ZhouBoTong

It only makes you elite if you think you have better tastes in art or literature than I do. Whoops, I was not clear enough. It is only my opinion that...

Yes, the modern world has generally decided that majority rules is better than one person making the rules. Another big advance was setting up constit...

Entirely agreed, but by definition I think that is an atheist position? Not that that would matter if no one was guessing...hmmmm...in any case I agre...

Oops. My fault, I was not clear. You are right, there are NOT irreconcilable differences between those 3 statements. I was using each as containing so...

Thank you all for the explanations. I was about to go through my usual delve into semantics and make sure we are all using "order" or "chaos" in the s...

Easy. You are a person who for whatever reason, is convinced that free will exists. Therefor, just like most of us, you bend the evidence to fit your ...

To @"OpnionsMatter". Welcome to the wonderful world of philosophy. It basically consists of saying an idea, then allowing everyone to tell you how stu...

@"Broyphus" Well I think Broyphus is my favorite philosophy name to date (is that the Greekified version of "Bro"? hahaha), so that suggests you have ...

I appreciate the explanation and it was making sense until there is a massive leap from "humans can't be responsible for trees bearing fruit" to "so i...

I don't get it. Why does that "then" follow from the "if"? The same laws of physics that suggest order would also be the cause of that order. I though...

@"schopenhauer1" Well I created a whole long argumentative response, but then decided I had better be sure I put some effort into understanding your p...

Nailed it. I really like that thoughts like this seem much more common on these philosophy sites (it seems @"camus-enthusiast" would agree with you, b...

hehe, you must've been waiting to use that one :grin: Sorry if this is a tangent, but it will be quick. Also, my question is not sarcastic or snarky, ...

I think I am fine with this. I was just testing every potential meaning of ends. If we say ends are goals or purposes then I am fairly comfortable say...

I just meant that was the one example where we can come close to blaming it 100% on one party. Even that situation had additional factors. I can comfo...

I would think the answer to this is "of course not"? Who gets to judge politeness? @"S" is offended by your use of a smiley face emoji. Should that be...

Thanks unenlightened. I was siding with the OP, but I had missed this point (funny, that seems to happen when I don't read the articles attached to th...

@"Aaron R" I was writing other points, but I can't get the past the fact that I don't understand how "ends" is being used in premise #1 (MU I quoted y...

Evil is a tremendously loaded word that I would think has no place in a rational discussion of morality...but I will try. So boiling babies is evil. S...

So you are unwilling to sacrifice your spiritual enlightenment (never doing anything "wrong") for the lives of billions? Doesn't seem so moral anymore...

Sorry if I am a couple days behind. Uh, oh. I was sure I was right when I said I would boil three babies if the aliens promised not to destroy earth t...

Ok. I get where you are going now. So things like the seed bank in Iceland are along the lines of what you are talking about? I am going to have to pu...

@"Janus" @"Theorem" I have enjoyed your debate. I look forward to you 2 disagreeing (slightly) on future threads :smile:

Ok. But once meaning is "produced" can't it exist separate from the producer? Most things that are created or "produced" continue to exist even if the...

Still have several posts to read, just wanted to throw S a little support. The universe is pretty big, it seems likely there will be another intellige...

I am a little confused. Are we talking a rather minor disaster? Anything that results in societal collapse (ie no more governments), would make these ...

Well I am glad we agree there. Because the rest of your response caused me to do some research on existentialism; and while I THINK there is not much ...

Can we avoid these suicides (and the crux of Camus' problem) by changing one premise? - The assumption that all life is suffering. If I change that to...

Sorry, couple pages behind but need clarification: Echarmion, I did not mean to pick you exclusively, but you said it most concisely. Based on the abo...

hehe, slipping that one in the middle of a discussion on political correctness. nicely done :cool:

I can certainly see the above as an interpretation of "govern". But I don't think it is the only thing "govern" can mean. definition of govern: conduc...

Haha. Fair enough. But we don't have to agree when they say you are speaking nonsense. It allows them to say the forum is regulated, but we can keep o...

Nailed it. While America is pretty amazing, we should not give it credit for everything, hehe. Older superheroes from around the world (a mix of purel...

Surely those arguing against @"S" can decide there is nothing of value left? I may be missing something. Does it cost money to keep the posts? From a ...

Well, I think I am unnecessary as @"Terrapin Station" (one of the people more likely to be biased against you, hehe) already defended your position. T...

Well I probably missed it in the thread, but with all this discussion of "rules", I don't think there was ever a definition, so... rule: one of a set ...

So it sounds like adding, "do you think" would have solved the whole thing. Surely, I can not give my opinion without thinking? So isn't adding "do yo...

Well this one got long. I really am working on being more concise on this site...very slow progress :grimace: @"S" This post got rather long and I may...

@"Mww" @"Echarmion" I just responded to a post from each of you, but realized they are a couple of days old and S may have already replied. If there i...

Until I have access to new evidence, I will just assume that "post-human" is rather similar to "pre-human". That's what happens when I actually think ...

Ok, so below is the OP (I think I put enough): "There is a rock, but no one is there to perceive it, because we all died an hour previously. Is there ...

I have been reading sites like this (including this one) for years. In the past, as long as there was one person per thread (like you in this one) arg...

??? Hence my use of "more" objective. So scientists publish the results of their studies to inform the rest of us about the objective facts they have ...

Correct. Agreement does not make it objective. However, if objective is "something that occurs independently of us" (I am fine with that) then surely ...

I think I am fine with all of that. I would say that any single experience I have is subjective, but it can be made more objective by comparing it to ...

This is a confusing example, because isn't it your position that ALL utterances are subjective? If definitions are subjective can anything be said tha...

Thanks Brett. That will entirely satisfy me :smile: I just get easily triggered by the idea that the classics are better than modern works because the...

True. I do remember you saying that several pages ago, and I suppose your discussion of overly-high standards is continuing that. My stupid brain alwa...

That last point (bolded bit) would suggest that what you are saying DOES matter. If you know any good arguments in that direction I would be happy to ...

Nicely said. I am starting to enjoy how much I can disagree with a person in one thread, then completely agree in the next. Even if it may suggest I (...