Glorious!
It's not just Dawkins she eviscerates; Nietzsche, Hobbes, and Mackie are countered with Socrates, Christ, Darwin and Jane Goodall, retrieving justice from mere self-interested egoism. But we might adopt her strategy to displaying the triviality of Peter Singer or Ayn Rand. — Banno
...a fair amount of latent hostility... — Wayfarer
I wouldn't have been able to say this, much less understand it. — jgill
So at the risk of being on topic, is there a coherent, sound argument that can be made that is sympathetic to the intuition so poorly expressed in the OP? A way to rescue teleology? — Banno
Well, "vaguely religious" comments do tend to be more mystifying than anything else. Yet de-mystification and clarification have priority in philosophy, no? Dialectically giving and taking reasons rather than substituting "faiths" – dogmas – for dialectics, Wayf, seems to me the manifest purpose of this site. Says a famously "God-intoxicated" thinker:There's also a fair amount of latent hostility to anything that sounds vaguely religious on this forum. — Wayfarer
Critically challenging 'beliefs', while possibly disturbing, isn't "hostility" – welcome to the examined life! The alleged "latent hostility to anything ... vaguely religious" is only so in the eye of a true believer. :mask:Philosophy has no end in view save truth; faith looks for nothing but obedience and piety.
I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of established religion. — Spinoza
Yet de-mystification and clarification have priority in philosophy, no? — 180 Proof
I think it can be argued that believing in concepts like survival of the fittest, natural selection and animal hierarchies etc has been more harmful than not believing them. — Andrew4Handel
I think it can be argued that believing in concepts like survival of the fittest, natural selection and animal hierarchies etc has been more harmful than not believing them. — Andrew4Handel
People like Darwin and Dennett (The Universal Acid proponent) have strongly advocated that evolution should change how we view life and ourselves. They apparently are un aware of the is - ought barrier that Hitler et al crossed. If evolution is true should we respond in anyway are we obliged to? — Andrew4Handel
I should point out that survival of the fittest means the survival of those best fitted to their environment. And they will not necessarily be the strongest or fastest. And natural selection simply means that our offspring are not clones. I don't see anything harmful about either of those. — Bradskii
As in 'because it's true then we ought to ensure we understand it properly and not reimagine it to serve racist tendencies'? — Bradskii
Let's look at the parts or things you mentioned: minds, DNA, ecosystems, society. How do these relate to each other? They have an order of dependence; society depends on minds, minds depend on DNA, and DNA depends on ecosystems. Each is made of the other. Is there a pattern? — punos
Evolution happens everywhere not just in biology. Nature has elevated man above the animals on this planet, above biology. If you were an animal maybe you'd be in trouble, but lucky you that you're part of the human enterprise. — punos
While it is true that If the odds of winning the lottery are 1 in 1 million, it doesn't matter how many others play, my odds remain fixed, but the more I play, the higher my odds of winning.
— Hanover
Gambler's fallacy. :roll: — 180 Proof
The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference.”
So yes he has a charming prognosis for us that we should be eager to embrace. — Andrew4Handel
My point was that a soul is irreducibly complex. — Gregory
If you don't believe philosophy has insights that transcend the physical and make it null, you're still at the beginning. — Gregory
Well it has been accused of either being a banal tautology (ie anything that survives is fit) or a dangerous prognosis and value judgement (we should weed out the unfit to improve a species) That powered Social Darwinism.
Darwin Himself said in the descent of man:
"With savages, the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated; and those that survive commonly exhibit a vigorous state of health — Andrew4Handel
you are just an accidental and random result of a disinterested process. — Bradskii
Well, you have your choice. You can accept the universe as it is, and our insignificant position within it. — Bradskii
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