Search results

RP: Let's be blunt about Kant's moral philosophy. Ultimately it is no less predicated on God than all of the old metaphysical contraptions he allegedly deconstructed. If Kant did not believe that God [however he understood God] was not the ontological rim and the teleological hub on the...

Originally Posted by Randall Patrick: The only thing I presume is that you presume this question can, in fact, be answered by science objectively. I presume it cannot. In part, of course, because it hasn't. I presume further that until it can be neither you nor I can definitively speculate...

Originally Posted by Randall Patrick: I'll do that John. Just as soon as science Objectively answers the questions I raised above. Just as soon as science tells me ontologically what human consciousness is and why the relationships between matter that is mindful of itself is really no...

Originally Posted by Randall Patrick To presume that a woman agonizing over whether or not to abort an unwanted fetus is on the same mechanistic trajectory as planets orbiting the sun just does not quite have that "ring of truth" for me. If it does for you, fine. ” John: Obviously...

John: The theory of God is not based on science. Determinism always has been. RP: I agree. But there are many, many things that science does not have an ontological clue about. For example: Why does anything exist at all? Science doesn't know. Why this particular existence...

RP: This may well be true. Or it might not be. But, in my view, the crucial point is that all it really provides is a plausable scaffolding---a psychological framework within which to flesh out the actual substance of our lives. But the substance itself [the content of our moral and...

In an essentially absurd and meaningless world---one sans God---all renditions of morality or of acting out one's deontological duty are interchangable. That is because there is no way to encompass human moral interactions rationally or logically. Even if you establish the motive as ultimately...

RP: So, whether it is a mother caressing a new born baby or Hitler ordering the extermination of an entire race it is all just a mechanical manifestation of cause and effect, right? Of course, people who come into philosophy venues and say things like that "intellectually" really aren't...

John Connellan: Yes, Hitler too is just another (biological) reaction but also it was very right to try and dispose of Hitler because he WAS still a threat to humanity whether or not he had free will. What we should or shouldn't do has nothing to do with whether or not free will exists...

RP: So, what is all the fuss about Hitler and the Houlocaust? Why do people hold him in such contempt when he could no more have not ordered the genocide of Jews than those who fought against him to stop it? Or is our reaction to that merely another manifestation of physics? And if physics...

The black anticipation of green is not the most recent unicorn to land on the roof of the White House---at least since the birth Abraham Lincoln's death was predicted by 12 out of 9 liberal conservatives in Dick Cheney's glove compartment. Now, if free will is a myth then it was inevitable...

RP: This all sounds very, very abstract to me. Why don't you situate his points by encompassing them in an actual human political or moral interaction. Lots of times these "theories" sound great---as long as they are only words talking about or describing the truthfulness of other words. But...

No, you are not awesome. Instead, you are an Objectivist, aren't you? Ethics are not only Rational or Irrational...they are also Good or Evil? Rand postulated the acorn theory of abortion. The fetus is only a potential human being. And she posited this rationale as though it really could be...

In a world without God meaning more or less revolves around whatever we think it does. At least respecting the most important chunks of human interaction. Moral and political interaction, for example. There is no way to demonstrate whether your own ethical values and convictions are Right or...

There is no possibility, of course, for anyone to answer that question objectively. And that is because no one has a clue as why anything even exist at all. Until we have a plausable Theory Of Everything all we are are particular existential points of view inside it trying to understand what we...