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Matias

['Member']Joined: June 06, 2019 at 08:35Last active: November 14, 2023 at 14:0717 discussions68 comments
Location: Freiburg / Germany

Bio

I studied philosophy and languages at the University, and I have been working as a bookseller and editor.
My pet topic is (theory of) evolution and its application to the social sciences.

Favourite Philosopher

Spinoza, Schopenhauer, Richard Rorty, Daniel Dennett

Favourite Quotations

"Aus so krummem Holze, als woraus der Mensch gemacht ist, kann nichts ganz Gerades gezimmert werden" (Immanuel Kant)

("Out of the crooked timber of which man is made, nothing entirely straight can be built")

Discussions (17)

Markus Gabriel

December 25, 2020 at 08:30 5 comments General Philosophy

Comments

In: Is it possible to be morally wrong even if one is convinced to do the right thing?  — view comment
After all, Aristotle, one of the most enlightened and smart persons of Antiquity, argued that slavery was natural and normal. We can assume that this ...
October 06, 2022 at 07:42
In: Is there an objective/subjective spectrum?  — view comment
Between the subjective and the objective, there is the sphere of the social or intersubjective reality. Entities which belong to this domain are mind-...
October 05, 2022 at 14:18
In: How Objective Morality Disproves An All-Good God  — view comment
I'd say that there are good arguments against the idea of moral realism and moral facts, but introducing God in this question just muddies the waters.
October 05, 2022 at 13:36
In: Is "evolutionary humanism" a contradiction in terms ?  — view comment
There is no need of a quotation from MSS or any other humanist. The American Declaration of Independence talks about the "self-evident truth" of inali...
October 03, 2022 at 20:53
In: Is "evolutionary humanism" a contradiction in terms ?  — view comment
No, of course MSS's "humanism" has nothing to do with the humanism of, say, Erasmus of Rotterdam or Pico della Mirandola. But atheist humanists like M...
September 28, 2022 at 14:21
In: On Antinatalism  — view comment
If you had read my post (not only the title) you would have seen that the content and the arguments are different from those made in the context of "a...
September 01, 2019 at 09:05
In: On Antinatalism  — view comment
Why? Because of climate change? Or because you put someone into a world that is doomed? Or do you think that human life is bound to be full of miserie...
September 01, 2019 at 08:50
In: On Antinatalism  — view comment
Thanks for the warm welcome. -- Do you really expect newbies to scroll through thousands of thread titles to check if the this topic has already been ...
September 01, 2019 at 08:43
In: Objective Morality vs Subjective Morality  — view comment
Recently I had a little discussion with somebody who claimed that morality comes from within and that it is (therefore) totally subjective. I think th...
August 20, 2019 at 08:35
In: Do we need objective truth?  — view comment
Truth and objectivity are not the same thing. One can arrive at true theories in a non-objective way. Indeed, one can hit upon the truth purely at ran...
June 28, 2019 at 20:11
In: Why do we need free will  — view comment
We do not need free will but the illusion of it. We are living as human being in moral communities, and we have to ascribe to other people not only ag...
June 26, 2019 at 15:49
In: E.M. Cioran Aphorism Analysis  — view comment
Alors.. here's an aphorism: "Il est impossible d'être jugé par quelqu'un qui a moins souffert que nous. Et comme chacun se croît un Job méconnu..." (D...
June 25, 2019 at 15:40
In: Basis of Ethics  — view comment
The distinction between morality and ethics is: morality is about specific rules how members of a given society or community should (not) behave. Exam...
June 25, 2019 at 08:15
In: How to combat suicidal thoughts?  — view comment
I can relate to what you wrote. I have been suicidal since my compulsory military service (1986-87!), which really knocked me out mentally. It is an o...
June 24, 2019 at 16:00
In: What is "modernity" ?  — view comment
True, but could it be the combination of linear time plus the conception of God as object (no longer subject of the world and all its events) that ini...
June 24, 2019 at 09:58
In: What is "modernity" ?  — view comment
According to Gavin Hyman (the quote in the OP is from his book) this is a misconception, because the linear time was already dominant during the Middl...
June 24, 2019 at 09:18
In: Can humanism be made compatible with evolution?  — view comment
I guess that "the other poster" is me? I never claimed that Humanism per se is bound to do this, only "Evolutionary humanism" which is the topic of my...
June 24, 2019 at 09:05
In: Can humanism be made compatible with evolution?  — view comment
If you take certain capacities of Homo sapiens as your base for human dignity or human rights, you 'll into troubled waters when a person does not hav...
June 24, 2019 at 08:52
In: Can humanism be made compatible with evolution?  — view comment
As I said in my OP: there is a movement called "Evolutionary humanism" and in Germany it is the dominant philosophy/ideology among atheist humanists.
June 24, 2019 at 08:42
In: What is "modernity" ?  — view comment
Thanks for your comment. Very interesting !
June 23, 2019 at 19:31
In: Can humanism be made compatible with evolution?  — view comment
Are you trying to gather as many points as possible, or why are you posting single words and half-sentences instead of arguments? These threads are al...
June 23, 2019 at 15:46
In: What is the difference between God and Canada?  — view comment
All of this and more. Everything that is so to speak tagged with the idea "Canada". It is this mental tag that makes all the rivers, hills, prairies, ...
June 22, 2019 at 16:00
In: Should some questions in philosophy remain unanswered?  — view comment
That is a pretty good aphorism! Is it yours ? That reminds me of something I read a few days ago: "Philosophers have been profoundly wrong on alomst e...
June 22, 2019 at 15:49
In: Is belief in the supernatural an intelligent person’s game?  — view comment
Well put! That reminds me of one of the central ideas in the work of Yuval Harari: "We are repeatedly told these days that we are living in a new and ...
June 22, 2019 at 15:43
In: Is belief in the supernatural an intelligent person’s game?  — view comment
If you assume that religious belief is the game of the stupid, you are mistaken. Some of the brightest minds of humanity are and have been religious, ...
June 22, 2019 at 10:38
In: Subject and object  — view comment
Are all things either objective or subjective? No. This distinction may be sufficient for everyday use. But when we want to explain a cultural phenome...
June 21, 2019 at 19:12
In: Can humanism be made compatible with evolution?  — view comment
Of course: morality is a feature that is the result of evolutionary processes and mechanisms, but that does not mean that the process and its mechanis...
June 21, 2019 at 19:03
In: Can humanism be made compatible with evolution?  — view comment
Yes, humanists value human beings in a way they do not value other animals, but they are unable to justify this special treatment if they base their p...
June 21, 2019 at 18:59
In: Can humanism be made compatible with evolution?  — view comment
Humanists believe in the unique value of the individual human being, in human dignity. These are fictions like other religious fictions, they are "sup...
June 21, 2019 at 18:52
In: Can humanism be made compatible with evolution?  — view comment
If this were true, morality would have gone extinct, would have disappeared long ago. But Homo sapiens is an inherently moral animal, moral rules and ...
June 21, 2019 at 18:52
In: Can humanism be made compatible with evolution?  — view comment
I wrote in my OP about humanism; you wrote about human nature. The two are neither synonyms nor are they connected in such a way that the one could be...
June 20, 2019 at 19:37
In: Can humanism be made compatible with evolution?  — view comment
How can humanism be amoral? As I said: if 100 wildebeests die in a flod, that is just nature, but if 100 human beings die (for example refugees drowni...
June 20, 2019 at 16:24
In: Are objectivity and truth the same?  — view comment
That answers come in grades. There are good, better and best answers, and we can strive to refine, to improve our answers, whereas truth is all-or-not...
June 20, 2019 at 16:08
In: Is there something like progress in the philosophical debate?  — view comment
All these movements have their proximate origins in the US (in the "civil rights movement" as well as in the Sixties with all those ideas about "empow...
June 20, 2019 at 16:02
In: Is the Political System in the USA a Monopoly? (Poll)  — view comment
I do not think that the term "monopoly" makes sense in the political sphere. If there is one person or party in power, we call it autocracy or dictato...
June 19, 2019 at 16:01
In: Are objectivity and truth the same?  — view comment
Are these your ideas or is there some source? I simply haven't the foggiest what this could mean :-)
June 19, 2019 at 15:55
In: Are objectivity and truth the same?  — view comment
The problem is that your sentences do not say anything that could in any sense be considered valid in the contect of my OP. You say that there is no o...
June 19, 2019 at 15:39
In: Are objectivity and truth the same?  — view comment
My impression is that you are contradicting my posts and comments just for the fun to be able to contradict somebody. What is your point? That "to dou...
June 19, 2019 at 08:36
In: Are objectivity and truth the same?  — view comment
OK, so you are taking offense at the metaphor "to stand back from X"? How do you call it when you hold a belief and then it occurs to you "I could be ...
June 18, 2019 at 19:45
In: Are objectivity and truth the same?  — view comment
I never claimed that there "are no perceptions or beliefs", but you can question your beliefs (and if you are unable or unwilling to do it, other peop...
June 18, 2019 at 16:31
In: Are objectivity and truth the same?  — view comment
I can assure you that it is possible. It is commonly called "critical thinking". Some people practice it ( I am among them) and some are even good at ...
June 18, 2019 at 16:26
In: Is there something like progress in the philosophical debate?  — view comment
I'd say that the difference between philosophy in the 19th century (and , say, the first half of the 20th too) and the situation today is that at that...
June 17, 2019 at 08:55
In: Is there something like progress in the philosophical debate?  — view comment
Sounds good, but what does this mean? Could you put some meat on these bones? Care to elaborate? When philosophers discuss "qualia" for decades withou...
June 16, 2019 at 16:10
In: Is there something like progress in the philosophical debate?  — view comment
I'd say that the times when professional philosophers defined their profession as "pursuit of wisdom" are long gone. Quine, Davidson, Sellars, Rorty, ...
June 16, 2019 at 15:53
In: What is the difference between God and Canada?  — view comment
You are correct: my post was written from the perspective of an atheist. I take it to be self-evident that the theistic deity, whatever its name may b...
June 15, 2019 at 10:22
In: What is the difference between God and Canada?  — view comment
Now that we have settled that and that you have seemed to understand that this thread is about (social) institutions and not names given to objects, b...
June 15, 2019 at 10:07
In: What is the difference between God and Canada?  — view comment
"In one common sense of "Canada," you certainly can see and touch and smell it." >> No, you cannot. People who claim to do so are deluded. What they c...
June 14, 2019 at 16:10
In: Is there such a thing as "religion"?  — view comment
Monopoly on truth, and contempt or hostility towards other religions is specific to monotheistic religions, not to religions in general. Adherents to ...
June 14, 2019 at 15:51
In: What is "cultural appropriation" ?  — view comment
But in this case the problem is not cultural appropriation, but economic exploitation. The problem is not that Whites adopted the music style of the B...
June 14, 2019 at 08:33
In: What is the difference between God and Canada?  — view comment
And you are ignoring the topic of this thread. The topic is not "how do we name objects?" (if - for the sake of argument - we'd call a piece of land a...
June 14, 2019 at 07:55
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