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Of course it does, it means that any time they no longer represent the will of the people, they can be replaced. Moral laws resulting from democratic ...
January 29, 2018 at 17:42
Again, it's fine if you just want to voice your opinion, but without an argument I've got nothing to consider. Why do you think it's fine in faith sch...
January 29, 2018 at 13:55
That's just your opinion, mine differs hence my inclusion of it on my list. If you read the posts this list derived from, they are all about personal ...
January 29, 2018 at 13:52
I'm not sure what relevance this has. We all get colds and flu from time to time too, that doesn't stop us referring to them as an illness. Depression...
January 29, 2018 at 12:57
There you go. You've just made a series of verifiable claims of fact to justify the shared meaning of the word "utility" which we have then used to ju...
January 28, 2018 at 12:53
Saying that "utility" cannot be verified itself is the reason why I introduced argument 2. You are taking a Wittgensteinian ambiguity over terms and u...
January 28, 2018 at 12:13
Finally, the actual philosophical question. Firstly, let's clear up Wayfarer's prejudiced summary. The actual Ayer quote we're talking about is "The c...
January 28, 2018 at 11:43
Exactly, but by the same token you can use statements containing special pleading as premises, because the justification does not have to be contained...
January 28, 2018 at 11:01
Yes, I read your post the first time, there's no need to repeat it. Naming the philosophical term for a thing doesn't affect its truth value in some w...
January 28, 2018 at 10:45
Thank you for your thoughtful response, I understand that the direction of these discussions in not in the hands of any one person and that if people ...
January 28, 2018 at 08:33
Only if you accept the premise within the statement, which you can't do without accepting the statement. Ergo, the statement is either a paradox, or a...
January 27, 2018 at 21:39
That's what I'm scared of. At least individuals are human. God's knows what new movement the random chaos of billions of social media users all trying...
January 27, 2018 at 18:47
I have no illusions that mainstream media aren't playing exactly the same game, and I've no respect whatsoever for Soros and his ilk, but he does just...
January 27, 2018 at 18:41
Which part of "... social media companies influence how people think and behave without them even being aware of it. This has far-reaching adverse con...
January 27, 2018 at 18:27
I don't think that would be a case of misdiagnosis. I wouldn't want you to think that I considered virtue signalling to be a universally bad thing. It...
January 27, 2018 at 16:18
But this is exactly what I'm trying to say in my post to V above. I don't think people do understand the phenomenon. They think they do, which I why w...
January 27, 2018 at 15:26
I don't understand what you are saying here. Are you suggesting that there is literally no evidence that different races have had, on the whole, diffe...
January 27, 2018 at 12:18
You could either answer that question from a utilitarian perspective or a deontological/virtue ethic (they would amount to the same thing here). Essen...
January 27, 2018 at 11:55
In simplest terms then yes, this is true of non-renewable resources which is why people consider it unethical to make excessive use of them. It's not ...
January 27, 2018 at 11:00
I think you're being overly generous to young people. Most simply don't care. Consumerism has created a society stupid enough to buy products they nei...
January 27, 2018 at 08:59
The American philosopher Michael Friedman has written an excellent refutation of the popular story of the collapse of positivism called "Reconsidering...
January 27, 2018 at 08:48
Who's argued for the censorship of potentially everyone else? When we make structures in society to assist the disabled, do we abandon them because no...
January 27, 2018 at 08:39
You started this thread in a deliberately clandestine way, referring to a 'movement', but would not say which, that was raising the right not to be of...
January 27, 2018 at 07:49
Perhaps you could furnish us with an example of these two approaches in this thread because they sound entirely subjective to me. The only distinction...
January 26, 2018 at 17:26
This is a very sloppy bit of philosophy. "...don't seem to even consider the counter-arguments" is a classic ad hominen. I don't agree with you, you t...
January 26, 2018 at 17:21
What do you mean 'decide for myself and let others do the same'? That doesn't make any sense. You are deciding for yourself, for who else would you be...
January 26, 2018 at 17:15
To clarify, let me put it in terms of numbers. Suppose we assign the harm that will result from denying the person a platform to speak a value of 10. ...
January 26, 2018 at 16:52
Consider the scenario in the real world. Someone owns and controls a platform for speech, could be a broadcaster, a university campus, a news programm...
January 26, 2018 at 16:38
Why is deciding on a person's liklihood to bring something useful to the debate based on their actions 'unfounded confidence' but deciding whether to ...
January 26, 2018 at 15:02
But these definitions are not a problem so far as refusing to discuss certain political opinions is concerned. When you're comparing a theoretical "ra...
January 26, 2018 at 07:40
I'm not following your argument that a "discussion" is automatically necessary before arriving at a moral decision. I already know racism is bad, I do...
January 25, 2018 at 20:07
I'm not sure what your line of argument is here. You seem to be just writing the opposite of what I suggested, but without providing an argument as to...
January 25, 2018 at 20:00
I don't think this is true, within the statement you've already made a couple of presumptions. Firstly, that we should 'reasonably evaluate' rights. H...
January 25, 2018 at 19:48
And that's a classic example of why people like you hate it so much, just in case it stops you from making ridiculously unfounded propositions like th...
January 25, 2018 at 19:40
I don't object to the conclusion you draw about those that do not give, but only expect, I object to the implication (by your descriptions of such peo...
January 25, 2018 at 14:45
Right, so you've still not provided an argument for this. All you've done is move the objective. Now you need to provide an argument to show how "guar...
January 25, 2018 at 14:29
Yes, but only if you have already rejected physicalism before you start the investigation. Our experience is what it is, it's just that we don't know ...
January 25, 2018 at 10:28
You've given me a reason why freedom of speech is an incredibly important right, I asked for a reason why it might be considered more important than a...
January 25, 2018 at 10:17
It depends on the extent of both, which is why we need to at least attempt some objectivity in our assessment of each (which is why I objected to WPoM...
January 25, 2018 at 09:12
I think you've missed the point of the question. Everyone has already done the calculation you've outlined (genuine suffering vs. narcissism), they've...
January 25, 2018 at 08:14
Of course, under the presumption of physicalism, that's what it is. That doesn't make it any less real, doesn't mean that science isn't interested in ...
January 25, 2018 at 08:04
This is simply not true (or at least wasn't true 100 years ago, thankfully it is becoming more so now). People with hanging earlobes have had no diffe...
January 25, 2018 at 08:01
What about neuroscience, sociology, evolutionary biology, psychology? Science is extremely interested in understanding subjective experience, it just ...
January 25, 2018 at 07:50
That's an awful lot of unsubstantiated opinion there which, when entirely harmless, is fine, but you've insulted a substantial population of women and...
January 25, 2018 at 07:42
So what do you have in common then? You've talked a lot about definitions, and I've read with interest your exposition of your theism on the thread yo...
January 24, 2018 at 07:24
To give an example, we have evidence that scientists are discovering new species quite often. It is therefore a reasonable, rational belief that speci...
January 23, 2018 at 13:32
The quotes are intended to show that the properties of 'god' and 'gods' have changed over time, not with intellectual progress, but with culture. Mean...
January 23, 2018 at 12:46
Its not just marketing, look at the newspapers, television programmes, exams, social media. I'd challenge anyone to compare any of the above from 2018...
January 23, 2018 at 08:59
Depends what you mean by 'threat'. The population are largely idiots, they've been made that way by companies because otherwise they wouldn't buy stuf...
January 23, 2018 at 08:22
This is arguably the problem that got us into this mess in the first place. Go to church, sing the hymns, ask for forgiveness and you get an eternity ...
January 23, 2018 at 08:08