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.
13 of 219 works
1671LeibnizLeibniz,Description of his calculating machineLatinOtherNo text yet
- Q24Does using calculating devices weaken the ability to calculate without them?
No. It is unworthy of excellent men to lose hours like slaves in calculation that could be given to anyone else if machines were used.
- Q24Does using calculating devices weaken the ability to calculate without them?
1798CondillacCondillac,The Language of CalculationFrenchTreatiseNo text yet
Étienne Bonnot de Condillac
La Langue des calculs
French · Treatise
No text yet · No English translation
Open source →- Q10Can a fixed procedure for reasoning settle a disagreement when the participants accept the same premises?
Yes. Argues that reasoning is calculation and that a well-made language of signs would make every science as exact as algebra.
- Q10Can a fixed procedure for reasoning settle a disagreement when the participants accept the same premises?
1821HegelHegel,Elements of the Philosophy of RightGermanTreatiseNo text yet
G. W. F. Hegel
Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts
German · Treatise
No text yet · Period translation
Open source →- Q36Should public officials carry out rules without exercising personal moral judgment?
Yes. Civil servants are educated to a dispassionate, upright demeanor in which personal passions and ties give way to universal interests.
- Q36Should public officials carry out rules without exercising personal moral judgment?
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?
1842LotzeLotze,Leben. LebenskraftGermanEssayNo text yet
- Q07Does living activity require a principle beyond physical and chemical processes?
No. Rejects a special vital force; living phenomena arise from the same kinds of forces as inorganic nature, arranged in complex ways.
- Q07Does living activity require a principle beyond physical and chemical processes?
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?
1861Feng GuifenFeng Guifen,Protests from the Jiaobin StudioChineseEssayNo text yet
- Q33Can a society adopt another society's machinery without adopting its ways of life?
Yes. China should adopt Western mathematics, mechanics and arms while keeping Chinese ethical teaching as the foundation; the principle later summarized as Chinese learning for substance, Western learning for application.
- Q33Can a society adopt another society's machinery without adopting its ways of life?
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?
1875Fukuzawa YukichiFukuzawa Yukichi,An Outline of a Theory of CivilizationJapaneseTreatiseNo text yet
Fukuzawa Yukichi
文明論之概略 (Bunmeiron no gairyaku)
Japanese · Treatise
No text yet · No English translation
Open source →- Q33Can a society adopt another society's machinery without adopting its ways of life?
No. Japan cannot take Western technical novelties while keeping its old spirit; it must adopt the spirit of civilization, the independence of the individual and the nation, that produced them.
- Q33Can a society adopt another society's machinery without adopting its ways of life?
1899GényGény,Method of Interpretation and Sources in Private Positive LawFrenchTreatiseNo text yet
François Gény
Méthode d'interprétation et sources en droit privé positif
French · Treatise
No text yet · No English translation
Open source →- Q11Should a judge follow a general rule when it produces an unjust result in a particular case?
No. Argues that the code cannot supply every answer and that where it is silent the judge must use custom and 'free scientific research' rather than force the text.
- Q11Should a judge follow a general rule when it produces an unjust result in a particular case?
1902Yan FuYan Fu,Letter to the Editor of the Waijiao baoChineseLetterNo text yet
- Q33Can a society adopt another society's machinery without adopting its ways of life?
No. Chinese and Western learning each have their own substance and application; combining Chinese substance with Western application makes both lose their meaning.
- Q33Can a society adopt another society's machinery without adopting its ways of life?
1922ČapekČapek,The Makropulos AffairCzechFictionNo text yet
- Q15Should extending human life indefinitely be a goal of technical progress?
No. A singer who has lived over 300 years by an elixir finds such a long life empty, and the recipe is burned rather than used.
- Q15Should extending human life indefinitely be a goal of technical progress?
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?