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Yes you have, by modus ponens. If it's raining then circles are square It's raining Therefore, circles are square Is a valid argument by modus ponens....
January 06, 2016 at 20:01
For clarification, you're questioning the soundness and not validity; because it seemed to me that you were questioning the validity by questioning th...
January 06, 2016 at 19:47
Nooo......The entire argument is modus ponens. A premise need not be a self-contained argument. P1 is a hypothetical premise wherein the affirmation o...
January 06, 2016 at 19:41
I'm not sure I understand your objection. D is derived (entailed?) from A, B, and C as per modus ponens.
January 06, 2016 at 19:36
P14 If it is wrong to allow gratuitous suffering caused by food production practices and gratuitous suffering caused by food production practices is p...
January 06, 2016 at 17:47
That's not the form though, it's: P1 (A & B & C) ? D P2 A P3 B P4 C C1 D
January 06, 2016 at 17:31
The latter interpretation is preferable. I was imprecise in my notation. The correct form is: It is wrong to X is logically equivalent to ought not X,...
January 06, 2016 at 17:05
I don't know why I'm resisting this so much. Let me think on it a bit.
January 06, 2016 at 15:55
It is wrong to allow X is logically equivalent to ought not X. not X = Y And some can Y (Z) Therefore, ought Z Yeah, maybe there's something still mis...
January 06, 2016 at 15:48
I've edited the OP to request that all comments are to respond to the revised (most current) version. That is the one I will be responding to and will...
January 06, 2016 at 15:44
I added another term to the implication for the purpose of addressing this issue. I currently stands as: i) It is wrong to allow gratuitous suffering ...
January 06, 2016 at 15:17
I submitted a stripped down version of a similar argument I prepared elsewhere for advice on a formal/logical issue, and so my intention was limited o...
January 06, 2016 at 15:06
I'm going to offer a revised argument taking into consideration the discussion thus far. I would like to thank everyone that has contributed for their...
January 06, 2016 at 13:52
It seems Postmodern Beatnik is more keen than I am, anticipated this problem and performed the heavy lifting here.
January 05, 2016 at 21:04
Below is a rhetorical question and there's no need to respond: Doesn't ISIS spread mindless self-serving narratives AND kill people? I might be wrong ...
January 05, 2016 at 20:04
Just playing Devil's Advocate here, but it might be that you've selected an arbitrary characteristic (e.g., skin colour) as the distinguishing feature...
January 05, 2016 at 18:08
I'm curious if there is a move to be made from Y¹ to Y, where Y¹ is "it is possible to adopt a vegan diet" and Y is "to adopt a vegan diet". Perhaps a...
January 05, 2016 at 16:51
As per my post above, I think this is what you're after or am I missing the meaning of your request? it is wrong to allow said gratuitous suffering Ca...
January 05, 2016 at 16:27
This is not my argument though, the first premise is too strong since "One ought to prevent X" is beyond the potency of finite beings. Ought implies c...
January 05, 2016 at 16:08
I'm glad you left the premise in a formal notation because formally it is valid. I have shown X and Y in the argument and I am trying to arrive at Z s...
January 05, 2016 at 15:45
No, preventability is the condition of the moral obligation and not actual prevention. It only matters if the action renders the outcome preventable a...
January 05, 2016 at 14:59
I would caution against reducing gratuitous suffering to "preventable suffering". That suffering is preventable is a necessary but not sufficient cond...
January 05, 2016 at 01:50
One doesn't, that is only a single premise and the claim that "one ought to adopt a vegan diet" follows from many premises and conclusions when taken ...
January 04, 2016 at 21:36
Huh? It's defined as preventable only insofar as it has some means that satisfies the condition of prevention. Whether food production practices is gr...
January 04, 2016 at 20:57
Gratuitous suffering = morally impermissible suffering. Suffering is morally impermissible by the following conditions: known and preventable (at a re...
January 04, 2016 at 20:42
That's only true if i) I feel like the argument needs to be defended and ii) the person opposing the argument hasn't issued a claim that itself needs ...
January 04, 2016 at 19:43
Emotion is better suited to compel towards a particular belief rather than away from a particular belief. Atheists are emotionally committed to a posi...
January 04, 2016 at 18:35
I question it too. As mentioned to Postmodern Beatnik, I'm not prepared to defend this claim beyond what I believe is intellectually honest but I woul...
January 04, 2016 at 17:38
I would respond in much the same way that Postmodern Beatnik has, insofar as this argument is limited to a particular type of gratuitous suffering tha...
January 04, 2016 at 16:20
I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "too strong". It's strong insofar as it establishes a one-to-one relationship between the means and ends of...
December 30, 2015 at 00:28
your pilot example misses the point. It changes the obligation in the shift from all to some. The obligation is this: If two pilots are present, then ...
December 29, 2015 at 23:57
It's not a variation, it's an entirely new argument. But this argument is invalid because it denies the antecedent (note: this is likely a pedantic co...
December 29, 2015 at 21:42
This is a far too simplistic view of rationality and self-interest. I have a plurality of values that I am self-interested in preserving, several of w...
December 29, 2015 at 21:13
The government ought to intervene when the government is wronged. If adultery can be broadly construed as a wrong committed against the values of the ...
December 29, 2015 at 20:12
If you promise me beef meat and deliver horse meat, I have a mechanism to measure the harm if and only if I become aware of the deception (e.g., the h...
December 29, 2015 at 19:42
Presumably not if I don't know about it. Would you say you have harmed me? I wouldn't even know where to begin to quantify a harm that I am unaware of...
December 29, 2015 at 18:47
That doesn't make it clear what the harm is and how it can still be a harm without the "victim" knowing it. Marriage vows can be open or closed by you...
December 29, 2015 at 18:39
What harm is that? You conceded open marriages are permissible, so I took that to mean on your account that marriage vows are not harmed per se by ext...
December 29, 2015 at 18:25
Except where the facilitation of illegal activity mitigates the jurisprudential claim, is my rebuttal. If the facilitation of the activity alleviates ...
December 29, 2015 at 17:56
Obviously the people using AM ought to be punished by virtue of i). That claim is uncontroversial by my argument. I concede that adultery ought to be ...
December 29, 2015 at 17:52
That argument isn't even close to being valid. Where in the argument is the conclusion contained?
December 29, 2015 at 17:38
hasn't offered much of an argument, if any at all, so in the interests of discussing the topic, I will supply an argument to Agustino and respond to t...
December 29, 2015 at 17:33
This is the claim. It follows that if all Ys have an obligation, then some Ys have an obligation. It doesn't do to argue that the argument is invalid ...
December 29, 2015 at 16:18
Your response it excellent, thorough, and probably too much to overcome. You've done a very good job of undermining the knowledge claim of gratuitous ...
December 24, 2015 at 20:28
I promised to address the issue of the ambiguous subject (i.e., adopted by whom, an individual or collectively as a society) as mentioned in the paral...
December 24, 2015 at 16:28
In your other thread I stated: echnology is the discovery of a method or apparatus to perform a function in a new or more efficient way (i.e., solve a...
December 23, 2015 at 19:15
Are you saying there's no procedure for the individual to express the individual's will, or that there's no procedure for the expression of the indivi...
December 23, 2015 at 18:36
While this seems like a sensible response, it ignores a potential (and potent) harm of social and psychological displacement. It shouldn't be expected...
December 23, 2015 at 16:25
There is room for conservative ideology to justify interference and harm on the grounds that the group being interfered with and harmed is not include...
December 23, 2015 at 16:13
An interesting case-study for this would be in cases where meeting needs becomes a challenge (e.g., after natural disasters). The hierarchy of needs m...
December 22, 2015 at 20:00