The Philosophy Discussion Forum

Immanuel Can. Thanks. I accept what you say, but i do wonder if it has ever been possible to hold their beliefs (the depraved 72 virgin nonsense for instance) without shame and embarrassment. They have wives and daughters, for heaven's sake. Then there's the winged beast and the thigh sxe with newbo...

Pretty simple reason for violence if you think about Nietzsche's musings on the subject: weakness, disappointment in life and lack of achievments or personal esteem. Look at the islamic world - 57 states every single one of which is a failure, even those with huge resources. Subjugation and abuse of...

Deary me. You don't know what a fascist is do you? Erdogan almost fits the definition as one who wants to force totalitarian unity on political, economic and social affairs. Trump and the Brexit voters are the very opposite in rejecting central government control, especially supra-national governmen...

Not quite a Muslim yet. You must say the shahada - There is no God but Allah and Mohammmed is his prophet. It does not matter is you say it voluntarily or with a knife at your throat: say it and you're in. The distinction between outcome and intention does not figure in Islamic practice.

strange you would bring up thomas acquinas who was very much in favor of executing heretics - him condemning islam sounds like pot calling the kettle black i am not aware of any islamic teachings that condone sexual harassment, rape, etc. - nothing specifically islamic here. Kayla -a pot may call a ...

Rubbish. Women in both Saud and Iran are routinely lashed and jailed as you perfectly well know from recent cases. Much the same applies in other Muslim countries. I taught MA students for years - many from Muslim nations. I ran courses for overseas Muslim women and men who had been brutalised - alm...

You are making an admirable effort but I fear you are wasting your time. Islam is an affront to reason as well as decency and is arguably a religion without any shred of ethical content. Not only can no moral guidance be found (as is so clear in the case of Moses and Jesus) but the prescriptive natu...

Its not a matter of right only is it? What about the aborter's intentions? Any abortion at any time by Mengele would be wrong, no? A late abortion by a demented teen who had been brutalised by cousins, as happens, would not be wrong surely? An early abortion by a self-infatuated porn star who was pr...

Just joined so missed the foregoing discussion. But. What could make morality objective? How can it be objective if individual choice is essential to a moral act. A computer algorithm couldn't be moral, though it might be objective. Isn't that one of the problems with utilitarianism - that it tries ...

Well - God or evolution by natural selection has not given you any gifts, so say goodbye to continuing in the gene pool, and it's good bye from me.

For a philosophy forum we don't see much philosophy. Whatever people choose to wear, or whatever they wish to say, believe or do, is no business of yours unless they are harming other people (utilitarianism), or breaching a duty we have all agreed is absolute (deontology) or is somehow irrevocable a...

Maybe they were overwhelmed by the despair of having to live in London and did a Seneca. Should be held in Leeds where we have a real university and no bankers.

In C19th Russia an aristocrat is told by his wife that it is time their son, aged 14, was told the facts of life, the birds and the bees. Okay says the Count, son, come for a walk with me. Yes father. They set off through his grounds and stop on a bridge over his river. Under the bridge, serf women ...

Surely vegetarian person you mean East for West? Women are despised and cruelly treated by men in Muslim/Asian cultures for the same reason they were in Aristotle's time - believed to be incomplete versions of men - and of course the example of the famous prophet's life hardly helps. The reason wome...

School kids are a good source of new light on the origin of ethics. Did you know that Moses came down from the mountain with 10 concubines? And that God wanted various jobs doing - the Egyptians had to irritate the desert, and the Hebrews to stop making bread without straw; he wanted unleavened brea...