Banno

That's a bit of a misapprehension. Institutional facts are not mythical, transcendent or metaphorical. They are common everyday things like money, pro...

Yep. In a perhaps counterintuitive sense, determinism and free will are irrelevant to ethics, if ethics is considered as the study of what we ought do...

Yep. In recent work it is called Structural Rationality. To some extent it underpins my preference for virtue ethics over deontology. Deontology conce...

So what will you do about it? What will you do next? It remains that you must choose.

So if I've understood, what the ass does should not properly be called making a choice, because the ass does not indulge in ratiocination or deliberat...

Yep. I might add that, even if determinism is true, what we do next is still undone... and so we do not know what we will do. The choice remains to be...

:rofl:

So you think that S can intend that the utterance T will place him under an obligation, and utter T, but not thereby consider themself under an obliga...

, , back to spitting. You do not do yourself a service.

This is why I thought Apo's approach might appeal to you. I hope that I've shown that how things are is not sufficient to tell us how they might be, a...

So your claim is that things are thus-and-so and so must always be thus-and-so. But that does not tell us what to choose. At best it is to pretend tha...

They are not unrelated. But "naturalistic fallacy" is headed the way of "begging the question", losing its original meaning and so reducing our capaci...

You've made the claim. You have not presented a case. Nor have you shown why we ought adopt - what is it, a "powerlaw thermodynamic balance" over a "G...

That's not what I said. If "...it isn't clear to (you) what obligations are" and you do not think there are such things as obligations, then you are n...

"I did indeed promise to answer your question, but I am under no obligation to do so". You don't see this as problematic? Then I need provide no answe...

Sure. So what does thermodynamics tell us about the distribution of boxes? It seems to me that your description of how things are does not tell us how...

So this tells me only that you will not be held to your promises. OK. You are not a man of your word.

Do you think that one can sincerely say "I promise to answer you but I intend not to answer you". I'll let you work through it.

I drink Darjeeling, or Russian Caravan, ordered from my man in Melbourne.

I was waiting for that. The next rhetorical move, after abuse and ridicule, is to claim that you already answered the question. You still have not sho...

Ok. That's the pop understanding of "naturalistic fallacy". I'm not enamoured with the description of "nature red in tooth and claw", with the emphasi...

I don't want to know.

The linked paper sets out an account that shows how sometimes uttering "I promise to do this" is placing oneself under an obligation. They are not the...

Hmm. I'm wondering what you think the naturalistic fallacy is. It is not an appeal to nature. You probably agree, but I thought I'd check.

It's your thread, so your response is welcome. I would not describe myself as an "immaterialist". I've argued that what are sometimes called abstract ...

I'm sorry if the image shows you nothing. For others, it shows the difference between equal and fair. There is considerable literature on this topic -...

I've been thinking along similar lines since my last reply to Human actions are what we have control over, and so we ask what we should do. The only w...

Well, yes. Except that your rendering misses the direction of fit. That is, "I promise to answer you" places me under an obligation to answer you, and...

Try this: It seems that all of this might indeed be the case, and yet we still would not be able to say if the real world is fair and just, or if it i...

I'm happy for you to choose. After all, it's you who claim that they are relevant.

More spit. Can you explain, clearly, how it is that thermodynamics helps in understanding fairness?

More spit. Much as is to be expected on your history. Have you read the story of the emperor's new cloths? I think folk hereabouts are not too keen on...

That's all very clever, but tells me very little. Are you claiming that the difference between fair and equal is the same as the difference between a ...

Not something I recognise. Of course justice takes place in the world. I'm just pointing out that it is not obvious how thermodynamic considerations e...

Well, seems to me that the obligation exists beyond the act of making the promise. That is, to make a promise is to place oneself under an obligation....

So we ought only post arguments that make people feel good?

Meh. Your last dozen posts have had no philosophical content whatsoever. Mere invective. Here again is what I have argued: People make promises. There...

Not much here with which i might disagree. Certainly the ass will not starve, so it chooses.

The last word.

I've never denied the existence of "abstract objects" - although I would not use that term! You are very confused. See for example the thread on Searl...

Another half-statement from you, Your implication is that abstract objects do not exist. The backdrop here is presumably a belief that only physical o...

Frank, he said: Therefore he thinks there are no promises.

You are really not very good at this. I read the whole post, and chose the bit that was most ridiculous. Your claim is that there are no promises. Tha...

says there are no promises. Laugh and walk away.

That happens a lot.

Are you arguing that rationality consists in following rules?

Your approach here is quite obtuse. You appear to be pretending that going to this trough, rather than that, is not making a choice... An odd way to t...

Indeed. No "principle" led to choosing this trough and not the other.

Don't over egg your pudding. Which trough the beast heads towards is arbitrary, and a decision that must be made. Demonstrate why, rather than values ...

Algorithmic. Following an explicit rule. Or principle. Buridan's Ass will die unless it makes an arbitrary decision. So sometimes it is rational to ma...