Comments

  • Utilitarianism and morality


    I agree. A view of genetics as our moral foundation is based on two contradicting elements: we are selfish animals that prefer group working.
  • Do arguments matter?
    For example, I don't think that claims about climate change - however valid - can legitimately lead to the claim that we ought to prevent climate change.Andrew4Handel

    If we want to go from provisional facts about reality to action, then it seems that we need to cross the "is-ought" barrier. Do facts imply anything about how we ought to act?Andrew4Handel

    If climate change would make mankind worse off, then don't you think that we, as human beings, have sufficient reason to prevent it or slow it down?

    So, in a way, you can have the survival of the fittest desire or ideology, and yet the restraints will be the restraints of nature's possibilities. Society utilised massive slavery for centuries and flourished, but that ideology was defeated (at an appallingly late stage). Arguments against slavery made little impact for centuries. So we could end up with any type of weird dystopian society that nature allows regardless of counter argument.Andrew4Handel

    Yes, I don't think that arguments against slavery were very efficient. But it constitutes a factor for the sufficient reason principle, since slavery is not as popular now as it was centuries ago.
  • Do arguments matter?


    If you are talking about jurisprudence, then yes, arguments can be treated as evidence. But if you are talking about science, then every unproven argument will be a hypothesis.
  • Do arguments matter?


    Can you raise an argument that wouldn't translate to a hypothesis in the scientific background?
  • Do arguments matter?
    Not really. Hypotheses are more like suggestions or speculations. Arguments are more a case of claiming what follows. Arguments rely on the truth of the premises.Andrew4Handel

    If you know that hypotheses are somewhat similar to arguments in terms of science, and that they can't be completely separate from each other, then wouldn't that mean that arguments matter?
  • Monads
    What do you find appealing about it?Mongrel

    We can't prove we are not a brain inside a vat.
  • Do arguments matter?
    Science will make arguments mathematical or otherwise but the truth is only established if the external worldAndrew4Handel

    You mean hypothesis?