How responsible are we for the things we do by accident? I was recently on the phone with my sister, and she was telling me how she accidentally left the tap on in her apartment, which flooded the kitchen and damaged the cupboards and floor. She was extremely ashamed of herself, but she was even more upset that her boyfriend got angry at her for doing so, since she says she didn't intend to leave the tap running (and I'm inclined to believe her; why should she?). It's clear she is responsible, in a causal and financial way, for the damages, but is she morally responsible in such a way that justifies anger or punishment against her, despite the fact that she had no ill intent? Or does intent not matter in such cases?

why do we associate different colors with different things? for example, blue is consistently associated with either feeling 'down' or 'relaxed'. black, while considered fashionable is generally considered a morose color. so, why do we feel a need to attribute certain colors to certain states of mind? if color is just a question of wavelengths, (etc) then why does society do this? - Farris, age 26

How should we distinguish between personal memories of our past (what psychologists call episodic memory) and the imagination? Aren't the mental states at the heart of both phenomena fundamentally the same?

I've read that Fichte believed we all a part of a universal mind and that our minds more than just being subjects in the world are the co-creators of nature. Does he mean that in the way a new age sort might take it to mean that we are creating reality at our own will?

In "The Little Prince" by Antoine de saint Exupery, there's a quotation like this: "You should be responsible for something you've tamed." I think it could be interpreted that, you have to be responsible towards someone you've already made fall in love (with you). But in what extend should we care so much towards people who love us? Especially if we do not feel the love for them.

Which school of philosophy was it that suggested that your private life and public life should be compartmentalized? In other words, don't bring your work home with you, and don't let your domestic issues impact your work. I think it was the stoics, but I am not sure. Can you help?

There is a tribe where people assume that short men are short because they were sexually loose during adolescence and a consequence they have a lower status within their society. We moderns like to think we are more rational. "Our modern society is not like that," but many people still adhere to irrational beliefs which our central to our society. "People are poor because they didn't work hard enough" for example. Will philosophy help us to attain a more rational, equitable, tolerant, and compassionate culture? If not what will? I've read stuff from within cultural criticism but I can't see how that stuff will make our culture better because most of it seems kind of "out there."

I was with a man for a month. We chatted a lot, had so much fun. But at the end we decided that this relationship would not work because it is morally wrong in our religion. This is already 2 years since then, and I eventually missed him. But day by day I felt that what I miss is him as a friend. I realized that he also missed me, but as a lover (I know this from friends). I really want to meet him, start a fun conversation, but I think it will trouble him, because I do not want to be with him anymore. Do you think I should just step out of his life for the sake of protecting his feeling? Or do I have any responsibility to help him move on, forgetting me? If so, how?

Do you need an earlier perception to have a memory of something?

is reason infallible? can reason alone help us understand everything about all aspects of humanity and life?