Recent Responses
Would a just world be one where people get what they need, or one where people get what they deserve?
Jonathan Westphal
August 9, 2012
(changed August 9, 2012)
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In the context of crime, justice is getting what one deserves (twenty years hard labour, hanging, if anyone deserves hanging), and so criminal justice includes retributive justice. In the social context, since there is the assumption that everyone deserves to be treated as a human being sho... Read more
Hello. Reading a bit of Wikipedia, a bit of Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and a bit of your site, I got this impression about moral theories: (1) Traditional moral realists claim that there are (universally binding) moral facts. (2) Traditinal moral anti-realists claim that there are no (universally binding) moral facts. (3) So called "moral externalists" claim that (perhaps universal) moral facts are not binding (that is, they are *morally* binding, but people may ignore morality without being irrational, and so people may ignore such "bindingness"). Did I get it right? What I mean is that sceptics about morality always assume that morality should in some way be "absolutely binding". But some philosophers are half way between realism and scepticism because they accept morality and just deny its necessary bindingness. My question is whether these philosophers are really *between* realism and anti-realism.
David Brink
August 9, 2012
(changed August 9, 2012)
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I think you have got some aspects of one central metaethical debate right. Some realists believe that (a) there are objective moral requirements and that (b) they are dictates of reason. There are those who deny this form of realism, because they deny (a) or (b) or both. But once we distinguis... Read more
Does a proposition which is always false such as 'one plus one equals seven' have false truth conditions or no truth conditions?
Stephen Maitzen
August 9, 2012
(changed August 9, 2012)
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I can't see how it could have no truth conditions if it's always false: if it's always false, mustn't it have truth conditions of a particular kind, namely, truth conditions that are never fulfilled? I wouldn't call those "false truth conditions," however; I'd call them unfulfilled truth con... Read more
Hi, what an awesome website! I have another free will related question to add to the heap! I saw an interview with Steven Weinberg, the Nobel Prize winning physicist and, I don't remember the precise phrasing, but he said something like 'I know of no law saying that nature is here to make physicists happy.' He wasn't referring to free will, but it got me thinking about something... From what I've read and heard in papers and talks (which is certainly not nearly exhaustive), it seems that their is a tendency for those who chime in on the free will issue (even professional philosophers) to approach it from the perspective that the challenge is to show that free will does not or cannot exist. What I mean is that there seems to be a tacit presumption that since we "feel" free, the burden of proof is on those who contend we are in reality not free. I understand this perspective (and it is not unique to the free will debate), but it seems to presuppose some kind of rule that says that our feelings constitute evidence in favor of something that feelings, by nature, can't really provide dispassionate evidence for. I was surprised by how many philosophers (I'm not surprised by how many non-philosophers) exhibit this tendency (often without acknowledgement). It's not that we should discount our feelings completely even if it were possible, but to my knowledge they don't offer an initial leg up to any angle of this debate. Thanks so much for any comments!!!
Stephen Maitzen
August 9, 2012
(changed August 9, 2012)
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As a panelist, I'm glad you like the website. Spread the word!
I don't think we need to invoke feelings in order to assign the burden of proof to those who challenge the existence of free will. In the literal sense, feelings have nothing to do with it: I don't think we have reason to believ... Read more
I was wondering whether or not there is any difference between Nietzsche's view of ethics, as consisting of life affirming values, the superman, and the will to power, and the view of Ayn Rand that morality is doing what is in your own self interest. Arent both of them saying that the moral thing to do is to do what is in your self interest and increase your power, and ignore ideas such as pity and charity?
Douglas Burnham
August 9, 2012
(changed August 9, 2012)
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You are certainly correct thatNietzsche is often enough INTERPRETED in that way.: as if the onlygenuine moral value lay in the self-interest of individuals. This,however, is not Nietzsche's view. To be fair, Nietzsche is adifficult writer and thinker – some would say incoherent – somisinterpr... Read more
I was recently thinking about what it means to be count as a vegetarian, but I think it's much harder than I originally thought. What does it mean to be a vegetarian? There are several cases where it isn't clear for me. What if a self-proclaimed vegetarian accidentally consumes meat, for example because it was hidden inside other food, or they were lied to about the contents of a meal? Are they still vegetarian? Is a person who just happens not to eat any meat, without having any sort of personal rules about eating meat (perhaps because of poverty, lack of interest or sheer coincidence), a vegetarian? If a vegetarian consents to eating meat meat once, it seems they stop being a vegetarian (or maybe never were?); when do they become a vegetarian again, if they don't eat any meat afterwards? Is there a time limit? If a person wants to avoid eating meat but is occasionally and predictably pressured into eating meat by their friends or family, are they only sometimes a vegetarian, or never one? I hope these questions aren't too silly...
Allen Stairs
August 8, 2012
(changed August 8, 2012)
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Like a great many words, "vegetarian" doesn't have a fully-precise meaning; it almost certainly means slightly different things in different contexts and when used by different people. Take your case of the person who just "happens" not to eat meat - not by design, not on principle, but just as... Read more
In one famous trolley case, it seems clear that the driver should divert the trolley to the spur, killing one while saving five. In another, it seems clear that a bystnader should not push the fat man off the bridge, again killing one to save five in the trolley's path. But what is the justification for my intuition? Do you see any relevant, principled difference between the two cases that would explain why I should divert the trolley yet refrain from pushing the fat man?
Stephen Maitzen
August 8, 2012
(changed August 8, 2012)
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I think it should be noted that Professor Pogge's reply invokes, or alludes to, the controversial Doctrine of Double Effect (or else something close to that doctrine). For an account of the doctrine and of some of the controversy surrounding it, see this SEP article. One problem for the doc... Read more
In one famous trolley case, it seems clear that the driver should divert the trolley to the spur, killing one while saving five. In another, it seems clear that a bystnader should not push the fat man off the bridge, again killing one to save five in the trolley's path. But what is the justification for my intuition? Do you see any relevant, principled difference between the two cases that would explain why I should divert the trolley yet refrain from pushing the fat man?
Stephen Maitzen
August 8, 2012
(changed August 8, 2012)
Permalink
I think it should be noted that Professor Pogge's reply invokes, or alludes to, the controversial Doctrine of Double Effect (or else something close to that doctrine). For an account of the doctrine and of some of the controversy surrounding it, see this SEP article. One problem for the doc... Read more
Can a good argument be made for encouraging working class parents in particular to pursue education? What I'm trying to get at is this... I get the feeling that, had I come from a more privalidged background, I might have had a lot more support through my school years. My parents received a very poor education and "knew" they weren't really going to amount to much. As a result I was never really helped with school work and was encouraged to follow a trade rather than get further education. As if that was the best of what could be expected from a person of our social status. I've seen the same thing happening with the vast majority of my relatives and others that I grew up with. I hated that sort of working environment and wished I had taken a different path. Although others may be satisfied with that sort of outcome, surely having more options is better. I now do social work in my community which, although satisfying, is sometimes challenging as I see lots of suffering that being better educated would have avoided. I have children of my own now, and it worries me that at some point I'm not going to be able to help them with their school work, that they'll assume that they're not capable of achieving great things, and that they are being held back from a better life just as a result of being from my family. I love my parents who really did their best for me and are proud of my achievements. But they argue "hey, the world's always going to need people to do the lesser jobs....". Surely this can't be right?
Allen Stairs
August 4, 2012
(changed August 4, 2012)
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You've in effect made several good arguments yourself. But the idea that just because one was born into a certain social stratum, one shouldn't try to get out of it is an idea that has long since lost any plausibility it might have had. In fact, when you think about it, it's hard to see what cou... Read more
Is there such thing as coincidence? I mean is it possible that something happen without any purpose or significance?
Allen Stairs
August 4, 2012
(changed August 4, 2012)
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Suppose you and I are in the same room and we're bored. We start flipping coins. I flip twice; so do you. I get "Heads; Tails," so do you. Sounds like a meaningless coincidence to me. In fact, it would take a lot of argument to make the case that it was anything other than meaningless.Surely wha... Read more