Reformed Nihilist

While I think I agree with the statements you made, I don't see how they answer the question. I'm asking why there is such a large amount of thought a...

I guess we differ on Wittgenstein then (or maybe not). At worst, he was analyzing first principles, or maybe in a sense the very notion of first princ...

There is no difference semantically, or there is some difference. The question is posed as if there were an absolute and irrefutable semantical value ...

Under the paradigm of free will, it makes sense to create social structures such as moral and legal accountability to encourage people to choose to be...

I feel like you are being dismissive about an aspect of philosophy that is deeply rooted in its history, and still exists in a very broad sense in mod...

Then where does the fascination with certainty come from?

I guess I'm talking more about what Descartes was doing explicitly in "Meditations", or Kant in "Critique of Pure Reason" only slightly less explicitl...

There are two common mistakes I see occurring. The first is Sheldrake's general approach, which is one of inappropriately radical skepticism. To engag...

We can make them as precise as we choose to. Clarity and specificity aren't properties of the world, they're properties of how we speak and think abou...

So you prefer to remain vague? I already offered two answers that would answer to reasonable interpretations of "bigger", but you didn't like those an...

You asked the question. I offered an answer based on two possible criteria. Normally, when you ask a question, you are trying to actually determine so...

But quantity isn't necessarily the measure of how big an insult is. If you say I'm annoying, I might be mildly insulted. If you say I'm a pedophile, I...

Got it. That's not essentially different than what you originally said on the matter. No need to repeat.That's not however a criteria of the badness o...

Glad to be of service. :D

Actually the question I was responding to is "Do you think that the suicides are particularly immoral and selfish because of how influential these peo...

We regularly consider mental illness or psychological duress to be mitigating factors in criminal law, and I think that is based on sound reasoning. W...

I think there is a fine line to walk here. The act is arguably immoral and selfish, but in nearly all cases, the act would be the result of depression...

Ok, so you've already decided then? Strange to ask the question. If you want to decide which is worse, you need criteria to judge by. Then you test ea...

Statement one is a wider reaching insult. It insults more people. Statement two could arguably be an insult of greater magnitude, as if it applies to ...

Yes. It was not a value judgement on how good or bad modern society is, but rather an attempt to benchmark attempts at achieving this utopia like stat...

I think you're missing the point. Your question is non specific. Your above response is non specific. If you seriously want to make the world better, ...

I'd have to make some assumptions about what Harris thinks. I was never a fan of his, but here's one take on it. If the statement is meant to imply a ...

In addiction circles, they talk about drinking as being a form of self-medication. Typically with an addiction, it would be in reference to self medic...

As long as there is death and reproduction, the mechanisms of natural selection are in play. There is a common misconception that what we might think ...

Same question. How much sustainability is required to be considered a "practical utopia" and how do you measure it?

How much higher, and how are happiness and well being measured?

What would distinguish this practical utopia from modern society?

I'm really talking mostly about the range of use between a lowest common denominator and highly specific and technical use, which is a really big rang...

Maybe this is jumping ahead. Is the central distinction you are trying to draw my attention to the one between spirituality as a concept and spiritual...

Let me make a distinction here. In technical, rigorous work, it is not unusual to use terminology in a specialized way. If we were talking about emoti...

I never argued that evolutionary psychology was nothing but conjecture, I expressed that I had the impression that was the case, and based on that imp...

I'm open to talking about anything in pretty much any way, depending on the context. That doesn't mean I always think that certain ways of speaking ar...

You know that sounds very judgmental and insulting, right? For no reason that I can think of either. You're free to pursue whatever course of interest...

I don't think philosophy is nothing but conjecture, and when it becomes that, I am critical of it. Philosophy has the ability to probe the coherence a...

Yes I understand what the field covers. That doesn't really answer my question. Only if you assume that the answer is that the field is more than conj...

I'm not suggesting that evolution wouldn't, in principle, apply to psychology. I'm under the impression that in practice, the field of evolutionary ps...

I haven't concluded it just a bunch of conjecture, it's just an impression I have (admittedly an underinformed impression). I'm just not sure how evol...

Right. That's what I said. I feel as though you mean that ironically for some reason, as if thinking everything should be "an implication of evolution...

If they both do the same, then what is the distinction? How is that the answer, if the answer is the same regardless of incorporation or proprietorshi...

So it is your position that as soon as I say that the theory of evolution by natural selection is a good descriptive theory, everything else I ever sa...

I wonder if it's possible to have a model for investment that doesn't include limited liability, and I'm wondering if that would have negative or posi...

How do you transcribe "cultural artifact" into "evolved trait"? Aren't they conceptually opposing ideas?

When did I say the search for meaning was an evolved trait? That's my point. You're arguing against things I didn't say. What I'm actually saying is t...

That's not what I said. What I said was "my guess...". Nothing about adaptive necessity at all. Just my personal read on how a culture and it's histor...

What does that mean? Who makes it subservient? By what method of categorization is it subservient? By evolution? Well, in terms of what is most succes...

As promised, I reviewed your posts, hopefully with a different eye. Let me see if I understand what you're saying. Would it be fair to say that in the...

It's not differing priorities. I love art too. I studied theater in college, not philosophy or science. I only know Daniel Kahneman from one interview...

The fact that some traits are (or in this case, might be) adaptive doesn't logically imply that all are. The fact that theorists attempt to explain tr...

Here are four things, commonly associated with the spirit or soul, that I listed earlier in this thread: Our sense of locality inside or outside of ou...

I don't see how the Dawkins quote implies that you are in service of evolution. Regarding the equivalence, they are equivalent insofar as they are ide...