To answer the question "what is a perfect button", we must first answer the question "what is a button", that is, what is its essence. I am guessing y...
Good point. I think a 'being in every way' is one that transcends all other things; otherwise it is not as perfect as a thing can be. As such, this be...
This is for my own info: What about animals? I think most people would agree that animals don't have free will, and that their acts are determined by ...
Thomas Aquinas has a similar reductio ad absurdum argument for free will: If free will did not exist, then all praises and blames, rewards and penalti...
I am not a determinist, but I suppose they would say by the same laws that move objects and animals in determined ways, namely our genes and external ...
Correct me if I am wrong, but it sounds like your argument is: If all actions are deterministic, then planning is pointless because the actions will o...
Sorry if this as already brought up before. Thomas Aquinas has a similar argument using 'perfection' instead of 'omnipotence', as so: P1: If two being...
Hello. I think P1 is correct. (1) Descartes first determines that he is at least thought, for it is a self contradiction to think "I have no thoughts"...
Hello. I think it is a matter of defining the term 'being'. If being is defined as "a thing that exists", then a "non-existing being" is a self-contra...
Science or the scientific method is a method built on philosophical premises such as "sense observation gives truth", "illogic gives falsehood", "unif...
That seems correct as well, for this definition is compatible with mine. Non-empirical truths are abstract and tend to be (always?) universal; and if ...
Observation in science is based on the idea that sense observation gives truth; and that idea is part of epistemology. Philosophers like Hume accept t...
My take is that the essence of 'wisdom' is: correct judgement. And a judgement may only be correct if the facts and values are true, which brings it b...
Science (modern definition) was not created by science, but by philosophy; and more precisely, by logic and epistemology. As such, if science is a dis...
That was an interesting article. So realists give value to scientific theories according to their level of truth; and instrumentalists give them value...
Yeah you are probably right about this topic being too convoluted. I usually walk away whenever someone pulls the Quantum Mechanics card into a philos...
That's okay. There should a universe where he is not. :D How is this hypothesis backed up? Because if the other universes are undetectable, then I am ...
Hmm... Good point. So our choices are (1) a simpler hypothesis with a more complex conclusion, or (2) a more complex hypothesis with a simpler conclus...
Occam's razor would judge that a hypothesis involving finite things is simpler than one involving infinite things. As such, until it is refuted, we sh...
Understood. First I thought that by 'unchanging', you meant 'does not change its mind', not 'action-less'. But now I have two objections to this new m...
Regarding causality: Isn't the existence of causality necessary anyways? Everything that begins to exist necessarily requires a cause outside of itsel...
This is nitpicking, but I would slightly modify Premise 1: Not everything in the world has a cause, if we include the first cause as part of the world...
I think both are innate and different starting points. Logic is the starting point for truth. Ethics is that starting point for good. They meet when t...
If it is true that nothing has a value in itself except as a means to an end, then it follows that the means acquire value because the end must have v...
You may be right about free speech, but it is not a representative example because it is by no means an absolute. Let's look at Justice. Imagining jus...
I have heard ethics being called "The three R's": Right Response to Reality, or else, treating things according to their proper values. People are end...
Surely, you and I both know of one person that treats others as they want to be treated. It only takes one example to demonstrate that, at least once,...
Fair enough. I looked up the concept of 'possible worlds' here. In it, it does define 'impossible propositions' as propositions being true in no possi...
I think you are right about the second half. Man arguing about logic itself is hard. Still, what was your argument for thinking that other universes m...
I see. So the end is preservation and propagation of the human species. This kind of fits into the bucket (3) of necessity, health and safety, if take...
I agree. And even though being morally good can make give pleasure in the long run, that is usually not the reason why people are good. I.E., they wou...
It raises an interesting question. Do we perceive a thing to be good because it gives us pleasure, or do experience pleasure because we perceive the t...
Interesting claim. So the most successful person in life is the one with the biggest and healthiest line of descendants? What reason do you have to be...
I think 'happiness' either means 'pleasure' (1), or 'blessedness', which is pretty much ethics (2). Do you mean another thing by 'happiness'? That's a...
Reducing (2) to (1): While the thought of being good may result in a pleasurable feeling, I don't think this is the end goal for most people. In fact,...
But why would they love to keep it, if not for the end of subjective pleasure? I am using the term 'pleasure' broadly here, to include interest, passi...
In my movie example, it seems the end is only pleasure, as it is neither necessary nor morally good (or bad) to watch it. Is there another end? Maybe ...
That's a good one actually. Kant says to treat people as ends and never only as means. I think I would throw that in the ethics bucket (2), that is, s...
I guess you are right. What was your argument though? I thought you too were just giving an opinion. I'll try an argument for fun: one fundamental law...
Maybe your definition of 'emotion' is really the definition of 'feeling'. Emotional feelings are only one type of feelings. Other types are physical, ...
Yes, and also impossible in all universes. Example: It is impossible for Caesar not to cross the rubicon in our universe, because we cannot change the...
1) You are correct that if you are ethical, then you will (or should) feel proud, and if you are unethical, then you will feel guilty. That said, what...
I guess I did assume that 'pleasure' meant the same as 'emotions'. But is it not? Emotions are either emotional pleasures (joy, excitement, relief...)...
If by natural law, you mean laws of physics, then I agree about that; but it is not possible for logic. "Being illogical" does not mean "standing outs...
One last thought before we part ways. If we have zero ability to judge a religion and to differentiate a probably true one from a probably false one, ...
Hello. While pleasure is indeed an end and not a means to any other ends, there exist other ends as well, like ethics or duty. A parent may feel no pl...
This statement is not a logical necessity. For one thing, we could know God's intentions if he told them to us. This Lord you speak of fits more into ...
I don't see what the problem is with that. If God ordains us with the ability to understand him, say through human reason, then we can understand his ...
I agree with you that to claim to know everything about God is also to claim to transcend God; and this is not only pretentious, it is also false, bec...
Hello again. I have finally read the blog. As I understand it, its argument against free will is as follows: p1: If God is omniscient, then he can for...
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