Are chairs real? (Yack Fest's Philosophy club)

(not a shit posting topic before you get any funny ideas!)

Well,are they? How do you even define what a chair is?

going to slightly bump this to see if anyone can answer my question

If you subscribe to philosophical schools that aren't too much concerned about existential matters, then I'd say "yes", or at least "maybe". As for how you would define a chair, I think it can either be defined by its basic form or function, or both in the same definition. Something like "a flat surface raised on a set amount of balanced legs, sometimes just one, intended for increased comfort while seating". Besides that, there is plenty of room for further definitions based on narrowing of function (work-related or exclusively for rest) and socioeconomic factors, which makes some chairs more attractive than others.

Spiky chairs intended for torture, or chairs that have bumps in them.

Perhaps it's your definition, but remove the comfort and flat surface parts.

Edited by CardboardBot on May 27th 2023 at 4:49:03 PM

"Raised surface for seating, held up on one or more appendages", then?

Yeah, pretty much.

If you're going to define a chair in technical terms, your standard chair is a flat horizontal plank elevated on four legs, typically made of wood or metal, with a flat vertical panel back to support one's back often made of the same material as the legs and panel for seating.

Edit: also, having been beamed in the head with a chair once I can verify that they are indeed very real

Edited by TheLibrarian1701 on May 27th 2023 at 10:24:48 AM

Since we are speaking about philosophy here, then we should also take to account philosophical skepticism: How do you know it was real pain from a real chair, and not a false impulse that somebody made you believe you experienced?

I am a firm believer in pain because It Hurts but there are some people who choose remain sceptical for reasons,my guess is that until they've actually experienced it they'll remain doubting

Quoth Grin from the Mighty Ducks:

Pain is an illusion... an illusion that really, really hurts!

I can see the allure of trying to solve a puzzle about whether things really exist and whether you can trust your senses at all, but I also doubt most philosophers would distrust their eyes and ears all the time. Sounds exhausting and debilitating.

I think some people just like being contrarian

My stance is that either reality is real, or it isn't. But if it isn't, we have no means of escaping the reality presented to us, which makes it as real as we perceive it to be

I'd say a chair intended for torture is something we might call a chair, but is outside of what we (to borrow a term from linguistics) prototypically think of as a chair, which is made to offer some comfort from standing, and avoid dirtying ourselves on the floor.

I think that since a chair is an artificial object, we can define it by its intended use. There are many variants, but they made with a similar aim. This makes defining it is easier than for natural or accidental objects, such as a species (look up ring species), a planet (remember Pluto?) or a heap.

Baulders gate 1 had a great reference to this with a little you found as a random drop

"Why does a chair have arms and legs like a man but cannot walk or hold things?"

All I know about chairs is that sometimes people sit on them. And obviously that's important to mention.

I myself am not too interested in philosophy about whether things really exist for realsies, or even the most basic definition or function of things. I'm more interested in philosophy that deals with human behaviour, ethics, societal context, and such things. With chairs I'd look at how certain chairs are seen as better than others, due to whose backside gets to sit on it, or other ways how a chair reflects power-dynamics and economical chains that connect multiple people together in a massive network.

Edited by Mara999 on May 28th 2023 at 1:24:18 PM

what everyone is probably wondering is what kind of tea would come from Russell's teapot

to be fair if we wanna know if chairs are real we need to deduce wether tables are real

tables could be real for all we know

So,it's been a month and I have a new question to ponder

Are mountains even real?

Yeah they are

Don't disrespect your elders

I'll disrespect whoever I like!

Is water wet, is it wetness itself given form, or does it simply make things wet?

You wouldn't call a fire monster on fire because it is the fire itself.

> Is water wet, is it wetness itself given form, or does it simply make things wet?

Yes!