Is there any scientific evidence that history proceeds in dialectical fashion ala Marx and Hegel?

Why do some feminists like to criticize rationality so much? Doesn't that just reinforce the idea that women are less rational?

If the market for certain entertainment media - films, video games, television, etc. - prefers to consume media that is sexist, racist, heteronormative, or otherwise prejudiced against certain groups, should the creators of such media nevertheless try to produce "fair" media? Why? As a consumer who wants fair depictions in media, what right do I have to demand that media be fair to minorities, if that means denying the majority what they want?

Should I care about the starving people in Africa? Am I responsible for feeding them? With all the Christmas charity drives, is it not unfair to ignore the poor right here in my country and instead give money to people in distant country? I feel sorry for them, but I'm not sure about how morally obligated I am to donate my money.

Can the theory that everything that exists exists in time and space, which is materialism as I understand it, explain how things have motion as well? Motion is not itself a thing that can be located within time and space it is only the word that we apply to the effect of something changing position in a continuous manner. But if the only things which exists exists in time and space what is there to move the things that is in motion? Certainly not something else which is in time and space since that demands as well an explanation for it's movement.

If every person can interpret a work of literature differently, by linking the depictions with experiences in their life or knowledge they have acquired, how is it possible for literary critics to "analyze" the meanings of works of literature?

What is the difference between the idea that we can control our bodies in conformity with our will and magic? Aren't they suspiciously similar ideas?

Is an emotional reaction to a fact/situation a logical conclusion that follows from observed premises? Is it logical, for instance, to mourn the death of a loved one, or is mourning a phenomenon independent of logical analysis of a situation?

Hello. This submission will include two questions. The panelist´s are of course free to answer only one of them, if the other turns out to be of no interest. I´m no student of philosophy in the conventional sense, but lately it does consume much of my time. I remember reading Frege´s "The thought: a logical inquiry" a while back, and his answer to "an unusual objection" he thought he heard, puzzled me; "what if it were all a dream?" It seems to me that questions of this kind are unanswerable, and that Frege´s answer to this question is unsatisfactory. The (short) reason for this is simply that the question is one of fact, and one would have no possible way of empirically proving that one is not. What is your take on my objection? (I am aware that it is not one of the sections in the article that did the most impact on future philosophy) The second question relates to the distinction between analytic and extra-logical statements. After reading "Two dogmas of empiricism" by Quine, I am left wondering...

Imagine some activity in which all affected parties have given their free and informed consent to the activity. Is this activity now ethically neutral/permitted, no matter what it is, insofar as it only affects those who consented to it in the first place? Suppose a person joins a fraternity that advertises itself as being organized around (for instance) learning from older peers, sharing and helping one's fellow students, making friends and participating in extracurricular sports. After being initiated, though, the person finds that there is an informal tendency of older fraternity members to bully new initiates, to make constant unreasonable demands of them and ostracize them if they refuse, to take their things without returning them and to use the new initiates as a less experienced opposing team for easy victories in sports competitions. Does the person who joined the fraternity have any right to complain about how he is being treated? Or can he, since the behavior engaged in is all nominally...