Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

In reply to Suleman Khawaja. Very well said. We’ve been ill-served by a lot of scientists, a lot of science journalists, a lot of ideologues, and a lot of regulatory-administrator types who seem to believe that the invocation of Science is a subs…

In reply to Irfan Khawaja. This piece in Nature rightfully points out that there are ways in which nations like ours can be more involved in promoting increased vaccination in other under vaccinated countries. My piece isn’t intended as a defense…

In reply to boydstun. That’s an interesting story that invites comment at many levels, but your primary question has both a simple answer and a more complex one. Your question is: I have a question. Is any penalty under criminal law by definitio…

In reply to Irfan Khawaja. There are some analyses of permissibility according to which, if PHI-ing is permissible, then one has (significant, non-trivial) reason to PHI. I disagree at least with the standard (in my view, discredited) view that has thi…

In reply to boydstun. Thanks for that, Stephen. Sorry (I guess) to hear that your efforts in helping your friend (ex-friend, I guess) were not workable. The overall punishment here seems quite excessive and unfair (but this is no surprise in our justic…

For comparison’s case, here is a brief statement of the case against boosters, in a recent issue of Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02219-w LikeLike

I have a question. Is any penalty under criminal law by definition a punishment? Would that be really honest and sensible? I read the NDPR review, though that does not seem to help with my question. The reason this question became salient for me is bec…

Excellent analysis! I hate when I read how the WHO said giving boosters (or a 3 shot series of vaccines) is like giving a life jacket to those who already have one while others are drowning. Your imagery (“lease on life that is now expiring&#8221…