There is no version of determinism that is verifiable or falsifiable (that I'm aware of). Quantum entanglement doesn't rule out every possibility or k...
No it's not violence. In some contexts it might be considered harassment (i.e repeatedly seeking out interaction with particular transsexuals in order...
Unjust discrimination based on gender or race carries the intent to damage or hinder individuals, but what about random or arbitrary discrimination? C...
You're right, I misspoke. If the person who did not receive a raise never found out, there would be no actual harm to speak of (the intuitive pull of ...
I took issue with the "consciously choosing" bit, not the "rule based" but, in this particular case. When I say "Virgil behaves morally" I mean to say...
It's not the behavior in and of itself that is "moral". It's the fact that the behavior is mutually beneficial toward the shared interests of Virgil a...
It's precisely what you said. Here: "Morality is rule based. If one follows the rules, s/he is behaving morally. Behaving in a way that does not break...
I've gone out of my way to clarify the ways in which the ends may not justify the means, to whom, and why. Here it is again: the moment an individual ...
It wouldn't be to say that "one can make a choice to act moral without considering what's not" because I never said Virgil's decision was to act moral...
I extend moral consideration to animals (where possible) even though they cannot reciprocate. If I was in their situation I would not want to be abuse...
Specific moral dilemmas though, they are analogous to specific situations on the chess board. We make broad rules of engagement as heuristics, but we ...
We weigh as many as possible. Similar to chess strategy, due to emergent complexity we cannot make confident predictions far into the future (we canno...
Is giving nobody a raise also unjust? What right do we have to be treated equally by our employers? So long as an equitable minimum standard is met, g...
The intent to murder is itself potentially harmful (the impending kind). Attempted murder wouldn't be immoral if successful murder wasn't harmful. I w...
Dandelions cannot produce accidents; yet still you miss the point: I am making a distinction between the moral component of actions themselves (relati...
Aye, another way of stating it is that if something does not cause any harm, then it cannot be considered immoral. I really like this simplification (...
Dandelions do not "act" at all though, at least in the sense of action to which we might attribute a moral component. You should have addressed my poi...
"Deontological morality" (rule based morality) is just one approach of many, an approach that like most others captures one important aspect of moral ...
Heh, I didn't mean to sound like a preachy douche, but after years of conspiracy theorists telling me that the American government owes $1.50 for ever...
The Federal Reserve is like a fiduciary decision maker when it comes to printing money; they're only supposed to print dollars as the wealth of the ec...
An acquaintance of mine was trying to explain to me why he thought bitcoin will exceed 40k-50k per unit by this time next year. "It's about trust" he ...
This is a meta-ethical distinction that I don't necessarily agree with because in practice we CAN move correctly without thinking correctly. Sometimes...
Confirmation bias/cherry picking is one possibility. If researchers can test out a bunch of different scales to see which one makes their calculations...
Your wording here is a bit unclear, but here is the equivalent I think you are looking for: "acting in the mutual interest of yourself and others (via...
Codes of conduct are great avoiding conflict in general, but when specific conflicts do arise the best we can do is appeal to the context and specific...
There are a set of hard wired instincts and emotions that indirectly nudge us in some cases toward behavior that just so happens to be strategically b...
Yes. Just like how someone can make the correct move in a chess game without thinking strategically (it can be coincidence or the result of factors ot...
As a system of applied ethics my approach is very persuasive. It's very hard to not be suaded by an argument appealing to basic values like life and l...
You mathematize it sloppily. First you establish a spectrum with two perceivably distinct poles (i.e authoritarianism v libertarianism, socialism v ca...
I've simply defined morality as a mutually beneficial strategy from the outset rather than beating around the age old bush of "rightness and wrongness...
But you've looped me back onto the surface! Do I treat people how they want to be treated? What makes how they want to be treated morally right? By fr...
Not quite. In my view successful morality is by necessity functional strategy (strategy which serves some initial value) Well, mutually agreeable mora...
I'm talking about the feeling though, not the recognition. recognition =/= feeling. If you're incapable of addressing my argument that's fine, but you...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_permanence And yet, dogs exhibit empathy, so they must understand emotion in a way remotely close to the kind nec...
Specifically I'm pointing to what Jane feels as a motivator of action. Figuring out how to remedy the bad feeling is learned, but feeling the bad feel...
We don't need to understand the source of someone's emotions in order to have an emotional response of our own, we just need to recognize that they ar...
Yes there is. Because there's no logic that can produce an ought out of thin air; we've got to make a starting assumption somewhere. Humans nearly uni...
I wish you would be really specific about which part of my account you disagree with. Is it so hard to believe that Virgil felt a bad emotion when see...
Understanding that someone is suffering is mental. Feeling something yourself because you understand that someone else is suffering is emotional. It's...
Twit: A silly or foolish person. Foolish: (of a person or action) lacking good sense or judgment; unwise. You're accusing me of changing the subject b...
So was it a consensual transaction? Were the women not harmed by the abuse? For a moral agreement to exist between two parties, each party must percei...
You want me to make a comprehensive list of all of our instincts which promote cooperation? No. I pointed to innate empathy and I think that's enough,...
Can you give an example of such behavior? Broadly pointing to capitalism isn't sufficient. What kind of actions are mutually beneficial and also harmf...
Emotions. The experience of pain and pleasure. The sensation of liking or not liking something. These aren't thoughts or beliefs, they're feelings. We...
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