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Ciceronianus

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Pragmatic Stoicism.
June 27, 2017 at 15:53
I think your position would be stronger if you abandoned the claim (which I think you make) that procreation (causing conception to take place) itself...
June 23, 2017 at 21:46
We must return, then, to curious claim that we somehow do harm to "someone" who doesn't exist. In other words, that there is some class of "people" wh...
June 23, 2017 at 15:36
Now that I've had to think about him again, I wonder whether Kuhn may have been speaking more as a historian of science in his Structure than as a phi...
June 22, 2017 at 21:36
I fear that I'm incapable of determining what "anybody" may say or may have said on this point. As to Kuhn, though I doubt he ever used so few words i...
June 21, 2017 at 16:45
Ah, Thomas "Paradigm" Kuhn. How well I remember being forced to read his Structure of Scientific Revolutions along with Plato's insufferable Republic ...
June 20, 2017 at 23:36
God's teeth. What a story. I've never been a fan of this most melancholy of the Danes. I wonder if he ever read Goethe and pondered whether the eterna...
June 06, 2017 at 23:25
I'm prone to irony. Regardless, I don't believe being a practicing lawyer requires appreciation of the glory of God's favorite country, these United S...
May 26, 2017 at 15:41
Well, I'm a lawyer. I went to law school. Doing that is a condition precedent to being a lawyer where I practice, and in most jurisdictions in our Glo...
May 25, 2017 at 15:59
You seem to mistake the refusal to be overwhelmed by reality for ignorance of reality. H.L. Mencken famously defined Puritanism as "the haunting fear ...
May 21, 2017 at 23:36
I don't think the Stoics believed there's nothing wrong with the world, or that the world is perfect, as that would require them to take the position ...
May 19, 2017 at 19:16
The quote from Kant reminds me of what the devotees of the Orphic mystery cult were told to say when asked who they were by the guardians of the after...
May 18, 2017 at 19:44
I don't think of it as "a natural consequence of consciousness and free-will" because I think it's decidedly unnatural. In living we're part of the wo...
May 17, 2017 at 17:13
I'm not sure I understand your point. But I think we've been ill-served by the belief we're apart from Nature rather than a part of it. I think that m...
May 16, 2017 at 16:32
The Church derived a good deal from Stoicism and ancient philosophy in general, so I think an appreciation for it has always been there. But I think i...
May 15, 2017 at 21:42
An interesting and legitimate caution. But although a Stoic partakes in Nature and the creative intelligence which permeates it, and so can be said to...
May 15, 2017 at 21:18
It's a rather daunting list, isn't it? One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic--these are the Four Marks, or Attributes, of the (true) Church. "One" because...
May 15, 2017 at 21:12
Not if being a religious person requires belief in a personal (and so bewilderingly human) God. Formerly, a member of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apos...
May 15, 2017 at 20:34
Solipsism is the philosophy for you, then. Or, perhaps, "Me-ism" (copyright Ciceronianus 2017), as you seem to acknowledge the existence of others, bu...
May 12, 2017 at 19:36
I think you're confusing judging and knowing. Accepting what I think is the common conception of God, God doesn't judge whether or not someone violate...
May 11, 2017 at 18:13
I think merely that one can have committed a crime without having been found to have done so. This assumes, of course, that there are laws, but we don...
May 11, 2017 at 15:22
A criminal is someone who has committed a crime. We determine what constitutes a crime, as we adopt laws. A crime is "an action or omission that const...
May 10, 2017 at 17:25
He apparently could be chilling, as well. And so we have Luke 14:25, where he's depicted as saying what modern cult leaders have been inclined to say,...
May 09, 2017 at 21:54
"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." Matthew 10:34
May 09, 2017 at 20:31
We seem to have a problem communicating, or I do. The definition of "guilty" includes "responsible for" (in dictionaries I've seen, in any case). The ...
May 09, 2017 at 16:42
If a person commits a crime that person is responsible for the crime, and is therefore guilty of committing the crime. The person is responsible for t...
May 08, 2017 at 14:54
The point I've been trying to make is that what is the case in the law (e.g., whether a person is guilty or not guilty of a crime) isn't necessarily w...
May 05, 2017 at 15:28
If we assume a person is guilty of a crime when that person commits a crime, and we assume that person committed a crime, then the person is necessari...
May 04, 2017 at 15:36
I don't think the first example is a reformulation in any significant sense. The second, though, I believe to be an entirely different question. But I...
May 04, 2017 at 15:27
I merely say it's inappropriate to refer to what doesn't exist as if it does exist. So, the question posed would more properly be stated (I think) as ...
May 03, 2017 at 22:40
"Guilty" of committing a crime. I think most would say that a person who actually committed a crime is guilty of committing a crime, regardless of whe...
May 03, 2017 at 22:27
In the law, a person is "guilty" of a crime when a court or jury determines the person has committed a crime (or confesses to a crime). A person is "n...
May 03, 2017 at 18:30
There are no people who don't exist. There are no unborn children. There are no potential future people.
May 03, 2017 at 18:14
Burr, as you may know, was the grandson of preacher/theologian Jonathan Edwards. I have the impression Burr wasn't religiously inclined, though. One o...
April 21, 2017 at 18:23
Machiavelli addressed glory in the context of politics and power in The Prince.
April 20, 2017 at 21:54
According to Aaron Burr, an able lawyer and, I think, a much maligned figure in American history: "The law is whatever is boldly asserted and plausibl...
April 20, 2017 at 16:02
Alas, I've been involved in the burial of loved ones, long ago and fairly recently, and have practiced law for longer than I'd care to admit. Although...
April 19, 2017 at 20:49
Ah, but to the extent living an intellectual life is related to law and corpses, you haven't lived a truly intellectual life until you practice law wh...
April 19, 2017 at 15:20
Not much, really, beyond the fact that I think the Caesars probably had friends, though not many, being Caesars, and that Jesus as putative God probab...
April 19, 2017 at 15:10
Well, yes. But that's all.
April 19, 2017 at 15:05
What could be more romantic than the practice of law?
April 18, 2017 at 21:45
You seem bitter. But a chocolate martini? There's no accounting for the taste of an atheist, it seems.
April 18, 2017 at 19:38
I suspect Jesus never had a friend, really. At least, we never hear of one, though it's claimed he "loved" John--according to John, in any case. It se...
April 18, 2017 at 19:32
I can't help but wonder what "or something" refers to, here.
April 18, 2017 at 19:26
Well, perhaps salus is better as a word from which "salvation" is derived, which is to say "safety." So, believe in Jesus and you'll be safe in the af...
April 18, 2017 at 15:41
Given the circumstances, I think its more likely the Statue of Liberty was intended to be a representation of the Roman goddess Libertas, whose temple...
April 15, 2017 at 16:27
I have enough laws to deal with, thank you, and so will decline to read and comment on this one, which seems rather silly according to the blurb appea...
April 14, 2017 at 18:15
In: It's back  — view comment
Just to be clear, I was ciceronianus. I am Ciceronianus the White.
April 13, 2017 at 20:04
Well, no doubt I have a right to disagree with you, and you have a duty not to infringe on that right. So, that's the end of that, I suppose. Who knew...
April 13, 2017 at 15:08
There is a difference, though, between "I have a right to be treated with dignity" and "I should treat you with dignity." In the first sentence, the s...
April 12, 2017 at 21:00