what makes a donut a donut?

Question

this question is for my philosophy class..

Answer 1

>_>

email me the name of the school please.

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And to be annoying, I'll answer: the donut hole. So then the teacher can say! Ahh, so holes exist! &c.

But it's also the recipe, properly proportioned. You have to spell out all the properties it has, the properties that are sets of properties, and relations among properties. Which can be really tedious to exhaust. If you feel like wasting time... but I wouldn't.

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the guy that referred to topology is probably right.
donuts aren't translatable into spheres, as every other solid object. It's an odd shape. And bagels are just as much 'donuts' if we are talking about shape.

Answer 2

The hole.

But philosophically? Well;

http://www.elliskaiser.com/doughnuts/philosophy.html

Edit: I knew it's not the hole, as some people pointed out after me. It was my attempt at a joke and I believe it was kinda funny... but we all really know it's not the hole. My favorite kind of donut is the Chinese donut, and it has no hole. We could argue it's the ingredients, but ingredients are what makes anything anything.

As for bear claws and twists... I live 20 feet away from a Dunkin' Donuts. I walked over there and asked the manager if these hole-less creations are considered donuts. They are not.

I had some time to think about this question and I've decided that, philosophically speaking, what makes a donut is the experience of it. The experience of buying a donut and a coffee in the early morning, reading the paper and taking a nice big bite of that delicious donut. That's what makes a donut a donut. Even if bear claws and twists were considered a donut, or a bagel complete with its hole were technically referred to as a donut, it wouldn't be the same as the experience you'd feel eating a standard donut.

Answer 3

.....odd question... but donuts and bagels are both rings of bread with of course the open space in the middle... so the open space itself doesn't make something a donut.. they are deciphered from each other mostly through just taste as their appearance isn't all that much different... for example ,have you ever ate some cornbread that was so sweet that it taste the same as cake?? even so we are still aware that it isn't cake in a sense... I think you can think of donuts and bagels in the same way even though it doesn't help us find what makes a donut a donut...... hopefully your teacher will elaborate on the purpose and logic behind the question..........hope that helps somehow..

Answer 4

A thing we call a donut is simply an object that conforms to the plethora of criteria we'll call donutness.

Think of it like your brain playing 20 questions with the world: "Is it edible? Is it a bread-like? Is it roughly the size of a fist? Is it sweet? Is it round? Does it have a hole in its center?"

If something meets these pre-established criteria of donutness (which are how I define a donut) then the brain calls it a donut.

Answer 5

It's not the hole. Plenty of donuts don't have holes. Bars, twists, bear claws, etc. Technically I think, in order to qualify as a donut, a pastry simply has to have an exorbitant amount of sugar and grease. Philosophically, this raises questions about what makes anything, anything.

Answer 6

Topologically speaking, what makes a donut a donut is that it's a surface of genus 1.

Answer 7

Well,I don't know.I never relay thought of that be case know you gotten me to think.Plus I want one know.

Answer 8

The "O" in the middle and the sugar.

Answer 9

the whole in the middle