sisyphus

Existential Problem of Life's Absurdity

A man is doomed to push a rock up a hill for all of eternity. When he reaches the top of the hill, the rock roles down to the bottom. Each time it rolls down he must walk down the hill to push it up again. Why does the philosopher say that we should imagine him to be happy when he walks down the hill?

Critical Thinking / Epistemology

What is the most reliable way to judge one source of information over another?

What counts as good reason for believing something?

Philosophy of Religion / Logic

Can an all-powerful God create a stone that is so heavy, They cannot lift it? / A square circle?

How can Buddhism maintain both (1) that there is no immortal soul and (2) that all living things are reborn after death?

What ought we to think when religious doctrines contradict one another? How do we choose which is correct?

How do you make sense of the statement that “the only way to win a fight is not to fight”?

Social & Political Philosophy

How does one person justify their authority over another person?

What are human rights?

What obligation(s) [if any] do we have to future generations?

MORE PUZZLES

Brain Teasers 

Paradoxes