Do you ever wonder about the issue of your own personal significance and is it useful to question?. — Jack Cummins

I am interested in the ethical commitment to preventing suffering. — Tom Storm

What justifies this as a foundational principle of morality?

How can we show that it is a sound basis, rather than merely a preference, unlike the position of someone who acts without regard for the suffering their actions cause?

What makes the reduction of harm morally compelling rather than optional?

That there is always some form of physical substrate is the point. There is no "immaterial " information. — Janus

I believe that philosophy takes a stand against common sense. Philosophy must question our most deeply rooted certainties. In that sense, philosophy is there to sadden us, as Deleuze would say, and make us realise our stupidity. Philosophy today has the task of teaching us counter-intuitive things. — JuanZu

... objectively true, not a subjective assertion. — Philosophim

I want to thank everyone who responded to this thread. It lasted 8 years, and this is my last post. Thanks again. — Sam26

I wonder what Spinoza, and many of us philosophers would have made of quantum physics. — Jack Cummins

One question may be what are the benefits and disadvantages of throwing the idea of 'God' aside in philosophy?

What we want is the truth; seeing quantum physics as God's truth is something we need to consider. — Athena

It would put into question things we know about how physics and biology works.
— Apustimelogist

But that's the whole point: It's questioning those paradigms. It's challenging what you believe you know, which is why I emphasize epistemology. — Sam26

And yet non-existence means that if good exists, that would mean the destruction of good. — Philosophim

Good by definition is what should exist ...

... so it would never be good to eliminate good, and thus have complete non-existence.

How do you define good and evil? — Truth Seeker

As usual, 180 Proof arguments amount to an emoji or two. — Sam26

My book ... — Sam26

He's the real philosopher.

What do you make of the notion that morality is prelinguistic? — Tom Storm

Setting aside the abstruse, speculative material of academia or in a forum like this, what can we say (as per the OP) that is accessible and useful at a societal level about right and wrong? — Tom Storm

Clearly, the issue is that you [@Sam26] treat naturalism with disdain, so your standard of evidence for the supernatural is much lower than most other people who think that the success of naturalism demands extraordinary evidence for extraordinary contradicting claims. — Apustimelogist

In short: veganism reduces real suffering today, and consciousness, while not what it seems, is still a real phenomenon of experience. — Truth Seeker

... entity-illusion of consciousness. — 180 Proof

What if the basis of All is the permanent quantum vacuum and you are a temporary arrangement of it? What if you disperse back unto it? — PoeticUniverse

... quantum consciousness ...

It is with sadness that every so often I spend a few hours on the internet, reading or listening to the mountain of stupidities dressed up with the word 'quantum'. Quantum medicine; holistic quantum theories of every kind, mental quantum spiritualism – and so on, and on, in an almost unbelievable parade of quantum nonsense. — Carlo Rovelli, theoretical physicist

A path is made by walking on it; ethics are made by questioning our actions. — unenlightened

Veganism is more ethical than non-veganism because it reduces suffering and death by a massive amount. [ ... ] Now that I have provided argument and evidence, is it now the truth? — Truth Seeker

How can consciousness be an illusion when I am experiencing it right now and you are experiencing it right now? — Truth Seeker

If you're culture thought the Earth was flat , you probably did too. But surely this doesn't give us grounds to believe that there is "no fact of the matter," or that the shape of the Earth varies depending on which cultural context you are currently in. — Count Timothy von Icarus

How would I know who I am without my personal pain and suffering? — Athena

What would give my life purpose and meaning?

What would hold me separate from God?

Thanks for the explanation of being free. I think I will pursue knowledge.

Of course, this may not be at all relevant to the God 'of the pews', but this is a philosophical discussion. — Wayfarer

That is because if one doesn't continue in any form what is the significance of God in relation to one's own personal identity. — Jack Cummins

You [@Wayfarer] interpret that as Feynman saying that engineering is like casting magic spells? — wonderer1

In short, where theistic personalism projects human categories “upwards” into God, classical theism emphasizes God’s radical transcendence as the living source of all being, without collapsing Him into either a cosmic individual or a faceless principle. — Wayfarer

God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God
of Jacob, not of the philosophers and scholars

... which makes Him vulnerable to anthropomorphic misunderstanding ...

... and to the criticisms of modern atheism.

The inhabitants of the earth are of two sorts: those with brains, but no religion, and those with religion, but no brains. — al-Ma'arri, 10-11th CE

How is the idea of a non-personal deity consistent with the historical use of the term God? — Bob Ross

Doesn't it seem to radically redefine what one means by God to refer to a being that is not a person?

What kind of definition is Spinoza using (to decipher if his Substance is meaningfully identifiable as God or a god)?

Read his Ethics - Part 1 "Of God" pp. 1-31 (iirc) — 180 Proof

Is there any way to know for sure what is right and what is wrong? — Truth Seeker

Different countries have different laws.

Why isn't veganism legally mandatory in all countries? — Truth Seeker

[T]he one thing we can consider is that existence vs non-existence is good. — Philosophim

How can you know whether morality is objective or subjective? — Truth Seeker

Of course, I know that I am so influenced by Jung, as you are with Spinoza. I wonder how can the Jungian worldview can be compared and contrasted with that of Spinoza? — Jack Cummins

The reason why one might be open to the possibility of a ‘life beyond’, or not, or why one might think it ridiculous, is the philosophical question at issue. — Wayfarer

Bohm's ideas on the idea of the implicate and explicate order. — Jack Cummins

I go towards the position of non-dualism.

I am a mystic in the Platonic sense. — Jack Cummins

But, the question of source does seem important ... — Jack Cummins

... and is connected to the issue of how did something come from nothing?

F[eu]rerbach's 'projections' raise the question as to whether God created man in his own image or vice versa.