Banno

@"Bartricks" Full marks for resilience.

Perhaps. If so. don't discourage him playing; it may lead to something worthwhile. Jesus, we're a patronising bunch of pricks. Not that that's a bad t...

Yeah. I have. But you may not be able to see it. Your argument starts with an assumption of the import of the self - the "I" in "I think, therefore I ...

Hm. I was referring to cartesian philosophical method, not his dualism.

Why not? Indeed, there would appear to be considerable evidence to the contrary.

@"Bartricks" the purpose of https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/comment/330068 was to show that there are other ways of bypassing your argument....

You lost me here, too.

If the folk being raped is part of the "we" - and why not? - then it is singularly unlikely that they will approve of the rape. Hence, "what is moral ...

Hm. That's debatable. Values do not pop into logic all that easily. One is more likely to introduce them as premisses. Your Cartesian views mislead yo...

Puts me in mind of a certain Monty Python script (but then most things do) Brian: He raped you!? Brian's Mum: Well, at first... Nope; if we all think ...

And if I were to say that (2) is plainly false...? Since what is morally valuable IS what we say is morally valuable? (Edit: I'm not sure what the wor...

Suppose I accept this. Then suppose that I take moral values to be, not my valuings, but our valuings (using your somewhat uncomfortable wording). Wha...

OK. I'll let that go, since I don't really see what you mean by "Reason represents me to be"; that does not sit well as an explanation.

Indeed.

No need for you to take on a subservient role here. Don't be so hard on yourself. You set your ideas out for critique, didn't you? That's what I am do...

Yeah - I am going there a bit more slowly, but that's where I am headed. We are not doing moral stuff if we are not talking about how we ought treat o...

@"Bartricks" So if Fred is in pain, writhing and crying, and we see Fiona writhing and crying, we conclude that Fiona is also in pain? Something along...

Basically because telling you will just get your back up. I want you to feel the pull of the argument. That is, I want to do philosophy with you, and ...

So Fred is in mental state A; how does Reason help us to conclude that Fiona is also in mental state A? I like the word represents in "...Reason repre...

I haven't made such an assumption. I assure you, if I did not think your opinion worthy, I would not be having this discussion.

Yep. Humour me.

Well, may I at least raise an issue? Assume that a subjective state is a state of mind. How could we possibly know that your mind and my mind are in t...

OK. Think on it some more. You can value kindness, sure - but that's not a moral value. The moral value would be that everyone ought value kindness.

Anyone else read Philosophy Now? A neat argument that much of modern theoretical physics is actually bad metaphysics.

That's a bit too quick for me, but yeah, something along those lines perhaps.

Exactly. Understood, and I agree. Seems my point may be becoming clear.

This is a nice variation in Moore's open question? Yep, it is morally valuable to help the unfortunate whether I think it so or not. Going back to the...

Sure. But that might take a while.

I will differ here - or at the lest say that the case needs to be made. But I suppose that would be for another thread.

I like the way you are following through on your argument. Here's a distinction we might usefully make. Although I've pointed it out before, I will no...

Damn. I was with you up until then.

Nuh.

And here is the whole (hole?) of philosophy writ small. @"TheMadFool" will insist that squares are, all of them, four sided. You conclude that we need...

Cheers.

Ah, but is it really?

Ah, Gassendi. Let's raise a glass for those no longer with us, and then stare into the empty vessel awhile. In Gassendi's Eulogy, Paul, I argued for e...

https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/6655/from-the-top-down-i-am Need we say more?

Or just do their own thing. As, California.

Two of our states are smaller than Texas; the others, substantially larger. They are based on colonial settlements. Regional government is funded by s...

Cheers. What if the federal government becomes increasingly irrelevant as the real work is done by regions? That's an interesting prospect.

Small is beautiful.

Yeah, like with ants.

The salient bit is the reduction of central control and the increase of local autonomy. What of that?

I don't read the article as dependent on a synchronistic between the history of Rome and of the USA. What is being compared is the development of loca...

Contrast the fall of Rome with the consistency of China, and the innovative social structures of Europe to ongoing solid imperial rule.

Hm. Seems to me that this is not in contrast to greater cooperation between local areas. One can picture a form of unity - cooperation - between city-...

But new life does come into existence.

Yeah. A typo I was not for some reason able to edit until this morning. But a half-dozen replies is good.

You need guns to prevent your government introducing a decent health care system. Crazy. Raving bonkers.

Well, who doesn't.