By copy I mean a copy of another work of art. If I take a photo of a van Gogh painting, that photo is obviously not a work of art and I’m not an artis...
Bad art is a product that is created without skill and originality, but still with enough originality to qualify as art (not a mere copy). If I draw a...
The new and original idea happens in the creative moment of the work of art. You don’t have to be an artist to come up with a new subject matter. If I...
I mean all of the above. They all have very little to do with artistic creativity. You can have a great technique and still be a lousy artist. Anyone ...
That was not quite what I meant. Originality does not at all require that a new genre of art is invented every time an artist goes to work. It’s perfe...
Expression of human consciousness? That would be pretty much any human action that is not performed as a result of a mere instinct. Any utterance, eve...
I also assume you mean good moral agents. A moral agent is any rational being, and I doubt anyone would argue that increasing the number of people is ...
“Moral” and “right” are synonymous. The right thing to do is always the moral thing to do. The reason for the confusion that leads to this question be...
By an ethical system I simply mean whatever ethics a person supports. It can even be completely individual; that person being the only one in the worl...
I didn’t say they should be punished. I don’t care if they are punished or not. What’s important is to acknowledge that they are doing something moral...
Sorry, I misunderstood you. I thought your “just cuz” was supposed to indicate an emotional reaction. Anyway, A+B=B+A is an axiom that’s not derived f...
It’s exactly because it’s valid from an object standpoint that it can be called a demand. It’s not my subjective understanding of what is happening to...
Of course the demands must correspond to a broader understanding of reality. Any ethical system worthy of the name is based on a perceived truth. I wo...
If people agree that it is an ethical requirement to act in a certain way, the demand has achieved its purpose. All precepts of negative ethics are de...
There’s no reason to equate negative ethics with rule ethics. Whenever I judge that for whatever reason you would be doing something morally wrong if ...
The point was to show that I’m basing my argument on something more than just “this is something I just feel like” or “just because”. I start with a p...
Of course they’re doing nothing commendable by their passivity. I have already said that such a passive life is not a virtuous and moral life. It only...
The first premise of the argument is not a random belief. It’s something so obvious that everyone agrees on it. (And if they don’t you can go even fur...
Having said that the utterly passive life is not a moral life, implies that it has a negative impact on the world. But you can’t pinpoint exactly what...
There’s never an independent third-party judge to settle anything, but that doesn’t mean we can’t make objectively reasonable arguments. Imagine two s...
Of course we can say there is something that justifies our beliefs. Whenever we make a philosophical argument attempting to be rational and logical, t...
The procreational decision would be much the same as any other well-meaning act that also may cause collateral damage, wouldn’t it? The only differenc...
From the outset, we can’t demand that anyone does anything, but we can demand that they abstain from doing. The ideal amount of suffering that a perso...
Not only are there many words that defy a clear definition, most words do. (Even very simple words. What’s the exact difference between a shoe and a b...
Ownership can unambiguously exist only when it is defined and protected by the state through its laws. But let’s say the state dissolved itself or abo...
Yes, that’s what I’m saying. Nothing can have intrinsic value, it’s nonsensical, I don’t even know what it would mean. Something is supposed to have v...
You set up two possibilities: Life having intrinsic value (it being sacred) or life having value through merit (for society at large). My purpose (and...
I’d say: Life has no intrinsic value and its value is not based on merit either. “Value” always means that something is appreciated by something else ...
Populism is nothing new. In any election anywhere in the Western world there have always been attempts at exploiting the simplicity of the voters by i...
Those are the formal demands at the moment (at first it was only the extradition issue) but obviously such dry formalities alone could not ignite this...
Why are they demonstrating in Hong Kong when defeat is certain? The Chinese government will soon step in and crush the uprising, and then nothing will...
Progress means improvement, that something gets better. Human progress in general means that human life in general gets better. The only thing that ca...
You shouldn’t call people just anything. They like to be called by a name they like. That’s true, but there’s a big difference between addressing some...
We may question if the behavior of crows and other animals can really be called rational, and if it can, it may be possible to construct an alternativ...
I suppose when you’re asking what something is like, you’re asking about its essential characteristics. Humans come in different colors, black, white ...
I’m not so concerned about what a person is and whether a fetus is a person. Whatever name you give it, it doesn’t change the argument. It’s enough to...
Exactly, it does imply that. Terminally ill people are less valuable because they don’t have any potential. If you were forced two kill one person, ei...
Usually the mother will give birth to the baby unless she does something actively to abort it or it gets aborted by itself. Do you think she can just ...
Eggs and sperm don’t have a potential for anything in particular. They are like bricks that can be used for anything or nothing. There would be nothin...
Life, like anything else, does not really have value for what it is, but for what it will be. The only reason our lives have value is because we expec...
Johnson may have been nominated by the Tory MPs, but since the ultimate responsibility was out of their hands, they don’t have any strong allegiance t...
No, the diminishing sense of party loyalty is not just about Brexit. It’s clearly seen regarding other issues as well, and in both parties. The Labour...
No, the hung parliament is not the problem since many conservative MPs have also voted against the various deals proposed by May and Johnson. In the o...
How odd that parliament could pass a law that forced the prime minister to act against his deepest conviction. Has that ever happened before? Usually ...
If a phenomenon is found in pretty much all cultures and more or less all human beings seem to have it, there is strong reason to believe that it is n...
It depends on how generally or particularly you express the inclination in question. The wish for a maple tree in the front yard is a particular incli...
You behave morally (according to your own moral system) because you have already decided that it’s the right thing to do. You do what you think is rig...
If there is no similarity between a transgression and the punishment for it, how can it be anything but arbitrary? How many years of imprisonment is e...
All forms of punishment are bad since they don’t fit the crime. What kind of basic sense of justice would suggest that a certain crime, robbing a bank...
Objectifying other people normally means that we undervalue their likeness with ourselves. We probably assume that they are thinking and feeling being...
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