Simon Paynton

Unseen wrote:
It would also apply to … a drug lord introducing a new kind of addictive drug.

But surely, the drug lord is doing factual research and making hypotheses about the relations between the facts.  That could be philosophy or science.

Davis wrote:
Hint: the scientific method plays a very large role.

I’d agree that philosophy, and the scientific method, are closely related.

Philosophy is supposed to agree with reality, as a primary requirement, otherwise it isn’t good philosophy.  On the other hand, there are thought experiments, a category within philosophy and science.  I t…[Read more]

Davis wrote:
What does that even mean?

Rational, logical thinking educated by data.

Davis wrote:
Philosophy is NOT a science and it does NOT principally deal with every day life.

Maybe, but it uses scientific thinking.

Unseen wrote:
an irrelevant biological argument that applies a lot more to a description of a species than to decisions of individuals.

Why do you think that?  What is your reasoning?  Why does it apply to species, a lot more than individuals?

Philosophy needs to be based on data, does it not?  Since it is a science of everyday life, and everyday life is factual.

This is the data I’m basing my hypothesis on.  Biology is a fundamental aspect of everyday life.

Is evolutionary ethics a branch of biology, or philosophy?  Probably, both.

Unseen wrote:
Unless, of course, he decides some other pressure compels him to kill himself.

The pressure is that the individual is not thriving.

I’d say there is a “spectrum” of replicating, and surviving in order to replicate, and thriving in order to survive.  Each is separate in some ways, and together in other ways.

Each individual organism carries physical DNA molecules.  Within the population of the species, there are multiple versions of genes (or gene sequences).  Because the number of carrier organisms is limited by physical resources, then if any one version of a gene is to stay numerous, it has to somehow compete against the other versions.  The nu…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
Biological pressure doesn’t come to bear on individuals, only on species.

Each individual experiences an internal pressure to survive and thrive.

Unseen wrote:
“Thinking” suicide is to be avoided at all costs is only a philosophical position when you offer an argument for it.

Biological pressure to thrive and survive.

_Robert_ wrote:
I do think this is a factor in the anti gun-control fight for many Americans…

This is one of the problems with widespread gun ownership – it makes suicide easy.  Suicide is normally difficult – it’s hard to find a sure-fire way to kill yourself.  This is what saves the majority of would-be suicides in my opinion.

Unseen wrote:
But you possess a trump card. There is always one thing you can do to exercise ultimate freedom: You can kill yourself.

I disagree philosophically with this position.  I think suicide is to be avoided at all costs.  On the other hand, I know it’s almost impossible to stand in someone’s way if they’re determined to do it.  Most of th…[Read more]

Davis wrote:
Then that person is overly corrupted by religion, has not utilised the resources available to them as best as possible, needs help with a humanist friend and/or requires some assistance from a cognitive therapist.

I don’t know.  It’s so easy for young men, who are not married with children, to become doomers.

TheEncogitationer wrote:
Not only can a person derive morality, ethics, purpose, and meaning without a God, but it is absolutely necessary to do so without a God.

I agree, but it’s true that atheists have to work harder than religious people, to derive these things.

Dostoevsky’s rendering of Theism all give no coherant guidance whatsoever on m…

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With the best will in the world, a lot of people have trouble finding meaning in life.

Davis wrote:
Nihilism just refers to there being no inherent meaning and that the universe doesn’t care what happens because the universe has no qualities that makes it capable of caring. And that is NOT a problem. Millions of atheists find meaning in the world every day without being drawing on divine or force-fed “meaning”.

Isn’t that existentialism?

I love this, from the S.C.U.M. Manifesto (referring to the male):

Since he has no compassion or ability to empathize or identify, proving his manhood is worth an endless amount of mutilation and suffering and an endless number of lives, including his own — his own life being worthless, he would rather go out in a blaze of glory than to plod…

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Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
Can you spot the flaws in this apologetic article?

I think this is a typical round-up of Christian arguments for the existence of God.  This is interesting:

a question one might fire back at our atheist friends concerns this very point: how does the atheist avoid nihilism, the view that life is meaningless,…

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Unseen wrote:
Reread my broken clock reference.

I find that it is right, maybe, 10 hours out of 12.

“Eternal truths”

Eternal for the lifetime of the human family tree.