Kasimir
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Everything posted by Kasimir
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I believe kaellok has already crossed the finish line (?) for NaNoWriMo, and I'm happy to announce that so have I, at long last, thanks to an illicit assist from several other writing projects, which may or may not include an Heirs write-up and my thesis. I want to see how much further I can go, though, since I'm getting into the flow of that novel Good luck to those still working against the clock; keep pressing on, guys! You can do it!
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Had my interview for the MA programme yesterday. Lots of trolling went on, but there's this thing which I can't understand: Basic Logic (so, classical and modal) prof basically told me that he doesn't want me to be a teaching assistant for Logic, and I agree, because I'm pants at formal Logic. Don't get me wrong; I drill hard so I know how to solve problems the way you can drill yourself into being good at maths. But to teach, you need to be able to explain why given formulations are wrong. Because you can bet there's gonna be a bunch of undergrads who'll do every single permutation and combination possible except the correct one. (Hint: that used to be me.) So, I can't do that. ...Advanced Logic prof (multi-value logics, etc) told me he wants me to be his teaching assistant. I don't even...The contradiction is too much for me. Better adopt paraconsistent logic... o.O
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Didn't you know? I'm a Sentry. It's the only logical reason for how I manage to do work at 4-5am on consistently little sleep: I store wakefulness in the holidays and then tap it during the semester!
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It's surprising Mistborn is one of my favourites among Sanderson's books when it was the book I was reading when I got hospitalised
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I really shouldn't do this, but I have to commit to the RP, I suppose, so... Kyrus Heron #9: Even the Rain Kyrus Heron #10: The Last Mosaic Action Three: House Heron will be appearing at the Orielle ball and showing off Heron pocket watches. Edit: Ah, rust. Just occurred to me--guys. Is anyone defending TFE this round? Unodus: can your 1337 Commander of the Armies powers do anything special on that front?
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Please edit that disclaimer, Seonid I'm finishing my Honours thesis in philosophy and applying for a Master's programme. Okay. Look. You can't ground a claim about what morality is in a claim about what kinds of action-guiding norms that people follow. This does not entail that no notion of morality works. How do we ground a decent understanding of morality? Well, for one, a non-subjectivist/non-error theorist might appeal, as Michael Huemer does, to intuition and to phenomenal impressions. By arguing for parity between mathematics and morality, on Huemer's account, morality is pretty much nothing more than intuition reaching out and grasping the moral facts, the same way you intuit mathematical facts. Huemer does not commit the is-ought fallacy. This does not entail that his argument is unassailable. My professor thinks that Huemer's argument is really flaky, and so do I. But what's worth noting is that like in most meta-ethical positions, he is attempting to find justification for morality in reason (or in other sources, really.) Or you could go, as many hedonic utilitarians do, and ground morality on the intrinsic goodness of pleasure, because if there's any reliable source of knowledge, it is phenomenal impressions (as opposed to sense impressions). (But beware: I am not entirely convinced that this argument evades an is-ought issue.) It's not to say that the 'current social interpretation' doesn't have any value in ethical discussion [it does in the form of intuitions, but even the use of intuitions is now meta-ethically contestable, and I, at least, am wary of resorting to them], but that we need to be circumspect about appeal to it. I don't understand why you in fact wish to privilege any description of current social morals, because they don't have all that much currency. Saying that past social interpretations are bunk and using that to anchor a larger condemnation of morality is more or less going for the low-hanging fruit.
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Qu'ils mangent de la brioche, I see. Kyrus Heron #7: Light on the Water Kyrus Heron #8: Silver Glass
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Just as you are missing mine. My point is that philosophically, we are not entitled to draw the distinction between what is perceived as moral and what *is* moral. That is to say, we can use the word 'moral' in a descriptive way and in a normative way. To claim that people used to believe Moral Claim X (an is-claim) is one thing. It is to make a descriptive claim saying that people used to believe X and used to use it to regulate action. To suggest that it is a normative claim because people used to believe it is a different claim entirely. You cannot ground a claim of normativity on a descriptive claim. Your failure to make that distinction makes you miss my point as well. Your claim that it was the result of a shift in morals is a descriptive, historical claim. You'll notice that there is a gap between claiming that norms shifted and that 'those norms were just as correct as our current norms' (normative claim.) And Bard's entire argument is predicated on collapsing the is-ought distinction. It is predicated on claiming that because something historically was the case and guided action, we ought to treat it as a moral claim in every sense of the word moral, beyond just 'reason-guiding', to actually assuming justificatory status. We are not entitled to do that.
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Note to self: do not engage in forum philosophy, for it is the path to despair and disillusionment.
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Conflation of opinion and morality. Your implicit assumption is that the people of 30 years ago were 'correct' (insofar as we can use that term, on your view), to consider homosexuality to be morally degenerate. This is not an assumption you have justified or defended, and hence is not an assumption you are entitled to make. In particular, this is the is-ought gap, also referred to as Hume's fork or the naturalistic fallacy: Just because something is (or has been) the case does not mean we can immediately slip into an 'ought' claim, much less a claim that 'ought' claims do not exist. To do so requires further argumentative work, which you have not supplied. One could easily reverse your argument against you: two centuries ago, people believed miasma caused diseases. Today, we do not. Even better, we could be completely wrong about the germ theory of disease: look at how science keeps changing what we thought we knew. (Case in point: the radical shift from Newtonian to Einsteinian physics.) There is no definite scientific answer and it is subject to change. Conflation between non-naturalism and subjectivism. The ontological nature of moral facts has nothing to do with their epistemic status.
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It reminds me of an interesting discussion between a historian and a physicist that I overheard. Physicist said, "I think I'll do some history once I retire." Historian retorted, "Well, I've always wanted to be a physicist." Physicist misses the point. As, I suspect, does everyone else.
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Is there a reason why philosophy is always Kant or utilitarianism, or, to put it bluntly, ethics? I've said it before and I'll say it again: it is extremely frustrating for one's subject area to be boiled down to nothing more than ethics. I can deal with the fact that internet discussions don't really do well at philosophical depth or rigour. I can deal with the fact that many people misrepresent the nuances of positions that are really more clever than they think they are. But is there some reason we should always be nothing more than ethicists?
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Hey Alfa, would you mind posting the prologue auf Deutsch as well? Just for comparison and a better idea of what you're trying to achieve? Thanks either way; this looks interesting!
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1. Technically, that's not moral nihilism. That's emotivism. Moral nihilism is an entirely different kettle of fish altogether; and also separate from error theory. 2. Emotivism faces one major challenge and that is: A. Explaining moral disagreement B. The Frege-Geach challenge. Thank you and have a nice day, I'll show myself out. Edit: Sorry; prospective welder cannot count. Two major challenges, then.
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Argh, so exhausted... I have an interview tomorrow for a programme I really want to join, and I'm so nervous because I don't think I know anything--or enough things--to get through this... :/
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The Lonely Chatterboxes Club
Kasimir replied to Mistrunner's topic in Social Groups, Clans, & Guilds
Singapore. You go to junior college or a polytechnic, depending, but my route was through junior college, which is supposed to cover ages 17-18, before you go to university. At the end of junior college, you sit for your GCE A levels, and based on your A level grades, you apply to a university. If you're male, you then do two years of compulsory military service (before university) unless you're exempted, as I was. Edit: A slight analogy to our streaming system might be like the German Hauptschule - Realschule - Gymnasium system. -
The Lonely Chatterboxes Club
Kasimir replied to Mistrunner's topic in Social Groups, Clans, & Guilds
Yeah, I'm a university student. Been years since I finished junior college. -
If it's not too soon, I'd like to ask for a second entry on the QF list for my Star Wars game, which I intend to tweak and make play-worthy Thanks! I'm focusing on gaining GMing experience by running uncomplicated games first (see: LotR) and co-GMing with kind people like Wyrm so I won't be as unprepared and end up running a disaster again this time around! This does mean I probably won't be ready too soon, though
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Thanks, Odious One
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Kyrus Heron #4: The Window on the West Kyrus Heron #5: Durban Skies Kyrus Heron #6: Brimstone
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What are you playing right now?
Kasimir replied to Link Von Kelsier Harvey's topic in Entertainment Discussion
Honestly, I had to use a cheat to go DS. I just felt really, really (morally) bad about killing people for their money. This is why I'm not supposed to play RPGs :/ Force Scream in KOTOR 2 was pretty cool too. Pfft, I prefer to work within the game/character where possible. Just gonna have to disagree here -
What are you playing right now?
Kasimir replied to Link Von Kelsier Harvey's topic in Entertainment Discussion
My impression was that TFU doesn't do karma-penalties, unless you're referring to: The one I can think of that does this in the Star Wars series is KOTOR + KOTOR 2, but IMO, the Dark Side options there tend to promote petty cruelty and the Light Side options tend to promote being a saint. Because seriously, if I stopped to help everyone between Taris and Dantooine and never got paid for my trouble, who's gonna pay for my fuel? :/ -
The Lonely Chatterboxes Club
Kasimir replied to Mistrunner's topic in Social Groups, Clans, & Guilds
Mine did that to me! Every week! And she'd do it to me right in front of the door of another German-speaking prof so if I didn't quickly deal with the conversation and satisfy her, I'd have another Muttersprachler coming out to join the fracas! o.O -
The difference between The Daily Mail and the German news is astounding... I'm not a native speaker, so as far as I can make out, Kreiszeitung is a bit less 'excited', shall we say...All they're claiming is that there were rumours of an ambulance laden with explosives but have not found such an ambulance; but neither can they rule out the possibility that the explosives were in another castle ambulance... Oh, and that no arrests were made. Not 100% on Kreiszeitung's reliability, but considering it's a paper in Lower Saxony, where Hannover is, I'm more inclined to trust it.
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You know you've gone off the deep end when you've not only written SE fic, but SE *crack*fic, at that.
