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
1831WalkerWalker,Defence of Mechanical PhilosophyEnglishPeriodicalNo text yet
- Q31Can reliance on machinery become a form of idolatry?
No. Reply to Carlyle's 'Signs of the Times' defending mechanical invention as freeing people from drudgery for higher pursuits.
- Q31Can reliance on machinery become a form of idolatry?
1854Stafford et al.Stafford et al.,Report on the Organisation of the Permanent Civil ServiceEnglishOtherNo text yet
- Q12Can numerical measures adequately determine a person's fitness for a position of responsibility?
Yes. Recommends that entry to the civil service be decided by open competitive examination instead of patronage.
- Q12Can numerical measures adequately determine a person's fitness for a position of responsibility?
1865ButlerButler,Lucubratio EbriaEnglishPeriodicalNo text yet
- Q13Can machines undergo a process of evolution even when humans build and reproduce them?
No. Treats machines as extra-corporeal limbs, so that it is humans who evolve by adding machines to themselves, not machines who evolve as a rival species.
- Q13Can machines undergo a process of evolution even when humans build and reproduce them?
1922LippmannLippmann,The Mental Age of AmericansEnglishPeriodicalNo text yet
- Q12Can numerical measures adequately determine a person's fitness for a position of responsibility?
No. Argues in six New Republic essays that the Army tests do not measure inborn intelligence and that the claim of an average mental age of fourteen is nonsense.
- Q12Can numerical measures adequately determine a person's fitness for a position of responsibility?