A calculus of comparative consequences is impossible. Every effort to develop one is a process of rationalizing bias. Consequentialism assumes, based on experience or thought experiments, that it can assess the consequences of a particular act. This position implies that one act causes consequences. These consequences can be evaluated, reduced to some kind of common … Continue reading The Impossibility of Comparative Consequences
Tag: philosophy
Maybe, Considering Consequences
The whole process of nature is a integrated process of immense complexity. You never know what the consequences will really be from apparent good or bad fortune. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4TZMxkxySc
Really Reading Means Being Open to Change
To really read any discursive text, whether a philosophical tract or a legal contract, is a disturbing and cognitively disorienting experience, because it means allowing another person’s thoughts to intrude into your own and rearrange your beliefs and assumptions — often not in ways to which you would consent if warned in advance. Even when … Continue reading Really Reading Means Being Open to Change
The Fourfold Remedy of Epicurean Philosophy
"The gods are not to be feared, / Death is not to be dreaded; / What is good is easy to acquire / What is bad is easy to bear." —quoted in Pierre Cadet, "What is Ancient Philosophy?" Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2002.
How to Be a Stoic | RadioWest
"No matter where you live or what culture you live in, the question of how to lead a good life is central. And there is no shortage of answers, from fundamentalist religion to nihilism. For his part, philosopher Massimo Pigliucci has become a Stoic. Stoicism, he says, isn’t about suppressing or hiding emotions. It’s about … Continue reading How to Be a Stoic | RadioWest
Finding Chaos and Precision in All Things – a Philosophy of Watchmaking
"...this short documentary [9 minutes] from the UK filmmaker Marie-Cécile Embleton profiles a London-based Iranian watchmaker as he muses on the delicate and temporal nature of his work. As Faramarz meticulously polishes wood, shapes metal and positions springs, his personal philosophy emerges – one that values the minutiae of moment-to-moment experiences, and finds craft in … Continue reading Finding Chaos and Precision in All Things – a Philosophy of Watchmaking
Take Your Time: The Seven Pillars of a Slow Thought Manifesto
"The problem with ‘fast action’ is that it presumes a sure way of doing things and a uniformity that, in a pinch, we can accelerate. Just as fast food works for some meals and not for others, we must remain open to things that take time, both for preserving what is of value from the … Continue reading Take Your Time: The Seven Pillars of a Slow Thought Manifesto
Three Branches of Ethics
The three branches of normative ethics (i.e., consequentialism, deontology, and virtue theory) are a question of whether you think goodness is a relative, objective, or an intrinsic property, respectively.
Respect Differences of Opinion and Philosophy
"Intelligent people may look at the same set of facts and come to very different conclusions. Repeating the same points that didn't convince someone previously rarely changes their mind, and irritates all the other readers." —"Netiquette." OpenBSD Mailing Lists. https://www.openbsd.org/mail.html (Accessed December 2, 2017).
Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst by Robert M. Sapolsky
"This is the best scientific book written for non-specialists that I have ever read. You will learn more about human nature than in any other book I can think of, and you will be inspired, even if you find some of it hard to accept." —Henry Marsh,"Robert Sapolsky’s Behave is a tour de force of … Continue reading Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst by Robert M. Sapolsky
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