A collection of 233 posts
I see very little promise in grounding a moral realism (insofar as such a thing is ultimately a viable project) in terms of evolutionary fitness, and much more promise is taking Harris’ tack.
Make no mistake, we should be wary of the effects that beliefs might have.
The fit about Farage resigning should in a circular kind of way remind us why the Brexit vote was so important symbolically.
To have a chance at solving our problems we must not condemn each other for openly stating our ignorance.
Recognizing the existence of differences between men and women should not be considered a regression for the women’s rights movement.
And when policy is not up for debate and when conversation is taken off the table.
When historians study ancient societies they use pottery, cave art, paintings and engravings as their sources. Memes can play the same role as one of the sources of history.
We are not arguing that racism has vanished, or that racists don’t exist. We’re making precisely the opposite argument.
Just as it is unfair to compare idealised socialism to a realistic but flawed capitalism, so too is it unfair for Brook to compare his idealised capitalist vision to realistic socialism.
The anti-democratic attitude of the liberal elite is absurd from a theoretical viewpoint because a democratic judgment represents the will of the majority...
MacAskill seeks to convince that not only are we in the developed world in a position to do a tremendous amount of good, but that our approach to doing good is itself tremendously important.
Perhaps our belief that the intellectual is synonymous with the political is less an eternal fact of human existence than a symptom of our own hyper-politicized times.
The words are usually associated with Eastern or New Age spirituality, and they sound as bizarre on the tongue of a science-minded atheist as an Arab Bible-believer.
Humans around the world have knowledge about many things. Some of it is the kind one might write essays about, or learn about in graduate courses at university.
The situationist idea that personality is an illusion is an arresting one, but it is false.