Reading Time: 7 minutes “Exist” can be a tricky word. Unless I define the term upfront, people often think I mean something other than I do. When I am talking about the color red, or, the concept of loyalty or morality, I might say that these things don’t exist. What I usually mean is that they exist in our […]
conceptualism
Posted inEthics and Morality, Philosophy
Responding to Breuer on Conceptual Nominalism
Reading Time: 8 minutes Luke Breuer kindly responded to my request and provided a critique of my position of conceptual nominalism recently. I hope to look at his claims and analyse them in my reply here today. I have a forthcoming book that sets out my position with a lot more depth and clarity (Why I am Atheist and […]
Posted inPhilosophy
Luke Breuer Takes on Conceptual Nominalism
Reading Time: 4 minutes I have a long history in my writing and philosophy here and elsewhere of adhering to a position called “conceptual nominalism”. If you want more details, check out: Philosophy 101 (philpapers induced) #2 – Abstract objects: Platonism or nominalism The Pertinence of Nominalism to Religious and Philosophical Debates Natural Law, Essentialism and Nominalism Today, responding […]
Posted inPhilosophy
Arguing about Naturalism with a Commenter
Reading Time: 6 minutes I am going to challenge the comment of Person223 that he placed on another thread about naturalism. I thank him for at least giving something approaching a substantial claim, something that many detractors over the last few days have singularly failed to do: A chair is a chair. Not everything that can be sat upon […]
Posted inMeaning & Purpose, Philosophy
Sean Carroll on His Poetic Naturalism
Reading Time: < 1 minute I previously introduced you to Sean Carroll’s Poetic Naturalism, which I see as a naturalistic worldview entailing conceptual nominalism. Here are a few videos to explain his position: Poetic naturalism: The meaning of life: Purpose: Stay in touch! Like A Tippling Philosopher on Facebook: A Tippling Philosopher You can also buy me a cuppa. […]
Posted inPhilosophy
Poetic Naturalism
Reading Time: 3 minutes I am a big fan of Sean Carroll for a whole host of reasons, but recently because of his book The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself (UK), which, if you know my philosophical positions on big ideas and my endless deference to conceptual nominalism, is a whole thesis defending this philosophy. […]
Posted inPhilosophy
Criticising the Idea of Potential and Actuality in Natural Law Philosophy
Reading Time: 6 minutes As some of you may know, I am presently editing a book by Gunther Laird calls The Unnecessary Science. Natural Law philosophy, about which I have talked a great deal recently, owes an awful lot to Aristotle, Aquinas and other thinkers from a bygone era. One of the cornerstones of this essentialist worldview is the pair […]
Posted inEthics and Morality
Hsiao’s Perverted Faculty Argument: Doesn’t Even Get off the Ground
Reading Time: 8 minutes The Perverted Faculty Argument (PFA) is a strand of Thomistic (Thomas Aquinas) thinking that is intertwined with Natural Law Theory (NLT) of which I have been blogging lately. I was challenged by Vincent Torley recently to, if I was going to attack the PFA (as I have done here and here), attack the best form […]
Posted inGeneral
The Second Amendment and Rights
Reading Time: 12 minutes A thread has recently exploded when I posted about the Second Amendment and drawing the line between acceptable and unacceptable weaponry. On the thread, one particularly obvious common denominator sprung up with all of the gun advocates, the idea of “rights”: A right is no less a right just because time goes by and technology […]
Posted inEthics and Morality, Philosophy
Making Moral Claims Without Doing the Groundwork
Reading Time: 16 minutes This post was recently posted on Facebook by someone I know and I was added to the link. I want to deal with this here because it is not only something this other person does all the time, but it is a really common occurrence when arguing about morality and moral claims. I have talked about […]