mcdoodle

I think we mutually consent to a highly-developed system of justice, and the 'fairness' we expect of justice runs deep in us: you can hear young child...

I'm looking again at Wittgenstein's Blue Book, just a reminder of how it begins if you're interested: ' WHAT is the meaning of a word? Let us attack t...

I hope Invizzy can afford a Sam Harris ticket, I believe he's a fan!

The plausible is not the true. I feel much conversation hinges on plausibility not truth. And the pleasure of fiction seduces us by being plausible......

I can't say I agree with that. Someone who says that the aesthetic doesn't matter isn't making an aesthetic claim, they're claiming that aesthetics la...

I would. I'll be reading that in mid-Feb if all goes according to plan.

This would make a great premiss for a novel, by the way. The quiet decent woman who discovers she can disclose the inner Bitch Monster after the right...

I'm not going to pop up with anything pronto on that front. I'm attending a course of lectures starting tomorrow, so it may be March before I even hav...

The one extra thing I'd add is that Habermas isn't much read by us Anglo-Americans, and so far I only know his stuff mostly second-hand, but he does h...

I think 'insulated' is too strong, but I created a buffer-zone. I hit rock bottom, and from then I started looking for other things to care about - th...

As a non American ... :) Mine was a political moment, during the 1997 election in the UK, when I felt I realized that a really small number of people ...

The questions can spiral inwards a bit though if one uses the word 'exists'. For some reason when I hear the word 'exists' I reach inside my space-tim...

I do agree. The next bit of my journey is to see whether there's anything in the suggestion that this is rather like what Heidegger was worrying about...

I hope someone in this thread will explain the importance of truth. As a latecomer to philosophy, I still haven't grasped why it matters so centrally....

I suppose I am rather basic and haven't outgrown Wittg-ness. Metaphysically we encounter resemblance and difference. From these we build. How we class...

If a 'universal' physical property exists, where does it exist?

In my not-so-brilliant career as a writer of fiction and drama, I did as a self-reflective person enjoy inserting meta-fictional references. Who can c...

Sorry, RN, there is a failure of tone, which must be mine. I wasn't meaning to be accusatory, but to be friendly but wry, hence the randy Newman song....

Well I suppose so. I was attempting to tease you into lightening up the argument really. I quoted Randy Newman in the rest of my post, I think to say ...

I found 'Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind' illuminating - in a way - in relation to this brassier paper, and that's what I think Street or anothe...

I was just in Scotland, an appropriate place for Hogmanay, Hi jamalrob, did I pass near you on my way to and from Edinburgh? Happy New Year to the for...

Can you reasonably mix appeals to 'fairness' with 'emotiveness'? If I invented a species, I must say I'd expect them to have done better with their br...

Who runs Syria is none of 'our' business. Massive humanitarian aid to neighbouring countries, a welcome to refugees and the services of skilful diplom...

Thanks to both Willow and Aaron. I need time to reflect on all this. Happy Christmas.

I see that this is your case, and is a case that can be argued. (a) I don't see how Brassier argues this without your help :) (b) I don't see how you'...

Here's my favourite Christmas song, from Tom Lehrer. Best to all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtZR3lJobjw

Has this discussion finished? Perhaps it's only me who went on to read and reread Sellars' essay 'Empiricism and the philosophy of mind'. I'm left wit...

Bah humbug. I live in the Pennines, we had two white Christmasses in a row in 2010/11 if memory serves. I like it when it happens, walking out in the ...

I think it's useful to try and generalise about what what impels the human being to act. Why does one try to act at all? And if one does, to what end?...

In my experience when people describe themselves as becoming more right-wing, they often have to posit some sort of imaginary leftist position that th...

Thank you for your generous remarks. You are always remarkably calm in the face of angry naturalism, I must say :) I don't find a 'realistic or natura...

For me though this is an example of how a term like 'islamofascist' is more descriptive of the society generating the term than of the movement it's t...

Well, on the Aristotelian model one cultivates the habits of virtue by doing virtuous acts. One learns to live well by doing the things that enable a ...

If I implied this momentary notion, I didn't mean to. Aristotle expressly argues that the state of character is accumulated over a lifetime, and is ca...

I agree. Aristotle argues for a 'mean' as the 'virtuous' act, and for me there's also a mean in the taking of pleasure. A 24-hour marathon of Schubert...

Well, I think my and John's experience differs from yours: perhaps we're a lot older :) I think the question of 'caring' about something is what we're...

I agree. This has happened to me and I feel anything but pride in it. I find prose fiction in general terrifically hard to enjoy - I used to write it,...

Thanks a lot Glahn. It's time I read more Sellars. I was by the way using the word 'scientific' in a rather broad way to embrace human empirical curio...

I'd like to add a metaphysical point I've been thinking about. One thing that has occasionally puzzled me, as an avowed and happy-to-be-atheist atheis...

It does seem that scientific method needs some universalising terms, whatever you call them. 'Tropes' seems to be in fashion. You have to be able to '...

I'm glad AaronR has joined the discussion because one issue that may be a side-issue - but which trips me up here - is how the very idea of language t...

Thanks to Aaron for the blog link which I'm surprised nobody has picked up on. Sorry I've been away but am catching up.

That the greatest good is living well is Aristotle's focus in ethics. For him good is grounded in acting with excellence and with virtue, over the cou...

He's at least a fine one :) We embrace the predicament, and reinvent it as pleasure. I too think, a propos the op, you can't prove a negative. But who...

If I could return us to the Brassier essay... Aaron kindly directed me, the other week, to an essay that I think relates to the Brassier project. It's...

A lot hinges on how one feels about David Stove and his Gem as applied to Berkeley. (These are paras 31 and 32 of C & O) It does seem to me that one w...

I posted a very bare summary of what I think the article is about here: http://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/155/what-the-hell-is-ray-brassier-try...

I'm not clear if your intention is that we should begin discussion here, or over there, where the 'reading' thread is. I'm ignorant of Brassier's work...

And yet (I hope you'll all pardon me for jumping in) if we go back to the point of this thread, the meaning of human suffering, its causes and if any ...

We can be considerate, in these bleak times, towards each other, including the women among us who probably get put off posting by sexist crap.