Thorongil

I didn't say I wanted to live in the Middle Ages exactly as it existed. And I'd rather not, and in fact, my plan for the future is to be independent a...

No we don't. Everything you mentioned is superfluous garbage. People need to read, think, and be compassionate. All else is howling in the void.

Bullshit.

I would add pornography to the list of the Internet's ills. Its effects, especially on young people, I think are being greatly understudied and undere...

Over the last couple of years I have become more pro-life, whereas before I had no strong opinions either way, although I leaned toward being pro-choi...

You must distinguish between "wanting" to have a diversity of thought and "allowing" for a diversity of thought. I'm all for the latter, but not the f...

The exchange of goods and services through the use of money.

That's much better. This is too vague. But this is impossible, There will always be some beliefs that dominate others, such as the belief that society...

If he voluntarily found the Christian system true, then he was not "strait-jacketed" into anything. Or would you rather him view things through the pr...

But why narrow? You are assuming in advance that Christianity is untrue, so that if someone like Augustine formally turns away from Neoplatonism and t...

Would you be willing to share what those are?

I don't know what you mean. I wasn't trying to be sarcastic. I just didn't know who you were referring to with your post. You appear to be talking abo...

Who, Augustine? How so?

You mean recommendations about Augustine? In his case, I would recommend simply reading the man himself. He's honestly one of best prose writers to ha...

I have found that there are those who have a religious sensibility and those who lack one. It's more to do with character, in other words, than with t...

That's Berkeley*.

Btw, if you highlight a piece of text, a quote button will appear and allow you to quote someone so it's clear who wrote what.

It was just a general comment. You'll notice it wasn't directed toward anyone in particular.

I'd say most people think this, sadly. As David Harvey says, the current economic system is predicated on 3% annual growth forever, which is impossibl...

I meant the industrialized world and the aspirations of the developing world, summarized and spoken to in the second person, since I don't live or car...

None of those things have to do with climate change.

I think the bigger threat at the moment, which requires more urgent attention and resources given to it, is militant jihadism. Greens, and human being...

Hegel and Leibniz are the only "flamboyant" ones here to me. The other three are all careful immanentists. Hence, ignosticism. But if he has a "point"...

That vocabulary is really unintuitive to me. I suppose there may be a connection, but I shall have to take your word for it for now. Have you read any...

It's not really to do with epistemology per se. I will find and then send you my thoughts soon.

It seems to me that in denying meaning to moral terms, they deny it in an objective and subjective sense. Hedonism, as an ethical position that does t...

I suppose I get this. We're still talking about what the nihilist is committed to, right? And this is a problem for the nihilist, as you see it, corre...

Lol.

Okay, but the word reality is not the same as existence. I'm fine with degrees of reality, but not degrees of existence. The latter is nonsensical to ...

As a follow up, your question also reminds me that for some time I've had the thought that Aristotle may prove useful in further clarifying and possib...

Is that a comment or a rebuttal? I'm no fan of empiricism qua empiricism either.

Yes, the thing-in-itself. I have no idea what you're talking about here. The thing-in-itself? Yes, because it is outside the filter. This is a non-seq...

Not in any great depth. I remember long ago looking into him and not liking or agreeing with what I found. I've ignored him ever since.

The scare quotes can only impute metaphorical dualism to my position, not the real (Cartesian) thing. And objects exist just as much as the Ideas. I p...

Doesn't Aristotle conceive of matter as potency and form as act, though?

I'm afraid it's still a muddle to me. Thanks for trying at least.

I'm still not getting this distinction. What and where is "ethical pain/pleasure?"

It's in our nature to pursue our own interests, and the state provides a means of doing so, a better and more reliable means than the state of nature.

I think your question and then the options you present as answers are incongruous. Based on the latter, you seem to be asking what causes or gives ris...

Yes, but the exception of the masochist seems to contradict this. Are you saying that he may feel bodily (what I would call physical) pain but nonethe...

I don't know. A lot of SEP articles are ponderously dense and unreadable. Yeah, SEP tries to get experts to write them, but these people are in some c...

What is mental pleasure and how is it the same as physical pleasure?

I think he admits this, though.

I know not "seems," but only what "is." Or would prefer to. I've not read Peirce, so I don't know how he argues for what you're trying to say. I think...

I'm still not convinced. To feel pleasure in harming oneself means that the pleasure cannot be purely physical, or else, these words lose all meaning....

Just to chime in here, I think one can maintain realism with respect to universals without speaking of them as causes and, in fact, that it is logical...

But surely this underlines the binary I just pointed out, that there is a difference between acting out of self-interest and acting due to pleasure/pa...

But notice the binary you set up. I can understand the general claim that, under nihilism, nothing can matter except to the individual, but this need ...

Interesting, thanks. Perhaps a more useful book for me to look for would be one on early human societies.

Yes. What do you mean?