The green blocks problem

Post date: Nov 08, 2011 1:44:55 PM

There are five blocks in a stack. In this stack, the second block from the top is green, and the fourth is not green. Is a green block definitely on top of a non-green block?

A) Yes

B) No

C) Cannot be determined

Relativist or absolutist?

Let's work through the possibilities. It may seem at first that the answer cannot be determined, but consider the possible colors of the third block. If it is green, there is a green block on top of a non-green block.

The other possibility is that it is non-green, but then there also has to be a green block on top of a non-green block.

So the correct answer is actually A. Participants who carefully go through all of the possibilities and arrive at this answer turn out to also be more likely to endorse a "relativist" view in which moral questions do not necessarily have a single objectively true answer. This result suggests that moral relativism might be especially appealing to people who have a tendency to vividly imagine alternative possibilities. Read more about experimental philosophy in Knobe's article in the November 2011 issue ofScientific American: "Thought Experiments."