Does punishment serve any useful long term purpose? It always seems like punishments that are excessively harsh lead to civil unrest, and punishments that are not harsh enough are thereby render quite useless. So is there a medium at which punishment is a useful tool in society, or is it just an archaic mode of retribution?

Hi, I read in a book, which according to Kant, "our concepts seem to agree with the facts because both have a common origin, the human condition. We can explain only those aspects of the world assigned to it by ourselves, so the nature of deep reality remains forever unattainable." In a discussion of physical reality, said that this concept of Kant is outdated. It is true that information? Where can I find this argument against the thought of Kant. Thanks!

Does it make any sense to say that a person has an "obligation to develop her gifts/talents to the utmost"?

We often admire people who are true to their convictions, even when we believe that those convictions are actually wrong. Is there anything morally valuable or praiseworthy in simply acting in accordance with what you think is right (regardless of whether it is, in fact, right), or does the moral significance of a particular action have to do only with whether it accords with objective moral standards?

If there is no such thing as consciousness, how can I conceive of consciousness, or of what consciousness must be like? Conversely, if consciousness exists, when did I "get" it, and where does it go when I'm meditating?

Are there any topics that philosophy doesn't touch on?

Is it possible for a war to be fought in which both sides are justified? Or is every war necessarily problematic in the sense that at least one party must be wrong?

When mathematicians make conjectures which they believe to be true but are not yet able to prove, what exactly supports their belief?

Hello. What exactly is completeness in logic? What makes some system of logic complete? And what is incompleteness?

Are there false or illegitimate philosophies, and if so, who's to say which ones are valid and which are invalid?