Recent Responses
I was always wondering, is it possible to deliberately chose to be irrational ?
Charles Taliaferro
March 13, 2015
(changed March 13, 2015)
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Great question. There seem to be cases when a person might rationally chose to act irrationally --as occurs in Shakespeare's play Hamlet when the main character, Hamlet, acts as though he is mad to confuse his father-in-law (and, it turns out, the murderer of Hamlet's father) and this buy... Read more
Are there any books or videos or blogs or anything easily accessible that provide actual English translations of symbolic logic? If I could just read some straight-up translations it would be far easier for me to learn symbolic logic. I have some textbooks, but that's not what I'm looking for: I just want translations of sentences. (This was inspired by a reading of Alexander Pruss's "Incompatiblism Proved" of which I tried to paste an example sentence but was unable to do so).
Allen Stairs
March 12, 2015
(changed March 12, 2015)
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More or less every textbook I can think of has many, many translations of symbolic sentences into English. Many, though by no means all, of the translations are in the exercises, and often you need to work from answer to question, but any good text will include lots and lots of examples.
What I... Read more
There seems to be a popular form of virtual atheism where the person says: I don't believe in god, but I don't accept that 'everything is permitted.' And then they grin in an idiotic way. If 'everything is permitted' means exactly the same thing as there are no laws but man made laws, what can they mean? All laws are arbitrary unless they where given by some power from above, or if the very universe is 'good.' What else can they mean? If it is some kind of conditioned response or Freudian figure (which leads to the belief in goodness and guilt), that is ultimately based on meaningless phylogenetic antecedents. So if someone says that don't they just mean they don't like to admit morals are meaningless or radically arbitrary? Perhaps because they are confused.
Stephen Maitzen
March 6, 2015
(changed March 6, 2015)
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You seem to be arguing for this claim: Atheism implies that everything is morally permissible.
In the view of many philosophers, myself included, that claim is false. These philosophers argue that objective truths about moral right and wrong not only needn't be God-made (or man-made) but couldn... Read more
If it is not immoral to love one's own children more and put them above all other children, then why can't that concept be extended to one's own race? Biological polygenesis and philosophy of history makes it clear that colonialism and destruction of indigenous cultures and peoples is not always immoral and human perceptions of skin color will never go away.
Allen Stairs
March 5, 2015
(changed March 5, 2015)
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Let's start with your second sentence: "Biological polygenesis and philosophy of history make it clear that colonialism and destruction of indigenous cultures is not always immoral." A few obvious points. First, biological polygenesis (distinct origins for different races) is not widely accepted a... Read more
Commentators on the Holocaust often refer to the oft cited justification "just following orders" as a paltry excuse. But given that "just following orders" can often mean that a person must choose to follow orders or face legal consequences or death isn't that a pretty good excuse? We generally don't judge a person who is acting under duress in the same way as someone who isn't. Maybe when commentators reference this phrase they are only citing the most egregious cases where it was used, but I can't help but feel that these commentators are glossing over the moral complexity involved in cases where a person is said to be "following orders".
Oliver Leaman
March 5, 2015
(changed March 5, 2015)
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It is certainly true that moral philosophers recognize that people who are in receipt of orders are operating under duress, and this may play some part in excusing their behavior. The fact that one is under duress does not necessarily excuse everything that is done, though. The evidence of what h... Read more
As a parent of young children, I have recently come to know that lots of people find it acceptable to lie ("not telling the absolute truth") to children about all kinds of subjects. It is not only that they don't tell them there is no Santa Claus, they actually tell them that Santa Claus exists when children believe it's only a story, and they tell them that it is Santa Claus who gives them presents in Christmas. People tell 5 year old children that "if Mom and Dad really want it, a baby will appear inside Mom's belly". I once heard a Kindergarten "teacher" (can't find the right English word) telling a 3 year old that the broken tail of a plastic cow would grow again. I wonder if all this lying is acceptable? Perhaps there are some empirical, non philosophical issues here (how do children react to coming to know the truth about these things, and to coming to know that adults lied to them?; will this predispose children to lie when they grow?), but even if there are no bad distant consequences to this kind of behaviour, it still seems to me as basically wrong.
Amy Kind
March 5, 2015
(changed March 5, 2015)
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This is a great question, and it's one I think that parents -- and philosophers -- should think more about. I personally have grappled with it many times as a parent. It hit home for me when I was trying to figure out how to deal with my son's nightmares. The standard advice that turned up on web s... Read more
Are libel laws immoral? Libel is so not easy to define yet depending on how it may be interpreted, all satire and caricature can be considered libel. Isn't the mark of a free society being able to say whatever one wants, even if it amounts to character assassination? Character assassinations can always be defended in the court of public opinion without resorting to courts of law.
Allen Stairs
March 4, 2015
(changed March 4, 2015)
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Your suggestion that all libel laws are immoral seems to be based on the premise implicit in this rhetorical question: "Isn't the mark of a free society being able to say whatever one wants, even if it amounts to character assassination?" But why think that? As near as I can tell, more or less all... Read more
Is Plato right when he says that ignorance is the source of all evil? I live in the American south, and a large number of the people here are, in my opinion, ignorant; and i recently got into an argument with a class mate of mine who said that ignorance is bliss. At least half of the people at my school have his attitude, they don't care about their education and they prefer to not deal with things that might broaden their horizons. If ignorance is the source of evil, does that mean that my area is a hot spot for evil, or is my definition of evil wrong?
Allen Stairs
February 26, 2015
(changed February 26, 2015)
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Let's start with a distinction. We may say that a situation is evil if it's sufficiently bad, whatever it was that brought the situation about—even if no one intended it. But we don't usually say that a person is evil unless they have evil intentions. Start with evil people. In the kind of... Read more
Is empathy as a moral guide overrated? Why, for example, if empathy is considered such a powerful force for moral good, was it unable to prevent the American slavery system?
Eddy Nahmias
February 26, 2015
(changed February 26, 2015)
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Some people think empathy is overrated, including psychologist Paul Bloom, who offers a nice summary of his views here: http://bostonreview.net/forum/paul-bloom-against-empathy
There are some responses to him as well, including one by philosopher Jesse Prinz, who has also argued that empat... Read more
Dear Philosophers, Can someone recommend a biography of Baruch Spinoza? Thank you
Eddy Nahmias
February 26, 2015
(changed February 26, 2015)
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I haven't read Rebecca Goldstein's biography of Spinoza, but she's a great writer (with PhD in philosophy) and my dad liked it. I can't vouch for how thorough it is, but it will give you a sense of his philosophical views as well.
http://www.amazon.com/Betraying-Spinoza-Renegade-Moderni... Read more