You are viewing the historical archive of The Philosophy Forum.
For current discussions, visit the live forum.
Go to live forum

_db

Comments

If I understand this correctly, it's that Deleuze is concerned with the "canonization" of philosophers, and the subsequent assimilation of thought. Th...
September 02, 2016 at 03:27
Most of our actions are related to overcoming a certain amount of deprivation. Not all deprivation is bad, however, only the deprivation that makes us...
September 02, 2016 at 03:11
"The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of inhumanity." - George Bernard Sh...
August 31, 2016 at 02:34
Indeed Plato thought that our necessary prior knowledge was not justified true belief but merely true belief - pragmatic belief.
August 31, 2016 at 01:28
As a consequentialist, I have generally two options to pick within consequentialist ethics - act and rule consequentialism. These are further refined ...
August 30, 2016 at 02:48
We are conscious but do not have a robust sense of self. It is only with the sudden experience of something extremely unexpected and strange that a ph...
August 30, 2016 at 02:00
Ever since the legendary epic smack-down between Quine and Carnap, in which Quine objectively won and thus rescued metaphysics by placing it on the sa...
August 29, 2016 at 18:35
Yes, and in general the preoccupation with social progress and exploration for the sake of exploration.
August 29, 2016 at 18:27
Correct, which is why I was primarily interested in those who are worse-off. We have to balance the input with the output. If tending to them does not...
August 29, 2016 at 18:20
Seems to me that the average person would say the same thing about philosophy in general. Who the hell cares whether or not God exist, so long as I ge...
August 29, 2016 at 17:54
Exactly. Our abilities (or lack thereof) do not dictate morality. The guilt comes from the fact that someone is ignoring a compelling experience. To n...
August 28, 2016 at 16:50
How do you know the absence of anything could have been sufficient? It's certainly conceivable that the various things in the world are contingent, bu...
August 28, 2016 at 05:10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64liF2VuLxI
August 27, 2016 at 20:04
This is also why I think it was in Schopenhauer's (and others') (literal) best-interest to identify as a misanthrope, because this allows him and othe...
August 27, 2016 at 17:39
The problem that I see with this is that, especially coming from a pessimist such as yourself, the world is already not worth living in, so these loss...
August 27, 2016 at 17:03
Guilt is indeed a motivator for action. True. So the governments of countries with impoverished citizens are of most suspect - but the countries aroun...
August 27, 2016 at 04:12
Then why is this not applied to the homeless African child, or the slave labor of China, or the constant mutilation of animals in the wild? Do you hav...
August 27, 2016 at 03:45
I would like to hear from other people as well. I'm not trying to be a jerk when I say this, but how do you live with yourself while knowing there are...
August 27, 2016 at 03:28
Or you do both. I was more referring to the advocation of a nuclear winter to destroy the ecosystems.
August 27, 2016 at 03:19
Not helping them would betray a form of misanthropy. Back in the days of the classical pessimists, then, misanthropy could be compatible with ascetici...
August 27, 2016 at 03:02
This is an important point: we don't know how our actions are going to affect others, like a butterfly effect. But whereas there is merely a hypotheti...
August 27, 2016 at 02:39
Absolutely. Empathy and compassion are the primary sources of morality. Any attempt to ground morality primarily by different means, I think, gets the...
August 27, 2016 at 02:12
What difference does intention make here, aside from legal considerations? Standing idly by while recognizing the existence of suffering can still be ...
August 27, 2016 at 01:46
Well, I see little to no distinction between doing and allowing harm. What matters is that harm is happening, and you are complicit in it if you are n...
August 27, 2016 at 01:27
Boo-yah, it goes to decimals!
August 26, 2016 at 18:43
Also, I think you might find interest in at least some of what the analytics have to say, particularly Koslicki, Loux, Lowe and Tahko (hard-core hylom...
August 26, 2016 at 03:28
What I don't understand is why this view hasn't been brought to the table more often, if it is indeed worthy of discussion.
August 26, 2016 at 03:05
Why is this reductionism a bad thing, what is this dichotomy, and what kind of monism do you suppose they are attempting to find? Heidegger is extreme...
August 26, 2016 at 03:04
But causality itself is not something that can be affected by cause and affect. It's a metaphysical term.
August 26, 2016 at 02:54
I think mostly because suffering illuminates our existential condition while happiness clouds our knowledge of it. We cannot be happy while actually c...
August 26, 2016 at 02:53
Well, no. But when we have to make a decision, someone's suffering being worse than another person's makes them of moral priority. My disappointed wis...
August 26, 2016 at 02:51
The late E.J. Lowe, Jonathan Schaffer, Tuomas Tahko, Ted Sider, Susan Haack, Michael J. Loux, the late David Lewis, Peter van Inwagen, Timothy William...
August 26, 2016 at 02:36
Also, contemporary realist metaphysics is largely concerned with ontology and not with the broader metaphysical stories. It's far more conservative th...
August 26, 2016 at 02:10
Everything went into "belittling" their suffering in order to recognize the existence of a much worse suffering. Well I wouldn't call it a victory - I...
August 26, 2016 at 02:05
I'd still like to know what you think are examples of bad metaphysics.
August 26, 2016 at 01:48
Because I'm also a consequentialist, and I think some actions are worse than others depending on what their consequences are. So I'm not dismissing th...
August 26, 2016 at 01:27
What is this particular way? The semiotic trifold? Again, you have any examples? I'd wager probably those who have a background in both science and ph...
August 26, 2016 at 01:18
Do you have any examples of this? It might have had a great affect on your particular conception of metaphysics - again, we're having a meta-philosoph...
August 26, 2016 at 00:58
I don't see how I am. People are suffering, and they will continue to do so while they are alive. It's akin to taking an aspirin for a headache. You r...
August 26, 2016 at 00:51
This same reasoning could be applied to birth - suffering is not absolved by abstaining from procreation, only prevented from inflicting it's harm. Pa...
August 26, 2016 at 00:26
I don't really understand what you have in mind when you say "romanticism" or "PoMo". Do you not appreciate Spinoza, Descartes, Husserl, Heidegger, et...
August 25, 2016 at 23:29
There's different methods within this broad "scientific" account you presented. If you're an astronomer, you'll use a telescope. If you're a microbiol...
August 25, 2016 at 21:43
I'm not trying to separate philosophy and science per se, merely point out that there seems to be more than one method of understanding the world. In ...
August 25, 2016 at 16:12
But the spirit of preventing future suffering can make sure something that happened in the past does not happen again. The universe does not keep scor...
August 25, 2016 at 16:01
Accidentally flagged a post, what happens?
August 25, 2016 at 03:12
Camus' rebellion would be a pseudo-solution, though. What would make life already meaningful?
August 25, 2016 at 03:12
You should read The Last Messiah. It's a short essay available online outlining his metaphysical views on all this. Humans require meaning in a meanin...
August 25, 2016 at 02:22
Yes, indeed, pain is not equivalent to suffering. But pain without meaning (amongst other factors) constitutes suffering. Zapffe touched on this: huma...
August 25, 2016 at 02:02
We can replace "predominantly" with "structurally necessary" and get the same general conclusion, albeit a more aesthetic one. Although I think it's l...
August 25, 2016 at 01:10