Tzeentch

Enjoying something and true happiness are not the same. True happiness is a prolonged state of being, and not some short-term gratification of base de...

Exactly!

Quite simply by pointing out those things in fact do not contribute to a person's happiness. Isn't it so that people who commit such acts are deeply t...

Without pretending to have any definitive answers to these questions, I wouldn't mind making an attempt to spark some discussion: An act which leads t...

Then how does this view produce anything objective? I'm asking, since that is the goal you seemed to have set out at the start of this thread. This se...

Doesn't that make circumstances and motivations irrelevant? It seems to me that under that definition the sole determinant is the opinion of other peo...

But how does this all relate to making the determinant of a moral action being a ratio of people who approve versus disapprove?

Alright, then what about the second part?

I don't see how one could seperate the two. If we were to agree that groups are not moral agents, it would follow that calling groups (rather than the...

I don't think groups of people can be moral agents. Groups are after all comprised of individuals, the actions of which, taken together, may be (stric...

In the context of this topic, it is perhaps worth asking the question whether a conglomerate of individuals can be a moral agent, or whether only indi...

True happiness is completely seperate from those things. Happy? Yes. Achieved true happiness? No.

True happiness is the great equalizer, because it comes only to those who truly deserve it.

If a God exists, presumably an afterlife exists. If an afterlife exists, death and pain as negative experiences are meaningless.

I think the more one analyzes what it means for them to be truly happy, the more one will realize that what is truly good for oneself is also good for...

I used the term rather liberally here to describe something which is undesirable but necessary to prevent a worse situation from occuring. Sticking wi...

I am mostly on board with this, however I think there's a large grey area between what is unreasonable and what people find personally undesirable. Fu...

I'm talking about wars, atrocities, that sort of thing.

An important element that I think needs to be considered here is whether the supposed coercion is not the result of a voluntary agreement that has tak...

I look at self-defense as follows; First, there is no question to whom one's physical body belongs. It unequivocally belongs to the individual. The in...

So we have established that governance is coercion, or 'violence', if you will. I'm not so sure there is something as legitimate violence. I consider ...

What a cop-out.

It sounds good as a personal creed, but due to the subjective nature of good and evil it is entirely unworkable beyond that.

If we consider capitalism a form of violence, surely governments that take the belongings of their subjects as a means of achieving their goals can be...

You seem to be completely hung up on this driving thing, huh? Well then, practice your slavish obedience.

By such definitions, against what does socialism support violence? :chin:

Let's go. I'm waiting for you to put your money where your mouth is, and if it were to result in a refutation of my position then I am genuinely inter...

Moral obligations to do what? To care for one's fellow man? On a personal level I can get behind that. But I don't need to be coerced into doing that.

When discussing the responsibilities we may or may not have towards society, I think it is an essential question to ask how we ended up in that positi...

I fail to understand how using one's own eyes to see is a dangerous habit. I wish more people would engage in it. Okay, I am mostly on board with this...

I have no problem trusting in my own judgement. If you have trouble trusting in yours, then that problem lies with you. I encourage everyone to think ...

Let's be frank. You assumed my position was something other than it actually was, but you're now so deep into chest-bumping with your goons that you c...

Probably not. But discourse such as this: Would get one's hopes up.

Do I like the idea of coercion? No. That much should be clear. I do appreciate that, as I have stated earlier, it can be a necessary evil at times. I ...

That's what you keep telling yourself. The truth is I hit the nail on the head in my original posts, and you know it. You have difficulty swallowing t...

Clarify your point, in that case.

You don't win arguments by repetition.

I value freedom. Not wealth necessarily. I know there's no way of getting this message across, because you seem to have already decided I must be a te...

Come to a point. Is it that coercion doesn't always produce situations which are highly undesirable? I never said it did. What I said is that coercion...

Mhm.

When it seems useful to me, sure.

This is, of course, the equivalent of telling an immigrant to go back to their home country if they do not like it here. In fact, it is even worse, be...

Using a system of coercion to force people to do things against their will seems highly problematic to me. Not really. For many, me included, it is th...

Shouldn't that be up to the individual to decide then?

This answers a question with a question. We can get to my interests later. For now I am wondering how one justifies that a person who is not intereste...

I consider government to be a form of coercion: a means to force individuals to do things by threat of violence. Furthermore, governments assert power...

When your tirade has settled I suggest you meditate on what I've said. You may think my remarks were ad hominem, but they hit the mark pretty well. Yo...

Oh, I am concerned with the welfare of people around me. I just don't believe such concern should be forced upon me or anyone else through government....

The same arrogance that makes any socialist think they know best how to spend other people's money.

Perhaps it is the nature of your humanity. I believe what is truly good for the individual is also good for the whole.