Recent Responses
Aren't all actions selfish? Even those that are technically considered "selfless" and for the benefit of others are always done for some reason that is justified because of the benefit to oneself. For example, if I choose to rescue a child from a burning building with the risk of myself dying, I still perform the action because it makes ME feel good, or I feel that it is the morally right thing to do. Therefore, isn't it impossible to perform a truly selfless act, because the reasons for performing an action are always MY reasons? The selfless monk who goes on a fast is actually selfish because he wants something and performs the action to get it, shouldn't whether it benefits someone else be irrelevant? Is there any way to be truly selfless?
David Brink
June 30, 2011
(changed June 30, 2011)
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The view you find attractive is usually called psychological egoism. It says that agents always act to promote their own interests and that self-interest is always one's ultimate motive. You mention two kinds of reasons for accepting this doctrine: that we always act on our own desires and that w... Read more
Can we really blame drunk drivers? Doesn't the very state which makes them dangerous on the road (i.e. inebriation) also absolve them of responsibility for having decided to drive?
David Brink
June 30, 2011
(changed June 30, 2011)
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I just want to supplement Tom Pogge's response. Some approaches to responsibility view responsibility as a historical concept whose application depends not just on what's true of the agent at the time of action but also how the agent came to be that way. Some historical approaches to responsibili... Read more
Aren't all actions selfish? Even those that are technically considered "selfless" and for the benefit of others are always done for some reason that is justified because of the benefit to oneself. For example, if I choose to rescue a child from a burning building with the risk of myself dying, I still perform the action because it makes ME feel good, or I feel that it is the morally right thing to do. Therefore, isn't it impossible to perform a truly selfless act, because the reasons for performing an action are always MY reasons? The selfless monk who goes on a fast is actually selfish because he wants something and performs the action to get it, shouldn't whether it benefits someone else be irrelevant? Is there any way to be truly selfless?
David Brink
June 30, 2011
(changed June 30, 2011)
Permalink
The view you find attractive is usually called psychological egoism. It says that agents always act to promote their own interests and that self-interest is always one's ultimate motive. You mention two kinds of reasons for accepting this doctrine: that we always act on our own desires and that w... Read more
Can we really blame drunk drivers? Doesn't the very state which makes them dangerous on the road (i.e. inebriation) also absolve them of responsibility for having decided to drive?
David Brink
June 30, 2011
(changed June 30, 2011)
Permalink
I just want to supplement Tom Pogge's response. Some approaches to responsibility view responsibility as a historical concept whose application depends not just on what's true of the agent at the time of action but also how the agent came to be that way. Some historical approaches to responsibili... Read more
We conventionally assume that an object's color is an inherent property of the object. Yet color is merely the wavelength of light reflected and its impact on our retinas. When white objects are placed under certain lighting conditions, for instance, their apparent color changes - and indeed, if their apparent color changes, doesn't their real color also change, since color is a perception? Isn't a white object under a red light actually, in that moment, a red object?
Peter Smith
June 30, 2011
(changed June 30, 2011)
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Let's agree that, at bottom, a thing's colour is a matter of how it affects us. Still, that rough thought can be sharpened in various ways. As a more careful second shot we might say: something is red if it is such that, in normal lighting, it will produce a certain visual response in normal percei... Read more
Is there anything wrong with marrying for money?
Gordon Marino
June 29, 2011
(changed June 29, 2011)
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Maybe the person who is marrying for money is really married to money already. While I can understand how one could fall in love with money, I don't think it is a good strategy for happiness and to use the old Kantian language, you would certainly be using your spouse -to-be purely as a means to... Read more
Most of our modern conceptions of math defined in terms of a universe in which there are only three dimensions. In some advanced math classes, I have learned to generalize my math skills to any number of variables- which means more dimensions. Still, let's assume that some alternate theory of the universe, such as string theory is true. Does any of our math still hold true? How would our math need to be altered to match the true physics of the universe?
Allen Stairs
June 29, 2011
(changed June 29, 2011)
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Let's start with a quick comment about string theory. My knowledge is only journalistic, but it's clear that string theory is a mathematical theory and states its hypotheses about extra dimensions using mathematics. And as your comment about additional variables already suggests, there's nothing m... Read more
Our professor today told us that the expression "7 + 5" is a single entity and a number, just like 12, and not an operation or otherwise importantly different from 12. The context was an attempt to understand Plato's aviary analogy in Theaetetus, where our professor tried to have us imagine one bird being the "7 + 5" bird and two others being the "11" and "12" birds. This seems bizarre; while 12 is obviously the result of 7 + 5, it seems that saying they are the same is like saying a cake is the same thing as its recipe. So which is it? Is a simple mathematical equation like 7 + 5 identical to its result, or is it a different kind of thing where the similarity lies only in the numeric value the two have?
Allen Stairs
June 29, 2011
(changed June 29, 2011)
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Perhaps it will help to distinguish between what "7+5" refers to and how it does the referring. The expressions "7+5," "8+4,", "2x6," "36/3" and countless others all refer to the number 12. (Though not everyone agrees that there really are numbers, we'll set that issue aside here.) But they do it... Read more
If mind is a special form of matter, doesn't it follow that all matter may possess a special form of mind, and that oak trees and lumps of coal have been quietly thinking all this time?
Allen Stairs
June 27, 2011
(changed June 27, 2011)
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Or stones. They may be quietly thinking of Vienna. (Sorry; irresistible inside joke.)
People who think the mind is material don't think there's some special kind of matter ("Mindium?") that has the power to think. They think that matter appropriately structured and in appropriate relationship with... Read more
There was a debate recently about organ donation, and one group of people adamantly opposed the notion of making organ donation mandatory or even opt-out, because, and I quote, "They're my organs and nobody else gets to decide what to do with them." Considering organ donation only ever occurs when a person is deceased and no longer has any use for the organs, how is ownership of organs even relevant to the discussion? Why shouldn't it be acceptable to make organ donation opt-out, or even mandatory?
Thomas Pogge
June 27, 2011
(changed June 27, 2011)
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The claim that a deceased person has no use for her organs, that the integrity of her body after her death is of no importance to her, is a claim that many dispute, typically in the context of some religious beliefs or others. It seems best for the state to avoid policies that some citizens find o... Read more