Moliere

I agree with the part about Wittgenstein -- he is kind of an ubermensch of philosophical value. Reading him, for myself, was like changing my thinking...

I don't know. I tend to see philosophy as not having correct answers -- but there are good answers and bad answers.

Heh. I made no such assertion about popularity. And I do not expect you to agree with me. This is, after all, philosophy. However I think we can both ...

I suppose that seems false to me because of the two reasons I've tried to convey. There are extreme cases. So Chuck Berry and Beethoven -- that's a ha...

Then you have the capability of choosing which is better. To me that is enough. Of course you have a preference for this or that. Preferences play a r...

The general method is one of engagement with the medium as creator and audience, knowledge of its history, as well as the elements and principles whic...

There is no method. I'll put that out there. And the same holds true for factual matters. But there are stories I can give you. With Star Wars I'd say...

I don't think you'll find my response very satisfactory. :D But, from my perspective at least, determining whether a phenomena is external or internal...

Seems to me that they operate on their own. That is, after all, my position -- that they are not reducible to something else.

It's a value.

Wouldn't there be many things that are different from those? Let's take knowledge. Under a simple theory of knowledge it involves belief and justifica...

Yes. I think there is a relative element to values. I also think there is a relative element to facts -- as in, other religions, cultures, or relation...

Neither. Values differ from facts, so they are not factual. But it is not just an opinion or preference either.

Factually? No. There is a difference between facts and values. But I'll use an example. I grew up watching Star Wars. I love watching Star Wars. I hav...

The problem of appearance/reality as applied to ethics -- So this is why I think that acts like changing one's mind, repentance, forgiveness, and rede...

I had to think about that one for a bit. And I'd say yes and no. Kind of in-between. I mean, in a lot of ways we already Do without rules. As you note...

Sure! It actually is a comparison I wish I had made sooner. It's really interesting to think about.

Because great projects usually end in disappointment and frustration, whereas small projects are more often successful -- and thereby pleasurable. Ext...

We could, but who wants a great project when there's so much pleasure to be had in small projects?

Sure. I think we can all acknowledge that the thinkers are different. But there is some resonance between these ideas too. For one, freedom -- under a...

Ahhh, Athens -- home of the 30 tyrants, the death penalty for teaching the youth to think, and leader of free thought in the ancient world. That makes...

Sometimes it's just fun to see how ideas do or do not mesh -- even if said ideas may differ a little from how various people interpret them in an exeg...

I don't think I'd go so far as to say that its being hidden makes intent irrelevant. Though between you and your maker I believe is the inspiration be...

Well, especially in regards to rule-following and existentialism Kant seems like a great touchstone. As I read him, though his purposes were clearly d...

My inclination is to say "yes" -- but with a hasty addition that if all we end up doing is the same, but with different words, then it's really hard t...

I sort of wonder at the thought of someone who has no interest in right and wrong. To put it bluntly anyone who has an articulated opinion such that t...

I suppose, in the end, my feelings don't run too deep on this so I'd be willing to give it a shot in spite of my prediction and see what actually happ...

Cool. I was hoping to demonstrate how one might use a knowledge of fallacies by placing them into argumentative form rather than list form :).

On the contrary -- if it were a slippery slope I would be substituting what the proposal is for some other proposal. So something along the lines of "...

All fallacies are originally derived from argument. One of the dangers of learning a list of fallacies is that you miss out on the ability to identify...

I don't know if I'd say it's possible to empathize with people in the abstract -- so you use categories like the homeless, and I would say that we are...

That actually sounds pretty cool. Maybe you'll have to share it sometime.

Hey! You do know some examples. Good for you. Those aren't exhaustive, but they are enough to prove my point Them having been destroyed doesn't mean t...

Ah, ok. That makes sense now. I had a couple different thoughts so I wasn't quite sure which you were responding to.

I'm afraid I'm uncertain where this is coming from. I mean, someone could, and people do think of morality in a broader way than that -- I agree. But ...

It's to indicate that there is nothing else besides whatever we happen to feel is right. In comparison I might say that moral statements are whatever ...

That's true. And there is something to be said for that approach too, I think. Something that's been niggling at the back of my mind in thinking throu...

I probably do have it wrong. But in trying to pin down what your getting at I just couldn't see what exactly was true about the moral statements anymo...

I think I got a much better handle on what @"Terrapin Station" believes -- and I thought that we might start delving into mind and stuff so I didn't w...

Yup, definitely. I want to get back around to the open question argument again. But I wanted to revisit my Casebeer first and see if I thought differe...

That seems more coherent to my eyes. But your account differs from @"S" or @"Michael" -- who seem to want to say they are subjectively true.

I suppose I can't get over the notion that the subjectivist accounts wants to claim that such and such statements are true subjectively. The way I par...

Alright. Then the two are still not opposed. If I say "The speed of light in a vacuum is 299,792,458 m/s" then that implies that I believe said statem...

If objectivism is the thesis that moral statements are true then I'd say that Richard Brandt's notion of subjectivism is not exclusive of objectivism ...

Reason is a skill that can be taught. But it is a skill precisely because we are all unreasonable. It's an ideal that we can aspire to and follow, but...

Great. Now that we have the perspective of a liberal capitalist on Leninism -- a thing I definitely think is worth noting if we want to gain a perspec...

Oh, no! That's not the point at all. It's to differentiate itself from Bolshevism or other forms of authoritarian communism, not to save anarchy. Anar...

And Lenin would say of your freedom that it is a bourgeois freedom, and not freedom proper -- that only the dictatorship of the proletariat as enacted...

I disagree that you are free to claim anything -- in particular I highlighted land, labor, and capital. There is also often a notion of personal prope...

Depends on how you count "everywhere it was tried", and also what counts as totalitarianism for that matter. Libertarian communism has a rich history ...