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Pfhorrest

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About "noble lies" in particular? Because a false reason to do something is a bad reason to do something. If the thing the noble lie gets people to do...
January 23, 2021 at 06:58
You can show something is wrong regardless of external premises, via reductio ad absurdum. If assuming the thing itself leads to contradictions, then ...
January 23, 2021 at 04:13
Plato would say yes emphatically. Plato was wrong about most things.
January 23, 2021 at 02:50
I think it would have been much nicer if the southern continent of the western hemisphere had been called just America, and the northern continent cal...
January 22, 2021 at 23:13
Nobody here is saying that "knowledge is inherently flawed", we're saying that knowledge doesn't operate the way justificationists say it does, becaus...
January 22, 2021 at 23:08
Nothing but anarchism was practically possible for most of the history of the human race. It's only in this age of abundance since the agricultural re...
January 22, 2021 at 23:00
A trilemma is a kind of argument. The top Google result for the word is about an economic argument, but OP is talking about the Munchhausen trilemma, ...
January 22, 2021 at 08:59
That's because you're stuck in the distorted Cold War version of a one-dimensional political spectrum. The original one-dimensional political spectrum...
January 22, 2021 at 08:43
There are people on the right who call themselves anarchists, within at all understanding the history of the anarchist movement and how against their ...
January 22, 2021 at 04:57
Anarchists are definitionally left, but so much further left than Democrats that Democrats are scarcely better than Republicans in their eyes. Some of...
January 22, 2021 at 03:45
No, they’re both bad, the Reps are just the much worse of the two. America needs something much better than either. The system is designed in a way th...
January 22, 2021 at 01:53
Everything the right ever accuses the left of is projection, including, now, projection itself.
January 21, 2021 at 21:43
He's too articulate to be Trump, and doesn't use enough all-caps words. Also, I don't think Trump could figure out how to register an account here.
January 21, 2021 at 21:41
McConnell was a bigger villain in all of this than Trump ever was, and I think you're right that he represents the real core of the Republican party. ...
January 21, 2021 at 21:38
This is a good argument against retributive justice. True justice is making sure that the harm that someone does is contained to themselves, i.e. it's...
January 21, 2021 at 08:16
https://www.reactiongifs.us/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/youre_serious_futurama.gif (Sorry, this is actually a deeper OP than I expected, but that was m...
January 21, 2021 at 08:10
I have long expected that the EU would follow the pattern of the US and evolve from a union of countries called states to a country called the Union w...
January 21, 2021 at 02:52
I’m surprised that that was your initial view from which you have since expanded, as the common political frame since the 20th centuries seems to be o...
January 20, 2021 at 19:49
I think he’s asking if they were in a position of power then.
January 18, 2021 at 12:22
I'm having a little difficulty parsing your sentence here, but I hope this answers the implied question: - "maximal change" was to mean you want rapid...
January 18, 2021 at 11:39
One thing I found interesting about the results of this poll is that while only the smallest group identified their views as "right", nearly half iden...
January 18, 2021 at 09:25
Being friends with your neighbors, having no enemies, finding love, exploring the beauty of nature beyond the comforts of your nice house in the subur...
January 18, 2021 at 09:07
What is salvation but being saved? And who says we need some special predestined chosen one of divine birth to do the saving? That's a bit of a trite ...
January 18, 2021 at 08:06
Is the story of an unplanned child abandoned in the wilderness who nevertheless somehow survives and goes on to become a great hero who reshapes the f...
January 18, 2021 at 07:06
I hate that "two cows" bullshit. It's transparent capitalist propaganda (the only good scenario is the "traditional capitalist" one) that's unable or ...
January 18, 2021 at 07:00
The question at hand though is do you wish you hadn't and wish you wouldn't again? That's what it is for you personally to think something is wrong, i...
January 18, 2021 at 03:43
Why? I expect these cases will involve a quotational sense of “wrong”: something you know others would call wrong, but you think is excusable anyway. ...
January 17, 2021 at 21:35
Illegal is not the same thing as wrong, and that sounds like you’re reasonable that it’s sometimes okay, not wrong, to break the law a little.
January 17, 2021 at 21:31
In another thread recently I was putting forth a philosophical conception of how (the concept of) willing should be understood in relation to (the con...
January 17, 2021 at 10:44
I'm not sure if you're talking about me in particular here or about people more generally, but I do have a BA in philosophy and I have also read about...
January 17, 2021 at 09:28
Firstly, because I'm not in any kind of dialogue with them personally. It's not like they're hanging around forums like this for me to talk to. Also, ...
January 17, 2021 at 08:17
I already posted this in response to the first version of this comment in the Trump thread, but since there's a new thread I'll repeat it: There is a ...
January 17, 2021 at 07:55
Well there is a long tradition of thought in philosophy that holds, essentially, that "evil is reducible to ignorance", i.e. nobody knowingly does bad...
January 17, 2021 at 07:53
Yeah, last time I went to a therapist about as far as we ever got was a loop of her saying "there are two ways to change how you feel about a situatio...
January 17, 2021 at 06:55
In truly postmodern fashion, “postmodernism” isn’t even a really well-defined idea to begin with, so I think you’ll need to be a little more specific ...
January 17, 2021 at 04:23
Completely unlike the right wing populist respect for truth?
January 17, 2021 at 03:06
omg! Do the police have any leads on finding him? This guy needs to be locked up for mass murder! Weird name, too. Is he Italian? I think I’ve seen so...
January 17, 2021 at 02:10
Regardless of whether Trump personally was inciting the insurrection, it's looking pretty clear that it was not just a spontaneous thing that happened...
January 16, 2021 at 21:32
Theism does not have a monopoly on disagreeing that "the ends justify the means". One doesn't even have to appeal to any ends besides altruistic hedon...
January 16, 2021 at 19:59
And in doing so, aside from the rational pressure of your actual arguments against those beliefs, apply social and emotional pressure discouraging peo...
January 16, 2021 at 19:44
I think the emoji function is useful for this. If I see someone say something that I think is worth saying that's not being properly appreciated I'll ...
January 16, 2021 at 08:53
Regardless of what folks are after on a forum like this, what purpose should a forum like this serve? I.e. what's a place like this good for, anyway? ...
January 16, 2021 at 08:51
Some political movements considered left-leaning have. Some political movements considered right-leaning have used the state toward their ends as well...
January 16, 2021 at 08:19
I would prefer that it not be seen at a battle at all, but if it's going to seem like some people are attacking you, instead of us all just cooperativ...
January 16, 2021 at 07:12
For my part, the thing that I tend to find stressful is the perception that nobody agrees with me. Even if I know better, if I'm well aware of promine...
January 16, 2021 at 06:39
Yes, exactly. Much as belief differs from perception in the same way. You see something in the distance on a hot day that looks like a pool of water. ...
January 16, 2021 at 06:32
To will is not just to want, but to want to want. Weakness of will is when you want to want X (you will X), but nevertheless you do Y. Strength of wil...
January 16, 2021 at 04:21
I’d say even that should be “tolerated” to the extent that that means taking it as an idea about which we can discuss the pros and cons. It’s just one...
January 16, 2021 at 03:14
“Leftism” is not a form of statism. Both left and right have abused the state, but the original left-right divide had the state on the side of the rig...
January 16, 2021 at 02:41
It's funny (or it would be if it weren't so tragic) that right-wing anti-democratic rhetoric so often employs the notion of "the mob", the hoi polloi,...
January 16, 2021 at 02:27