Philosophy Now Forum

I don't want to speak for Oliver O'Donovan (I read the book many years ago). But Justice involves respecting the rights of every man and giving to each his or her due. Not only are threats of undeserved violence unjust, but so is reneging on promises, breaking contracts, owning slaves, etc. etc. In...

Fighting words are considered threatening. Let me ask, suppose a man with a gun holds up another man and demands his money. The victim turns out to be a karate expert, who kicks the gun out of robbers hand, and punches him repeatedly until he runs off. This, of course, is an example of a non-violen...

Them fighting words, eh? :o An interesting take on the matter and certainly an improvement over arbitrary assumptions, but it does not resolve the point of contention. If fighting words were indeed illegally uttered (as deemed so by a judge after the fact perchance?) then is the legally allowed res...

Competition favors the competent. Cooperation enhances the mediocre. Very punchy :P and at least partially true. A slouch will get eliminated (such a strong word!) in a competition, but can get a free ride on a team full of competent individuals. Nonetheless, when teams start competing with each ot...

It is conceivably capable of far more than that. Even in wartime, it is common for warriors who want to kill each other to work together as well. Yes, I gave a few examples while your comment was under inspection. Do you have some more to share (not excluding other examples of less hostile inclinat...

Arguably it can go much further than that. It's typical even in war for the combatants who wish to kill each other to also co-operate. There is advantage (real or percieved) to be gained by breaking some rule of warfare at an unexpected moment, or simply not observing the usual rules at all. An exa...

But, considering that 'dislike' is not occurring NOW by everyone, your claim that 'dislike will likely always occur' is already False, Wrong, Inaccurate, and Incorrect. And, will remain so while not everyone is 'disliking' anyone. Also, the 'unlikely' was not the so-called 'keyword' as it was not i...

- The key point you’re ignoring is that [...] The key point you seem to be ignoring is that all the claims you have made so far are only assumptions if more evidence is not provided. The good news is that the civilized way to deal with such interlopers does not require making any assumptions about ...

the benefits of a fair competition is usually a blue ribbon... Yes, when it comes to centrally organized competitions with strict rules and small budgets , a trinket is all you might get. :( With bigger budgets blue ribbons can be exchanged or augmented with millions in cash! The XPRIZE competition...

By some competition is seen as a negative while co-operation as a positive. The opposite view can also be taken, no doubt. Nonetheless these views seem too simple because, for a start, both can be nested in the same activity. Team competitions (e.g. in sports and the economy) include co-operation of...

Greetings to all My conception of philosophy is practicality. Undoubtedly, there were and are great thinkers who, with their analysis, have allowed humanity to advance in knowledge, although relative and limited to our intellect, of nature.... but only the nature that we perceive with our senses. I...

In that situation, that was not a rude disagreement. That was an unprovoked verbal assault, and it was appropriately neutralized according to the rules of modern civilization. Let's shift the emphasis here. When verbal assault is immediately escalated to physical assault it is clear that civilizati...

- For any way of life, this sounds like taking the perceived good and leaving the perceived bad of any tradition. - However, the perceptions and understandings follow from what is known outside the tradition, which makes learning another exercise in self-referencing, i.e., bolstering one's self-con...

See, I could treat every one, as an individual, while still disliking, distrusting, and/or disrespecting any or even all of this individuals at the exact same time. Surely, doing this is 'not stable' in your view, right? Yes, you can, so the answer is no. The keyword here was " unlikely "...

That needs something extra. For example, you may be dealing with a cop who appears to be an individual doofus, but when listening to the species imperative of preservation you would be advised to treat him as a respresentive (or representative) of his social role as cop with death riding on his hip...