Banno

The philosopher's job is more to help you in showing folk such as @"Gitonga" where they have been misled. He's far from the only one who mistakes powe...

On the contrary, it's not until you can see this distinction that you will begin to understand how statements in ethics differ from statements in, say...

A good rule of thumb is that moderators ought not delete or edit posts on threads in which they are active contributors.

Do you conclude that it is not morally correct to look after the mentally ill? I suspect not. Hence, what society prefers is not the very same as what...

The open question remains: Might it be wrong to give Gitonga what they needs=? Hence, what is good is not the same as what Gitonga needs.

The open question remains: Might public opinion be morally wrong? Hence, what is good is not the same as what is public opinion.

There are no unexpressed questions?

Sure. The OP is based on a misapprehension of how physics deals with causation, and hence the argument fails. But that will make no difference to its ...

Because one does not want one's beliefs to be challenged.

:up:

I agree. Hence,

With this, I have great sympathy. I compared it earlier to the compulsive tonguing of a broken tooth.

On a decent forum, folk would have immediately pointed out that the OP commits the naturalistic fallacy. It's indicative of a failure to undertake a w...

:up:

...and here is the gift the crackpot gives to the world. Occasionally.

I can sympathise with the appeal of setting out one's thinking systematically as a process of review and consolidation. I did something similar in my ...

@"Enai De A Lukal" mentioned whatabutism earlier. Further examples were not needed. This is a description of your personal psychological state. While ...

Neither. This is a loaded question. Have you stoped beating your wife?

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6f/CMB_Timeline300_no_WMAP.jpg/2560px-CMB_Timeline300_no_WMAP.jpg Well, no, that's not a pyrami...

Lies-to-children might be worthy of its own thread. The Wiki article is surprisingly good, and even references my favourite philosopher Terry Pratchet...

Well, no. "Every action has a cause" is not one of Newton's laws, nor is it implied by them. Indeed, the argument in the OP takes cause as read, ignor...

"obviously" is one of those words that philosophers look out for. It usually marks an assumption, often erroneous. There is a recurrent theme of late,...

It's just pleasing that having passed through fire and death Tully will still bandy crooked words with a witless worm.

:grin: Yes, indeed. Meta cannot see this.

Far more nuanced and interesting that other stuff hereabouts. Thanks.

Indeed; none of us understand, Meta. No one but you. Now, what does that imply?

What bullshit - and I mean this in the technical sense of self-serving disregard for the truth. I've seen that claim made in anti-evolution blogs. As ...

When one starts with the answer, philosophical discussion takes the form of the selection of suitable questions. Starting from God, Aristotelian physi...

:roll: What about a debate on the merits of two-stoke engines. I've no wish to debate a fool.

That's your fault; a failure to follow through. Your posts jump form topic to topic with gay abandon. No, if we are to debate, it will be on the argum...

I've learned plenty in previous debates - in a previous incarnation of this forum. Two aspects stood out to me; an improvement in the articulation of ...

If no one else will take on the task, then lets to it.

:up: Your tightening up of the mathematics is exemplary. The result will be to show in even greater relief that this is a thread about @"Metaphysician...

No; experience teaches me that such discussions are pointless, since those who pretend to argue against evolution are really only afeared for their co...

A debate with @"Devans99" would probably be a reenactment of the objections all ready voiced here; that his OP is based on an inaccurate understanding...

I'm not going to defend evolution here. It would be too far off-topic, in a thread where the main issue from my perspective is holding the theists to ...

It's curious how often the purveyors of fractured ceramics lack a grasp of the mathematics of infinity. @"Isaac", have you noticed this? Meta suffers ...

You've raised the topic of evolution a few times. Two things are worth noting about evolution. The first is that it happens. The second is that it is ...

Plato certainly thought they were real. I'm running the simple Wittgensteinian line that such metaphysical speculation is senseless. But... one must a...

As opposed to, say, what happens here? The discussions in these general forums rarely achieve any depth. There are simply too many interjections and d...

Indeed; and indeed, in doing so one find that the argument falls apart. Particularly, as we find out about causation, the causal chain breaks. One cur...

Locked down, I have ample time at present. It's a format I enjoy, and which would overcome the obvious shortcomings of general forums, well-shown in t...

Your posts have been interesting. The trouble is that they are merely speculation. We cannot talk sensibly about things prior to the BigBang; it is no...

:up: Good to see you again.

There is a debating feature on this forum. It does not get sufficient use. I would be happy to enter into a formal debate with anyone who is willing t...

Please see this post, in which I repeat an obvious argument that shows that "everything has a cause" is neither falsifiable nor provable. Hence, it is...

Hmmm. Supertasks are not impossible, Achilles can complete his run. See this Stanford article. Note that the point of this example was to show that ca...

Further examples can be found in the God almost certainly exists thread, in which @"Devans99" repeats his OP rather than address the counterarguments.

Perhaps philosophy allows someone like Meta to hide what he is doing. If this were a thread about Wittgenstein, only those who had read Wittgenstein a...

Oh, yeah, There's a whole lot that has to go wrong before we get to 'merica. It shows how important the myths we share are in setting up what we do.