Reading Time: 3 minutes One of the failings of religion is inflexibility. Religious people may conclude that a god is the source of objective morality. Therefore, they are externalizing and objectivizing a relative, subjective concept. Also, they are obviating the possibility of error correction and progress. Religious people sometimes see arguments inside their movements and assume that they are […]
Socrates
Posted inPolitics
Is universal suffrage really such a great thing?
Reading Time: 6 minutes As I write this, exactly one year after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrectionist attack on the U.S. Capitol to subvert the counting of Electoral College votes, I’m more convinced than ever that many, many, many Americans lack enough intellectual integrity and common sense to be trusted electing anyone. It’s becoming clearer by the day that […]
Posted inEthics and Morality
The Ring of Gyges and Deterrence
Reading Time: 3 minutes The Ring of Gyges is an ancient Greek thought experiment. In simple terms: The Ring of Gyges… is a mythicalmagical artifact mentioned by the philosopher Plato in Book 2 of his Republic (2:359a–2:360d).[1] It grants its owner the power to become invisible at will. Through the story of the ring, Republic considers whether an intelligent person would be just if they did not have to fear any bad reputation […]
Posted inGeneral
Martyrs of Reason: Socrates
Reading Time: 6 minutes One of the reasons Western people today still worship invisible beings is because the seminal Greek philosopher Socrates was executed for questioning the traditional Greek gods of his own time.
Posted inPhilosophy
The Philosophy 101 Factfile – Plato
Reading Time: 5 minutes In doing the philpapers inspired Philosophy 101 series (most recent one found here), touching on the questions asked in the largest ever survey of philosophers, I thought I would give some nice, basic factfiles explaining what some of the key philosophers have brought to the philosophical table. We hear so much about Aristotle, Plato, Hume and Descartes, […]
Posted inPhilosophy
The Philosophy 101 Factfile – Socrates
Reading Time: 3 minutes I had been been thinking, some time back (yes, I know, it hurts). In doing the philpapers inspired Philosophy 101 series (found here, so far), touching on the questions asked in the largest ever survey of philosophers, I thought I would give some nice, basic factfiles explaining what some of the key philosophers have brought to the philosophical […]
Posted inHistory, The Secular
Earliest evidence for atheism predates Jesus by at least 500 years, Cambridge professor argues
Reading Time: 2 minutes Quite often, one hears that atheism is a late arriver on the scene, that religion in some form or another prevailed universally back to the times of early animism. However, Professor Tim Whitmarsh, a leading Cambridge classicist, claims that the belief that there were indeed no gods was quite common in the ancient world, and only […]
Posted inReligion
Socratic Theatrics.
Reading Time: 10 minutes Not long ago, one of our lovely commenters, ratamacue0, asked me a very good question with regard to the homeschooling post: namely, why I took exception to the weird, twisted form of “Socratic questioning” used in a video made by one of these religious-zealot homeschooling outfits. This type of questioning, called the Socratic method, involves […]
Posted inReligion
Socratic Theatrics
Reading Time: 10 minutes Not long ago, one of our lovely commenters, ratamacue0, asked me a very good question with regard to the homeschooling post: namely, why I took exception to the weird, twisted form of “Socratic questioning” used in a video made by one of these religious-zealot homeschooling outfits. This type of questioning, called the Socratic method, involves […]
Posted inPhilosophy
Philosophy 101 – Plato Factfile
Reading Time: 5 minutes In doing the philpapers inspired Philosophy 101 series (found here and here, so far), touching on the questions asked in the largest ever survey of philosophers, I thought I would give some nice, basic factfiles explaining what some of the key philosophers have brought to the philosophical table. We hear so much about Aristotle, Plato, Hume and Descartes, but who […]