Philosophy Atlas
Things this atlas does not know. Each entry is a question that specialists
have posed and not settled, recorded with what would actually resolve it and which
expertise the answer needs.
These are kept deliberately, rather than quietly omitted. An atlas that shows
only what it is sure of implies a confidence it has not earned, and the gaps are often where
the interesting work is. Several sit exactly where two fields fail to meet: identifying the
hyssop of the Hebrew Bible needs a botanist and a philologist of Biblical Hebrew, and neither
one settles it alone.
Grouped by the expertise recorded on each question, in the words the question itself uses. Most of these are held by a single question.
Showing 21 to 23 of 23 open questions, page 2 of 2.
Philosophy of mind, cognitive science, neuroscience 1
Philosophy of Mind
Is the mind identical with the physical brain, or is it something genuinely non-physical?
Open Philosophy of Mind
Why It Is Open Substance dualists, physicalists, property dualists and panpsychists each explain the correlation between mental states and brain states without producing an argument that has persuaded the others; the debate has run since Descartes with no side conceding.
What Would Settle It A physical explanation that closes the explanatory gap between third-person brain description and first-person experience, or a rigorous non-physicalist theory that makes testable predictions, would settle it; neither has yet been produced.
Expertise Needed Philosophy of mind, cognitive science, neuroscience
Question posed in
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, s.v. Dualism.
Plato scholarship (stylometric and philosophical chronology) 1
The Republic
When Was Plato's Republic Composed Relative to His Other Dialogues?
Open The Republic
Why It Is Open Scholars have long tried to place Plato's dialogues in an order of composition, often grouping them into early, middle and late periods with the Republic used as a marker of the middle period. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy states plainly that it remains a matter of dispute whether this three period division correctly indicates the actual order of composition, or is even a useful tool for understanding Plato's thought, since ancient testimony is thin and modern stylometric methods do not all agree.
What Would Settle It An independently datable reference within the text itself, or a convergence of stylometric and philosophical analyses that most Plato scholars accept, would settle the Republic's place in the compositional order; short of that the ordering stays a working hypothesis.
Expertise Needed Plato scholarship (stylometric and philosophical chronology)
Question posed in
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Plato, section 11 The historical Socrates: early, middle, and late dialogues.
Sinology, paleography, textual criticism 1
Laozi
Was There a Single Historical Laozi?
Open Laozi
Why It Is Open The Tao Te Ching's own textual history is genuinely contested: some accept the traditional account of a single sixth century BCE author who served at the Zhou court, while most modern textual scholarship reads the work as a compilation of aphorisms and verses assembled from multiple hands over generations, closer to a fourth century BCE finished form. No biographical source for Laozi predates the legendary accounts collected centuries after his supposed lifetime.
What Would Settle It New early manuscript evidence bearing directly on authorship and date of composition, of the kind the Guodian and Mawangdui bamboo and silk manuscript discoveries have already partially supplied for the text's transmission history, though not yet for the question of a single author.
Expertise Needed Sinology, paleography, textual criticism
Question posed in
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, s.v. Laozi.