What is a person?

I am a person (I promise). You are a person (I say that with confidence, as I am only addressing those that can read this). But, what exactly is a person? I’m not going to go through much ground work to establish that “living human” and “person” are non-identical terms, because I think that much…

If a tree falls in the woods, in a universe devoid of consciousness, does the tree exist?

In my last post I discussed the idea that differences in sports supplements' effectiveness is knowable, but no one is going to run the investigation. Such an investigation would unveil one as better than another. But, as the experiment is never going to run (because it's impractically difficult and no one will know if it's…

Is Morality Real? Does it exist? Are they the same thing?

After my wordy post about whether infinity is real, I plan to continue the discussion about what it means to be real, or to exist (are they different?) by discussing morality. Regular readers will already know that I think morality can be objectively described, but so can numbers. I think I concluded that numbers aren’t…

Is Infinity Real?

Although infinity is a mathematical term, it is very useful in entering the philosophy of what “real” is. To decide whether infinity is real, we must first decide whether any numbers are real and what criteria they either do or do not fit. For that, we need to know what makes something ‘real’? Does it…

Abort? Pro-choice vs. No choice.

Is abortion closer to murder or using a pesticide? Is a nurse or doctor who helps carry out abortions morally closer to being guilty of genocide or indistinguishable from using a doctor who uses antibiotics to rid the body of an infection? If I refuse to allow my body to be used as a life-support…

Deep in Rivers of The Moral Landscape: secular morality drowns religious morality

Morality is an issue that I like to write on simply because I find it cathartically simple and reassuringly complex at the same time. That paradox is aligned with my own moral standing, which is Sam Harris’ Moral Landscape (approximately), which my regular readers will already know. The simplicity comes from the simple mantra of…

Transience and My Hobbies

I lift weights. That’s not facetious, I mean I go a gym and I lift up precisely weighted and shaped lumps of metal called dumbbells. As a result I am very strong, for my weight class (under-80 kg; under 176 lbs). I am not strong in any absolute terms, or even on the human scale…

Are Atheists the New Vegans?

On a blog called Gravity Bites, an author called Brian wrote a piece that argues that atheists are more likely to consider veganism, and that they should. The argument is interesting. Again, I'm not going to add much. The argument is that, as an atheist, you are less likely to conform for its sake; you…

Happy and Ignorant or Miserable and Knowledgeable

In my last post I said I would choose happiness and ignorance over misery and knowledge, if somehow those were my options, almost without hesitation. But it wasn’t without hesitation. I took many years to overcome my sense of pride that I associate with knowledge and to recognise the true bliss of just being happy.…

Scientism

Wikipedia defines scientism thusly: “Scientism is a term used, usually pejoratively, to refer to belief in the universal applicability of the scientific method and approach, and the view that empirical science constitutes the most authoritative worldview or most valuable part of human learning to the exclusion of other viewpoints. It has been defined as "the…