Relativist

So you believe the end justifies the means and might makes right. Let's agree to disagree.

International standards developed after WW2 in the Geneva Conventions (1949 and 1976) would consider our "punishment" of civilians as war crimes.

So you think think it was appropriate to correct a situation established 1300 years earlier. That's as ludicrous as suggesting Israel should be abolis...

What difference does it make? You're judgement of what they "ought" to do doesn't compel them to do so.

History story is continuous, and you're omitting the reality that over time, the area became predominantly Arab. Jews were a tiny minority until the Z...

There's not many close analogies of a conquered people being ejected from their land. But regardless, I'm discussing the reality that they aren't like...

Ancient history does not trump current reality. There were few Jews in Palestine before the 19th century Zionist movement. And you think this means th...

Giving the aggressor what he wants is a way to "peace" very similar to the 1938 Munich Agreement.

You've completely ignored the history. These Arabs were in Palestine, and were forced out. Israel often excuses this as perfectly fine, because it's s...

There was a native, Arab population living the that area of the Ottoman empire labelled "Palestine". After WWI, the winning Western powers carved up t...

I put "minds" in quotes. I don't believe a "mind" is an object that exists. Rather, a brain engages in mental activities (perceptions, moderating betw...

It's been 78 years since they were ejected from their homeland, and that hasn't faded from their memories yet. They believe they have a sacred bond to...

Meanwhile, the Criminal-in-chief is at home talking about how reasonable it was for Putin to invade Ukraine, and blaming Ukraine for "going into" the ...

:lol:

Good point. He does trust authoritarians, and mistrusts democratic leaders. But in terms of making "deals", I don't think he'll intentionally pick Rus...

Exiling Palestinians from their land will not destroy their culture. It will be a second Nakba.

Trump is Putin's useful idiot. In his press conference on Feb 13, Trump made it abundantly clear that he completely agrees with Russia with regard to ...

Yes. You missed the Trump administration overtly using the DOJ to achieve political objectives, by ordering them to drop the prosecution against Eric ...

Are you under the impression that his "lesson" was well-received by his "students"? JD Vance attacks Europe over free speech and migration "The addres...

My take on it is that Trump has no favorites, which means he feels exactly the same about the UK or France as he does about Russia or China. So the co...

Define "experience". A boulder rolling down a mountain has "experienced" the roll, and has been altered in the process. Similarly our "minds" are alte...

The uncontroversial fact is that the deficit reflects spending more than is taken in. Therefore it can be lowered by decreasing spending, increasing r...

Unequivocal corruption: Order to drop New York Mayor Adams’ case roils Justice Department as high-ranking officials resign NEW YORK (AP) — Manhattan’s...

Vance had also said Trump would never pardon 1/6 criminals who'd committed violent crimes. What he says is meaningless.

I object to labelling changes to the law as "fraud". Changes were made in 2020 because of the pandemic. The changes made it easier to vote. As a conse...

There's some good in it for those who will save or make money. The fundamental problem is that the negative consequences will be: 1) marginal - the ma...

No, I didn't. Here's what I said: You correctly noted that I should have said "causal determination", but my meaning is clear. I'm insisting on two th...

I'll weigh in, starting with this quote from the article: "What could motivate such a strange and seemingly incoherent doctrine?" It's motivated by a ...

I consider this good news: b]Trump administration sues New York state over immigration Attorney General Pam Bondi said Wednesday that the Justice Depa...

The task of a metaphysician (including us amateurs) is to provide a metaphysical account of the clear facts. The best you can hope for is an account t...

That's exactly what I mean. That's NOT what I'm suggesting. I'm suggesting that we have some intrinsic sense of temporal priority: we don't confuse a ...

You're equivocating. You had responded to my example in which I treated the result quantum collapse as actually contingent (and I STIPULATED it as suc...

The axiom I cited was a direct quote from Amy Karofsky's book, "A case for Necessitarianism". She makes a strong case for the past failure of philosop...

Do you deny there's some innate sense of past, present, and future? If you agree that there is, WHY do you suppose we have this? Of course not: time i...

Do all your all imaginings matter? You clearly have an intuitive understanding of past present and future - because you refer to.them. Those are "imag...

Here's my Axiom of Contingency: A contingent entity requires not merely a explanation for its being or being such as it is, but an explanation for the...

I assume you agree that our imaginings of future and past are not the same as the future and the past. So reflecting on past and future doesn't have b...

What did you mean by "future" when you said: ?

This sounds like a denial that they exist immanently. Existing entails them actually existing, but immanently- not as independent objects. Abstraction...

The right angles don't EXIST transcendently, nor does any "form". That would entail reifying abstractions.

Great. The next question is: what is the ontological status of relations? Consider 2 straight objects, touching at their ends, and lying at a 90 degre...

Both time and space are reference frame dependent. Space isn't an existent; it doesn't have properties. Rather, space (distance; length) is a relation...

I use the term "magical knowledge" to refer to the existence of knowledge by brute fact in the absence of any sort of medium. Both aspects are grossly...

The label is irrelevant; that's just semantics. What's relevant is the relations between the parts, things like their individual lengths, angles betwe...

Yes, there's a "form", in a physicalist (not platonic) sense: the parts exist with relations to the other parts: legs a certain distance apart, with a...

Start with a dinner table, then disassemble it. All the parts are still there, but you no longer have a table. An object is more than the set of parts...

It varies by individual, but collectively - humankind is becoming increasingly worse, because there are so many of us

I agree with your first reason, but not your second. It's still a table when you remove a few atoms. Not the SAME table but there's still a table ther...

Funny how you selectively apply that excuse.

A person becomes a criminal when he commits the crime, not at the point of a criminal conviction. The Caroll lawsuit was based on him having committed...