Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

In reply to Irfan Khawaja. Oh well, we’ll agree to disagree then on this, and see how it turns out. I think Russia will eventually exit Ukraine without the use of nuclear weapons. But maybe this is how humanity bites the dust. LikeLike

Well in practice, we might generally agree as a society that murder ought not to be allowed. Then we implement it, through public disapprobation and penalties etc. But really the process is much more organic. Is the point of the discussion whether soci…

In reply to Irfan Khawaja. Thanks, that is quite helpful. Good points and good motivation to revise and clarify. I was not being specific enough with the first point. Here is a particular implication that might be underappreciated (or ignored or confus…

@Michael I guess I would say that the analysis you give in your opening paragraph is either standard or fairly plausible. But I don’t see any intractable problems as arising from it. On your first point: First, it will not do, if one has a deonti…

In reply to Roderick T. Long. In the case of libertarianism there’s a difference between “everyone ought to follow the non-aggression principle,” which can be a purely deontic claim about individual behaviour with no reference to an ideal to be aimed a…

In the case of libertarianism there’s a difference between “everyone ought to follow the non-aggression principle,” which can be a purely deontic claim about individual behaviour with no reference to an ideal to be aimed at, and &#822…

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