Leontiskos

It seems crucial to assert that the intrinsically valuable (ends in themselves) are a proper subject of argument. I think that is where we disagree. I...

I don't know if I can... The separation of reason from the good is something like the snuffing out of practical motive. It leads to the idea that, ult...

But why? Agreed: a perversion is a falling away from some standard or norm. If standards do not exist then perversions also do not exist. I think that...

Right. Okay, interesting. This is a fairly large topic. We could phrase it as, "Are deep transformations accessible to the laity?" I don't want to get...

I think this is more or less correct. :up:

I think it's <here>. :wink: For example, Merriam-Webster: "2: The selectivity of the elite, especially: Snobbery. 3) Consciousness of being or belongi...

- Damn, I'd take that over a 'brat six days of the week. :up: I've had a number of Indian roommates over the years but it's hard to find food like tha...

- That sounds great. I am low on vittles. I will have to read your post a few times before I go for groceries to ensure that I have the proper motivat...

I think the word must at least convey a sense of superiority, and generally a form of superiority that implies an unbridgeable gap, such that the elit...

A hotdog is like a scrap of leftover paper that you hand to your kid. They smear it with ketchup and cheese whiz. You tell them they did a great job a...

Okay, so the idea is that secularism denies this vertical dimension? Yes, great point. And this touches on that idea of askesis. I agree that seculari...

So you would say that elitism means believing that there is a hierarchy of competence? Would not the person who believes there is a hierarchy of compe...

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, and I ate hotdogs as a child: but when I discovered the Bratwur...

Well do you yourself think they are right or wrong? I'm wondering what you mean when you use that term, 'elitism'.

But when you say you are an elitist with respect to literature, are you only saying that you think there are better and worse texts? Because I don't t...

I take it that tacit disapproval is a kind of soft censorship; censorship as suppression. Or at the very least, this is what it necessarily effects. Y...

The "whatever" dog? How irreverent. It's called the Migh-... Er, right you are. The Dog-which-must-not-be-named. Hanover is eating the Dog-which-must-...

Yes, but do the rules of hotdogs apply equally to the Mighty Mighty Hanover Dog? Such a premise cannot be granted lightly.

I think a perversion is a kind of privation, and a privation is an absence of that which is due. What is due depends on a thing's nature. So for examp...

That's fair. My original idea wasn't to promote a form of historicism, but rather to shift the constituents of consensus from individuals to cultures....

Yes, good explanation. I was thinking of Ms. Nihil. I was thinking of the indifference that attaches to your (1) (). Because (1) represents a hypothet...

Yes, and I think this is the serious danger in censoring that sort of language for fear of abuse. If we pressure people to stop talking about gold bec...

I think you are missing the point, but my last post is clear enough so we can leave it there.

Ergo: if someone is super involved in atheist polemics, then they will know these obscure names. (post hoc rationalization)

- I have only heard of Elaine Pagels and Bart Ehrman, and Pagels is the only name of any worth. The list I gave <here> was based on merit. Those are w...

- Ah, okay. Gotcha. So I thought you were giving that quote in favor of this claim. But the quote is from Plato, not Aristotle, and therefore it seems...

What list? You haven't given one. You continue to speak in generalities. Sure he was. Here is one piece of evidence among many: Indeed, Lewis' early r...

My translation by Ross contains no such thing. What translation are you using, and what Bekker line are you talking about?

One question here asks what relation equality mongering has to modernity. Why have we become obsessed with equality in modern times? Even to the point...

No, I don't think so. Wayfarer made a very obvious and rational comment. Do you actually disagree with it? If not, why are you objecting? The "dogma" ...

No, "thought thinking itself" in chapters 7 and 9 of Metaphysics 12. It's what Dfpolis spoke of <here>. It is Aristotle's famous description of God's ...

I looked at some lists and it seems there are quite a few. Anthony Flew, Elizabeth Anscombe, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Walker Percy, Mortimer Adler, C.S...

That seems like a rather cynical take. Are you of the opinion, then, that everyone is equally virtuous? Equally reasonable? Equally knowledgeable?

No. Knowledge of deep causes comes through experience, but mediated by a fair bit of reasoning. As I said, not through "direct experience." But the po...

- This feels a bit Buddhist! Thanks for your responses and your quotes from Mill. They have helped clarify things. We seem to be pretty close, even th...

No, I agree that it is an error to read Aristotle against Plato. This doesn't justify a conflation. The conclusion is that knowledge of deep causes co...

Yes, but I think you conflate Plato and Aristotle in this way. You are accustomed to reading Plato and then you apply the same hermeneutic to Aristotl...

I think you are right about this. When you <originally> used that formulation I thought you were trying to bring out something which usually remains i...

Well, you certainly haven't presented any. You claimed that Aristotle makes use of theological premises while at the same time holding that these prem...

- Great, will do!

But presumably your opinion has no textual warrant, and can therefore be safely ignored. In short: eisegesis.

Indeed. :up: Great OP. Your paper also looks interesting.

- :up:

The "pro" side calls it being realistic or pragmatic. The "con" side calls it being cynical or pessimistic. But it's more of a judgment than an argume...

Yes. Another route is to say that the strong sympathizer is a quasi-combatant, and thus presents at least less collateral damage than a non-sympathize...

Hi , good post. Yes, it's a bit haphazard, but it's one way in. :smile: Right, it's a bit like the roulette wheel which is indifferent to odd or even ...

This is exactly right, and it raises the point that Mill's definition of objects is parasitic in a problematic way. Usually when we talk about the pos...

Given our fast-paced conversation, I would submit that an object is something like an existent thing (a wholeness or unity). Unperceived or even imper...

Then perhaps this is the starting point for where we differ, which is probably rather subtle. I don't actually know very much about this view you are ...

Mill's point holds of every physical object. It is a proper accident. But it's not what objects are. Objects are not defined in terms of perception. F...