Zen and Ego-persistence
To maximize expected subjective life quality, it is important to know what life is. We all have a notion of what our life is to us, but that notion may or may not be generally valid. In order to test the validity of our notions, we can apply them in the context of a thought […]
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The FDA: A case study for Paternalism
Apothecary Workbench Should the government protect us? Photo courtesy of cybjorg In a comment to the last post Dapper Dan raised the question of whether private enterprise could be an adequate substitute for America’s Food and Drug Administration. He presented an argument that threw doubt on the possibility that American citizens would produce demand for […]
Read more from the Political Philosophy category. If you would like to leave a comment, click here: 5 Comments. or stay up to date with this post via RSS from your site.
Anti-Libertarian Arguments
Fraser Delta Addressing anti-libertarian arguments. Photo courtesy of ecstaticist I would like to present the most popular arguments against libertarianism and show how my interpretation of geolibertarianism addresses them. The Paternalism Argument: People need to be protected from their own stupidity. A good example of this is the FDA. Most Americans seem to think that […]
Read more from the Political Philosophy category. If you would like to leave a comment, click here: 2 Comments. or stay up to date with this post via RSS from your site.
Initiation of Force vs. Victimization
New York Supreme Court Laying down the law. Photo courtesy of wallyg The term “initiation of force” comes up a lot in libertarian philosophy because it is the fundamental concept behind the non-agression principle, which states that the initiation of force is inherently illegitimate. Note that the word “initiation” is important because it allows the […]
Read more from the Ethics category. If you would like to leave a comment, click here: 2 Comments. or stay up to date with this post via RSS from your site.
Democracy Isn’t Good Enough
Statue of Liberty Improving governmental systems. Photo courtesy of Michael Brenton American propaganda tries to convince us that democracy is some kind of ideal governmental system. I agree with Winston Churchill who said “… democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.” The issue is that we still […]
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Why I’m Not Agnostic
Is God there? Clearing up the definitions. Photo courtesy of gonzalo_ar Many people believe that it is not possible to know that God does not exist. There are two arguments that I have heard for this. The first argument claims that you can’t know anything about reality because it is impossible to prove anything about reality. But people who […]
Read more from the Metaphysics category. If you would like to leave a comment, click here: 5 Comments. or stay up to date with this post via RSS from your site.
Prescriptive Philosophy
Abandoned Religion The prescriptive-descriptive question. Photo courtesy of Brandon Brubaker The spicy lifestyle morality states that one should maximize expected subjective life quality, subject to no additional constraints. Initially this seems like crazy advice. Almost every well-known moral philosophy has some explicit provision to prevent people from engaging in crime and violence. Even Objectivism, which […]
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Ownership and Georgism
Land’s End A philosophical introduction to Georgism. Photo courtesy of The Brit_2 Ownership is the relationship between an entity (usually a person) and an object (either tangible or abstract) in which the entity has complete control of the object including control of its ownership status e.g. the ability to transfer ownership to others. Complete control […]
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Prostitution and Employment
Strip Club Some moral considerations. Photo courtesy of Thomas Hawk Once when I was at a strip club in Mexico, I accidentally smiled at one of the strippers after she caught me looking at her. She walked over and sat down next to me thinking that I was interested in her services. I didn’t turn […]
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Voluntary Exploitation
Old Factory Worker Is it possible for a person to be exploited without the use of force? Photo courtesy of Yuliia Eric The dictionary says that exploitation means taking advantage of someone in an unfair way. Let’s consider an example. Suppose it requires two carpenters to build a house and that the opportunity to work […]