Olivier5

If you remember your Bible, the Hebrews in question were not exterminated. Simply they couldn't reach the promised land for some absurd unworthiness r...

That has advantages though: it makes ethics more fluid and evolutionary.

I say both perspectives have merit. 1. The sphere can be considered as white (as having the property of whiteness) in a stable, predictable manner. In...

A matter of need more often than taste. Our shifting philosophies serve a vital need to make sense of our lives, they are not decorative.

Excellent point. It's a form of bigotry.

Well then, you should be able to find a quote where he expresses the idea. Concentration camps have been used by many others including the US. The rea...

So you don't agree that America -- or supposedly any other nation -- needs a core set of ethical values. The law should be enough. But by your own rec...

1. Marx and Engels developed their historic theory in the 1840's, inspired mostly by recent or contemporary political events: the American and French ...

But then, the end justifies the means and we know that leads to the trampling of human rights. Utilitarianism alone does not suffice. We do need to wo...

You are confusing this place with a hate site. Go back to 4chan or something.

So you're talking about Engels now? Try and focus. Scatterbrains not welcome.

Not do what?

Marx was not a racist, and certainly not an antisemite. You seem a bit confused.

Thanks, I liked it too. :smile:

That is not my point. I am rather saying that the Nazis themselves removed the judeo-christian tradition from their own (personal) thinking, and even ...

Sorry, it's in the Declaration of Independence - We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by the...

Yes, the potential for mass murder was always there, and remains. The question is how we guard against it in modern secular societies. I believe this ...

For instance, to justify the need for the rule of law, its importance and value.

I think you read too much into it. The old uniforms had it and the Nazis didn't order the army to change it to a new model. That's all there is. My po...

Are you sure this detail was introduced by the Nazis? It could just as well be a pre-existing German tradition. Edit (from Wiki):

Centuries during which the Church was more often than not trying to protect Jews from the greed of the powerful and the prejudice of the masses. So, s...

That's news to me, and I would like to read some testimonials if you know of any. That's a tangent. My point is rather that, now that "God is dead", w...

Interesting observation. I suppose one could say something similar about al-F?r?b?, Avicenna and Maimonides, two Muslims and one Jew among many many o...

They were just a rehash of Comte's tired positivism. Their pitch was wrong in the sense that it was an ineffective caricature. I am not against carica...

Agreed. I was never impressed by any of them new atheists, whom I see as characterized by facile hatred of religion. An atheist myself, I know better ...

https://www.salon.com/2021/06/05/how-the-new-atheists-merged-with-the-far-right-a-story-of-intellectual-grift-and-abject-surrender/

We must believe in spring. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd7jpCiycrc

Ultra deep song about acculturation, the Italians, and all that... ;-) Boy went back to Napoli because he missed the scenery The native dancers and th...

Not really a fan of his political philosophy, which my French schoolboy memories limit to the idea of a social contract between inherently free indivi...

Of course JJ was behaving as a provocateur in the querelle des bouffons, courting scandal, and that's what he got, but as you said he also opened a br...

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a composer, with some modest success. Two pieces written by him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsziDPtVT_w https://www.you...

As per a hadith (a saying of the prophet Mohammad), honorable men are those who treat women honorably. The basic idea is that the strong must respect ...

This happened to me once, in an airport lounge. I had hours to wait and the old gentleman next to me in the lounge was reading a chess magazine. I ask...

Sorry, didn't see that. Exactly. A non reductionist account, an account that would start from the innate, pre-theoretical assumption, axiom, presuppos...

Yes, it's a good example of what Collingwood called an absolute presupposition, although you are right that it looks more basic. Perhaps Kant's a prio...

As an aside, note that the use of 'they', speaking of oneself, is spreading in the language, which points to the idea that the unity of the mind is no...

Now that is deep.

I Me Mine is a great entry on the subject, thanks. All through the day I me mine, I me mine, I me mine All through the night I me mine, I me mine, I m...

Thanks. This posting was prompted by Me, myself and I do like Lady Day: we always use the "royal we".

Me, myself and I Are all in love with you We all think you're wonderful We do Me, myself and I Have just one point of view We're convinced There's no ...

Exactly. A non reductionist account, an account of the mind that gives justice to it rather than try to eliminate it, is not logically impossible, whe...

Exactly. Yahweh has given way to Science as the Supreme Being in many modern minds, and therefore science is now required to deliver the same stuff th...

It cannot be used to 'explain away' perception in an eliminative manner -- one cannot say on the basis of one's perceptions, that perception is an ill...

It seems to me that you are indulging in a vision of a paradise, that probably serves the same purpose as the Christian paradise: console, bring solac...

Fans of Lewis's Narnia books may wish to check this precursor: The Magic World, by Edith Nesbit.

Researchers call for greater awareness of unintended consequences of CRISPR gene editing 9 APRIL 2021 by The Francis Crick Institute Researchers at th...

We could start with something easier, like improve human and animal welfare and combat climate change.

It's also very hard to do, I know.

My point was rather that no centralized decision making system can be perfect in its implementation (although they tend to look perfect on paper, but ...

I suspect that, were we to live in such a civilisation, our mean hedonistic expectation will simply adjust to somewhere around 95. Anything below 95 w...