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That might be too strong. The cogito does tell me that an aspect of myself manifests itself in the act of thinking. I may not be a "thinking thing" in...
November 28, 2024 at 15:53
Paul Ricoeur also raises this question of the nature of the "I" of the cogito -- whether what it is is self-evident as a consequence of the cogito. Sa...
November 28, 2024 at 14:19
Yikes, really? We should have continued impregnating 12-year-old girls?
November 27, 2024 at 22:13
Consider the likelihood that human males are hard-wired to find girls (and often boys) sexually attractive from puberty on. What would the ethical con...
November 27, 2024 at 21:56
I had to look up "virtue signaling." Could you explain how it connects to meta-ethics? I'm not seeing it.
November 27, 2024 at 21:48
Sorry, this might be a silly query but . . . which is "the very point" here? And by "put in question," do you mean "call questionable" or "offer it as...
November 27, 2024 at 21:44
But can this be reversed: What is good for the species must be good for the individual? How would that follow? That's the doubtful premise.
November 27, 2024 at 21:01
No, I do not. I think it completely misses the point of ethical thought. But we have to be able to say why, without invoking doubtful premises like "E...
November 27, 2024 at 19:10
So if I'm one of the ones it's not true for, then it's OK for me to choose to act selfishly?
November 27, 2024 at 16:55
I think this is true, but the "why not be selfish?" question goes further. A version of rational egoism says, "I don't believe 'the good of society' o...
November 27, 2024 at 16:53
We "need to"? Why? Why in the world should I care about what happened millions of years in the past, or what will happen thousands of years in the fut...
November 27, 2024 at 16:43
I want to emphasize this point. It’s a big fork in the road for ethical theory. You can try to define ethical words like “ought” and “good” and “right...
November 27, 2024 at 14:13
Good, this seems the simplest way to go.
November 27, 2024 at 13:27
Guilty as charged!
November 26, 2024 at 15:25
This is interesting. Can you say more about that?
November 26, 2024 at 15:00
I think there's a fourth, which also finesses the knowledge problem: 4. There's the person who has a mystical experience, which is life-changing and w...
November 26, 2024 at 13:44
Yes, in the sense that we're wondering whether explanation can ever stop, and if so, on what grounds. But the difference I see between arithmetic and ...
November 25, 2024 at 23:35
No problem, I'll watch for @"Baden"'s reply. FWIW, in mainstream publishing, any previous publication in any form, regardless of how accessible it may...
November 25, 2024 at 13:52
I think we need to go even deeper, in order to reach a classical idealist understanding of causality and laws. The above statement speaks about a "con...
November 25, 2024 at 13:47
I think you've now answered my question, but let me explain why the guidelines do not. I have published a number of short stories in print magazines o...
November 25, 2024 at 13:26
With respect: I have read the guidelines carefully. They don't answer my question. Publishing is not limited to online forums. I'm asking whether any ...
November 25, 2024 at 01:35
Is a submitted story supposed to be unpublished? Or is a reprint OK?
November 24, 2024 at 23:10
Yes. One of those other ways is what some call "whiggish" -- when we make moral judgments about people in the past as if they should have had the same...
November 24, 2024 at 01:47
Another possibility: Some (not all) of those who make arguments using the past, want to persuade us of a narrative in which society (almost always Wes...
November 23, 2024 at 23:45
Thank you for your patience. I'll have to reread AV. Your engagement with it is deeper than mine, and I suspect more accurate as to the arguments. I l...
November 23, 2024 at 23:29
Yes, this is a good corrective to my somewhat peremptory rejection of MacIntyre's claim, as I understand it. But at the same time, isn't his whole arg...
November 23, 2024 at 16:49
I think After Virtue is essential reading, but here again we see that one person's "history of philosophy" is another's "tendentious sour-cherry-picki...
November 23, 2024 at 14:28
Oh, I do. I was trained in classical music theory, and the assumption that complexity equates to quality was nearly unquestioned. Why is Bach better t...
November 23, 2024 at 14:12
What if we returned to one kind of common talk about reality, where "real" means something like "vivid," "solid," "experientially impressive" -- that ...
November 21, 2024 at 22:12
That was quick work! I was still trying to build my paddock.
November 21, 2024 at 21:13
The Kimhi connection is interesting. Are you thinking of the passage starting on p. 100 about "Socrates is wise / Diotima is wise"? So associating a p...
November 21, 2024 at 18:14
Husserl and Frege seem quite similar to me, re psychologism. They both reject the idea that thoughts can only be said to be “caused,” rather than expl...
November 21, 2024 at 17:13
True, and I admit to a lifelong dislike of the term "real". But when you say that you want to see if "I might have any use for saying something has a ...
November 21, 2024 at 16:34
Here’s a suggestion I don’t usually make: Do a classic ordinary-language investigation of the word “real.” After you list and explain the 986 differen...
November 21, 2024 at 15:54
Another classic to at least read around in: Derek Parfit, Reasons and Persons.
November 21, 2024 at 13:59
God, no. We tolerate every species of fool in my country; dunno about yours. But tolerate them we do, because freedom of speech is a rights-based equa...
November 21, 2024 at 01:58
I wonder which respects. I'm assuming you mean "liberalism" as a political philosophy, not the conventional, rather crude binary of liberal vs. conser...
November 21, 2024 at 00:01
Thanks, I'll put it on my virtual nightstand.
November 20, 2024 at 23:47
Well, I open my eyes and see a bird, and think, "Huh, a bird" and then I close them and the experience has ended. I know this isn't what you mean, but...
November 20, 2024 at 19:25
:lol: I appreciate Bloom's scholarship while deploring his politics. Clearly we're differing on how straightforward a reading we should give to the Re...
November 20, 2024 at 19:21
Yes.
November 20, 2024 at 18:49
Your answers are interesting because they help me realize that I'm not speaking precisely enough. Sorry. I wasn't asking about the 1st person thing/so...
November 20, 2024 at 17:23
Fair enough, but is the first-person thing an event that happens from T1 - Tn?
November 20, 2024 at 16:03
Well, but it is. Unless you believe that the description of the divided line itself given in Book VI is mere image or opinion, on the grounds that we ...
November 20, 2024 at 15:59
Yes, but it does feel like a "move," and I wasn't suggesting it seriously. Good observation. I think that philosophers who are hostile to phenomenolog...
November 20, 2024 at 14:23
By "actual thoughts" I meant real-time brain events, not the content of those thoughts. It's very plausible that the thought "2+2 = 4", understood as ...
November 20, 2024 at 14:01
My question for both Descartes and Sartre is this: Are you offering a psychological story -- that is, a story about actual thoughts -- in which case i...
November 19, 2024 at 23:58
We must have different passages in mind. I'm thinking of Books VI and VII. If the divided line isn't for would-be philosophers, I can't imagine who el...
November 19, 2024 at 22:07
See above in my reply to @"joshs" concerning my careless use of "most philosophers." Indeed, and in many Platonic cases it did not. As was said by Cou...
November 19, 2024 at 17:04
You're quite right. Rather than "most philosophers," I should have talked about "a continuing engagement with this question among philosophers who are...
November 19, 2024 at 16:56