baker

That's assuming that those stories were invented (?) for the purposes that you claim. How do you know they were invented for those purposes? Again, th...

It all goes back to disagreement, and what to do about it, how to think about it. Given that people often say "This isn't real, it's all in your mind"...

People keep saying things like this. Where's the evidence that they really made up those stories, and for those stated purposes?

The Adam Smith reference was both ironic and not. I think it's an instruction disguised as an "observation" or "explanation". A famous example of such...

How so? Have you lived in a country that has undergone a major monetary change, like in a country that gave up its own currency in favor of the Euro?

Exactly. But what does it help if the body lives, if the soul, the spirit is crushed?

And you think *that* is "Japanese culture"??

It depends on what others, and what those others are doing or are willing to do. One cannot be a gentleman among savages.

Possibly the way a chess player is willing to sacrifice all pieces but the king. Further, religion/ideology plays an important part here as far as civ...

Sure. But not Roman Catholicism, not Islam, not Buddhism, many kinds of Protestant Christianity. That is, the biggest, most populous religions have a ...

Time for some Adam Smith again: (emphases mine) What would "enlightened self-interest" even be?

Religions generally see life on Earth as a place of sorrow, or even view existence itself as a failed project. Religions are not life-affirming as suc...

Which is impossible when one of the participants is a moderator, putting his moderator foot down.

Who is "us"? Mankind as a whole, any particular person, or a particular person (but not some other person)? I think there is a big reason why someone ...

Then you should read the Pali suttas, the foundational Buddhist texts. This is the Buddha speaking:

But doing such just maintains the status quo. If one puts oneself into another's shoes, one can always understand them, always perceive them as reason...

No. All foundational religious teachers made the claim (even explicitly) that they are in the know, and that everyone else is less or more wrong. The ...

But how religious were the people in Bacon's time? Like modern American Christians, or like old-fashioned Catholics in traditionally Catholic countrie...

It's conceivable that relations based ultimately on violence and domination are the default for humans anyway, at all levels. But when everyone is tha...

Neither do I. Besides, many, if not most men, don't fit the trope anyway, or if they do, only for a part of their lives. Yes. It seems that being male...

Strike one. You're making the same kind of simplifications as the feminists you argue against. It's not just women who are traditionally usually barre...

Sure. But saying, for example, that someone "inoculated people against reality" is already an interpretation of his act, not the act itself. Of course...

It is on track. I'm not discussing Trump. I'm discussing how philosophers, too, have taboos, which is ironically relevant, given the topic.

And in previous systems, the equivalent was the tyrannical socio-economic system in which most people were considered expendable and often treated acc...

Sure, there are some obvious instances of people "seeing the same things". Is Pluto a planet or not? When you look at Pluto, you might see a planet, b...

*sigh* Philosopher, know thyself! I brought up Trump precisely because he's such a hot topic, to see if you can apply your insights from this thread w...

Talk about upholding taboos! "Philosophical insights can and should be applied to mountain meadows, butterflies, dogs, teapots, but not to hot topics ...

How do you know we in fact see the same things? What if we are merely conforming, to the point of sometimes even pretending that we see the same thing...

An inquisitive one. It's a blind spot frequently encountered in philosophical discussions. In philosophy, there's a taboo against using a philosopher'...

But the results of perception are normativized. There is a clear pressure in society to see things in a particular way and to believe that this is "ho...

So when people talk about politics, they don't have perception?

So let's apply this to a practical example: When the critics of Trump and his followers make claims about them, they (ie. the critics) believe that th...

I think this is so by design, because otherwise, any kind of normativity is impossible. And without normativity, society and culture are impossible. H...

It's about more than merely affective concerns: It's about normativity. The traditional focus on objectivity can also be seen as an effort to establis...

How does Bitbol account for the possible power differential in such debates? For example, a teacher and a student may have a debate in class, but beca...

A guy once broke up with me and he stated as his reason, and I quote, "I question the wisdom of continuing a relationship with someone who barely know...

Of course. The US Miranda warning: You have the right to remain silent and refuse to answer questions. If you give up the right to remain silent, anyt...

How about being aware that your posts here might someday be read by, say, an FBI agent or an IRS agent? Or your boss?

I like the idea with topography, but it's not clear how morality and normativity can be worked out with it.

If moral facts are something that some people still need to discover and some already know them, then on the grounds of what should the thusly ignoran...

Like I've been saying for a long time, I think you're overestimating his influence on people and underestimating the option that many people are like ...

Dou you think that posting at a public forum should involve no such fear?

Wait, what? Jordan Peterson now something like believes in God or is somehow Christianity-adjacent?

How so? Were they previously good, decent human beings who could easily tell reality from fantasy? By saying Trump innoculated millions of people agai...

"Enemy" being the operative term here.

Have you compared it to Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho?

This is an interesting point. How can it be extrapolated? That a person's psychological, social, economical situation is also a type of topography? So...

For the purposes of this discussion, what is your definition of morality?

Buddhism is a sidenote here. My criticism is aimed at eclecticism and at disregarding the complex systemic context of claims.

I often get accused at these forums for arguing ad personam. But this is my point: the things being said are said by someone, by a person, they don't ...