Michael

So if I am carrying a gun and threaten to kill you unless you kill someone else, and if you then kill someone else under such duress, then you should ...

There's no such thing as a self that's distinct from brain activity. There's no ghost in the machine. Our decisions just are brain activity, and such ...

It's definitely not. Canada has 34.7, the USA has 120.5 (from 2017).

This discussion was merged into The American Gun Control Debate

It can be about both. 1) fix whatever it is that makes people want to shoot people, and 2) make it harder for people who want to shoot people to shoot...

The ethics of shitting in someone's bed.

OK. But it's still an empirical fact that advertising increases sales. That's why companies spend so much money on advertising. And it's an empirical ...

The Artist Never Known As Prince.

Nothing we can do, that's just how the software works.

What apologies? I'm just drawing a factual distinction between a government requesting military assistance from a foreign power and foreign power star...

Well, Zelensky didn't ask Russia to invade, but the Somalian President did welcome U.S. troops, so I don't really understand what you're trying to say...

Well, all the Supreme Court can do is rule on whether or not it's "constitutionally protected as a technical matter." Whether or not that's what they'...

You're welcome.

Even then it's a matter of degree. An adult with congenital insensitivity to pain, a foetus at 24 weeks old, and cockroaches aren't capable of sufferi...

"Murder" is a legal term, so it "becomes" murder if the law declares it to be murder. Because you seem to think that there is some set of necessary an...

What's the connection between our definition of "person" and whether or not abortion is OK? I didn't realise that how we use words is the measure of m...

A sperm isn't a person, but a child is. Again, see Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations re. what is a game. If you're looking for some set of n...

There are many differences; a healthy adult has lungs and a fertilised egg doesn't, a fertilised egg is about 100 microns in diameter and a healthy ad...

No I didn't. I offered a healthy adult as an example of a person.

No, how did you come to that conclusion? Yes, there's a difference between a fertilised egg and a healthy adult.

They're called incubators. Although that would probably require a caesarian if it were done as an alternative to abortion.

Yep, it’s very efficient and saves me from having to do tax returns and make all these extra payments myself.

Here in the UK it’s the employer that pays their employees’ income tax/national insurance/student loan repayments/pension contributions. They only pay...

I would say the two extremes are a newly fertilised egg (not a person) and a healthy adult (a person). A 24 week old foetus and someone in a vegetativ...

See Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations, particularly regarding what is or isn't a game. I don't understand this question.

Whether or not a foetus has a right to life is the very thing being debated. And I would say that the woman's suffering very much is comparable, and a...

I suppose there's this: And this: This fits with the current law in the UK which allows abortion up to 24 weeks, and I believe this is (currently) the...

Because condoms/pills etc. don't always work. When does a foetus become conscious? There's still the 9 months of pregnancy which a woman has to suffer...

I don't think we need to be consistent, because I don't think there is a precise answer. Just as there is no single point where one species evolves in...

What's accepted might vary, but what's acceptable might not. If moral facts are independent of (inter)subjective opinion then these are two different ...

Yes, that's the reality. As I said, we just have to decide which injustice is greater and do what we can to avoid that. I (and may others) would say t...

You seem to be intentionally ignoring what is being said. All of these are true: 1. The United States did not (and does not) have a laissez-faire syst...

Well, to start, there needs to be a central currency. Unless you think some sort of barter system can work in today's age. Sure, but the presumption i...

Well if you insist.

From what little I've read, unless they can somehow use the Commerce Clause as a justification, any federal law will be declared a violation of State ...

Not just precedent:

How normal is this?

Louisiana HB 813 If this passes then women can be charged with murder for using an IUD. IUDs can either stop fertilization or the subsequent implantat...

I don't know. But responding with "therefore, it must be some supernatural intelligence" is a god of the gaps fallacy.

Yet you said: "My default position was that science has the answers. But it hasn't, in principle" and "But science can't explain everything, especiall...

God of the gaps

https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/docgener/studies/pdf/montagne/mount4.pdf /uploads/resized/files/n6/hfvsnhxb9whj7hw4.png

https://maps-spain.com/img/1200/spain-rain-map.jpg

I believe it rains more over mountains than plains, and Spain is the second most mountainous country in Europe, so I question this anecdote.

I agree with that.

A shared responsibility isn't an abdication of responsibility.

Terrible logic in those tweets, and also ignores the fact that there can be unwanted pregnancies after a woman wants her partner to not wear a condom ...

Sure. Bostrom does say: The related notion of Boltzmann brains wouldn't require this premise.

The reintroduction of slavery wouldn't just be a "defeat". Politics isn't just some game where the only thing that matters is one's team "winning" for...

Not allowing the majority to decide that slavery is acceptable, and not allowing the majority to decide that abortion isn't acceptable.