Philosophy Now Forum

What's the difference between powerful aliens and polytheistic gods? I'd say the main difference is that when we contemplate the traits of plausible powerful aliens, we think about how their societies might have evolved (within the boundaries of the laws of physics or at least rationality). We think...

Utilitarianism is a type of consequentialism, and I'd say the only one we need. I don't think we need deontology at all. It exists...I'd argue, unfortunately. I think it can be entirely replaced with Rule Utilitarianism. These are all different strategies for seeking moral solutions. We don't need t...

Methinks you got to end the end the sarcasm or whatever if you want to be understood better, my dude or dudette...if is sarcasm. It's entertaining...but I'd say philosophical theory is baffling enough as it is when people discussing it attempt to be crystal clear. The reason I did 4 threads in 1 day...

sweet

FlashDangerpants wrote: ↑Thu Jun 08, 2023 2:14 pm Sounds like Hitler was "rooted in Dasein/dasein"!

Unlike the concept of compatibilism...I'm not familiar with Martin Heidegger or his views. Wikipedia suggests those terms came from him.

Thanks for the comment though.

So this is a compatibilist form of free will, apparently. On the surface there doesn't seem to be any requirement in anything you said that determinism is incompatible with the basic elements of free will you talk about. In fact the moral implications, for example the way you talk about justice in ...

When you have a person standing there, begging for his life and you purposely go ahead and end his life anyway then yes, that qualifies as murder. He's pleading for something that would lead to the continued lack of existence of two recently existent people though. That's what makes this an unusual...

Pooperscootian Utilitarianism part 4: Some vague Pooperscootian Utilitarian calculus and thoughts on death, when to create life, and aliens. Please read Pooperscootian Utilitarianism parts 1-3 before reading this for best results In part 1 I discussed my proposed definition of “want” and “free will....

Pooperscootian Utilitarianism Part 3: further explanations Please read the threads on Pooperscootian Utilitarianism parts 1 and 2 before reading this. What is Pooperscootian Utilitarianism?: Answer: Pooperscootian Utilitarianism is a universal brand of utilitarianism that strives to maximize the pl...

Pooperscootian Utilitarianism part 2: Individuality probably works differently than many of think. (read both this and part 1 for best results) Thought Experiment: Many Beths in One (created by me) It’s 500 years in the future. Asteroid miners live and work in space stations in the asteroid belt. A ...

Pooperscootian Utilitarianism part 1: What is free will? I thought up a universal brand of utilitarianism that strives to maximize pleasure and minimize suffering for all life throughout all of time in all universes. It is a very slow means of determining right and wrong. I’ve tried to design it to ...

It seems that you and I have a disagreement on the source of morality. The way I see it (and I'm in the process of writing a possibly lengthy book on this, so there's no way for me to fully encompass my worldview here) is that the source of what would be best described as true morality is that plea...

Thanks for an interesting discussion. In my opinion, consequentialism just kicks the deontological can down the road. In other words, whether X is the act or its consequences, judgement as to X's moral rightness or wrongness - and as to the moral rightness of a goal, such as maximising pleasure and...

What Flash just said. And I'd add the following. 1 That pleasure is 'better than' or 'preferable to' pain is a matter of opinion. An opinion held by everyone is still an opinion. And it's possible to hold the opposite opinion, and some people (such as ascetics) do - sometimes for moral reasons: 'it...

Thanks for an interesting discussion. In my opinion, consequentialism just kicks the deontological can down the road. In other words, whether X is the act or its consequences, judgement as to X's moral rightness or wrongness - and as to the moral rightness of a goal, such as maximising pleasure and...