219 works selected for the 40 candidate questions. Selections approved by Ben Breen, 29 September 2026. Arguments are unverified. Quotations were chosen by machine and are unchecked.
4 of 219 works
1907BergsonBergson,Creative EvolutionFrenchTreatiseFull text
- Q07Does living activity require a principle beyond physical and chemical processes?
Yes. Neither mechanism nor finalism explains evolution; life is a vital impetus that physics and chemistry do not capture, though he criticizes the older vital-principle theories.
- Q13Can machines undergo a process of evolution even when humans build and reproduce them?
No. Distinguishes instinct, which makes organized instruments, from intelligence, which makes unorganized tools, placing machines outside the evolution of life.
- Q37Should tools used to perform bodily functions be understood as parts of the human body?
No. Instinct uses organized instruments that are part of the body, while intelligence makes inorganic tools that stay separate from it and can be varied without limit; this separateness defines homo faber.
- Q07Does living activity require a principle beyond physical and chemical processes?
1907MetchnikoffMetchnikoff,The Prolongation of Life: Optimistic StudiesFrenchTreatiseFull text
- Q15Should extending human life indefinitely be a goal of technical progress?
Qualified. Metchnikoff defines orthobiosis as prolonged active, healthy old age followed by satiety of life and a wish for death, expressly distinguishing this ideal from simple prolongation.
- Q15Should extending human life indefinitely be a goal of technical progress?
1908PoincaréPoincaré,Science and MethodFrenchTreatiseFull text
- Q10Can a fixed procedure for reasoning settle a disagreement when the participants accept the same premises?
No. Poincaré argues that blind adherence to rules would require infallibility, whereas logicians have encountered contradictions and are revising their rules.
- Q10Can a fixed procedure for reasoning settle a disagreement when the participants accept the same premises?
1909BinetBinet,Modern Ideas About ChildrenFrenchTreatiseFull text
Alfred Binet
Les idées modernes sur les enfants
French · Treatise
Full text · No English translation
Open source →- Q12Can numerical measures adequately determine a person's fitness for a position of responsibility?
Qualified. Binet argues that distraction, discomfort or boredom can cause failure on a test, making measurement of a child’s intelligence from very few tests absurd. This is a qualification of testing, not a rejection of all tests.
- Q12Can numerical measures adequately determine a person's fitness for a position of responsibility?