Suffering is indeed objectively bad, since nothing else can possibly be bad and the very meaning of bad is in suffering. Whenever you deem something t...
Although correct, it is somewhat superfluous to make such a statement, at least if it is meant to be an observation about how humans behave. Human bei...
I think we both have a pretty good understanding of what the word “chair” means. We rarely confuse the object it refers to with something else, and if...
Of course we already have an understanding of what the words mean. (I wrote that sentence without consulting a dictionary.) It is only when we want to...
How interesting. That means you think differently. You must think that animals have a rich mental life. Maybe cows form secret societies, have a well-...
Killing a human being means killing a unique life, a unique consciousness and unique hopes and dreams. An animal seems quite similar to other animals ...
The “art” part in the “art of rhetoric” probably serves the same function as in “the art of building”, “the art of war”, “the art of the deal” which h...
The word “speciesism” is modeled after “racism” and “sexism” and refers to the belief that one’s own kind is inherently better and more valuable than ...
The right thing to do has nothing to do with the law. The standard example would be helping Jews to escape the Nazis. Would you say it was wrong to he...
Let’s construct a relativist argument even an objectivist would seem to agree with: “Joe thinks it is right for him to study philosophy, therefore it ...
What do you actually mean by “A is right for Joe”? Do you mean “Joe thinks A is right and therefore I think Joe should do A” or do you mean “I think J...
I don’t see why that would cause a problem for the definition. OP states thatand in your example there is clearly some evaluation You evaluate that bo...
I certainly hope there are more moral objectivists than relativists here, since moral relativism effectively means the belief there is no morality. If...
Denmark works for the interest of ethnic Danes inside Germany. Iceland has lobbied to secure its fishing right with the EU. Deals have been made and d...
To say that something is free is not quite the same as saying it has no rules and boundaries. To be free is to be able to move according to one’s incl...
You seem to take the large social perspective on the origin of morality, as if there was once a lawgiver who could view a culture from above before th...
Meddling means espionage and manipulation, and all countries engage in those activities, especially the big powers. Do you think that it doesn’t exist...
Everyone is meddling. When you know that as a starting point there is not much to be morally upset about every time it happens. The Russians, the Amer...
You mean from the standpoint of an ethical egoist? A complete egoist would of course only try to impact others when he sees the opportunity to persona...
Yes, there are billions of them, myself included. But when we do it consciously, we always make sure we still have some access to reality. People take...
The reason we reject the experience machine is still about pleasure. If we lived in an unreal world, our pleasure wouldn’t be real either and so it wo...
If the harm they choose is indeed a lesser harm, it is not a matter of self-harm at all. We do that all the time. A student goes through the pain of d...
At a given moment people may seemingly want to hurt themselves, and since people do it all the time, that appears to be good evidence for what they wi...
Self-harm is definitely immoral. In fact, it is as immoral as harming others. Why? Well, why should we bother to be moral at all? If we assume for the...
It’s easy to observe that the general moral view of society is often in harmony with the view of those in power. That could be a chicken and egg obser...
Do you always agree with the views of those in power? Do you automatically change your opinions as the dominant forces in society change? Would you ha...
Philosophy, as opposed to the sciences, is pure thinking, and the purest pure thinking within philosophy is metaphysics. Metaphysics does not have any...
I’m again trying to make you answer my question. People from the Middle East suffer from racism in Europe and North America. Or do you deny that? If s...
People would continue to discriminate people of different skin colors and differences in appearance that indicate that their origin (their own or thei...
That is a good point actually, but the argument works in my favor. There are no words for the subdivisions of the white race, but there is certainly r...
There is no difference between ethics and morality. One is Greek and the other is Latin, the latter being a translation of the former. The terms are u...
The psychologist wouldn’t necessarily have to ask a question about the exact issue at hand to make a qualified assumption. After having gotten to know...
No person, woman, man or any other kind of rational being, wishes to be treated like an object. I could say that without much understanding of anythin...
Socrates would in many cases use the word “to know” without necessarily employing it in a strictly literally sense. We use it in much the same way, ex...
In a case like this, where inaction is given as a definite choice at a definite moment, inaction is no different from action. You can’t choose not to ...
It would be interesting to hear you defend either ethical system. Of course it’s a piece of cake to put a label on something and claim that it’s somet...
Any action that represents a good thing to do is virtuous if it is done for the right reason, that is without an ulterior motive. A morally virtuous a...
IN REALITY some people look like their ancestors came from sub-Saharan Africa, some seem to be of European descent and some of East-Asian. Is that rel...
How can we stop racism if we don’t talk about it? What would it have been like if it wasn’t mentioned that Floyd was black? “A man with dark hair wear...
We notice that a person looks as if his ancestors came from sub-Saharan Africa. We notice that a person looks Chinese. (He could be Japanese, Vietname...
It is natural to have words for phenomena that are clearly noticeable since then it’s possible to talk about what we see. We notice there is a general...
That was a rhetorical question. I’m sure is against private individuals who dislike people because of their skin color, and I’m sure he would want to ...
How can your narrow definition “manifest systemic discrimination” be a clarification of what racism is? A lonely white man sitting isolated in his hom...
We must distinguish between the method of reaching an idea of what the objective truth might be and objective truth itself. Sure, critical consensus i...
It is not a good idea to give a restricted definition of a word that intuitively has a broader definition. What would you call personal racism if “rac...
Why is the title referring to systemic racism in particular and not just racism in general? The Floyd murder (which I assume is the background for thi...
Rights are not given by God, nor are they self-evident and eternal in the way moral precepts may be. One may argue that the ten commandments are given...
That is probably referring to the scientific method. That would be the practical meaning of objectivity. A common reference point is sufficient in our...
It is certainly not a position. It is not even a view. Your “objectivity” is one of ever-changing perspectives, is it? It’s a mixture of meaning from ...
Looking at the etymology of this word can only lead us astray. Why a certain sound has come to represent a certain concept is philologically interesti...
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