Thorongil

I would look at someone like Schopenhauer, who estranged himself from the academy, called his followers "disciples," and thought of his philosophy as ...

This has been historically the case until quite recently. Until the 19th century, most scientists were called, and called themselves, "natural philoso...

Correct. That's why I said the strong version is a claim about the nature of reality. All of this is impenetrable to me, I'm afraid. At the risk of re...

No, because I'm setting up the "there is no pain" to parallel the strong atheist claim that "there is no God," not the weak atheist claim. To say ther...

I know that the term neo-liberalism has come to refer to the ill-conceived economic policies of Thatcher, Reagan, and their ilk, but I think it's a bi...

No, I don't see why it would.

I don't understand this objection in the slightest. Do you have a subject connected to a predicate? Well, congratulations, you've just made a truth cl...

To suggest that the truth doesn't matter is itself a truth claim. Hence, it clearly does matter, otherwise, the person making such a claim would never...

I might also point out here that the weak forms of atheism and agnosticism reflect the psychological state of the individual. The strong versions are ...

No, it's not, and I have no idea why you would say such a thing. The following statement is either perfectly intelligible or it's not, and if it's not...

To "neither believe nor disbelieve" still amounts to a lack of belief. It's a re-statement of weak atheism.

The same way one could believe in Sasquatch without knowing whether it exists or not, e.g. "I don't know if Sasquatch exists or not, but I believe he ...

The difference lies in what one is talking about. Weak atheism is a position with respect to belief, which is perfectly compatible with agnosticism, w...

Nope, the agnostic claims that they have no knowledge that God exists. The Greek word gnosis means knowledge, while the prefix a is a negation. So the...

Except that it's not. A/theism deals with belief. A/gnosticism deals with knowledge. Belief and knowledge are not the same thing. Recognize this and y...

It doesn't much matter to me, so long as you use the labels right. I loathe all labels, especially political and religious labels, but they if they're...

You've just described two different types of atheist: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_and_positive_atheism No, it's a different type of the sam...

I quite like this distinction too, but the problem is that religions still require, and in my experience stress, notional assent over and against real...

Once again, atheism and agnosticism are answers to different questions. Do you have knowledge that God exists? No? Then you are an agnostic. Do you be...

Every single argument here is for deism and has been swatted down long ago. And the sheer number of them signifies desperation, not the strength of th...

This has always been my experience with philosophy. It also reminds me of things Ortega y Gasset said somewhere. Are you familiar with him?

Sounds like a road towards equivocation.

Into what?

Hmm, I think they would have too. I don't think this gets the hedonist out of the quandery. If the pursuit of pleasure is unpleasurable, one ought not...

I take hedonism to be a normative ethical system that purports to show one how to lead the good life. If it were merely descriptive, then whether one ...

I don't think so. I find most people do not critically examine the beliefs they purportedly hold, religious or otherwise. Much less are they even capa...

Seeing as 1) science has now repudiated biological notions of race, which has thus made inequality, whether in terms of wealth or intelligence, a func...

It also occurred to me that if you think geniuses are cultivated more in aristocratic societies, then how do you account for the Middle Ages? There ar...

With these lists, especially if they include writers of fictional prose and philosophers whose views one disagrees with, you can't judge based on your...

Einstein, Schrödinger, Plank, Bohr, Picasso, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, Orwell, Steinbeck, Eliot, off the top of my head.

How exactly do you conclude such a thing? Do you keep a running list?

Certainly, though that's a shame. Yes, but how is this any different from the same person being tempted by aristocratic privileges in a non-democratic...

I don't think any political system can ever be completely implemented, including democracies. They exist in various degrees of correspondence to the i...

That question is irrelevant. I'm speaking about what public perceptions were about whether it would or would not collapse soon and whether it could be...

We may just disagree on this point. I'm trying to say that there is such a thing as practical assent and that you exercise it in this case by speaking...

You're going to have to specify in what sense it was, for I think the consensus is that it was on the whole unexpected. There is always a certain segm...

Not necessarily. France went from being an absolute theocratic monarchy to a secular democratic state, almost over night. No one really expected in 17...

Humans are not so different from each other in the essentials. I feel the burden of proof rests with you to show that there are some people for whom d...

Syria's neighbors really ought to be doing these things, but they leave it to the West and then blame the West when things don't turn out right. How m...

Your judgments are far too premature. None of these states have been in existence for longer than a few decades at most. Western democracies are well ...

I disagree. Actions are determined to be moral based on the motives of the agent, which also happens to be the de facto operating principle of most cr...

BS. Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, and now Iraq beg to differ, and the Arab Spring shows that there is a popular groundswell of anti-authoritarian sentiment...

All of your options are already happening, BC. The international community has for quite some time, a part from air and drone strikes, let the Syrians...

I'm saying that the "should" here is implicit by the very act of your exercising such an ability in the first place. You agree in practice, in other w...

This has been a long thread, so perhaps I have missed it, but how exactly are you defining who is a "leftist" and "rightist?" I loathe these discussio...

I just want to point out that Agustino referenced Peter Hitchens, the brother of the late Christopher Hitchens. Peter was against the war in Iraq and ...

I included everyone in my statement, i.e. those who do and those who do not condemn other ways of life. My point, once again, is that the ability to f...

Yes, and they are often right to do so. I'm intolerant of intolerance and offended by offense taking. No idea is above scrutiny and no person beneath ...

Fair enough. I won't belabor the point. But at least you will know some of the reasons why I use the term, if you see me use it in the future.

The various Islamic caliphates of the past were not anything near the utopias they imagine them to be. Islamists would also be surprised and appalled ...