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Jacques

['Member']Joined: July 27, 2020 at 12:28Last active: November 28, 2025 at 13:592 discussions104 comments

Favourite Quotations

Wagner's music is better than it sounds.
- Mark Twain

Discussions (2)

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This discussion involves two distinct issues. The first concerns uncomputable problems, on which I fully agree with you. The second relates to whether...
July 10, 2025 at 16:20
You're right that at first glance, machines and living organisms appear quite different—especially regarding structure and origin. However, if we focu...
July 08, 2025 at 20:21
You're right, I don’t consciously compute every problem I encounter. But that doesn’t mean computation isn’t happening. Much of the problem-solving is...
July 06, 2025 at 20:53
You sound like you’re drawing from idealism and Kantian philosophy, maybe with a libertarian view of free will—is that how you see it?
July 06, 2025 at 18:27
While it's true that most people might share your opinion, it's worth noting that several prominent thinkers have argued that the brain—or even the hu...
July 06, 2025 at 16:10
Teleology explains events as caused by goals or intended purposes. In contrast, teleonomy describes the appearance of goal-directedness, treating such...
July 06, 2025 at 14:51
The problem with this statement is that, in modern biology and the philosophy of science, teleology is generally rejected as a fundamental explanatory...
July 05, 2025 at 12:06
In my opinion anyone who rejects physicalism and the associated reduction of conscious experiences to material processes must assume that these experi...
July 03, 2025 at 16:20
Decoding refers to the exhaustive understanding of the biological system of the nematode – encompassing its genetics, cellular processes, neural archi...
June 29, 2025 at 15:11
By “understanding ourselves,” I meant fully decoding ourselves—much like scientists are currently attempting with the simplest model organism: the nem...
June 29, 2025 at 14:01
I disagree. If you consider that, in every society, the uneducated constitute the majority, then only someone who is similarly uneducated and shares t...
June 10, 2025 at 15:49
There is nothing wrong in it. Everyone does it in their own way. I'm more the type who likes to savor things, whether it's music, art, or literature.
June 09, 2025 at 15:20
Interesting. I tend to think if a book feels like self-mortification, I might be in the wrong genre. Then again, maybe that’s the Calvinist in you tal...
June 09, 2025 at 11:30
In my opinion, the value of a novel lies in its ability to captivate me from the first page to the last—so compelling that I can’t put it down and reg...
June 09, 2025 at 09:40
As far as I know this applies to all possible sexes and genders.
July 16, 2023 at 16:08
Prostitution is mainly human trafficking and the exploitation of people in distress for entertainment purposes.
July 16, 2023 at 08:25
For me, it's in the evaluation." An intelligent reptile would likely make different evaluations than an intelligent chimpanzee, although there would l...
July 15, 2023 at 09:52
I would define morality as the active process of evaluating things and assigning them a value of either right or wrong, rather than passively perceivi...
July 14, 2023 at 08:29
@"Mark S" What I intended to convey is that it is considerably simpler to prescribe the actions one ought take to achieve a particular goal, rather th...
May 31, 2023 at 12:16
That's why I'm saying that moralizing without such a goal is much more challenging than when you orient yourself towards a goal X that you already hav...
May 30, 2023 at 15:55
I'll give it a try. The lack of interest in moral concepts based on conditional norms of oughtness can be explained by the fact that it represents a r...
May 29, 2023 at 08:16
Meanwhile, I believe I understand what you're getting at. I will do my best to compose a satisfactory answer to it, but it will take a few more days, ...
May 27, 2023 at 12:02
Even if that were the case (which I do not doubt), it would have no significance for moral duties because, as Hume already stated, one cannot derive a...
May 26, 2023 at 15:41
I agree with you that diversity is possible under a single government, even more so under a single municipal administration.
May 25, 2023 at 19:08
Agreed, there are such things. However, I meant actual cases in which one deceives, disadvantages, oppresses, or exploits another. In the cases I am a...
May 24, 2023 at 19:19
What is the use of someone knowing what he ought to do if he is not willing to do it. There is, after all, the saying: "Man always remembers only nine...
May 23, 2023 at 20:37
This is a misunderstanding; I by no means wanted to say that all people are evil. My experience is that people are different: some are friendly, helpf...
May 23, 2023 at 18:36
Yes, you correctly identified my problem. :lol:
May 23, 2023 at 05:34
Many theologians and philosophers have tried to find an objective morality, but without success. The last one I know of is John Leslie Mackie. In his ...
May 22, 2023 at 16:44
I have a similar view: mutations are random and chaotic, and so are the conditions that favor a few individual mutations and eliminate most of them. B...
May 22, 2023 at 15:18
This is a difficult hypothesis to prove. This is a deception, we can do many things but we cannot go against the laws of nature and against our instin...
May 22, 2023 at 15:13
Mark Twain's point is precisely that the law of God is that which governs the planets, rivers, plants and animals (including man). In other words, tha...
May 22, 2023 at 15:03
You are right, people can even do something purely spontaneous, while thinking about something else. How could I have forgotten this important possibi...
May 22, 2023 at 14:55
That is indeed the most difficult hurdle: how to convince people of the idea, but it is the only one. :joke:
May 22, 2023 at 14:46
Yes, I abhor my own pain, since I am not a masochist, and other people's pain, since I am not a sadist either. I do not envy villains at all, since I ...
May 22, 2023 at 12:56
I don't believe that would be so difficult. You would just need to form two groups and ask one group to only have children with the darkest members, w...
May 22, 2023 at 07:43
Why not? Originally, all humans had the same skin color, namely black, from which the different colors developed. Why shouldn't the same be possible a...
May 21, 2023 at 21:10
As I said, I also see the disadvantages of uniformity, even though I don't view them as extreme as you do. Ideally, I would like to have both diversit...
May 21, 2023 at 18:41
You're right, there would be disadvantages, (I love diversity too) but I think the advantages would outweigh them. Although I'm not used to being over...
May 21, 2023 at 16:49
Besides, I would like it if we all belonged to one nation, if we all had the same skin color, no matter which: white or black, green or blue, the main...
May 21, 2023 at 15:46
Sorry, I got it backwards. Now I understand that you meant savings on ordnance and not on school lunches. :lol:
May 21, 2023 at 15:19
It is in the nature of one to do good and in the nature of the other to do bad; we're not all the same, are we? I am not saying that we should expect ...
May 21, 2023 at 15:09
I don't understand: more peace, less school? How come?
May 21, 2023 at 10:29
I, too, was confused by the concepts of morality for a long time. But by now, my confusion has subsided. Morality is good at defining good and evil, i...
May 21, 2023 at 09:43
I would be happy if humanity were united under a single government. Then there would be no borders and no wars. No country would invade its neighbor f...
May 20, 2023 at 21:06
Only the first sentence from the quote is indirect speech, but everything from "Now, although ..." onward represents Kant's own opinion as to why it i...
May 20, 2023 at 19:28
By the way, I have found a passage in the "Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals" that, in my opinion, can serve as evidence that Kant justifies the...
May 20, 2023 at 09:55
With Kant, I have my difficulties when he says: "Being charitable wherever possible is a duty, and besides, there are some souls so disposed to empath...
May 20, 2023 at 09:35
Me too. Unfortunately, I know too little about the author to know what exactly he was trying to say. Perhaps he wanted to express his disappointment w...
May 19, 2023 at 17:55
What about John Leslie Mackie and his book "ETHICS Inventing Right and Wrong". His views seem fairly consistent to me.
May 19, 2023 at 13:43