History
Methodological Naturalism, Science and History
Methodological naturalism is usually understood to be the idea that a subject will be investigated as if supernatural causes do not exist. This is often considered to be a part of science, and therefore theories such as intelligent design cannot be scientific. While intelligent design theory is not a scientific theory, this issue should still be resolved in order to better understand the place and...
Intelligent Design Theory and Religion
A common set of arguments against intelligent design theory is that it, the Discovery Institute, or the motives behind the theory are religious in nature. It is supposed that for this reason, intelligent design theory is not scientific or is not a viable theory. I have previously shown that intelligent design theory is a historical rather than scientific theory. The study of history is distinct fr...
Feser and Intelligent Design
I think that Edward Feser is an excellent philosopher. I also think that his criticisms of intelligent design theory are criticisms of the philosophical mistakes of ID advocates rather than criticisms of any central features of intelligent design theory. Feser criticizes intelligent design theory on a number of grounds. First, that intelligent design theory assumes a philosophy of nature that is m...
Distributing Political Power
Political power – the power to tax, enforce and write law – must be distributed across individuals. Each area of power may be distributed differently. There are two main actors: the government itself and the people who are governed. Within the government the same division exists as well. In Canada, the provinces are governed by the federal government and federal courts. There are two main ways of ...
Government and Power
I have discussed the two previous arguments for anarchism already and have explained by they both fail. This third argument does not fail in the usual sense. We know from experience that power corrupts, and the greater the power the greater the corruption. Government is a particular example of this. The problem with power is a problem that arises from the current condition of humanity. There is no...
Is Government Good?
I have given an argument previously for the conclusion that government is an institution that is impossible to avoid having. I have also claimed that there is a difference – at least commonly speaking – between a good government and a bad government. But even if we accept these things, it is still possible to claim that government is ultimately evil. There are also all of the moral arguments that ...
Free Speech and Power
I have discussed a number of reasons to restrict free speech and have found them all wanting. It is better to have unrestricted free speech than to restrict speech in order to protect the feelings, privacy, or any other attribute of another person. But there is a different kind of objection to free speech. It might be possible for one person to “drown out” another person’s free speech. The obvious...
Privacy, Sensitivity and Free Speech
There are some people who wrongly share private information. There are others who (usually reporters) who pester the sick and abused. Still others bring their conflicts into the public. All of these things are wrong sometimes very wrong. One possible solution to these problems is to restrict the press (or individuals generally) from releasing this kind of information. This counts as a restriction ...
Free Speech vs Hate Speech
In my last post I described some of the motives and underlying assumptions of hate speech regulations. I indicated some of the problems that hate speech laws have and suggested that alternatives are necessary. Hate speech laws divide society, increase hatreds, promote ignorance and punish questions. The solution to the problems of hate speech laws and hate speech is free speech. If hate speech reg...
Sentences and Reasoning
I have shown that all self-evident sentences are true. But some sentences are not self-evident, even though they are true. These sentences are found by reasoning from self-evident sentences. Such reasoning can be either deductive or inductive. We determine whether or not a sentence is true by asking why that sentence is true. For self-evident sentences, the justification comes from the senses, ref...
