The Great Whatever

Is this the indirect realist's conclusion? It certainly isn't if we're talking about people like Russell and Ayer. And certainly someone like Descarte...

Yeah, I'd call them all analytic on any reasonable historical understanding of the movement. Austin maybe never made any grandiose claims, but Ryle di...

Well, I can think of situations where getting beaten by someone who wasn't doing it for the pleasure of it would be worse. For example, suppose you're...

Alright, bye.

Are you saying that if someone beat you, it would make you feel better to know they feel guilty about it, or something? You're getting beaten either w...

Causing people harm is what villains do. What does it matter whether they take pleasure form it? The harm is the same.

I don't understand what you mean by 'pure' or 'absolute' pleasure and pain.

I don't see why that 'compounds the evil.' If someone's getting hurt, then the bad thing about that is that they're getting hurt. I don't know what yo...

If it is controversial, I think it is because of confusion. If, for example, one gets pleasure out of causing others pain, then this is not a bad thin...

To be intrinsically good or bad, something has to be good or bad by the very standards that it sets up, in such a way that it couldn't possibly not be...

Which one didn't? Carnap is the analytic philosopher par excellence, and his magnum opus was The Logical Structure of the World...

I think, in the case of the scintillating scotoma, or an after-image or color patch, that a de re reading is also intelligible. That is, since you onl...

Claims made by analytic philosophers aren't any less sweeping or fundamental. That's a common misconception.

Yes. Because in that case, it would not be good or bad for its own sake, but only insofar as it led to something else.

It does not lead to an extrinsic bad, but rather is one. An extrinsic bad is something that is bad, not for its own sake, but because it leads to some...

That only shows that pleasure can be an extrinsic bad, or the efficient cause of a bad. It is nonetheless intrinsically good, i.e. worthwhile for its ...

The point is, by the direct realist's own logic, he cannot tell dreams apart from waking by experience. Hence why the dreaming argument is so annoying...

Yes, but I believe the direct realist and indirect realist arguments against one another are generally cogent, with the result being that realism itse...

I’ll start with Austin’s criticism of the Phenomenal Principle. Your quote is, If we take Austin at his word here, he is wrong, both in the implicatio...

Thank you for this. I'll read it and comment later this weekend.

I've been thinking about meta-philosophy a lot lately, in connection with Socratic philosophy, which is well-disposed toward the medical metaphor. In ...

I saw it as more of a, 'what would an antinatalist even do?' I share the opinion that there is no reasonable expectation that antinatalism will ever b...

In a way you are right, but reason that is misleading is that it might cause someone to think, say, because moderation leads to the pleasure that atte...

Consider what life on average must be like in order for the humor in this video to be intelligible.

Something can be worthwhile extrinsically, as an efficient cause of a good. It's not hard to see why ethics would relate interestingly to pleasure in ...

It's an interesting question. I would say that the only thing worthwhile in itself is pleasure. But insofar as one's goal is to live well, ethics alwa...

I don't think properly speaking ethics can be important 'to someone,' as if it were a personal choice. Rather ethics already is important regardless o...

This is the opening question of the Philebus. Is what is good, knowing true propositions, as Socrates maintains? Well, suppose I know how many hairs a...

Is the question, why is ethics important?

How does one 'accept' pain? Clearly that must mean something else besides feeling it, because then there would be no distinction to make, since for th...

I think it's important. Generally my interests have drifted away from epistemology and toward ethics, especially pessimism. Other philosophical issues...

I can't psychologize everyone as to why they do everything. Presumably if they're sane there's some pleasure of accomplishment attending it. But I don...

What control do you have over how much pain affects you? You mean, you can will it to be less painful? If you mean something else, then what? What is ...

But it's not up to me to determine. Pain feels bad no matter what my opinion is. That's why it's pain. If it were up to me, pain would never bother me...

Maybe we can't get into this here, but I don't see a reason for the distinction. It seems to me that pain and pleasure are bad and good on their own t...

I'm not sure what that would mean, unless it means being dead. I don't know what being alive entails, if not suffering in the broad sense (feeling ple...

Theoretically optional? As opposed to actually optional, I suppose... Existentialism is a holdover from Christian ideas of the will. Those aren't tena...

While there's nothing I can say to you here to disprove this claim, it's rather empty. Of course if you said something like this about say, being beat...

I'll answer your question with another question. If there is no criterion as to how good or bad your life is, apart from your opinion on the matter, t...

You have to be careful about what you mean by 'feel' here. By that do you mean, for example, offer a nominal opinion about their life when asked? If t...

I don't understand the sense in which you think it's somehow 'up' to a person to decide whether certain problems make life worth living or not. What d...

And how do people experience their own lives? Or is that a matter of 'interpretation,' too? Certainly it would be helpful to me if I could 'reinterpre...

Alright? But what we don't have anything to do with tends not to bother us, and from my experience the way people react to antinatalism is not the way...

An Investigation of the Laws of Thought, on which are Founded the Mathematical Theories of Logic - George Boole

I don't think anyone takes seriously the idea that life is not full of suffering. What may be more disturbing to people is, having realized this, comi...

I don't think any adult actually thinks that, though. Usually their nominal opinions are instead summed up with dumb aphorisms about how life is 'good...

The tragicomedy is a good angle for a while, but it wears off. Eventually, it's just more like a beating. Gratuitous, in poor taste, needs to stop.

It's cute, too bad, like most aphorisms, it's bullshit. Suffering is not optional, and I think we all know that.

Well, I certainly don't think life is of no consequence to anyone. It's really, really fucking bad, and extraordinarily and gratuitously painful; that...

Interesting that antinatalist philosophy made your guys depressed. I would think it would come as a sort of relief, or hope (no matter how false that ...