Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

In reply to Irfan Khawaja. Very quick replies (nothing like an organized, systematic response). Numbers correspond to your numbering, Irfan. (1a) Why does there need to be a threat to us? If I see someone beating up an innocent stranger, my reason to i…

In reply to Irfan Khawaja. Thanks. I’ll take a look. Meanwhile, some responses to what you wrote above, above. LikeLike

In reply to mlyoung57. “…what the most plausible counterpoints are…” https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/183040 LikeLike

Welcome, John! I’m sympathetic to most of what you say here. To keep myself honest, I need to think about what the most plausible counterpoints are (or perhaps someone here can provide them [oh, there is Irfan — ed.]). Here is something tha…

John, As I mentioned to you earlier, I’m an outlier on my own blog on the subject of Ukraine. I may be the only person on this blog utterly opposed to involvement in Ukraine (or else the only one who’s vocalized that opposition). So this is…

Seems as much Smithian as Millian. LikeLike

(Responding to DP): I agree with all of that (meaning the original post), find it very well put, in fact. One passing comment on the very last paragraph, however: Formalistic (Kantian) approaches to moral theory in general seem to have a problem suppl…

If I have reason to act only in such a way that is justifiable to others (or such that it would not be appropriate or reasonable for anyone to object), it seems likely that this would be identical to, not part of a constitutive explanation of, my being…

[…] Second, justifiability to others is an ideal standard; it is not a question of getting others to actually accept something (154–155). The reason, Scanlon says, is that “there are obviously cases in which acting morally requires one to resist …