Official Website for Amitabha Palmer
Hey guys, Here’s a video I made to help my students understand Divine Command theory and the Euthyphro dilemma: https://plotagon.com/12834
Read More Divine Command Theory and the Euthyphro Dilemma (Video)Introduction and ContextSo far it looks like if we’re moral realists (i.e., we believe there are objective moral facts) we are in deep doo-doo. In Why Be Moral, Glaucon and Adeimantus compellingly argue that it’s better to appear moral than to actually be moral. The Euthyphro dilemma shows that appealing to God can’t, on its […]
Read More The Moral Problem: Michael SmithPlato: Introduction to Why Be Moral (aka Glaucon’s Challenge) The first question of philosophy is “how should I live?” Implicit in this question is a similar question: “what does living a good life entail?” Amongst other things, over the course of The Republic, Plato tries to answer this question. One of the central issues to […]
Read More Why Be Moral? Plato, The Republic Book IIIntroductionWelcome to one of my favorite topics: meta-ethics. Rather than describe what meta-ethics is, it might be easier understood by listing some of the questions it tries to answer:(a) What does it mean for something to be morally “good” or what is it that makes something “good” or “bad”?(b) What does it mean for something […]
Read More Intro to Meta-EthicsOk, it’s term paper season. This means my posts will become infrequent and the posts that I do make will be mostly me trying to figure stuff out for papers. Without further ado, lets get into my ramblings on Parfit’s notion of normative reasons.Background on Parfit’s Normative ReasonsIn contemporary meta-ethics people talk about “reasons for […]
Read More Random Notes On Moral Reasons (Parfit)Other Mackie ArticlesMackie on Subjectivity vs ObjectivityMackie Intro and Second vs First Order Ethics OverviewDo objective moral values or principles exist? Or are we dancer? When someone says, “it’s wrong to do x” or “you ought not to do x” it seems as though they are referring to something objective about or in the act. That is, we […]
Read More The Arguments from Queerness and Relativity (Mackie Part 2)Holy Crap! It’s 4:10am and I’m going to start this now? Am I insane? Yup. Actually, I have to do a presentation on this articles in 2 days so I’m forcing myself to get through the entire article tonight so tomorrow I can pick and choose the parts I’ll use for my presentation. I should […]
Read More Want to Discover Moral Truth? Part 3 How to Be a Moral Realist by Richard BoydOverviewIn part 1 we looked at how Boyd draws an analogy between scientific realism and moral realism. The first parallel is that there is a progressively recursive relationship between theory and experience. The second is that there is a progressively recursive relationship between theory and method. Check out part 1 if you’d like further elaboration…I’ve […]
Read More Want to Discover Moral Truth? Part 2 "How to Be a Moral Realist" by R. BoydBefore I start I want to give a shout out to fauxphilnews.wordpress.com a blog which I fancy is one of the cleverest blogs I’ve seen in a while. For those of you who didn’t see (or click on) the link I posted on my fb page, I highly recommend you check it out. Oh, I should […]
Read More Want to Discover Moral Truth? Part 1 "How to Be a Moral Realist" by R. BoydNotes and Thoughts on Bernard Williams’ Internal and External ReasonsKey Quote: “Does believing that a particular consideration is a reason to act in a particular way provide, or indeed constitute, a motivation to act?”OverviewOne of the central debates within meta-ethics is between the various strands of naturalism, on the one side, and those of non-naturalism […]
Read More How To Turn An Assailant Into Your Friend: Internalism vs Externalism
Wrestling with Philosophy 