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Pfhorrest

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:up: :100: PBS SpaceTime FTW.
May 01, 2021 at 07:33
This is what I expected this thread to be about! Something about pragmatic concerns trumping reason or some such.
April 24, 2021 at 17:43
On the broad topic this thread is about, I am curious: are there contemporary people in “non-Western” countries doing philosophy that is connected to ...
April 23, 2021 at 23:02
@"David Pearce" I just now stumbled across a quote from Blaise Pascal that brought to mind something you said in this thread several days ago (can't f...
April 22, 2021 at 00:25
Maybe in the sense of just "getting someone to comply". But people arguing -- exchanging reasons in an attempt to convince the other person -- aren't ...
April 20, 2021 at 11:03
I didn't think it was necessary, on a philosophy forum, to specify that I mean rational discourse when I say "resolve differences": exchange reasons w...
April 19, 2021 at 10:54
If you're already invoking a question of "rightness" in any way separate from mere agreement (and of course everyone already agrees with themselves), ...
April 18, 2021 at 21:52
I had a thought the other day that seems like a plausible explanation behind a lot of behavior that I see here and similar places on the internet. Met...
April 18, 2021 at 03:51
:up: :100: The only point of arguing is to exchange new ideas.
April 17, 2021 at 23:11
The 'almost' there is an important difference, that we've circled around a lot before. It's the difference between a claim that Alice thinks X and Bob...
April 17, 2021 at 22:05
The closest thing to my ethical system that's well-known out in the philosophical world would be a kind of negative preference rule utilitarianism, wh...
April 17, 2021 at 09:46
It is universally correct that "green" is the word used in the English language for the color of grass, and not the word used in the French language f...
April 17, 2021 at 09:42
I acknowledge that those are all difficult questions to decide. My only point on this topic is that the grounds on which to decide them, the costs and...
April 17, 2021 at 04:37
Sure, making a choice that unintentionally ends up hurting someone doesn't reflect any kind of character defect on your part. You may have been doing ...
April 17, 2021 at 01:27
Right, which is why another of the principles in the OP besides universalism is phenomenalism, which says that what makes something true or not is its...
April 16, 2021 at 23:27
I'm aware that that is what such relativists think. My argument is that it's transparently incoherent. Being correct only relative to a perspective or...
April 16, 2021 at 21:47
I'm not promoting psychological hedonism, just ethical hedonism. (But also, in your example of the man saving his family, presumably his gut-reaction ...
April 16, 2021 at 09:27
This basically circles back to the issue we've discussed to death before, of how something being hard doesn't make it wrong or unworthy or trying to d...
April 16, 2021 at 09:27
Thanks. That is the kind of answer I would give as well, but as I see it that still boils down to hedonism. In (I), the reason perseverance in the fac...
April 16, 2021 at 03:17
By whom? And (other than the possible answer to that) how does that differ from what you say no divine command theorist in their right mind would say:...
April 16, 2021 at 00:17
Why is perseverance good? (NB that I agree that it is, and I have my answer to that question; I just want to hear yours).
April 16, 2021 at 00:09
If "good" just meant "commanded by God", then there would remain the question of whether or not to do what is commanded by God, and why or why not. Li...
April 15, 2021 at 23:11
What labels to use isn't important; that there are separate concepts to be distinguished (by separate labels, whichever you use) is.
April 15, 2021 at 23:02
:up: :100:
April 15, 2021 at 23:01
That's exactly the point at issue here, distinguishing between, them, so if you're just going to refuse to do so then there's no point discussing it f...
April 15, 2021 at 22:57
Sure we cannot be culture-less or language-less, but that doesn't mean we cannot change culture or language, just by "doing culture" / "doing language...
April 15, 2021 at 19:44
That's not what expressivism is. Saying "don't do X" isn't just an expression of desire about someone not doing X. It's a command. My view is much clo...
April 15, 2021 at 09:19
You apparently didn't re-read the OP of this thread, that this latest post is a follow-up to, where I apply these terms as labels for specific things,...
April 15, 2021 at 09:19
https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/comment/513602 Because......?
April 14, 2021 at 23:10
The person uttering the moral proposition is the one making a prescription. There then remains the further question of when and why to assent to such ...
April 14, 2021 at 10:37
One again your argument boils down to "some people don't believe in moral universalism therefore moral universalism is false". Although seeing as most...
April 14, 2021 at 10:37
If we have a generally libertarian society where everyone gets to be master of their own little domain instead of being subject to the whims of others...
April 14, 2021 at 10:37
Ethical naturalism is right about a natural ontology, but it wrongly assumes ethical propositions are descriptive cognitive propositions like non-ethi...
April 14, 2021 at 05:48
And to the extent that they are genuinely trying to answer those questions and not throwing up their hands and saying "because ___ said so!" or "it's ...
April 13, 2021 at 21:44
Yet again assuming things about my character unreflective of anything I've said. People come up with folk beliefs about what is real all the time too,...
April 13, 2021 at 21:43
That doesn't sound like a description of any legislative process I've ever heard of. That sounds like a description of how some folk ideas about moral...
April 13, 2021 at 10:03
No, I've said that if I am right, then every difference from to my view, if applied consistently, is tantamount to "just give up" (on answering moral ...
April 13, 2021 at 10:03
I didn't say anything about only considering present first-person experiences. Future suffering or enjoyment is still a first-person experience. True,...
April 12, 2021 at 23:35
It's likely that someone somewhere has recognized and practiced that process, because it's unlikely that any thought is ever completely new; but we as...
April 12, 2021 at 23:35
Propositions have logical relations to each other whether or not the person assenting to all of them is aware of that. The process of argumentation is...
April 12, 2021 at 08:04
You understand the difference between first-person experience of mental phenomena and third-person observation of the physical processes correlated wi...
April 12, 2021 at 07:58
April 12, 2021 at 07:58
:up: My ontology is likewise mostly negative: not so much about the kinds of things that there are, but about the kinds of things it wouldn't make any...
April 11, 2021 at 20:52
Yeah I can see how it fits so well with a Protestant work ethic, and I wouldn't be radically surprised to see it live and common in the real world. I ...
April 11, 2021 at 20:46
If you missed the first few sentences of the OP, this is not something I think is required in general for just anybody to act morally at all, but rath...
April 11, 2021 at 19:36
A doctor (rightly IMO) takes as given that reducing pain and suffering is an end goal, and then concerns himself with the means to do so. If someone w...
April 11, 2021 at 19:36
I'm aware that in common parlance people take "hedonism" to imply egotism, but that's not the way it's used in philosophy, and hasn't been for thousan...
April 11, 2021 at 09:04
Sure; it is good to be happy, but you being happy isn't all there is to being good. (Other people being happy, or generally not suffering, is importan...
April 11, 2021 at 08:59
If the "good" part of "greater good" is people feeling good, then it is. Hedonism isn't egotism. Also if the only reason you're acting for the greater...
April 11, 2021 at 08:57
I'd be interested to hear the quote you mean, yeah. Thanks. :-) I think I broadly agree that "acting for the greatest good yields the greatest pleasur...
April 11, 2021 at 08:54