Count Timothy von Icarus

While I agree that the framing in terms of "essentialism" has its problems, that doesn't excuse the issues with Bob's post. For instance, I wouldn't s...

Might I suggest that this is an overly rosey picture? For instance, across the Roman Empire vast numbers of people were tortured to death, publicly ex...

I am not sure I understand. What exactly is it about appeals to eternity that make them different in kind so that false/wicked/corrupt exemplars shoul...

Right, but I think there is a quite robust argument to be made that it is secularism and liberalism that has spawned fundamentalism, elevated fideism,...

I had a thread on this a while back, although the essay it focused on had some serious issues with trying to cram the issue into a Marxist framing (wh...

That's an excellent point. It seems to me like a mix of both. Some trolls really do seem to buy into nihilism in explicit terms, and yet they often do...

So would the efforts of Schiller, Goethe, Schelling, etc. (and later echos in the 20th century) then be a sort of inversion of the bolded, an attempt ...

A life without Big Heg and Dusty Dosto? Perish the thought! Plus, modern thought does many things well. Harry Frankfurt's notion of "second-order voli...

I think that's debatable. If you let poultry with clipped wings loose in the slaughterhouse so that they can walk to their own destruction they'll gla...

If you've crippled a bird's wings are they still free to fly away simply because you've opened the cage door?

Welcome back! Those are certainly major turning points in the genesis of modernity. I wonder though if today's secularity tends to obscure how much of...

Right, I am just wondering about the general linkage there. I can think of American subcultures (hardcore punk, rap) that are extremely homophobic (ly...

It seems relevant to many of the points made here though. It isn't considered immoral for sterile couples to marry. And if such marriages were conside...

Ah, I get you now. I thought you had a typo because I was considering the case where one knowingly chooses the worse over the better, not vice versa; ...

Do you think this interpretation should be considered as being universal or absolute, or is it itself subject to continuous fusions, potentially becom...

You don't think parents who see gender dysphoria as an illness are capable of truly or fully loving their children? Would this apply to something like...

I'm not really sure what you mean here. That is precisely how marriage tended to be viewed by philosophers and theologians. Of course, these pre-moder...

Such as? If one had "good reasons" for choosing "the worse" over the "better" it seems to me that, by definition, we must think that "the worse" is in...

No, I agree with the many critics who say that the division is wholly metaphysical. Maybe it can be justified, but it would have to be justified on me...

That's a fair point. I don't think there is an obvious "default." As I pointed out, a number of traditions move towards seeing all sexual relations as...

Russell's paper is interesting but she is actually only speaking obliquely to Hume's position (actually, the choice of title is a little puzzling in t...

Well, if the good is being qua desirable (what is truly most fulfilling of desire) in what way is it ever "better" to choose the worse over the good? ...

Well, I don't want to go off topic, but it seems somewhat relevant insomuch as an attraction to children (or animals, and other such orientations) are...

Good point, that's another common usage of "ought." And given Hume's epistemic commitments, I do wonder if there can ever be anything other than these...

Hume's division isn't logical, it's metaphysical and epistemic. If one rejects Hume's psychology, which Hume himself seems to acknowledge cannot be ju...

Good points, and it's worth pointing out that the status of homosexuality in "thick" teleological accounts varies a bit across traditions. This is why...

What exactly left that impression? The only two things I have tried to clarify here are that: A. The "natural" of the natural law is very different fr...

Sure, although I am more familiar with Catholics criticizing that distinction to be honest. I only brought it up because "natural" in the common, secu...

So a mental illness is whatever "the professionals" or "society" says it is? IIRC, there was a somewhat successful push to normalize and legalize pedo...

A good example here is reason. Reason is ordered to truth. But reason can be instrumentalized and ordered to lower desires. And this would be "contrar...

If the idea you have is a sort of voluntarism or "divine command theory," then no, quite the opposite. I'd argue that divine command theory is itself ...

The term "natural" needs to be defined here. If "natural" has something like its more modern meaning where it is defined over and against the "artific...

Come around for the thread of Proclus' Elements in a few weeks; he's got some great ideas on this. :grin:

Well, we might consider here that just because a problem is perennial does not mean that it cannot be better or worse in different eras and systems. "...

I forgot another core part: the marketization anonyminitization of these moves also requires phenomenal state intervention since personal relationship...

Cool, I am traveling the next two weeks so I'll probably start won't start it for a bit at any rate. IIRC its 212 propositions total, and normally jus...

This thread coming up again reminded me of a great quote from the Ladder of Divine Ascent (15.89) What is this mystery in me? What is the meaning of t...

Deneen is pretty good on this, and I won't be able to sum it up as good as he does. He uses the Amish as a contrast point. The Amish don't use insuran...

There is the old idea of "Chesterton's Fence:" I get the feeling that a lot of the modern reaction in favor of "tradition" is really just a reaction a...

Well, the ordering principle would be the rational appetites, i.e., the desire for what is really true and truly good (as opposed to merely appearing ...

For sure. I don't see how it ever could be. Enlightenment thought is in part defined by its blanket denial of noesis/intellectus, or the role of any s...

Sure; the most famous place where Dostoevsky uses this image is in the Grand Inquisitor, which is a short story within the Brother's Karamazov told by...

Well, it's worth noting that Hamilton himself, while one of the more conservative Founders in some respects, is also within the broader liberal, Enlig...

Anyone interested in reading Proclus' Elements and the Book of Causes? I feel like the style makes it good for a read along. It's set up like Euclid's...

"Anti-realism" in meta-ethics just refers to the claim that there are no facts about values; which is quite popular as a position. Plenty of people em...

Sure, hence it would an equally hollow argument to say merely: "Clearly there are objective values, thus an analogy that implies otherwise is a bad on...

I won't deny that it is, for many, unaccessible. In part this is because, beliefs to the contrary, we absolutely do still indoctrinate children into e...

If you can show that, all else equal and on average, it is better to be gluttonous, slothful, cowardly, rash, unintelligent, weak, unhealthy, clumsy, ...

You can think up such scenarios for any of the virtues. A rash person will tend to act impulsively and in some cases this might allow them to save the...

Everyone agrees thoughts are relative to individuals though, the question is about truth (vis-á-vis values). Something truly being good for you (or yo...