Michael

Which is why I said "r maybe trying to label me as being any one thing is futile. Better to just address the individual views I hold rather than fit m...

No, I want acceptable things to be allowed and unacceptable things to be disallowed. That principle likely drives every political position: liberal, c...

How are my views inconsistent/hypocritical/cherry-picking?

There's no "everything" that liberalism stands for. As I mentioned before, words are often more complicated than the overly simplistic attempts at a d...

I don't think that's necessary to be a liberal just as I don't think it's necessary that a conservative be opposed to an open debate.

If you believe that a black and white person ought be allowed to marry then you're obviously going to be intolerant of views that oppose interracial m...

How so?

Well when you get a change it's his Philosophical Investigations that is relevant to this topic.

I think that the meaning of a word is often more complicated than the simplistic account many try to give it. What is a game? Read some Wittgenstein.

Because there are often a dozen posts in the moderation queue.

I used to live in Hanover.

If the cells are a part of me, and if sound affects the cells, and if speech is sound, then speech affects me.

And consciously or not, the gun fires the bullet. But it's still the case that I, being the one who pulled the trigger, caused the bullet to fire. And...

And I broke the window. So? According to your account of causation as explained above, I pulled the trigger, the gun fired the bullet, and the bullet ...

Right, so I'm not causally responsible for breaking the window when I kick a ball into it. The extent of the causal power of my kick is the ball movin...

So? The sound waves cause the hair cells to move which cause the nerve impulses to fire. The irony here is that your account of causation would entail...

I think that mechanical soundwaves are causally responsible for the subsequent nerve impulses.

In other news: Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann found not guilty of lying to FBI, in blow to Durham investigation Some additional commentary f...

This is like saying that because plastic melts in fire and tungsten doesn't then it's not the fire that causes the plastic to melt but the plastic cau...

Huel is tasty. And I do have spinache/kale, eggs, and mango or sweet chilli sauce with the chicken and rice.

I pretty much only ever have Huel, chicken and rice, or Weetabix.

'Michael' === username ? post() : error()

DNA is what makes us who we are.

Or inside.

Of course they do. Random noises aren't going to affect me in the same way as a doctor saying "I'm sorry, but your wife died on the operating table." ...

Psychology might not be as rigorous a science as physics but things like therapy have been shown to work. Words can – and do – affect people, whether ...

You're new, you wouldn't get it. It's an old-timers in-joke.

Nothing. Everything is a goat.

The spelling obviously. Next!

Unfortunately the initial post of a discussion doesn't get transferred when discussions are merged. You'll need to just repost it here.

Interesting. Because that was never the case. It's always been as it is now.

How exactly does the poll calculation work? Is it 3 points for "I enjoyed it" and 1 for "Not for me"? That would mean if 4 people read Story A and vot...

This is false. A transfer of energy is how hearing works.

I'm talking about the ordinary, common-sense understanding of the word that even you use: And on the word "incite":

What does this have to do with anything? This isn't what any of us mean when we talk about someone's actions being influenced by the things other peop...

Compulsory buy-backs and ban the sale of ammo. That's what the UK and Australia did.

From the article: The homicide rate is higher because there are more guns. It's easier to kill someone (or 20) with a gun than with a knife. That's pr...

So put in steps to make mass murder harder, e.g strict gun regulations. And then at the same time address the causes.

It addresses all that. The US is no more violent, has no more mental illnesses, and has no more crime than other developed countries. And even excludi...

Why Does the U.S. Have So Many Mass Shootings? Research Is Clear: Guns.

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from Latin: aurum) and atomic number 79

Maybe if I put this into terms more to your liking: Who is to blame for you paying taxes? You or the government? The existence of a law and the threat...

I don't think a hypothetical tyrannical government is so likely that the current situation in the USA is a worthy sacrifice.

It's not just the effect of my learning, it's also the effect of your speech. We cannot converse or share knowledge if we just sit in silence and star...

Of course there is. My words have an effect on you. That's precisely how we are able to engage in conversation and share knowledge.

Who said anything about force? I'm not arguing that words are compulsive. I'm just talking about the sense already mentioned: you would not have done/...

Choices don't occur in a vacuum. They're influenced by our environment, including the things other people say. I might choose to turn left instead of ...

They have exactly the kind of causal power I claim they do; the kind such that you would not have done/said X if I had not said Y. It might not have t...

Firearms are leading cause of death among U.S. youth

The Shoutbox is no place for philosophy! :wink: