Why are you telling me this? I'm the one who has been attempting to explain that human ethical values evolved along with us, from the social systems o...
They communicate, and there is a structure to their language, just as there is to ours. The language of dogs consists of sounds, body stance, gestures...
For the - what? Fifth? - time: it's about SURVIVAL. I'm reasonably sure you'll let your bottle of wine and deck furniture be taken rather than your li...
They were two irrelevancies among many. Ethics isn't about your preference or what you happen to value at any given moment. It's about interpersonal t...
What I say depends on me; what you hear depends on you. If I say 'slippery' and you hear 'irrational' that's only because language can be used in vari...
Not arbitrarily, but to fill in an oversight. I had neglected to point out earlier that people make national policy and religious doctrine while they ...
They all may well have influenced people, even long after they were dead, but in their lifetime, they changed not one dot or iota of public policy or ...
Sorry; I see no case to answer. If you have made a case for something or against something, I can't follow what it is. I sincerely do not believe that...
That's because it's been around a whole helluva lot longer than ethics; the concept of ethics comes long after animals with brains big enough to think...
For some people, it's no use at all. But for the majority of living things, it's the primal drive. It doesn't need a specific utility: it is the rock-...
The concreteness of our existence is that we have physical and mental requirements and an innate will to survive. In isolation, very few humans can su...
Okay: I should have said: Never in the modern world, or never in the written, civilized history of mankind. Certainly in the early millennia, when peo...
By whom? Defined where? What larger context? If you mean that some humans are able to see a larger picture than is depicted in our social codes, yes, ...
Not their lack of ethical principles; their social mores, which are not articulated as an abstract concept. Everything grows out of all that went befo...
Yes, in every legal code ever devised. Also every unwritten social convention among wolves, elephants, dolphins and apes. Limited to one's own tribe, ...
It has philosophical foundations. Philosophy is also a product of human thought in response to human social interaction. Moralities are founded in the...
One doesn't. One separates the mores and laws that make sense according to one's own judgment from those that are outmoded or counterproductive. Beyon...
Everything to do with morality and ethics is good or bad only because "we say so". This includes crimes like murder (killing a member of one's species...
This why humankind invented specialized language for those subjects in which it's important to communicate precisely: mathematics, musical notation, m...
What's considered immoral in one culture may be perfectly normal in another. People may not always agree with the judgements of their culture, but we ...
Appetites, maybe; and therefore sympathy for the weaknesses of other men. To what degree did he satisfy them? There is very little indication in the g...
And where did you find such a characterization of language? I believe this is one of those misconstructions through the substitution of similar but no...
Spoken language is a vehicle for communication, transactions, instruction and entertainment. It is a great amorphous, ever-changing mass of words and ...
After he was dead. Not much indication of universalism in the gospels. Some tolerance, yes: even a centurion's servant is worth healing; (though it so...
He (if he existed and there's any truth in the gospels) was not interested in other nations - his teaching was exported years after his death. He was ...
Of course. Assuming that physical manifestations are caused by physical means through physical processes is a prerequisite of sound scientific method....
Sure, they didn't have the same equipment then to determine whether 'life is extinct'. The morgue is kept very cold, and that slows down all biologica...
That makes me skeptical. The standard post mortem begins with a Y incision: diagonal cuts from each shoulder to the tip of the sternum, then a straigh...
Not guaranteed but required. It's the fundamental requirement for their discipline. Physics is singularly unforgiving, it's almost impossible to drag ...
Waking up during an autopsy is problematic, unless it had only just begun, and blood was seen to ooze from the incision - in which case, the pathologi...
You're right, of course. I was using the the more common definition tongue in cheek. Science doesn't require one to "believe in" anything. A physicist...
There is a huge gulf between physics and materialism. Physics describes how matter behaves; materialism is the desire to acquire wealth and comfort. H...
You can philosophize about science, as you can about anything, real or imagined. But a science of philosophy would have find something to measure, som...
That's been the fate of every person in history who was able see farther than their contemporaries. Your being would just sigh and accept it as human ...
I had no idea, Your Majesty! I'd go an erase every negative comment I've posted about you, if you could please point them out. I didn't think so! Oh, ...
Make that all societies. There are lots of biases and prejudices flying around, being reinforced by like-minded, same-interest factions. That's the re...
I haven't read any and I don't know what a Chick is. Are these tracts representative of all Protestantism? Might the American perspective colour your ...
What I said was: If you accuse one person, you are expected to show evidence against that one particular person. If you accuse and entire religion, yo...
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