How Ethics Is More Like Physics Than Faith

July 2, 2012 By 48 Comments

People who use the free speech that they take for granted in free societies to disparage moral philosophy as useless, superfluous, and incapable of progress since it does not function like a natural science are as naive and guilty of practical contradiction as people who use the internet to talk about how science can not attain any genuine truths because it cannot square its own metaphysical foundations or tell us about the meaning of life.

Filed Under: Applied Ethics, Authority, Contemporary Ethics, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Ethics, Ethics, Historical Ethics, Moral Psychology, Morality, My Theory of Morality's Rational Foundations and Nature, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy Tagged With: , 48 Comments

Is Anything Intrinsically Good or Bad? An Interview with James Gray

June 14, 2012 By 2 Comments

James Gray blogs at Ethical Realism. He is passionate about advancing philosophy education and exploring moral realism both in ways accessible to beginners and engaging for advanced philosophy students. The interview below was done as part of a blogathon to support the Secular Student Alliance. Please donate to this worthy organization! And see more links [...]

Filed Under: Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Ethics, Metaethics, Moral Psychology, Moral Psychology, Morality, Morality, My Theory of Morality's Rational Foundations and Nature, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Teleology, Teleology, Virtues, Virtues 2 Comments

How I Deconverted: It Started With Humean Skepticism

June 12, 2012 By 10 Comments

I have written a number of personal posts about what I was like before I deconverted and then how things went for me when I deconverted. There is more to say about both those periods, but it is time to start explaining how I deconverted. And, philosophically, that started with my discovery of David Hume. [...]

Filed Under: Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Epistemology, Evidence, Evidence, Personal, Philosophy 10 Comments

Criticizing Wicca: Magic is Unethical

January 7, 2012 By 16 Comments

[This is part of a series looking at atheism and Wicca.] Many Wiccans practice magic.  Skeptics, rationalists, and naturalists may all be tempted to try to use science to refute the effectiveness of magic.  Although such refutations do persuade some people, they often fail to accomplish anything: despite the best efforts of scientific debunkers, magical [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Epistemic Justification, Ethics, Evidence, Featured, Intellectual Vices, Naturalism, Paganism, Philosophy, Pseudoscience, Rationalism, Religion and Science, Wicca 16 Comments

Criticizing Wicca: Magic is Unreliable

January 7, 2012 By 6 Comments

[This is part of a long series looking at atheism and Wicca.] Any procedure for changing an initial situation (the start) into a desired situation (the goal) can be tested for its effectiveness.   As used here, effectiveness is a matter of degree, so that procedures can be more or less effective.  The simplest way to measure [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Epistemic Justification, Evidence, Featured, Naturalism, Paganism, Philosophy, Probability, Pseudoscience, Rationalism, Religion and Science, Skepticism, Wicca 6 Comments

Revelation versus Manifestation

December 30, 2011 By 5 Comments

This is a guest post by Eric Steinhart, Professor of Philosophy at William Paterson University. The Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) are religions of revelation.  As is well-known, these religions are derived from the experiences of religiously privileged individuals (prophets, messiahs, inspired writers) to whom it is alleged that God spoke.  These religions say [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Epistemic Justification, Evidence, Featured, Naturalism, Paganism, Philosophy, Rationalism, Religion and Science, Wicca 5 Comments

Criticizing Wicca: Levels

December 17, 2011 By 13 Comments

This is a guest post by Eric Steinhart, Professor of Philosophy at William Paterson University. Some statements are based on evidence, while others are not.  And there is evidence for the existence of some entity if and only if the existence of that entity is asserted in a statement that is based on evidence.  To [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Evidence, Metaphysics, Naturalism, Paganism, Philosophy, Philosophy of Science, Rationalism, Religion and Science, Science, Wicca 13 Comments

Do Atheists Worship Truth?

December 15, 2011 By 45 Comments

This is a guest post by Eric Steinhart, Professor of Philosophy at William Paterson University. Although many atheists seem hostile to metaphysics, that hostility is misplaced.  Any deep philosophical position is bound to presuppose some metaphysics.  Pure reason is also highly abstract.  Should pure reason be constrained by empirical evidence?   How?   All efforts to specify [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Evidence, Featured, Naturalism, Philosophy, Rationalism 45 Comments

If You Don’t Believe In Objective Values, Then Don’t Talk To Me About Objective Scientific Truth Either

November 27, 2011 By 111 Comments

I recently argued that when any of us act, we must act for reasons. When acting for reasons we must decide that the end we pursue is the best, most worthwhile, goal to pursue and that the action we take in order to achieve that goal is the most suitable one. I should also add [...]

Filed Under: Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Authority, Authority, Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Ethical Pluralism, Ethical Pluralism, Ethics, Ethics, Evidence, Evidence, Hypocrisy, Hypocrisy, Intellectual Vices, Intellectual Virtues, Intellectual Virtues, Metaethics, Morality, Morality, My Theory of Morality's Rational Foundations and Nature, Naturalistic Fallacy, Naturalistic Fallacy, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Science, Science, Science, Teleology, Teleology Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 111 Comments

Why Moral Nihilism Is Self-Contradictory

November 22, 2011 By 21 Comments

My post against moral nihilism on Friday received many stimulating replies. I hope to address those replies, or their general concerns, as there is time and occasion in future posts. In this post–and in another I have written for later today–I want to start by answering thedudediogenes. He is the most seemingly self-conscious moral nihilist [...]

Filed Under: Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Epistemology, Ethics, Ethics, Metaethics, Metaphysics, Metaphysics, Moral Psychology, Moral Psychology, Morality, Morality, My Theory of Morality's Rational Foundations and Nature, Naturalistic Fallacy, Naturalistic Fallacy, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Teleology, Teleology 21 Comments