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Tom Storm

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I guess I disagree with using terms like “dissatisfaction” or “a preference away from” in this context. If, for instance, we’re talking about an Axis ...
June 15, 2025 at 08:43
I'm not arguing over terms, I'm saying his makes it no clearer or more precise.
June 15, 2025 at 08:26
Interesting OP. It does often seem like there are people here who are trying to understand what others think, and others who want everyone to think li...
June 15, 2025 at 08:24
No, that would be even more imprecise. If we're talking about a psychotic illness such as schizoaffective disorder or schizophrenia (to cite two examp...
June 15, 2025 at 08:08
Perhaps you assume that this site is only for talking to itself. In life, I meet many atheists who renounce a cartoon God and the literalists. Jordan ...
June 14, 2025 at 23:04
Unless they have a mental illness. I also think that it is unrealistic to say to a mother who has lost her entire family to mass murder by a dictator,...
June 13, 2025 at 23:01
I believe my answers to these are in my OP. If this is inadequate, I'm sorry. Clearly, what I’m asking for is a survey of different, more philosophica...
June 12, 2025 at 22:54
Do you think the constitution and its legal protections are strong enough to withstand an authoritarian like Trump? Or do you think he will simply wal...
June 12, 2025 at 22:22
Did I mean "transcendental"? I actually meant a source of morality beyond the human, like God or Plato's forms, or anything external to humanity. Coul...
June 12, 2025 at 20:11
In asking for my view, you're speaking to someone socialised in the progressive West, so it’s hardly surprising that I affirm the belief that rape is ...
June 11, 2025 at 21:00
I guess the compromise for me might be to say that truth is a product of human beings, their interactions, and discourse. But perhaps the word truth i...
June 11, 2025 at 08:18
That’s sharper than my view and nicely put. There’s probably a need to go deeper into this, partly as a way to address the ‘you can’t have values if t...
June 10, 2025 at 22:13
No, this misses something. We do not need to have absolute right and wrong to have a debate about value. Society is the product of discursive practice...
June 10, 2025 at 21:36
You are difficult to have a discussion with because you seem to keep turning it into battles you think you’re having with people, instead of actually ...
June 10, 2025 at 21:24
It's funny how people always reach for Hitler in these discussions. Why not Pol Pot, surely a satisfying enough human rights violator in his own right...
June 10, 2025 at 21:13
I'd say there is no proper orientation towards the world. I don't see how this follows. It feels like this is throwing the baby out with the bathwater...
June 10, 2025 at 11:56
Yes, well I know it isn't a unique view but my position is that goodness, truth, and beauty are not transcendentals but are contingent products of cul...
June 10, 2025 at 11:45
It was just a quip. But I would say that concepts like God, goodness, evil, and charity are human constructs—they arise from human experience and imag...
June 10, 2025 at 11:35
Yes. The notion of beauty.
June 10, 2025 at 11:06
No. I guess I'm a kind of simple-minded pragmatist. I do not have any commitments to capital T truth and consider our grasp of reality to be a conting...
June 09, 2025 at 22:52
This from the OP Your next statement and its formulation (like an apologist) is a reason I guessed you are riffing off the beliefs of your youth. You ...
June 09, 2025 at 20:37
No, they are not objective criteria nor do i lay them out as my version. I'm saying that this is what generally happens in the pluralistic West. They ...
June 09, 2025 at 20:24
:rofl: More like self-overcoming. I tend to hold good art should challenge and offer new ways of seeing. But maybe I'm doing it wrong. I do most thing...
June 09, 2025 at 11:41
My favourite novels often weren’t enjoyable at first. They grew on me, and the initial struggle with the author transformed me as I persisted. I didn’...
June 09, 2025 at 11:10
Except that we know that some people achieve success despite all the odds and setbacks, just look at any list of entrepreneurs or Hollywood stars. Thi...
June 09, 2025 at 08:16
Yes, to all of the above. That’s the condition we’ve always lived in. It seems to me morality emerges from a shifting balance of perspectives, shaped ...
June 09, 2025 at 06:41
I don’t know if murder is wrong in any objective sense, beyond the fact that it's a proscribed activity under the law. And even, more generally, “kill...
June 09, 2025 at 03:41
I can probably work with this. Language is such a bastard!
June 09, 2025 at 03:02
:up:
June 09, 2025 at 02:05
I can see how this works and there's an intuitive appeal to it, after all, if people are disagreeing, they seem to be appealing to some shared standar...
June 09, 2025 at 01:59
No. You’re jumping the gun. A ‘safe place’ just means whatever gives you comfort. I wouldn’t have thought heaven was a candidate here, why would you? ...
June 08, 2025 at 23:41
That makes sense and I guess would match my understanding of it. If this is the case, how does one determine when a faith is appropriate? From what I'...
June 08, 2025 at 23:01
Do you think a follower’s faith in a guru is of the same nature as a patient’s trust in a doctor? And what if the roles were reversed; if the person w...
June 08, 2025 at 16:48
This seems right to me. I suppose some people might argue that there are intersubjective agreements about metaphysical truths, such as the existence o...
June 08, 2025 at 16:36
:up: No worries.
June 08, 2025 at 12:32
I didn’t say it was a thought-out political act. I said some people (for whatever reason) might want to erase their presence somewhere. I presented on...
June 08, 2025 at 12:16
But people are different, right? You don’t understand the move because you wouldn’t do this.
June 08, 2025 at 12:09
Because it makes us feel better about the argument. :wink:
June 08, 2025 at 11:54
I have different view. Some people may experience a change in how they see the world and feel embarrassed or self-conscious about their past ideas. So...
June 08, 2025 at 11:41
I'm glad to hear it. :up:
June 08, 2025 at 10:18
Very interesting. I can't say I have much to add to this, except that I've often thought people are drawn to beliefs that are emotionally satisfying. ...
June 07, 2025 at 02:13
From what I’ve seen, the experience is often all about ‘one truth for all' so how could we expect restraint? Intellectual honesty seems to me to be a ...
June 07, 2025 at 02:05
I agree with you, but isn't it inherent to the experience that it feels like an encounter with truth and therefore natural, even inevitable, to confla...
June 07, 2025 at 00:02
No, I don't imply that, since I don't know whether you have a positive worldview or not. To me, it seems like you're working terribly hard to overcome...
June 06, 2025 at 23:07
Ok. I think this makes sense, though I’m using the term ‘reality’ loosely here. Isn’t it the case that what you’re really talking about is some kind o...
June 05, 2025 at 07:36
I’m indiscreet.
June 05, 2025 at 06:15
I wonder too if there's a general view that some disciplines, like physics and chemistry, are considered the “real” sciences, while others, like socio...
June 05, 2025 at 02:50
What they might share, I guess, is us working hard to make sense. We do cherish our overarching models and unified field theories. But I’m not especia...
June 05, 2025 at 02:10
:up:
June 05, 2025 at 00:17
No problem. We're just threshing things out. Fair enough. No. We all see what we want to see. The point of philosophy, as I see it, is to notice what ...
June 05, 2025 at 00:17