But we do - only not infallibly. I gave the example of parents distinguishing between the stomach-ache and the 'I haven't done my homework' stomach-ac...
True. Privacy is not the same as deception. The issue is: does it even make sense to talk about these motivations in the context of simulated behaviou...
Probably right. Parents learn by experience to distinguish a child in pain from the same child pretending to be in pain because they don't want to go ...
Talking about me behind my back. Lying to get out of doing work. Getting irritable when tired. Going easy on me because my goldfish died. Forgetting m...
Because the person making those remarks may claim that lack of contradiction implies assent. "Nobody has disagreed with me - I must be right!" Yes, it...
Suffragist women went on hunger strike, putting their democratic ideology ahead of their need to eat. There are many examples of cases where it is bet...
@"Angelo Cannata" A lot of truth in that. But. If we dismiss questions that seem to be grasping at universal truths with inadequate tools then we leav...
I don't think ethics can be just a means to an end. Even if I don't get to nirvana, I still have to pay the rent. And if I do ever get to nirvana, I'l...
True, and I had drafted a reply along the lines of "Advice more often given than taken" but I thought it sounded more sour than the kindly @"Agent Smi...
Not a denial of all propositions, however. The Buddhist Denial as given above asserts the following proposition: (~1 & ~2 & ~3 & ~4) & ~(~1 & ~2 & ~3 ...
Not too much. When we experience something, specific events happen in our bodies and brains. I think you are asking: Is our experience identical with ...
@"wayfarer" So we can have determinate nothings - the zero score is understood as nothing only in relation to the positive score I might have got. At ...
True. But an indicator, whatever else it might do, indicates. The nothing I get as a score in a game is quite different from the nothing I have in the...
Before concluding that it's self-censorship I say we need a comparison. For example, if you go up to someone in the street and ask "What is a toothbru...
I think there are a couple of math concepts that will help with the problem. The first is the difference between probability and probability density. ...
There is one step in between. It's this: If relations do not exist, then it is not the case that something is to the west of something else. Glasgow i...
Because when you misbehave in class the teacher says: "Now, now!" It's a simple matter of classroom discipline. Some teachers say "Now, then!", but th...
I consider the sentence "One plus one equals two" and now I pretend to be astonished that when I count actual things I find that one of them plus anot...
Bunyan? Rabelais? Shall I stop naming people with idiosyncratic and prophetic imaginations and then putting a question mark after each name? Or not? I...
We don't always mean what we say. So what we say may mean nothing even though we do mean something. If I draw a square with rounded corners and call i...
Coherence is on a continuum and so is understanding. The drunk cab passenger is incoherent but just coherent enough for the driver to understand what ...
Means either: you must gratify your desires regardless of the harm you cause to other people. Or: kill off your evil desires and do not encourage them...
E.g. when conceiving the truth will cause you harm. 'Walk towards me very carefully and don't look down' There's talk here as if beliefs are things in...
True. And circumstances aren't conditions. So, the OP asked about 'circumstantial' which is a bit different. If somebody asks me 'What's 60% of 450?' ...
I'd say that is broadly true, but with some caveats. It's because they care what you think. The alternative would be them not caring what you think, w...
I have two things to say: one about acquaintance and one about certainty. I don't think 'impossibility of direct acquaintance' follows from 'possibili...
I think you are right. I tried it several ways and it always seems to come out just as you report. And rather touching. And safer than a sixpence in t...
We said: "You can't treat share certificates as having a value independent of business value." They said: "You don't understand the stock market." The...
I think the handle is better as it is. It suggests modesty: the value of your valued contributions will have at least the limitation of not being corr...
True. That would mean my life is worth the relief from unbearable suffering - I will avoid the suffering even if that means foregoing life. But who is...
Trading an increased risk of death is possible (kidney example). Trading the means of life is possible (water example). Trading someone else's life is...
The Diogenes Plan is characterised by freedom from personal vanity, simplicity in home arrangements, refusal to indulge in displays of emotion, commit...
I agree. If we refuse to answer those questions explicitly then we will answer them implicitly by how we share out healthcare and other resources. I t...
Your story reminds me of the conversation about becoming a surgeon - Person: I want to be a surgeon but I think I'm too old to start. I'm 25. Friend: ...
People choose to play or not play video games. Perhaps the people who choose to play are those who already possess the skills they need in order to pl...
In Rothenberg's 'The Excessive Subject' it means the aspects of a person (or a thing or event) that are revealed at later stages and make us re-assess...
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