baker

Inertia, fear of conflict, minding one's own business, physical exhaustion due to overwork and stress. I'm not convinced that people set out to try to...

"Greed is good." The asymmetry in the exchange between the buyer and seller has to be considered good and moral, trivially so, for both sides to engag...

If you have a group of people who behave morally (what is, in some traditional sense considered "moral"), and then comes one who doesn't behave morall...

Yes, and this asymmetry has to somehow be considered good and moral, good.

So you have no trouble with asserting such, but you have trouble with considering that man can do damage to the planet?

The arrogance of man, thinking that he can't be a threat to the planet.

Purifying the citta is not an easy task; or at least some think it's not an easy task. The basic principles are easy enough, but putting them into act...

Then maybe you should go and live in a landfill.

You don't think that a free lunch can only be found in mouse traps?

But he is indebting other people for future favors back to him. He may have fixed someone's computer for no monetary charge this time, but he's also s...

Well, the time of the elves is over. https://i.imgur.com/SLAlB.jpg

As in some Hindu (mono)theisms. Of course, in those systems, too, a person has to jump through some hoops, including risking a series of rebirths/rein...

This would apply for a demigod, ie. one who doesn't create the universe and of whom living beings are not part of. But given that 1. it's God who crea...

The assumption that there is such a thing as objective morality (which would have the same type of function as the rules in chess) tends to lurk in th...

Sure, but there are dragons lurking there, literally! And orcs! The beauty of the Shire, for example, is not safe, not a given. How can you enjoy it w...

Like that financial guru said -- "Never tell people what you know, keep them poor".

How can something that leads to success in the world be morally wrong? That's assuming that rules apply equally to all people, regardless of their sta...

Thank heavens it's not possible to prove an absolute negative, heh.

Not at all. Think of all the sword fights, the bows and arrows! The horses, the running, the falling, the chases, the charges, the battles! The urgenc...

Unlike parsing, heh. https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRnttiLP_UYWOiIwdCrrp68ErXbEse2cr0Www&usqp=CAU

The process of "discovering" truth is simultaneously deductive and inductive. Assuming something to be true makes us able to see the supporting eviden...

I suppose the more neurotic types have such a fear. But most probably just feel offended, righteously indignant, with no further thought given as to h...

The words "philosophy" and "to philosophize" also have distinctly negative connotations. When the opportunity presents itself, I poke around a little ...

My point is that you're addressing a different problem than I. Can you imagine a person feeling demoralized, where this demoralization doesn't have to...

And to ordinary people. On that note, I was once talking to a woman online, she must have been about 50 at the time, who genuinely did not understand ...

Do you think Donnie writes into his gratitude journal every day? Exactly. Why ignore the obvious? Why should the way things actually are IRL play no p...

This is still too puzzling!

Cutting into a slope and risking a landslide. Burning trash close to the property line, so that the trees and grapevines on our side are damaged from ...

Or a kind of job security: If you set out to explore something as vast as space, you'll always have something to do, your life will always be directed...

Humanses are a pugilistic species. The internetz merely tunes out the noise that generally prevents us from seeing people in their typical pugilistic ...

Sure, I've been thinking about that. But what if they say, "Your life, your problem"? Appealing to people's compassion generally doesn't go well.

No, this are one-way relationship kind of people. They should be able to do harm unto (certain) others, but those others should be kind to them no mat...

I don't understand what you mean by that. How would showing that it's worth bothering about other people have as a consequence not knowing who the peo...

I am literally living in fear for my life every day, and this guy is getting away with it. You see, philosophy is fine, and abstractly discussing exis...

This completely misses the point, or even deliberately detracts from it. It is possible to feel demoralized about the world while this has nothing to ...

Precisely: Why bother about other people, their lives and their property, when you can get away with endangering and damaging it.

I invite you to walk a mile in my shoes. Or, in this case, live in my situation, with such a neighbor who doesn't care if because of his actions, your...

Not at all. This is where the ancient Stoics differ importantly from modern popular stoicism. The ancient Stoics believed that one is part of nature, ...

In terms of costs and solving engineering problems the matter is, of course, tremendous. But beyond that, what's the point? To find another planet for...

Such a thing exists: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abhidhamma_Pi%E1%B9%ADaka: The Abhidhamma Pi?aka (Pali; Sanskrit: Abhidharma Pi?aka; English: Baske...

Why? The matter is trivial. (And they're spending billions on it.) What if space exploration is a subtle and blatantly desperate attempt to prove the ...

This can mean so many things, be taken so many ways. The Nazis, for example, too, cared about themselves by "making the world a better place". If life...

I don't understand what you mean. Do say more.

I think it would be extremely extraordinary if life existed only on Earth.

Like I said and I think (or at least, I used to think) ethics/morality is, to great extent, about not doing harm to other people and their property.

In other words, the behavior of my neighbors is advantageous. They are part of a group that protects them. I am sure they consider their behavior mora...

What is your point? Of course groups are advantagoues. Gangs, mobs, nepotism, cronyism. How does this prove that morality is worthwhile?

In that one cannot meaningfully hope to become free from suffering (ie. become enlightened) if one occasionally or regularly drinks alcohol or smokes ...

Reminds me of this: "Rahula, develop the meditation in tune with earth. For when you are developing the meditation in tune with earth, agreeable & dis...

One of the perspectives that one can derive from Early Buddhism is that an insight into rebirth follows from an insight into the workings of karma. As...