Freedom Phobosophy 14 Aug 201714 Aug 2017 As everyone knows, philosophy comes from the two Greek words philo and sophos, and means, roughly, the love of wisdom, although as everyone also knows, Socrates declared his wisdom was his knowledge that he knew nothing. In recent years (by which I mean increasingly since the 1970s), there has been… Continue Reading
Freedom Look over here – “terrorism” 13 Jun 2017 The notion of terrorism is not well-defined.There are over 150 legal definitions in the US and more in international law. Here is the UN’s definition: Criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public, a group of persons or particular persons for political purposes are in any circumstance… Continue Reading
Freedom The Abstract and the Concrete, or, the Road to Fascism 9 Apr 20179 Apr 2017 I was thinking about the way in which the anti-abortionists justify their views. I have always said that “Pro-Life” is a misnomer. Instead of being pro-life, they are pro-potential life. In order to protect potential lives, they ignore the needs and rights of those who have actual life – the women who cannot… Continue Reading
Australian stuff Secular Calvinism 5 Mar 2016 Australia is one of the most secular of developed nations. At the last census, 22% of people marked “No religion” as their affiliation, and the attendance at religious services weekly dropped to 16%, from a high in 1950 of 44%. So why is it that a sizeable minority (around 30%)… Continue Reading
Freedom The place of religion in democratic secular countries 19 Feb 201519 Feb 2015 There is a religion which oppresses women, which is enthusiastically adopted by marginalised groups, which hates democracy and which has declared the modern world to be a heresy they call “Americanism”. This religion, which is run entirely by men, demands of its adherents loyalty to a small group of clerics… Continue Reading
Australian stuff On tribalism 25 Sep 201424 Nov 2022 Humans evolved in tribes, our species’ equivalent of the general primate troop structure. This meant that members of the tribe benefited from shared resources, the protection of the group and the inherited knowledge of the tribe. It also meant that we will natively and naively defend our group against others,… Continue Reading
Australian stuff Time for a predictable, just and independent surveyor of government and politics 13 Sep 201413 Sep 2014 This is about Australian politics, so please ignore it if you do not care. In New South Wales there is a quasi-judicial investigative organ called the Independent Commission against Corruption, or ICAC (which a certain news empire’s rags insist upon calling “Icac” to avoid focusing on the meaning of the… Continue Reading
Australian stuff An unjust government 3 Jun 20143 Jun 2014 This one is about Australian politics. International readers may ignore it. There has been a lot of media and internet hype and fun had about the silly and unfair Australian government and its abortion of a budget in which the poor, the unemployed and the future of our nation, students,… Continue Reading
Epistemology Morality and Evolution 7: Conclusion 22 May 201422 May 2014 [Morality and Evolution 1 2 3 4 5 6 7] So far I have made out the following arguments: Evolution does in fact debunk moral realism, as the fitness bearer for a moral claim is the agent in relation to others in their group, not the truth of the claim There is no Milvian Bridge, therefore,… Continue Reading
Ethics and Moral Philosophy Morality and Evolution 6: Moral dispositions 21 May 201422 May 2014 [Morality and Evolution 1 2 3 4 5 6 7] In any field that has statistical variation, it is necessary to isolate the variables. Biology is all about statistical variation of populations, and so we must expect that any account of morality that is based upon biology will have variation along a number of axes. Here… Continue Reading