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In ethical naturalism, a moral dilemma is the rational weighing of two possible methods for achieving the 'right' outcome to see which is most 'right'...

How do you know this? The 'how' is, like many theories, complicated and is not easily expressed in a short post, but I will do my best. Physicalism re...

That seems like a really odd way of assessing the value of their contribution to the debate. I think both Kraus and Hawking, though unremarkable (I mi...

What arguments? Yes, I can't stand Heideggar myself, but I'm a deconstructionist (in the literary sense) about philosophical texts. It's more importan...

I think the 'scientific' element comes from the fact that Heideggar expected some refinement or revision. That (to me) entails that there must be a 'w...

No, any evidence. I haven't heard any evidence at all yet that proves conclusively that non-empirical methods of knowledge acquisition actually produc...

I think that Heideggar's existential analytic is scientific. He talks specifically about a hermeneutic approach (implying that there is only an 'appro...

Really? That's your idea of a "perfect" illustration of someone's philosophical position, some facetious attempt to childishly ridicule your opponents...

No, I'm arguing that the idea that all knowledge might be empirical is the best theory for making practical progress in answering the questions we whi...

This is a bit of a bugbear of mine, and I know that these terms are not universally accepted by any means, but I really think it helps these discussio...

How are you proving or supporting this statement? More particularly, how are you doing so in so absolutely a conclusive way that the alternative viewp...

No, you're putting a future tense into a sentence which did not contain one. The claim is that no other method thus far can ascertain an answer to the...

Except of course if one's view is that scientific investigation is the only meaningful way to form public theories about reality, in which case it see...

I certainly think this gets close to what people who use the term are thinking, but how are they judging whether critical thought has gone into the ju...

I can run 27 miles, I know this because I have run several marathons. I never actually have run 27 miles, I've always stopped at 26, but I don't think...

Why is the position that Theology has something meaningful to say a reasonable one, but the position that it does not irrational prejudice?

Yes, but so what if it does? We're not setting out, in our joint investigation of our collective experience, to make sure that we maintain the essence...

I think that's not a bad definition, but what is it that you think people find so odious about that viewpoint? I mean, they're just saying that no oth...

A good analogy. Reminds me of a recent debate I took part in. Cut off a baby's earlobe, that's child abuse; cut off their foreskin, that's religion.

The one we experience. Why would we have any cause to describe any other? Because it provides models which are useful for making predictions about it ...

Thanks, I will trawl through some of his debates (although I find him quite unpleasant to listen to so will not make quick progress). I don't suppose ...

It sounds like you're just moving the goalposts, rather than actually defining the accusation. You've avoided having to define 'excessive' by replacin...

Curious contradiction I can't quite unpick, in the first half of the paragraph you say I'm over-thinking it, in the second half you advise asking the ...

Why, is it the sort of thing you're likely to do?

I'm not surprised no-one at your university debates Harris as he's a popular science writer and an academic neuroscientist (I would be surprised if no...

I prefer a good Sunday roast to pizza, but I don't describe pizza restaurants in a derogatory way. Its not that 'scientism' isn't to some people's tas...

This is something that has always confused me about opposition to government benefits. I don't really understand the moral objection to being paid by ...

You might be interested in these articles describing exactly the epistemological claims made by Physicalism. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20010220?seq...

Yes, I think a lot of people make this association, but have you ever heard or read anyone actually making this claim. I can't seem to find any quotes...

It's just that you said "we" will not properly grasp... Implying that there is some sense in which you could judge that people other than yourself had...

I always presumed that's what a well regulated militia meant, one which knows the correct order in which to add one's condiments to one's baked goods.

Yes, but what does it mean to be useful? What is the use we are putting the theory to that you and I agree it is good at?

It still seems to suffer from the same subjectivity that I was trying to get Wayfarer to define earlier. The key word in your explanation is 'properly...

Absolutely, take this recent study for example http://science.sciencemag.org/content/348/6236/796 I'm not suggesting that the overwhelming majority of...

We're raising a militia in Cornwall as I speak.

I think that the doctrine of Positivism is much misunderstood. At its heart, positivism is simply a metaphysical claim that no other metaphysical clai...

So I'm discovering. I understand that such a position exists, but it is not proven to be the case, its a meta-ethical position, a matter for debate, a...

Seeing as Wayfarer has just tacitly labelled some of my ideas as so wrong they're not even worthy of discussion, I'm not sure how you're reading my re...

You mean select arguments that are easy targets and dodge them when you're faced with evidence that opposes your world-view?

So if the current parliament writes it, is that not just making rule-by-mob in perpetuity? Do you honestly trust our current parliaments to come up wi...

If ideas opposed to yours aren't worth discussing, what exactly are you doing here?

So who writes the Constitutions?

Is this your idea of a philosophical debate? I pose two questions asking you to clarify your terms and you give up?

I've read the article, still not seeing the "science, and only science, describes the world as it is in itself, independent of perspective" Pinker say...

Yes, I read the Wikipedia article, and I'm familiar with a few of the papers it cites. I'm still not getting any closer to a definition that isn't jus...

But isn't 'most' useful then a matter of fact. How are you measuring 'most' useful?

So, if feeling is required for morality, then can morality be rational at all? I'm presuming no-one thinks we get to voluntarily decide how we're goin...

What does that mean? What are 'values'? Do you mean moral values, or things that people find important, or things that society should find important? ...

What would really help is if you could define some of the 'attacks' you have had. It's very difficult as it stands to understand what you're trying to...

Surely what you refer to when you are talking about the moon changes depending on the context. If you were recounting a horror story about werewolves,...