Simon Paynton

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
I would like to ask both of you “Given the current inflationary pressures, how do you plan to balance the need for tighter monetary policy to control inflation with the potential risks to economic growth and employment? Specifically, what fiscal measures will your government adopt to mitigate the impact of rising c…

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Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
OK, tell me why we should not?

We’re all a self-generating source of flourishing and meaning.  The need to flourish generates goals; goals generate meaning.  Without goals, we just languish, which is what happened to a lot of people in the pandemic.

Unseen wrote:
I also find a lot of ethical truth in Sartre’s existentialism.

I like the way the French do things, and probably Freud also contributed to their philosophies.  Not everything is amenable to machine-like analysis of minutiae.  Sometimes you need broad human strokes.

_Robert_ wrote:
I doubt today’s analytical philosophers are so rigid as if they walk around thinking like Spock or something.

It seems like a difference between North and South Europeans – between Protestant, reserved, logical “Nords” and Catholic, florid, demonstrative, warm Latins*.

* as we Nords would see it – excitable.

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
Continental vs Analytic Philosophy: Definitions & Differences.

This is very interesting.  Continental philosophy seems very, well, foreign, until I remember that punk “philosophy” was influenced by the Situationists who were of the French school.  I think the thrust of their argument was that we experience life as a…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
What is the logic of in-group bias?

The logic of in-group bias is that I depend on all my group-members to help me live.  I don’t depend on out-group members, who may well be competitors.

Groups are nested and intersecting.  So, like you say, there are circles of concern and ever-larger groups that I belong to.  We can belong to ma…[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
Favoring those within one’s own group lead to more cohesive and cooperative units, enhancing group survival against external threats. It allowed us to protect our territory and resources and build up trust between members as we watched out for each other. This trust relationship is likely where our ethical behavior a…

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Unseen wrote:
Set being a useful term because a mathematical set can have just one member—or even no members, a null set.

That’s the difference.  A collaborative group must have at least two members (a partnership, team, etc.).

jakelafort wrote:
I assume that is why so many Muslim are rapists of Whites in Europe. Women are property and have less value than men and when women are not even Muslims they are fare game.

Yes, this is the excuse given by the Muslim “rape gangs” who exploit young girls in the UK.  (Other rape gangs are available – the phenomenon is not…[Read more]

_Robert_ wrote:
I asked him why he cheated. He looked me right in the eye and said it is not considered cheating because this is a college of infidels.

This is a fault in human nature – our in-group bias.  Morality is a group-wide thing and no further (for highly parochial groups).  Therefore: 1) other groups’ morals are invalid; 2) people in o…[Read more]

jakelafort wrote:
It is wild to me and yet unsurprising that Simon who is into ethics/morality and writing a book about it has so little negative reaction to Islam.

I recognise all the criticisms.  But I think there’s more that can be said about Islam than blanket criticism.

I’m interested in the origins of religion and what it’s supposed to be…[Read more]

Strega wrote:
Attilla the Hun … Genghis Khan … Alexander III of Macedonia

Yes, but those people didn’t teach people nice manners and things like that.

I don’t consider that Islam is an organisation dedicated to evil.  It’s supposed to be making the world a better place, especially for people who believe in it.  I believe it does succeed in some respects that can be seen and felt by people who don’t suffer its bad effects.

But human nature is a faulty and wonky thing, Islam is strongly p…[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
How much science should there be in philosophy?

Our understanding of the world around us (whether through metaphysics or other means) cannot go against our best scientific knowledge.  Not only that, the right way of doing metaphysics requires a close investigation of science and its results.

I can’t disagree with…[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
The Problem Is Islam—Not Islamism

I have to assume that the author, Obaid Omer, knows his stuff because he grew up in a Muslim family and culture.

Yes, to an atheist, Islam seems extreme, unbending and oppressive.  It’s also been hijacked by patriarchy.  But I disagree with what a commenter said – that it’s inc…[Read more]

It looks hard.  Does it have any practical applications?