Bob Ross
But that's because we treat them as such, not because they are such-and-such a thing.
Why does it require realism?
I'd say it just requires wanting a tranquil life. For Epicurus he went out and actively recruited people due to his realist commitment, but I don't think we have to be realists to utilize an ethic. We could just want what the ethic wants.
"Natural function" is the same as teleology
Sure it is! And it's just a way of organizing our thoughts rather than the ontology of speciation
Moliere
Your explanation of ‘tendencies’ seems to deploy realist semantics to convey your point; and it is tripping me up.
If humans do not share a nature, then we cannot say that there is such-and-such a way a human will tend to behave because there is no such thing in reality as a human—no? — Bob Ross
Because you were saying it is eudaimonic: that’s an Aristotelian term that refers to happiness as a biproduct of realizing one’s nature; and you description of Epicurean thought seemed to imply the same thing. I think I just need to understand how you are analyzing what a nature is and then I can circle back to this. — Bob Ross
Are you saying you deny that the heart functions in a way to pump blood? I don’t understand how one could hold that: can you elaborate more? — Bob Ross
Leontiskos
No, so long as it’s taken to be an oversimplification of real-world applications, where the criteria that determines better or worse is context-dependent and often multidimensional: Take intelligence for example. Einstein’s intelligence is not Darwin’s intelligence, such that each is far better than the other’s in the relevant context addressed. Neither are these two intelligences equal nor is one intelligence better than the other in any objective sense. Then there’s the artistic intelligence of, say, Michelangelo. The architectural intelligence of Gaudi. That of Kafka’s. And so forth. — javra
But even when assuming that 100% of the human population is in fact bisexual — javra
...your post neither addresses why homosexuality ought to be exterminated from the population nor the how this ought to then be done. — javra
Bob Ross
Leontiskos
The kicker for me is that I know lots of gay people who agree with Bob, and we have had great conversations about these topics. I realize it is very hard for the activist to reckon with such a fact, and of course when the fact is spied out coercion from the LGBT activist follows almost immediately. It would be hard to overemphasize the extent of bullying and coercion such people feel at the hands of LGBT activists, even to the point of falsely speaking for them and refusing to grant them any voice at all. They are subject to some of the most vicious attacks if they fail to fall into line with the cultural orthodoxy. Two of the people I have in mind are afraid to "come out" publicly because they fear the LGBT community. Their support meetings have been pushed underground after the meetings were infiltrated by reporters who doxed certain members, destroying their careers and lives. — Leontiskos
Moliere
Also, come to think of it, that transgender person I mentioned to ProtagoranSocratist agreed with me that transgenderism is caused by gender dysphoria, that it is bad, and they even went so far as to say it is immoral to transition; — Bob Ross
Outlander
it's not immoral to transition. — Moliere
javra
Check out the link I gave in that post, where I answer this sort of question. — Leontiskos
But even when assuming that 100% of the human population is in fact bisexual — javra
But I have not assumed such a thing. — Leontiskos
Because I don't think such a thing should be done. Why would you assume that I think such a thing should be done? Nothing in my post says anything to that effect. Isn't it strange and uncharitable to simply assume that your interlocutor wants to exterminate an entire class of people? — Leontiskos
So why then "try to eliminate" these expressions of being human? And then, if an alternative rational reason is provided, "eliminate" them how? — javra
Consider X and Y. If they are equal, then neither one is preferable. If X is better than Y, then X is preferable. If X is better according to some criterion, then X is preferable according to that criterion. If the proportion of X-outcomes and Y-outcomes is beyond our control, then it is pointless to prefer one to another even if it is better.
[Etc. ...] — Leontiskos
You actually seem to have managed to ignore almost the entirety of my post, — Leontiskos
Specifically, I explicitly asked you four questions. You only answered one or two of them, namely the preliminary ones. — Leontiskos
(This is why I don't tend to argue these topics on TPF. Over the years it has become a place where one cannot present an argument and have that argument addressed without being imputed with all sorts of strange, uncharitable, and extraneous positions.) — Leontiskos
Moliere
"Transitioning" only became a thing in the past few decades — Outlander
Can't you see the lunacy in assuming a life-changing and often permanent and irreversible procedure that hasn't had the time for any actual lifelong studies to be done is the "first, best, and only option"? — Outlander
ProtagoranSocratist
So if I express interest in banning Christian parades, then I am a Christianophobe? — Bob Ross
hypericin
The long-term effect is that it loosens the anus which makes it have a hard time keeping poop in. — Bob Ross
Not necessarily, unless you are doing stunts or something. One can safely bike through mountain bike trails without hurting themselves; and just because doing something opens up one to the risk of injury does not mean that it is immoral to do. If that were true, then everything we do would be immoral basically. — Bob Ross
A tomboy girl is a masculine girl, which is bad even if they have done nothing immoral. Ideally, all men would be masculine to a perfect degree and same for women with femininity. — Bob Ross
Leontiskos
And I responded. Words change all the time, that's what language does. This does not make a definition a substantive claim. Definitions are claims about words, not claims about the world. — hypericin
Here's the problem: How can a claim which depends on a substantive claim be non-substantive? For example:
1...
2...
— Leontiskos
You are mistaking a definition for a logical argument. That isn't remotely how words work. — hypericin
Not a new claim — hypericin
The idea is not exactly that it is false, but that it falls into to a conceptual pattern of harmful, prejudicial, demeaning claims, which are additionally seldom (if ever) true. That bigotry is noxious should be well evident from its history. — hypericin
It is a widespread view of how a word is used. One can believe that schizophrenia is psychological in origin while still using the word correctly. Just like one can believe that serotonergic, not dopaminergic neurotransmission is the neurotransmitter at fault. But to use the word without knowing that it is a mental illness is to use it incompetently. — hypericin
Do you think "Houses house people" is a substantive claim? — hypericin
Whether any claim, "X is Y," is obstinate, intolerant, based on "dislike of other people who have different beliefs or a different way of life," etc., depends on the context. Again, bigotry is a ↪mode of behavior or belief. To give an example, Daryl Davis is a famous black man who convinced dozens to leave and denounce the KKK, simply by interacting with them and showing them that their views were mistaken. Davis convinced some and failed to convince others. The ones he convinced were, in some relevant sense, not bigots. They were not obstinate given that they changed their belief when presented with evidence to the contrary.
If you were right and everyone who says, "Black people are less intelligent on average than white people," is inherently a bigot, then it makes no sense that Davis convinced some and failed to convince others. The fact of the matter is that some of those whom Davis encountered held that belief in a mode that involves bigotry, and some did not. Or if someone wants to insist on a particular definition, they must at least admit that some whom Davis encountered were more bigoted than others, despite holding the same material proposition. — Leontiskos
Philosophim
If you were right and everyone who says, "Black people are less intelligent on average than white people," is inherently a bigot, then it makes no sense that Davis convinced some and failed to convince others. The fact of the matter is that some of those whom Davis encountered held that belief in a mode that involves bigotry, and some did not. — Leontiskos
Bob Ross
Bob Ross
I spent a few minutes looking this up. There is an issue, but mainly with rough, forced, unlubricated entry, i.e. rape. This completely fails to support the absurd claim that anal sex is like smoking and drinking every day.
Yet, you dismiss these dangers, while being fixated on the somehow unique harm of the activities of one particular population. Why is that?
What do you think of eugenics? Perhaps it gets a bad rap?
Bob Ross
Moliere
But, then, why am I bigot? Or why am I, if you prefer, speaking bigotry? — Bob Ross
The people in here are trying to claim that I am a bigot or at least speaking bigotry by saying that transgenderism is bad and transitioning is immoral; but yet when it is transgender person that says it now it all of the sudden isn't bigotted. — Bob Ross
ProtagoranSocratist
With all due respect, are you going to accept the challenge to demonstrate the slanderous names you have called me? — Bob Ross
Bob Ross
ProtagoranSocratist
I'm not following your ending here -- I'd note that there's nothing wrong with being trans or gay for the various reasons I've stated. And I don't think it's who says what with respect to this issue -- i.e. I don't think there is a morally or factually correct stance which states that trans or gay people should not be what they are. — Moliere
Leontiskos
Gregory of the Beard of Ockham
No apologies needed: most of it was red herrings and ad hominems. — Bob Ross
---Discourses of Epictetus, Book III, Chapter XX, translated by P. E. Matheson.'Can we then get benefit ... even from one who reviles us?'
Why, what good does the athlete get from the man who wrestles with him? The greatest. So my reviler helps to train me for the contest: he trains me to be patient, dispassionate, gentle. You deny it? You admit that the man who grips my neck and gets my loins and shoulders into order does me good, and the trainer does well to bid me 'lift the pestle with both hands', and the more severe he is, the more good do I get: and are you going to tell me that he who trains me to be free from anger does me no good? That means that you do not know how to get any good from humankind.
Leontiskos
Everyone looks at that story and says, "I'm the black person." But often times we are just as likely to be the white people in the group. Its why dialogue is so important. — Philosophim
Banno
Get involved in philosophical discussions about knowledge, truth, language, consciousness, science, politics, religion, logic and mathematics, art, history, and lots more. No ads, no clutter, and very little agreement — just fascinating conversations.