 Theism, Atheism, and Communication -- From the perspective of an "atheist."
by Ed Thompson
Some analysis of my attempt to communicate a personal position to someone who displayed curiosity about it. Possible lessons here. (Read more...)
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 The story of Adam and Steve (a fable).
by Ed Thompson
A fable about the free market. (Read more...)
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 The Lies of the Left and the Right
by Ed Thompson
Taking no prisoners. (Read more...)
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Four Major Worldviews
by Ed Thompson
An overview of the main kinds of ways that you can look at the world. (Read more...)
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My journey toward Ayn Rand and Objectivism
by Ed Thompson
A somewhat-unconventional journey. (Read more...)
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Libertarianism without Individual (Natural) Rights: An outcome of anarcho-capitalism
by Ed Thompson
A tragic-comedy story describing a negative outcome of competing, private defense agencies. (Read more...)
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 The Young Sparrow
by Ed Thompson
A short story. (Read more...)
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 What does the success of science involve?
by Ed Thompson
In a Wiki-entry entitled Scientific Realism, the question that is the title to this piece was posed somewhat rhetorically. This essay offers an answer to this question. (Read more...)
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Low-quality thinking on "rationality": A chronological index of highly-relevant quotes
by Ed Thompson
A first effort to summarize the historical errors associated with published philosophical thought on the subject of "rationality" (Read more...)
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The 4 Main Kinds of Ethics: An Introduction.
by Ed Thompson
The purpose of this short essay is to introduce the 4 main ways that we can think about morality and to get a glimpse at how those 4 mutually-exclusive and altogether-exhaustible views result in radically different ethical recommendations. (Read more...)
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Determinism is a Form of "Relativism;"and the Concept of Morality Entails "Agency"
by Ed Thompson
I found the truth of this title especially enlightening for the debate on 'determinism'. I reached this epiphany while re-reading what Alasdair MacIntyre had to say in his 1994 essay: Moral Relativism, Truth and Justification [found in the 1998 book entitled: The MacIntyre Reader -- edited by Kelvin Knight, and published by the University of Notre Dame Press in Indiana].
Below, I have included excerpts from The MacIntyre Reader, with comments on each from myself. I have interjected the concept: determinism -- for the more general, but inclusive, concept: relativism, as well as for some of the uses of the concept: morality. My interjections (regardless of subject matter) are in bold ... (Read more...)
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 Don't miss more than you have to.
by Ed Thompson
I wrote this to piece to encourage myself to live more happily. I'm sharing it in case there is someone else here who could gain some value from it. As a work of art, it's actually not that great of a poem (it's "campy") -- but some of you may still like it. (Read more...)
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Who Needs Philosophy
by Ed Thompson
Below are quote excerpts from Rand's "Philosophy: Who Needs It" (p 4-5), supplemented with Rand-validating quotes (from each philosopher in question) which display the thinking errors of each of these 8 philosophers. Exercise for interested readers: Feel free to attempt to invalidate the supplemented ("validating") quotes; or even to attempt to invalidate Rand, if that is your position! (Read more...)
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Human Certainty: The only kind there is.
by Ed Thompson
The kind of certainty discussed above in the example of Sally and Betty is philosophical certainty -- a certainty about the relations between things in a given context. It is this same kind of relational, contextual certainty that allows us to form contextually-absolute genus-species definitions about things. The other kind of certainty (mentioned just above), psychological certainty, is more appropriately called a pseudo-certainty because it refers more to a feeling or conviction than to any veridical cognition. The feeling/conviction which psychological certainty affords comes from credulity; being easily convinced that something is so. (Read more...)
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 Human Certainty: The only kind there is.
by Ed Thompson
The subtitle to this essay hints at the fact that human certainty is something special. Now, there are 2 ways to be certain:
1) psychologically (whenever any animate, perceptual being is "convinced" of things being a certain way)
2) philosophically (whenever any conceptual being has discovered an identifiable and potentially-measurable difference among the existents in the world)
(Read more...)
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 Human Happiness: The only kind there is.
by Ed Thompson
The subtitle to this piece indicates that's there's only one kind of true happiness (ie. the human kind). It has to do with how humans uniquely experience the act of living. A contrast with non-human beings (animals) may help illuminate what it is that human happiness is. What is required (for the illumination) is to somehow differentiate happiness from mere elation and the mere satisfaction of current desires (those things most close to happiness; which animals also experience). (Read more...)
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Human Evil: The Only Kind There Is
by Ed Thompson
Author's note:
This is the first in a series subtitled: "The only kind there is." This specific subtitle is meant to call attention to the unique dynamics of living as a human being -- as opposed to living as another type of creature, or existing as a non-living entity. For example, rocks or stones aren't ever considered evil, and there is a good reason for that. Much of the past failure to adequately delineate such basic concepts as good, evil, happiness, virtue, beauty, and love stems from an inadequate conception of the unique nature of man. I am of the opinion that much of the philosophical indecisiveness regarding these basics concepts would be removed upon a prior and adequate understanding of man's nature. This series is my attempt to forward such an understanding of what it means to be human.
(Read more...)
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Kids and the "Pre-moral" Choice to Live
by Ed Thompson
In a quip, Ronald Reagan once said that he noticed that everyone who was for abortion rights had already been born, and while his line of reasoning was illegitimate -- I thought to apply it to the "pre-moral choice to live" debate. Apparently, everyone arguing about the "pre-moral" choice to live has already "chosen" to live. Is this inconsequential? Heck, apparently, everyone currently existing -- has "chosen" to live! More to the point, everyone ever known -- has "chosen" to live! (Read more...)
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 Philosophy's Vertical Time-line: Absence of Paradigm-shift
by Ed Thompson
Science is often said to have undergone 'paradigm shifts.' A telling example would be the shift from the Ptolemaic (geocentric) view of the cosmos to the Copernicus-discovered, Galileo-confirmed, heliocentric model. The question can be asked whether philosophy has undergone -- or is even capable of undergoing -- such a paradigm shift. This essay seeks to answer that question. (Read more...)
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How to Think about God
by Ed Thompson
In his book: How to Think about the Great Ideas (2000), Mortimer Adler devotes a chapter entitled: "How to Think about God." His first subsection (after a short introduction) is entitled: "The Four Key Questions about God." Let me state at the outset that, though I agree with his method (of outlining pivotal questions, before engaging in any substantive discussion on the matter) -- my conclusions differ from his. (Read more...)
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One Downside of non-Western Fundamentalism: Evidence from Earthquake Data
by Ed Thompson
This short summary is meant to compare the death tolls from similar (or less)-magnitude earth quakes – and to take note of the differential lives lost in various regions holding different world-views. (Read more...)
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Wednesday
February 22, 2006 |
The Philosophic Validation of Inductive Inference
by Ed Thompson
This essay is meant to provide a background to the problem of induction, to critically analyze the solution to this problem (the philosophic validation of induction, as laid out by Matson), to offer another example analogy to show that the self-same reasoning holds, and to tie together the 2 essentials of proper induction – so that any potential argument can be evaluated against this new and refined standard for it. I will begin at the beginning -- by outlining the 2 possible senses of induction. (Read more...)
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Tuesday
September 27, 2005 |
What We're Up Against: Critique of a Contemporary College Text
by Ed Thompson
This essay serves the specific purpose of arming reasoners against the onslaught of contemporary academia. It highlights major positions taken by academia, and it offers major rebuttals to such positions. In a war for men's minds, one must come to battle with the proper armor. This essay provides it. (Read more...)
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Ye' Ole' Skills-o'-Icon-Catchin'
by Ed Thompson
SOLOists have a remarkably keen sense of authenticity and, at the same time, a remarkable tolerance for individual diversity (SOLO may be a world leader here). It is almost as if we appreciate that you are letting your unique light shine, even while simultaneously disagreeing with the point made! (Read more...)
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The Three Central Tenets of an Objective Philosophy of Science
by Ed Thompson
There are three things that philosophy must do in order to generate, or sustain, the special sciences. These are: to provide statements of contextually-absolute factual relations (definitions), to constrain unbounded possibility (arbitrariness), and to outline "the rules by which you can claim knowledge." (Read more...)
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