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Because without universals similarity or resemblance becomes arbitrary. There is no reason for the way things are - they just are. Brute fact. Languag...

In most cases I would argue that what stops us form committing suicide is an inherent instinct to survive that overrides any higher-level thought proc...

But what makes it the case that they are similar, other than the possession of identical properties? Is it just a brute fact? Why is @@ similar to @ @...

I disagree with your analysis on 2. Certainly freedom and harm are not only personal matters but also abstract matters, that nevertheless depend on pe...

I read the Echiridion. There were some useful ideas in it but overall I was struck by how many "do's" and "do not's" there were, as if we had to jump ...

But doesn't liberation require some sort of oppression? i.e. there would be no need for liberation if oppression was not the case?

But you're being inconsistent with your use of "existence". You said that nothing can't come from nothing, and yet say that a constraint of pure poten...

So the disaster, catastrophe, tragedy, etc are material arguments. You're sweeping them away as if they're unimportant yet they still are an astute ob...

umm

And what is this everythingness other than pure possibility, what you just denied was the case? What is everythingness?

Being lost in the woods when it's negative ten degrees out and snowing and you have no tent or warm clothes because you barely survived a plane crash ...

I never said that. I said that there has to be some sort of hypostasis, the Aristotelian Being of Pure Actuality, for something to appear. "Nothing" i...

Because you're not espousing a neutral balanced position. You're implicitly favoring life - only a nihilist could actually argue that life is neither ...

I don't see what you're saying here. I agree there are emergent phenomenon, but these nevertheless are dependent upon a more basic ontological level. ...

Okay: life sucks for the majority of sentient organisms that aren't lucky enough to get out relatively scar-free. Actually my position is realism, but...

Emergence from what? poof! existence, ta-da! Objects need not be "clumpy" to be objects. Again this depends on what you consider to be objects. Voids ...

I don't think you understand how not all axiology or aesthetics is realist in nature. Any value is going to be subjective, depending on the existence ...

Patronizing other people doesn't help. For some reason these kinds of debates always end up with everyone getting so butthurt. Coming from the opposit...

Yes, this, very much. This is a big part of what I was getting at: while the rest of science can easily point to what they study, the metaphysician ha...

One of the easiest and yet also one of the most difficult, imo, thought experiments relates to "totalist" consequentialism: adding happy people to the...

Indeed that was the view of Zapffe, that the Universe is incapable of delivering enough for us. This kind of thought can also be seen in the Gnostics ...

How do you account for similarity and difference if not by universals. i.e. what if your flavor of nominalism?

Another interesting part of Moore's book is the emphasis on the tension between self-consciousness and self-confidence. If we're too self-confident, w...

I'm a phenomenologist, I don't know where that puts me on that spectrum. *drop mic* In any case I'm a realist about philosophical questions but am unc...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyHNuVaZJ-k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjgm3xHr96Q

I mean, you aren't really a nominalist, are you? ;)

The problem with this view of ethics in my opinion is that it fundamentally misconstrues what ethics is all about: people. The welfare of people. Peop...

However, if asceticism is what floats your boat, then go for it. The unattainable is still worthy of striving for, I'd say. In the end of the day, wha...

Natural law theory is a dangerous tool used to defend bigotry.

What does it mean that we live in an eternal moment? Eternity assumes that there is some kind of relative time definer. Are you thinking of presentism...

" there is more to be learned from each page of David Hume than from the collected philosophical works of Hegel, Herbart and Schleiermacher taken toge...

This is part of the Asymmetry: there doesn't seem to be any need to make happy people. But there does seem to be a need in making people happy. The di...

That's what I'm saying.

Good, you're not a nominalist, phew. Transcendental or immanent, though?

Paging , he knows a lot about Heidegger.

I'm surprised you don't find it at least somewhat compelling. The idea that we have an obligation to bring happy people into existence seems to be a b...

Which is exactly why I said that we have inherent negative-utilitarian dispositions. No amount of pleasure can justify a torture, or a murder, i.e. in...

Probably the first truly philosophical question.

It acts as a cathartic release of tension and a way of focusing myself when I feel anxious or uneasy. I mostly limit myself to music, however. I liste...

This aesthetic component, though, is only really helpful when you aren't suffering. The idea of a Stoic sage sounds sublime and amazing - but we would...

Well I mean this thread went exactly as I hoped it wouldn't (veered off topic) so like, what the hell, why not talk about something totally off topic?...

Sorry, I meant in previous threads. I seem to recall you arguing that you view all desires and needs as though they are bad. When I think there needs ...

I realize that my previous post might not have been as clear as I had thought so I'm making another. When we look at our lives, we typically say we ha...

This is silly. Have you considered that you are deluded? Both of us have our beliefs and questioning the foundations of them is going to have to be th...

Discomfort that is not wanted. An experience that does not match with a person's preferences. Something that must be endured or eliminated because it ...

Damn right.

This is hardly a challenge, as you have ignored the point I made several times about how pain is not equivalent to suffering. A mashochist who enjoys ...

AND THAT IS PERFECTLY FINE (in fact what I was originally focused on in the OP)... ...except when you start to argue that the overall holistic context...

Your holism ignores the specifics in favor of a global analysis. When in reality phenomenologically consciousness is it's own universe in itself, rega...

I did not mean that you hadn't, only that we have strayed far away from the original intent of the thread. And your arguments aren't even arguments ei...