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This post looks at the objection that the assessment of desires (and of everybody based on their relationship to desires) is circular. Desire A is evaluated in virtue of its being such as to satisfy Desire B, which is evaluated in virtue of its being such as to satisfy Desire A. The circularity is there, but it provides no reason to reject desirism.
Richard Joyce argues that all moral claims must be false because moral claims are "inescapable". One cannot deny that one is under an obligation by arguing that has no interest in doing that action. No real-world property is inescapable in this way. However, desirism makes claims that are inescapable without postulating anything but desires and the act types they evaluate. One cannot escape the…
This post concerns the claim that moral language assumes objective values. H. Sarkissian and others report on a set of experiments that they say questions this claim - that people are relativists. I hold that their article contains two errors. (1) It equivocates between two different types of objectivity, and (2) It makes an unwarranted leap from evidence of relativism to evidence of cultural…
Desirism (here called the reform theory) says that no desire may be correct or incorrect. This implies that there is nothing incorrect about a desire to torture a young child. This implication can be presented as a reason to reject the form theory. In this submission I answer this objection.
[Note: This is taken from Chapter 6, Section 2 of my Ph.D. dissertation. It concerns the objection that desirism gets the order of explanation wrong. Desirism says that something is wrong because people have reasons to condemn it, rather than saying that we condemn something because it is wrong. The dissertation refers to desirism is the reform theory since it presents desirism as a modified…
This post considers the objection that desirism is in conflict with the claim that if one ought not to do something then one must have a reason not to do it. I look specifically at this claim as it appears in Richard Joyce's defense of error theory. I argue that it is not true by showing that it is incompatible both with how excuses function in the common use of terms and the requirement that an…
I am a capitalist. I do not defend the system that some people call capitalism. I call that system "corporate feudalism" - a system of nobles who are above the law and serfs who are controlled by the law. Capitalism is a system that says that all people have certain rights. Rights to life and liberty are widely recognized. I include in this an argument for a right to food, clean water, sanitation,…
This is taken from Chapter 6, Section 1 of my dissertation. It aims to refute a class of objections against desirism - "disproof by counter-example". This type of objection invents a story in which something that the theory says is permissible is, in fact wrong. Or where the theory says that something is wrong that is, in fact, permissible. That the theory does not generate the correct answer is…
This post concerns:Pereboom, Derk, 'A Notion of Moral Responsibility Immune to the Threat from Causal Determination', in Randolph Clarke, Michael McKenna, and Angela M. Smith (eds), The Nature of Moral Responsibility: New Essays (New York, 2015; online edn, Oxford Academic, 18 June 2015),Pereboom seeks to defend a purely forward looking notion of moral responsibility that holds a person worthy of…
This posting came about as a result of reading:Caruso, Gregg D. and Stephen G. Morris. 2017. “Compatibilism and Retributivist Desert Moral Responsibility: On What is of Central Philosophical and Practical Importance.” Erkenntnis 82: 837-855.In this article, the authors attempt to provide a test case that gets at the heart of the debate over free will and basic retributivist desert. I want to…
I just read:Caruso, Gregg D. Morris, Stephen G. (2017). Compatibilism and Retributivist Desert Moral Responsibility: On What is of Central Philosophical and Practical Importance. Erkenntnis 82 (4):837-855.In this paper, the authors attempt to focus the discussion on the relevance of free will to moral responsibility."[W]e propose that the key question with regard to basic desert moral…
This post concerns commentary on Fricker, Miranda (2016). What's the Point of Blame? A Paradigm Based Explanation. Noûs 50 (1):165-183.In this article, Fricker describes several ways in which condemnation (what she calls communicative blame) can fail. These are cases in which one person condemns another for wrongdoing under conditions where the condemnation is a mistake – perhaps, itself, a…
My studies have progressed to the point that I am starting my dissertation. Consequently, I feel that I must get back to work doing something constructive with all of this education I am paying for.This post concerns commentary on Fricker, Miranda (2016). What's the Point of Blame? A Paradigm Based Explanation. Noûs 50 (1):165-183.Miranda Fricker attempts to explain blame as an act of…
136 Days Down, 404 To Go (Monarchy or Democracy)We knew it was coming . . . the would-be tyrant would propose an end to democracy and the establishment of tyranny.Here is what Trump wrote:With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people…
132 Days Down, 408 Days to Go (The Rule of Law)Recently, I wrote about the value of norms over laws in creating a decent community. Nothing one writes on paper is of any value unless it has an influence on how people act, and everything that has an influence on how we act works through the norms and values that people adopt.If people adopt decent norms, the community thrives and prospers. If they…
133 Days Down, 407 Days to Go (The Lesser of Two Evils)Is it permissible to compromise one's principles to vote for "a lesser of two evils" in order to prevent "a greater of two evils" from winning an election?I have in mind a voter who hates Trump's authoritarianism, his lies, his profiteering, his abuse of power - exemplified by his use of the government to arrest, harass, imprison, or otherwise…
134 Days Down, 406 Days to Go (Post-Election)What does it mean to say that Trump's term will end at noon on January 20 unless he wins a majority of the Electoral College vote?This means that any plan of action that does not produce this result in an EC victory will result in the end of the President's term at noon on January 20. The new President will either be Biden or the Speaker of the House…
138 Days Down, 402 Days to Go (Political Violence)I have spent several days trying to explain that certain fears about what might or might not happen as a result of the November elections are irrational.We will not have a situation where Trump remains President into February and March while we wait for votes to be counted or simply because he does not accept the results. The current term ends at…
I am participating in a workshop concerning the book NORMATIVE EXTERNALISM by Brian Weatherson on August 6-11.Weatherson explains a central debate in philosophy as a debate between two principles:(1) The externalist position: "Do the Right Thing"(2) The internalist position: "Follow Your Principles."I have never thought that the internalist position had much merit. I grew up among people whose…
130 Days Down, 410 Days to Go (Laws vs. Norms)After yesterday's discussion on the issue of Federal actions in Portland (and in other cities), I feel the need to return to the topics of laws vs. norms.Laws cannot protect our freedom. Indeed, it is often the case that laws are antithetical to freedom.A Constitution cannot protect our freedom. A constitution is just a bunch of ink smeared on a piece…