BC

Psychopathy or sociopathy isn't an all or nothing condition. There are some people who are "slightly psychopathic". If they are also quite intelligent...

This is a timely topic, because diseases like Alzheimers and other forms of terminal dementia are increasing with an aging population, and will contin...

Euthanasia (eu + thanatos = good or easy death) is a nice euphemism, (an auspicious word) ORWELL ALERT: Be suspicious when politicians use a lot of La...

Question: Is this some sort of game? Answer: The game is getting someone to agree with your non-sensical point. Yes, of course. Forced sex is rape and...

Hey, Bartricks: We're all smart people here. Of course I understand the distinction and moral significance of voluntary sex vs forced sex. You are the...

All of these are excellent questions for philosophers, and everyone else. I would submit that we should stop beating ourselves up. We are following pa...

You did not, could not, or would not read what I wrote.

Many people are naive about information. They do not have the experience to assay information for accuracy and reliability that they come across in th...

A guy's penis may not be quite long enough to place in somebody else's lap. If they cut it off first and then put it in this person's lap, is it still...

You inserted a condition into your syllogism which I had explicitly rejected. 1. Sex and tennis should be mutually consensual. 2. Bitter Crank is oppo...

Have you considered just how much coercion would be required to FORCE someone to play tennis with them--especially if they didn't know how? Is your st...

@"Baden" Of course it is not a threat. It is a jokey riposte to your quip "what the heck is all this belly-aching about ethics?" Electronically transm...

This is a piece of the Minnesota Statutes on speed limits. 169.14 SPEED LIMITS, ZONES; RADAR. Subdivision 1.Duty to drive with due care. No person sha...

If you don't start behaving yourself, you'll find out what the belly-aching is about.

There must be something wrong with the Internet tonight, considering the way you read what I wrote. a maximum speed of 55, 65, or 75 mph (depending on...

Common Law forms a significant part of US law, as I understand anyway, and while there are vast stretches of arid, dust-drifting drabness in the law l...

Here's what Thomas Jefferson had to say about it: “Indeed I tremble for my country when reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ev...

What CCTV (that's odd--Closed Caption TV?) does is assist in the identification and apprehension of scofflaws, major criminals, and evil doers. It doe...

The upshot of what follows is that soldiers are not significant moral agents in wars. Who, in fact, determines and fuels the scope of war--soldiers or...

I thought "ignorance of the law is no excuse" was the general idea. No?

Jimmy, you have no idea how little anyone cares. Jimmy, now that you have made it to 30, it's time for you to learn an unpleasant fact of life: If you...

One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small And the ones that mother gives you, don't do anything at all Go ask Alice, when she's ten feet...

I find references to the Matrix like it mattered to be extremely irritating. Stop it or you will be unplugged and will never be whelmed again! Aside f...

Not quite sure what this means. But history has a great deal to do with the reasoning behind sex being viewed as a special ethical case. What was goin...

Sex is not special. It's one of several essential biological functions: eating, breathing, drinking, voiding urine and feces, clearing one's nose, cou...

I've been reading a book about "how gentility became a thing in colonial America and during the 19th century". Interesting book. But anyway, the autho...

Fresco, dear, lots of us are atheists, but recognize that "religion" is 100% real, even though the gods are not. Of the 7+billion people on earth, at ...

I am not sure that "reason" is the right word here. The contents of your mind include the capacity to look at and reflect on the contents of your mind...

Which is, of course, what we are all trying to do. Can we do it? One of the great limitation in sharing our minds, mental life, inner being... with ot...

Well done. Premature withdrawal is not an option. You can't leave. Your participation will endure, like it or not, so you might as well stay and be ac...

Maybe "Who could imagine that they would freak out somewhere on The Philosophy Forum" (instead of somewhere in Kansas). Up with Zappa. https://www.you...

@"T Clark" Self-knowledge is real knowledge, though it is knowledge that only the subject person can possess in detail, and introspection is the essen...

Slave dealing was not a problem for the Jewish authorities until some point which I can't identify, just now. Slavery was during some OT periods was q...

Everyone who can use Google can do it. I encountered this biblical material back in 1978, particularly in the book, Is the Homosexual my Neighbor? by ...

Good observation. Thanks.

Christians could make some progress in that direction by recognizing that Jesus had a penis himself, and probably employed it in activities besides ur...

Yes, there are many flavors of Christianity, everything from Mormons to Old Calendar Bulgarian Orthodox; and a lot of members -- 2.4 billion, give or ...

And even when everybody agrees that there is a boundary, and the boundary is extremely visible (river, big fence) people can't / won't agree on what i...

I agree with you, I think we're going to have a very wretched time of it. Perhaps the economic system will freeze up again and not be thawed out. Almo...

@"banno": So what are the arrangements for local government in Australia? How is power to carry on local stuff apportioned? When (if) was power apport...

@"banno" Far-flung empires that exist to exploit the territories for the benefit of the central state (Rome, and then the Italian Peninsula) wouldn't ...

I don't think there is much validity in comparisons between the Roman Empire and the United States. The Roman Empire's history has no particular paral...

I'm not certain that de novo proto-living forms could not arise now, are not arising now, and are developing towards sustainable life-forms, but it se...

Heraclitus nailed it beyond the range of what was perceptible to him, he who had neither microscope nor telescope. What about Parmenides? Good thing t...

Translation and age of the text is a separate issue, altogether. But just in English, some writers in past periods (Edwardian, Victorian, Georgian...)...

Amen

I assume you are an educated person, like most of us here. Educated, one way or another. Would you rather read philosophy (or pedagogical theory, soci...

This difficulty is near and dear to me. Your title demonstrates the concept: Obfuscatory Discourse is an example of obfuscatory discourse. :wink: The ...

Tbh, it's an important question whether he believes a lot (or any) of the stupid shit he says, but a commentator today on NPR noted that while preside...

Despite all this devolution, stupidity, idiocy, and so on, YOU managed to overcome all. Why are you not one of the many devolved, degenerate morons? T...