Andrew4Handel

I think normal when it applies to humans is based on problematic teleological conceptions. For example a heart has a function so a heart can behave no...

I don't see how it can be irrelevant. If you claim pleasure is good then fail to give a reason for this claim then it is foundationless My example is ...

I don't think Mill justified the concept of a higher pleasure. But that is not what I was referring two. Higher and Lower pleasures were invented to p...

I agree with this. I think the idea of a utilitarian calculation is problematic for various reasons. I don't think pleasure and pain are similar thing...

How do you know that?

I agree with you. But I don't know where that is. I don't know where I am in the universe or in a body or a material word. We are probably on separate...

I don't know what you mean here. Are you saying that life and mind are not emergent properties and or that they preexist basic matter? What is getting...

I don't think life and mind have anything in common. I don't believe that most life has mind or is conscious, most notably plants and also amoeba,bact...

I am one of six children. I am the 4th of six children my parents had and this is who I am aware of being. Other specifics include being male and born...

Where is that?

I have raised a similar issue to this myself. It is a location issue. Where am "I" located and how? I don't believe I am identical with my brain but I...

I agree that why we are the specific person or consciousness we are is a deep puzzle. How do you come to inhabit this one particular conscious sphere ...

I think creating a new child is endorsing the world as it is. That means endorsing the good and bad things. You are exposing your child to all the dyn...

If we are going to give the parents the "No Free Will" type get-out-clause for reproducing it should be applied every persons every action. However it...

Parents are the immediate cause of children, The big bang is a hypothesised, remote, insufficient cause. Causality has played a big role in science. W...

The unexamined life is not worth living. The problem with not realistically examining the causal ramifications of parents actions is building a fake s...

Some people claim everything started at a big bang moment. The truth is existence starts when our parents create us. Then we grapple with existence.

Some people are here because their parents condom split. From thence the profundity of life. I go more for Freudian explanations

Questions occur once you start to exist. They appear not to have answers. But as I say, underlying these questions is the nature of our parents bringi...

I think to many dialogues academic and social ignore the role of parents in creating existence and societies. It is a long time since we could claim t...

Well yes probably. The kind of philosophy we do is answering questions left unanswered by our parents. What is meaning of life, what is morality and s...

The problem is that they can't all simultaneously be true. I suppose any religion or ideology could contain some isolated truths but as a whole belief...

I suppose one person could be right in his or her view of reality. There might be right answer but we don't know it. I don't think any of the mainstre...

I do feel solipsistic and think the nature of consciousness is solipsistic. So not so much one of many life stories but the center of some kind of gam...

I think if there is a difference it is in attitude, where someone loves a parent and is grateful to them and has a fulfilling life so they don't feel ...

I think the problem is more with their personalities. I never believed in the religion the way they did and I spent 17 years in the same church and co...

I didn't understand that entirely. I think the problem is that your parents probably aimed their parenting towards you but had no idea who the real yo...

They should have parenting classes along with commonsense classes.

I find it hard not to feel coerced. It seems hard to be free when you do not feel like you chose this life or your parents. Some antinatalists use the...

That sounds like social studies in the UK. I didn't do that. We had a one lesson about the welfare system from our craft and design teacher which aske...

I think we are forced into existence and I think there needs to be a really good reason to do that. When we realise we exist then we have an array of ...

I think the difference between someones responsibility for a crime and someones responsibility for creating a child is that the parent creates an exis...

We weren't taught parenting in school. But you could become a parent when you hit puberty. We were taught about contraceptives though. I am not sure w...

I get the impression people do not want to accept this, so there is less burden on those choosing to have children because they can distance them selv...

I think holding the right people accountable for things is possibly the most important part of rationality. If you consider accurate causal attributio...

I think it is possible to completely refute a claim someone makes. For example if someone says: "All men are Mortal. Socrates is a man. Socrates is im...

So what are these new traits humans have?

If any one wants to read a thorough refutation of everything Rand said in her facile and risible essay "The Objectivist Ethics" You can find one here:...

I do not think evolution is an entity that can make decisions rather it is posited to be a process of change. I think the idea that evolution weeds ou...

I am by no means suggesting philosophers or intelligent people per se are superior. Rather I am asking whether it is a difficult subject making it ina...

Is that because it is hard? When I started the thread I was just thinking to myself how it is a bit absurd to engage in some of these abstract argumen...

If Ayn didn't love wealth why did she characterise people as looters and parasites if they tried to redistribute wealth from the wealthy? She associat...

What conclusion a person draws from philosophy is problematic. Some peoples philosophising leads them to dark conclusions. I don't know if the most fa...

Because that is its fundamental methodology. I don't see how philosophy can develop from parroting other peoples ideas and indeed that is responsible ...

Where is your evidence of this? The pursuit of wealth is based on self love. Your are just giving propaganda for her over what she actually says and n...

How? I would prefer to have a sad life but see poverty end in my lifetime. I don't value my own happiness above all other moral concerns by any other ...

The problem with sentience is suffering

Why doesn't philosophy cause independent thinking?

Thanks for those links.

Take into consideration that Ayn said, "The achievements of his own happiness is mans highest moral purpose." So not helping others, being nice,caring...